Egil Lindquist the eldest of three boys and born in 1930 was raised in Halden, Norway. He learned his fathers trade as a stone mason and then built his own home in Norway.
Egil met and married Bjorg Thokle in 1955. He immigrated to Canada in 1957 and Bjorg followed in 1958.
Bjorg was born in Isfjorden, Norway, the second oldest of five siblings. She met Egil, the love of her life, in 1947. When she arrived in Edmonton she was in for a shock when she realized that she had left her family and the beautiful Norwegian fjords of Norway for the barren flatlands of the northern city of Edmonton.
She was homesick and worked as a seamstress for the Holland Sewing & Mfg. Co. in Edmonton until she saved enough money to travel home to Norway for a six-month visit.
Egil and Bjorg had two daughters; Belinda (Rob) was born in Edmonton and Vencke was born in Prince George who in turn gave them eight grandchildren and three great grandchildren with another one on the way.
Bjorg was a talented seamstress, enjoyed many hobbies, including Norwegian Rosemaling, cooking, baking, embroidery, weaving and her many friends.
She was an active member of their church, the Multicultural Society and a member of the Sons of Norway for over 50 years when sadly she passed away in 2015.
Egil who was a brick layer, his cousin Karl who was a mechanic and another friend who was a carpenter were working together in construction and Karl happened to say, "Hey, why don't we move to Canada?" One thing led to another and with the help of Egil's cousin Gus in Edmonton they all three applied to the Canadian Consulate who in turn contacted immigration officials in Norway.
It wasn't long and all three of them were called for an interview at the Canadian Embassy in Oslo. They passed the interview with no problems and Canada welcomed them with open arms because they all had a trade. They did not speak English but they had a trade.
After seeing photos of new houses in Edmonton with cars parked in the driveway they were convinced that Edmonton was the place to go. They were impressed with car ownership because there were very few cars where they came from. The few cars in their town belonged to the taxi company or the parish priest. Everyone else got around on a bicycle.
They purchased airline tickets and one month later they landed in Gander, Nfld. then on to New York with a final destination of Toronto where Egil met up with his cousin Gus who was in Toronto on his honeymoon.
They toured around Toronto for four days thankful that Gus spoke Norwegian. They all piled into Gus's brand new 1957 Plymouth and they headed for Edmonton. It was a great trip and they enjoyed the car ride. Egil was fascinated with the car and had no idea how to drive one.
They had no plan and no job to go to. They arrived in Edmonton, rented a place and Gus landed them a job on a construction site. They all three arrived at work and to their surprise the contractor handed each of them a shovel; they were hired as laborers and their job was to dig out clay along with the other laborers.
Egil said, "It was hard work and at the end of an eight-hour day the boss gave us each $7.20 and told us we were all fired. We didn't speak or understand English at all so we just thanked him for the pay and returned to work the next day. We were surprised and pleased to know that we would be paid in cash at the end of each work day.
="The next morning, we showed up for work and after a lot of commotion they found a translator and it was finally relayed to us that we had been fired because we were to slow at shoveling the clay. We had never seen clay before and we had a hard time getting it off the shovel.We didn't know that all you had to do was rinse the shovel in a bucket of water and the next load would just slide off. Regardless we were fired by the contractor.
"We walked all over Edmonton looking for a job and we were told - don't call us we will call you.
"My cousin Gus worked in Spruce Grove for Les and Lena Sheck - relatives of Dorothy and Delbert Wood from Prince George. Les asked us if we had ever worked in a sawmill or a planer mill and of course we answered yes even though we didn't understand a word of what he was saying. We had absolutely no experience in a sawmill of any kind and in fact we had never even seen one or understood what they did. We arrived on the job and found out first hand about the hard work in a sawmill. We worked there for nearly three months until the mill shut down.
"I was back walking the streets looking for a job when I heard someone call out my name. It turned out to be a neighbor from Norway who had immigrated to Canada just two months before I did. I went with them to their house and they helped me find a job through members of their Norwegian church."
Here is where the story really gets interesting. Egil finally had a job in his trade working for a cement finishing company earning 90 cents an hour. After one year on the job he happened to be on the job site of a millionaire in west Edmonton who wanted a lot of work done in a very short time frame. Egil's boss made an impossible promised that Egil would get the job done as requested.
Egil said, "I worked as fast and as hard as I could and I never looked up. I was exhausted but I got the job done on time.
"The millionaire was impressed with my work and he offered me a job with his company. It turned out that the brother of the millionaire was the same guy that fired me because I didn't shovel the clay fast enough.
"He offered me seven years of steady work as a boss in his construction company at $1.45 an hour and I took the job.
"Now my old boss was upset with me for leaving and I basically told him that it was his fault for making me keep a promise that he made and should not have made in the first place. I didn't really trust the millionaire but I still took the job.
"I worked for his company for the next five years and worked many big jobs between Edmonton, Fort McMurray and Jasper until the millionaire had a heart attack and died. The company was never the same after that so I quit and moved on.
"My good friend Erling Skuggedal owned Norsemen Construction in Edmonton. He had invested in companies in Prince George and then started Viking Construction. The economy in Prince George was booming so we packed up and moved there in 1965. I hired on to Viking Construction for the next 13 years as Erling's superintendent of job sites and then I started my own company, Lindquist Masonry and retired 12 years later in 1995 at the age of 65."
Egil likes to work at staying fit and he enjoys the outdoors. He cross country skies in the winter and goes biking in the summer. On his 85th birthday his family members got together and presented him with a new bicycle complete with a helmet.
In conclusion Egil said, "It was the right choice to come to Canada and in particular Prince George. Bjorg was very homesick for many years because she had to leave her family in Norway. I don't think she ever completely got over being homesick but she stayed, we had 60 years of a good marriage and we raised a great family."
***
July Birthdays that I know about are: Bonnie Pauley, Scott Pauley, Marilyn Shelest, Jack Tremblay, Meg Imrich, Joan Buchi (88), Fred Buchi (94), Evie Padalec, Armand Denicola (96), Gloria Thorpe, Della Walker, Mildred Green, Lavinia Ouellet, Gary Kwast, Roy Green, Bernice Carrier, Carole Pitchko, Helen Sarrazin, Henri LeFebvre, Richard LeFebvre, Eugene Fichtner, Delores Baza, Joan Castle, Phil Girard, Catherine Gladwin, Karen Kryzanowski, George Lipke, Barbara Mulock, Mary Taschner, Pat Sexsmith, Alice Westra, Red McKenzie, Karen McKenzie, Leonard Duperron, Doris Bolduc, Eileen Slusarenko, Isobel Blair, Carmen Foucher, Mary Taschner, Bob Collison, Mary Radke, Elmer Braun, Dyanne Hoff, Pam Hoechrel, Reina Mcafee, Gail Gromball, Gervin Halladay, Ben Wilson, Kathleen Boyes, Shirley Dewald, Leo Denis, Joyce Kennedy, Alan Nunweile, Norma Raycraft, Pete Goodall, Lwone Sadowick, Ta Mackay, Carol Hunter, Garry Doucette, Robert Whitehead, Dorus Raines, Ernestine Schreiner, Linda Moore, Delores Baza and Linda Letawski.
***
July Anniversaries: 63 years for Wil and Elsie Wiens, 60 years for Heinz and Ruth Kwiatkowski, 57 years for Rudy and Velma Wortman, 56 years for Don and Joyce Grantham, 52 years for Dawn and Clarence Wigmore, 53 years for Walter and Joyce Hanik, 47 years for Linda and Andy Horwath, 39 years for Chuck and Sue Chin and 15 years for Eugene and Hilda Fichtner
