Walter Zelinski – His life and Stories
This was taken from a taped interview by Victor Zelinski on July 22-23, 2010.
Born: September 14, 1935
Walter: September 14 is my “official” birthday but I always celebrated my birthday on the 12th. When I joined the Auxiliary Police in Kitimat, I used the 12th as my birthday on the application but I had to get an official birth certificate. When I got it I showed it to my superior officer and he said, “I didn’t see this and if you tell anyone, I will personally shoot you”!
Farm and School
Victor: You went to elementary school at Evelyn. How did you get to school?
Walter: With two feet most of the time! In winter we had a sled and I would drive the horses. The wagon box was on sleds and pulled by two horses.
Vicki and Ken Sidlicki (our nearest neighbours) would come over early and join us so there was a big group. I remember that the Sidlicki’s would never bring a sled themselves so we always had to drive. Dad used to get annoyed at that sometimes. He couldn’t understand why Sidlicki’s didn’t drive everyone to school once in a while. Also, on the way to school we usually picked up the Popadynetz kids as well. So we sometimes had 10 or 12 kids in the wagon!
Victor: What happened to the “caboose” we used to have? ( A caboose was a kind of early RV which was completely closed in with windows in the front and a metal wood-burning heater on the passenger side. It could sit two people in the front and maybe three in the back seat. The caboose would be drawn by two horses with the driving rein’s coming in through a couple holes in the front panel.)
Walter: They never used the caboose much. The problem was that it was warm inside, from the fire, and cold outside so the windows froze up. You had a block of salt in a towel and kept rubbing the window so you could see but it really didn’t work too good.
Victor: Also you had to consider the danger of tipping the caboose over on a snow bank while you had a wood fire burning in the stove!
Walter: I don’t think Transport Canada would approve such a vehicle today.
Victor: What about your school days? I remember mine as being quite happy. What about you?
Walter: Yes they were OK but I remember this German teacher who was quite mean. We probably had 40 kids in the room at the time and everyone was kind of jammed together with all the grades in one room. He tried to maintain control and for punishment he would put rocks or grain in a corner and make students kneel on that and stay there until he decided you could get up.
Victor: Yeah, I remember when we went to Catechism in the summer to the Polish church and the priests would make you kneel on the heat grates for punishment. That hurt after a while.
Walter: I remember the church socials and they would have games and races for the kids. For a prize, if you were first, you got an orange!!
Victor: I also remember that the young men like Kasmer and his friends would drive us all to church then they would sit outside and visit while the rest of us went to mass. After mass, they would get the wagons and horses ready and take us home.
Victor: What do you remember about mom and dad?
Walter: It’s funny how you remember some things and forget others. What I remember is that Dad bought me a sailor’s outfit once. It had everything a sailor wore except the hat. I wore that outfit mostly for sports days and church until I grew out of it and then it probably was passed on to Eddie.
The other thing I remember most was that dad was a hard worker. He worked from 5 in the morning ‘til 8 at night. I used to pick rocks, stumps and trees that were pulled out by horses or tractors. When we got the tractor – a Minneapolis Molin – it could travel 25 miles an hour! That was pretty amazing. Kazmer was one of the first in the area to have a tractor like that.
Victor: What about the big steel wheel tractor we had?
Walter: I think that was something Frank got. It was cheap and hard to drive but they used it to break new land. They also used it to pull a two-bottom plough which was designed for horses. One guy would drive the tractor and the other walked behind working the plough. So, with horses you had one person do it all now, with the tractor, you needed two people!
Also, Dad never drove whether it was a car, truck or tractor. I remember driving this tractor once and hauling two grain wagons behind and the road by Sidlicki’s place was pretty narrow. I wanted to take a wide turn so the wagons would stay on the road but dad grabbed the steering wheel and said, “A little more this way”. So he turned it too sharp and tipped the tractor! I don’t remember how old I was at the time (maybe 12 or 13) but I had the fastest two feet getting out of there. I thought Dad would really give me hell but he didn’t.
Another time, Kasmer and I were using the steel wheel tractor to pull a binder (which cut grain and made them into sheaves of grain which were then stooked to keep the grain from getting wet if it lay on the ground). The binder also ran on a big steel wheel in the centre of the machine. The steel wheels on the tractor – in the front – were hard to steer. When I tried to make a turn too tight, the steel wheels grabbed in the front and I couldn’t straighten them out. So the tractor and binder started going in a sharp circle and I panicked and shut off the tractor. Meanwhile Kasmer is sitting on the binder yelling at me and giving me hell. I yelled back, “I’m not strong enough to turn the wheels.”
