Ben Oostdam's
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page 14 |
1957 - 1960
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August 13, 1958
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Later that morning, I got a ride with a contractor [below left] in a pickup truck, who offered me a roofing job. My first task was to climb up on a roof of a customer he had conned into a repair job, and to bang a hammer as if I was nailing shingles, while he went out to buy nails.
I did that for almost an hour, at which time the kind lady below invited me in for lunch with herself and her husband, Mr. Hipwell, a retired druggist. Sometime after that, the contractor returned and taught me how to do the real job , which we finished towards evening when he paid me $ 19.
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The kind couple invited me to stay for dinner and to spend the night. That evening I had a pleasant conversation with their daughter Rosemary Thompson, 386E TransCan Hiway, Chilliwack and her two kids Stephen and Gay[above right], who also gave me a couple hours eastward ride the next morning on their way home to her husband, a butcher. It made me shiver that such a charming lady would be imprisoned by a killer, but the kids seemed to look forward to joining their father, so I blamed my shivers on some psychological quirk and on my feelings when we had a singsong at the piano and a homebrewed beer together - to celebrate my birthday - after the kids had been put to bed.
