Fred Schaefer was born in 1936 in Geismar in the Province of Thuringia, Germany.
Fred reflected back and said, "I was nearly nine years old when the war ended in May of 1945 and I remember the Americans storming into our little town. They parked a few tanks, trucks and jeeps in our village square and declared a curfew. This was pretty exciting for us small town boys, with all these soldiers around that spoke a strange language we could not understand.
"After the Potsdam Agreement was signed, the Americans pulled out and the Russians moved in and overnight we became known as East Germany."
The Potsdam Agreement was the agreement between three of the Allies of the Second World War, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; an agreement for the military occupation and the reconstruction of Germany.
Fred's town was very close to the West German border. He said, "As teenagers we used to sneak across the border dodging Russian and East German border guards. This was high noon adventure and it seemed like a real live cops and robbers game."
Fred finished school in 1951 and followed in his father's profession and became a painter.
He finished his apprenticeship in 1954.
In 1955 he ran away from East Germany, headed to the Ruhr Valley in Westphalia, Germany and found work for a company with contracts to paint the Canadian and English Army barracks as well as the military family apartments in Soest and Unna.
Fred and a fellow painter decided to go on an adventure to Canada. They showed up at the Canadian Embassy in Cologne requesting a work visa for work in Winnipeg, Man.
They were told to come back with a clean bill of health, a chest X-Ray and a police background check report. Next they had to bring proof that they had paid their ship passage and the CPR train ticket to Winnipeg.
Before they knew it they were on board a ship heading west. After stops at the Port of Le Havre, France and the Port of Southhampton, England, to take on more passengers they were ready to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Once they crossed the Atlantic they headed up the mighty St. Lawrence River and on to Montreal.
They took the train and two nights and a day later they were in Winnipeg where they were met by an immigration official. They were lodged at an immigration facility and four days later a painting contractor came looking for painters. The year was 1958 and Fred's nearly 40 year painting career in Canada had started.
Fred said, "I didn't speak English so the first few months in Canada were at times comical and at other times embarrassing when I had to stammer 'sorry, me no speak English.' But being an avid reader and history buff the language barrier disappeared fairly quickly."
Fred worked for contractors that painted the hospital in Morris, Man. as well as houses apartments, businesses and school's in Winnipeg.
In 1960, he worked in Thompson, Man. and painted the hospital, the Anglican Church, the city water works buildings and houses at the Inco mine site.
By 1962, Fred got itchy feet again; he figured that the slogan "go west young man" suited him just fine and that is what he did.
He painted his way across Regina, Sask., Grand Prairie, Alta. and then into British Columbia.
He painted the pumping station at Boundary Lake near Dawson Creek, projects in Fort St. John, Taylor Flats and in Fort Nelson.
Eventually he decided to try something different; he worked in a saw mill for about six weeks. It didn't take long and he went back to painting.
He worked for the Department of Transport and when that job was done he signed on with an exploration company looking for oil and gas.
Fred said, "The job with the exploration company started at Norman Wells in the Northwest Territories not far from the Arctic Circle. The coldest it got was 62 below and we always worked outside. It was a challenge and a new adventure. My job description said I was jug hustler."
In oil field slang, a jug hustler is a term for a member of a seismic acquisition crew who lays out cables and plants geophones for seismic acquisition and collects them after the surveying is done.
The word was out that a pulp mill was coming to Prince George. Fred and three other painters from the Dawson Creek painters local arrived in Prince George in 1964; there was lots of work for everyone.
Fred worked as a painter on the Blackburn Road school, Prince George senior secondary, Quesnel high school, buildings at the Endako Mine site, the Taylor Pearson building, Sherwood Court, the apartments for the air force personnel that manned the Baldy Hughes Radar Base as well as many other apartment buildings around the city.
He worked as a painter for Marwell Construction, a major contractor in the construction of PG Pulp & Paper.
Fred said, "In 1968 I worked on the Bennett Dam at Hudson's Hope where we sandblasted and painted the penstocks. The highlight of that project was on our days off when we went prospecting around Gold Bar on the Peace River."
In the spring of 1969 Fred started as a maintenance painter at PG Pulp and Paper and retired from Canfor in the spring of 1997.
Back in 1966 Fred fell in love with and married a young girl from the Nautley area at Fort Fraser. That was 50 years ago when he married Susan (George) Schaefer.
Over the years Susan worked in the food service industry and part time at the post office. She suffers from osteoarthritis, a condition that often gradually worsens, and for which there is currently no cure.
Fred and Susan have three children; Paul, Cheryl and Norman who in turn gave them six grandchildren.
Fred said, "I have to thank the good Lord, life has been good, definitely interesting and I can say I have been around some."
