Over five decades ago, Delbert and Dorothy Wood decided to move to Prince George and they have been here ever since. Here is their brief history.
Delbert Wood was the eldest of six children; four of his younger siblings have since passed away. Delbert was born in 1926 at the Royal Alexander Hospital in Edmonton. He grew up in Whitecourt, Alta. and learned how to skillfully operate a Cat as well as other heavy machinery.
When he was younger he played both the guitar and the harmonica; he was the one who generally started a party and kept parties going with his music.
He worked for contractors who did the cut lines into the oil fields for the purpose of future oil exploration. Once that part of the job was done he worked on the road construction crew. All of this meant that he was away from home for two to four weeks at a time. Work was plentiful because at the time there were a lot of good things going on in the oil patch.
His lucky day was in May of 1946 when he met the love of his life Dorothy McDermid. It happened like this. Delbert was working in a railroad tie camp near Hinton; during the summer he worked for a planer sawmill company nailing grain doors.
Dorothy McDermid was born in 1929, and raised on a small farm in Wildwood, Alta. Her record of birth was recorded in Junkins, Alberta which was the school district of the area. She was the fifth of eight children; five of her siblings have since passed away.
Dorothy was 17 years old and living in Wildwood when she first met Delbert. Her sister Christina and her husband Rudy Lofting worked in the same camp as Delbert. One weekend they invited Delbert to come home with them to Wildwood. They went to a dance that night and that is where he met Dorothy. When he met her, he knew it was love at first sight and the connection was made. Delbert courted Dorothy for just over a year and took her to every dance that he could. They got married in 1947 and the rest is history.
Time went by and six children arrived one after the other. By 1965 work in the oil industry went through a slack period and good jobs were scarce.
Dorothy's brothers Ken and Art McDermid had been living in the Prince George area since 1951 and along with Rudy Lofting they owned and operated McDermid and Lofting Lumber Camp near Willow River. They encouraged Delbert and Dorothy to pack up their family and move to Prince George with promises of more work, better wages and better schools for their children.
Delbert was 40 years old when they moved to Prince George back in 1965. Dorothy was happy to move to Prince George because her relatives were living in the Willow River area.
Delbert first worked for McDermid and Lofting driving Cat and clearing bush and later he worked for Canfor in Fort St. James.
He worked nearly ten years as the bush supervisor for the Clandonald Logging Company which was owned and operated by Morris and Bernard Martins.
He did some work for The Pas Lumber as the cut line seismographer and later worked for Norm Avison clearing bush and building roads for the logging industry.
He did contract work for Louis Matte putting in roads in the development of the Beaverly subdivision.
Delbert said, "If I could count the miles of road that I cleared even I would be surprised at the number.
"I can remember a time in the McLeese Lake area when I was out in the bush working and at one point in time I heard a grunt. I looked up to see this bear staring at me. The first words out of my mouth were 'Holy Mackinaw'. I raised my arms and made a lot of noise just as her two bear cubs came rushing out of the bush. It was the scariest moment of my life when I came face to face with that bear. The bear was surprised and so was I but I think those two little bear cubs probably saved my life."
When I asked Delbert about his retirement he merely said that he was only 91 and that he was still waiting for the right time to retire.
When he left the lumber industry he spent the next 12 years working for the Yellowhead Grove Golf Course and the Pine Valley Golf Centre looking after the fairways. He also found time to golf three times a week.
Delbert said, "I reluctantly had to take time off work in September of 2017 due to the fact that my hip gave out on me."
He recently had a very successful hip replacement and for now he is planning on going back to work; he is not sure just when he will be able to go back to his job.
They have six children: Donald (Gail), Diana (Brian) Bailey, Darryl, Dolores (Von - deceased) Vickers, Doreen (Vic) and David (Barb) who in turn gave them 15 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren.
Dorothy was a stay at home mom until all the children were out of school. Until then she volunteered with anything that involved her children. Her favorite was her involvement with the Girl Guides.
She was active in a Home and School Program similar to today's Parent Teachers Association. She volunteered for the school dances and helped raise funds for many school projects.
She worked at the Kentucky Fried Chicken fast food restaurant for eight years and then spent the next 12 years working at Pine Valley Golf Centre.
Her daughter Diana came to help her and they worked together at the centre until the city took over the management of the facility.
Dorothy ended by saying, "I stay in touch with my older sister in Alberta and we Skype one another every day. I do most of her canning for her and I always send her a case of my homemade jam at Christmas.
"Delbert recently had hip replacement surgery and I hope he is seriously thinking about retiring. It was a great day when I met Delbert. He has always been a hard worker, he is honest and has always been well respected. Many years have passed by and after 71 years of marriage he is still the best dance partner ever.
"All six of our children are now collecting their Canada Pension and writing their own stories. They are all in good health and they are always here for us whether we need them or not and especially when we do need them.
"I just turned 89 and I have had a good life. I have a great husband and a wonderful family and you know - at the end of the day it is all really about your family. Our family is everything to us."
Just setting things straight from my column of last week: Leslie and Dorothy Alway have been happily married for 70 years and not 66 years. When I asked Dorothy the secret of a long and happy marriage she said, "There is no magic formula. You just take each day as it comes and put up with the not so good days; it is not always sweethearts and honey. We raised our three girls and then they gave us five grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.
"It has been a good life and I wouldn't change any of it."
