Tuesday, September 12, 2006
I am sending this to say that I am very sorry to hear about Fred's passing and want to comment on a few things that transpired yrs. ago in Freds life when we were working together. Back in 1945 Fred drove into a gas station on west 4th ave in Vancouver where I was working pumping gas. We knew each other from school so we had a brief conversation.The reason I was at this gas station was I had taken a mechanic course after being discharged from th RCAF and this was my first job. I did not like it and I can so clearly remember Fred saying "are you going to pump gas all your life"? He told me he had a little woodworking shop and need a partner to help out financially and work with him. I did finish filling his tank and away we went. We were making little plywood "dancing dolls" that I made and Fred demonstrated at Woodwords Xmas toy dept.The tiny shop in the basement of a store on Howe street was too small to do much so we bought a lot for 190.00$ from the City and built our own 1200 sq.ft. shop. We were 19 years old.With a big help from Wally Hammond of Hammond Furniture who loaned us the $ for woodworking machines we were off to the races. One project we did was building the show fronts at the PNE that we got through Freds brother Max who was a sign painter.I will always remember Fred as being one of the turning points in my young life 60 years ago.Fred and I built a couple of houses before he went to Yak and I carried on for a few yrs. before going broke in the downturn of housing and a crooked accountantWith a lot of help from the bank I was able to form a new Co. and over the years it has worked out well for me.I have never met any of Freds family but I do want to express my condolences and wish them well in this trying time.I will honor Fred through the CFIB as suggested.Keith Beedie
