Friday, October 6, 2023
This story goes back more than 40 years ago. It was the winter that I worked as a sales rep for a seed company selling forages and corn seed in southern B.C. and southern Alberta. During that time, I would have made three to four trips into B.C. Short days, winter roads, inclement weather and getting lost were all part of the job. Meetings with my clients frequently took much longer than expected. Sometimes my clients had other business to attend to and I got to wait. Other times they just needed someone to listen to their never-ending tales of woe. It was always a challenge to stay on schedule. By the time I reached Cranbrook, which was always near the end of my sales trip through B.C., I was road weary and ready to get home.
Anyways, on one of these sales trips for whatever reason I can no longer recall, I passed through Cranbrook without making my usual stop at the Kutzners. I did not realize that this was a mandatory stop. I only did it once; but that was once too many for Albert. I never heard the end of it. From then on, I could always count on a shot waiting for me at the Kutzner home. I will now miss these shots, but I will still hope that “Mr. Cranbrook” will eventually forgive me for failing to make that mandatory stop in his town.
From illo Harpe, sister in-law to Albert
