California

I was six when my older sister Ruth, Tutta to the family, got married. The groom, Reijo, was a pretty sharp dresser when he came courting. Like all the men in the family he was a carpenter but had tried his hand at various things before arriving at that career. In his early travels, he had worked in some capacity for a Lord Something-or-Other in the UK. In Canada, he had been a caretaker of a lodge on the west coast, owned and operated a cab after he married my sister, but the bread and butter was as a carpenter.
 
When I was young, Reijo flew weekly on the Coast Airways Grumman Goose to Tahsis to build the big saw mill there, where one single log could fill up a logging truck. Road access wasn't possible then, just by air or water.  He built two homes for the family in Canada that I can remember, with my dad helping at times, and us kids getting in the way. Ultimately, though, economics in the late 1950's and early '60's just defeated any enterprise and the family, three kids now, made a move to California in 1964.
 
In those years, there was a large exodus of Finnish-Canadians from Vancouver to California. Many prospered who could turn their hand to anything and who had emigrated once already and could see what was needed in a new country. When I had to leave the country to find work, California was the natural choice. My sister, Tutta, was established in a medical clinic in the Palo Alto/Menlo Park area so there I went and the Finnish community was responsible for my getting jobs on the side from my unionized work. In the mid 1980's, when I was there, Reijo no longer worked because of an industrial accident some years past but of course he was ready with opinions and advice.
 
Western Canada, at that time had very little commercial construction happening but California was booming. Construction cranes could be seen everywhere and I was able to go to work right away on some large projects. Quite a few Canadians that I knew in the Okanagan were working in the US at that time and seemed to get on well. A Canadian carpenter can take a job right from the foundations to the roof and finish the insides as well. In the States, carpenters seem to specialize more. The foundation guy just does foundations. The framer frames up and the finisher does the doors and mouldings and other interior carpentry.
 
There was so much work in California that crews were there from Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Arizona. Homeowners who wanted renos were hard-pressed to find someone to do the work. After awhile, I stopped going to the bank with my carpenters' coveralls on because people would recognize me as a tradesman and beg me to come and do this or that for them. When I left Canada, carpenters were making 10 bucks an hour but the union rate in California was $22.80 and the US greenback was worth 30% more. The side jobs paid $20.00 so the money rolled in. I traded in my rusty pickup and got a Volvo wagon. Did that make me a yuppy carpenter?
 
This could have gone on for a little longer but my home and family were still in Canada. Mom had died in 1979 and dad got ill in 1985 so I returned to Canada. Things were picking up work-wise at home but it would be a decade before I made the kind of money that the 80's paid in California.