Sunday, September 1, 2013

Where's My Check?

        They say.....things come in threes. Well here's the third problem I had when I first traveled north.

      The two previous posts dealt with amazing transportation snags and a housing surprise. This time it's money.

    Everybody knows that there's big money in the north. In my case my salary would be about  one and a half times more. It was part of my decision to go north but certainly not the only one.

    I left home with $200.00 in my pocket. In 1963 it was a good sum of money. This would easily carry me until I got my first check. 

    Well, I went to the post office on the day the checks were supposed to come and there was nothing in my mail box. The teachers who were on last year all got checks , but the new guys didn't get checks. The govt. wouldn't or couldn't give us an advance. So there I was with very little money in my pocket. You really didn't need any money. Well, you had to buy smokes and beers. Well, everybody knows those things could be omitted. I bought bread and milk which were very expensive. I wasn't going to bake bread. A loaf of bread was very expensive. 

    So I wrote Dad to take $200.00 out of my account and send me cash. 

    So October we head to the post Office on check day and you guessed it no checks for the new guys. I got my first check in November. Of course it was 3 checks at once.

    Not getting the pay check was stressful. It wasn't too bad for me but more difficult for married people.

    I understand why the check was late but it still hurt. The office where we were paid from was 5000 miles away in Ottawa. All our qualifications had to be sent away and assessed and then payment made. We also had a government austerity program at that time. The government cut staff and you guessed they didn't have enough people to figure out what to pay us. We also didn't have a phone line to the outside. We had a local telephone system but no long distance. I'm sure the govt. would have heard a few things if we had long distance service.

    So things began to improve after these three mishaps.


30 comments:

  1. Wow, that must have been stressful! You had to get used to a lot of things during your adventure, it sounds like. But what a great attitude you had!

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    1. We were well looked after. As I said if you didn't buy smokes and beer you really didn't have to spend money.

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  2. It's easy for them to offer a high salary if they don't pay it. I suppose it's the downside of working for the state.
    You could have starved...No you couldn't you had a years worth of food.

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    1. Usually they looked after us very well. when i left , It was hard to start doing all the things for yourself.

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  3. That certainly is a stressful situation. Thankfully it improved, but the wait time must have been awful.

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    1. You know we had lots to do and lots of fun so it wasn't bad at all.

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  4. It sounds now as if we lived in the Middle Ages at that time. That check business has gone already, it is all by internet or phone, time flies.

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    1. It's hard to believe what I'm saying but it did happen that way.

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  5. Not much has changed Red - The Govt is always late when they are not making money. ha,ha Glad it got better and I can just hear the conversation if there had been long distance back then, Eh. Have a good day.

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    1. Yes , it did give us something to talk about. Everybody thought they knew something about it. Rumors flew.

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  6. That would have been really hard to deal with. Fortunately you had backup but not everyone did. That's just wrong. Glad everything turned out all right for you, Red.

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    1. It's wrong as they had enough lead time to get everything processes. The kicker was that the govt. had cut staff. they were reorganizing.

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  7. Wow - makes me wonder how on earth you survived it? You must have been very resourceful!!

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    1. We really didn't need money except for a few vices.

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  8. oh, my! sounds like they took advantage of you to start. having you working and living there already without having checked your credentials and making you wait for pay! yikes!

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    1. The govt. had cut staff and so they were reorganizing and it didn't go well.

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  9. That is a very stressful situation to be in. Thankfully, you had a rainy day fund to get you through it.

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    1. If it was here it would be more than stressful. There, it didn't matter much. We really didn't need to spend money.

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  10. The money from those three checks must have seemed like a fortune when it finally arrived.

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    1. Well, yes but we really didn't have too much to spend it on.

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  11. Red I've read your postings about your adventure and what a read! I love the joy of youth, the life lessons and learning, not only were you going to be the teacher, you were a student of life. Did you stay on for more than a year? Did the rations last you for the year and what types of rations were you given? Just the basics such as flour, sugar, salt? I'm interested in reading more.

    Have a wonderful week! And thanks for sharing your experiences, it's so interesting to learn more about you... 50 years, where does time slip away on us? You went North the year I was born.

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    1. You have just given me another post!!!
      I had been teaching 4 years before I went north but it was what made me decide to stay in teaching.

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    2. That's so awesome Red, without a doubt in my mind you were an excellent teacher as well!

      Have a wonderful week, bed time on this end as I have to be up for class in the morning.

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  12. What an amazing time. I remember moving to Parry SOund in 2006 and no check for ages. Selling the house here. What a time.

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    1. No checks here would be a disaster. there we didn't really have to spend money

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  13. They weren't very organized. You would think they would have a draw system or something. But I suppose they were so far away that they could not identify with the situation you were in. You have a great adventure going here! :)

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  14. It's not everyone who could get by on such limited funds. I'm glad it wasn't too much of a hardship for you.

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  15. I supposed they realised that you were in no position to turn up at the office and start complaining so they knew they could take their time.

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