Victor: Actually, similar thing happened to me also when I was about 12 years old. I was driving a regular rubber wheeled tractor and Kasmer was on the steel wheeled binder. I happened to drive over a huge rock that was mostly buried but the steel wheel on the binder hit that rock with a bang and Kasmer almost fell off. I got hell for that also.
Victor: It seemed to me that Kasmer was the farm guy much more involved with the farming operations than Frank. What do you think?
Walter: Yes, Frank was more happy go lucky and liked to try out new things and was a bit of a show off. Like he would say, “I got to Wynyard with my car in only 9 minutes and 30 seconds”. That was a 10 mile drive on gravel roads so it was hard to believe. If someone wouldn’t believe him he would say, “OK I’ll show you”, and take the Fargo truck and away they would go!
Also, I remember when he was in Kitimat, he had a very good job driving a truck but instead of building some kind of career for himself and his family there, he decided to give his job to a friend and came back home! We were quite surprised that he would give up a good job like that and take his family back home.
I also remember that one of Frank’s kids, maybe Gail, never crawled as a baby. She would put one leg under and use the other one and her hands to scoot around the house in a sitting position!
Victor: That is interesting because our grand daughter Emma Gardener did the same thing and I had never heard of anyone else moving around that way as a kid.
Walter: The other thing I remember about Frank was how much stuff they use to have in their trailer. They would buy a case of cereal rather than a box or two. The trailer was jammed with all kinds of stuff they bought.
Kitimat
Walter: I went by train to Kitimat in October, 1954 because Mary was there and told me there was plenty of work. I returned for a while to Wynyard in 1955 after mom and dad had moved in. The train went as far as Prince Rupert then we had to take a boat to Kitimat. This was my first train trip and first boat ride on the ocean and it was scary.
Victor: Yes, and I remember being very impressed with you with all your new clothes especially your “balloon” pants.
Walter: They had 3 buttons at the waist and were 32 inches wide at the knee and narrow at the bottom. I was proud of those pants. I also had penny loafers with three pennies in each shoe.
Victor: What kind of work did you do in Kitimat?
Walter: I worked as a cook’s helper at first. This guy came up to me one day and asked if I was in the union. I said, what’s a union? So he told me to go over to the cook house and someone would get me a job. It was a great job. I stayed in the bunkhouse. You got room and board, you could eat anything you liked. We had to be at work by 5 AM and we fed 2700 men for each meal!
Then I got a job as a truck helper delivering goods all over town. I also started playing softball for a company called Colin McCraken. They were looking for a pitcher and I was a good one. I started pitching in Evelyn school and got really good at it.
At the end of the ball season, a fellow from Canadian Comstock, an electrical company, told me that if I agreed to pitch for them, they would get me a job with the company. I said I know nothing about electricity but he said don’t worry about that. So, I said sure. That was on a Wednesday and he called me on Monday and asked me why I still had not showed up for work! He said they were already paying me for Thursday, Friday and double time for Saturday so I better show up on Monday or we might have to fire you!
So, I worked in their warehouse at first then they sent me out to work in the field. That was an eye opener. There were 27 men working in the crew and there was a guy in the centre with a gallon jug of wine and bottle of rum. There were two guys holding him up and they were going to work! The guys would sometimes drink all day long and somehow keep working. There were times when everyone on the crew was pretty drunk.
Victor: How did they get away with this?
Walter: This was a remote area and the jobs were all cost-plus. So the company really did not care how much it cost as long as the job finally got done. One day one of the head guys in the group called Stash said, “Walter, today you are the truck driver.” I said I had never driven such a truck. He said I don’t care just drive the truck! I found out that I got an extra hour of pay in the morning, one at noon and one at the end of the shift for driving everyone home. I got three extra hours of pay for basically the same job. Many times I was the only one sober of the whole crew so that is probably why they made me the driver.
One day there was a snag on the power line and Stash called everyone over and said, “I’ll bet you all a case of whiskey that Walter can go up the pole and unsnag that line”. I had never climbed a pole before never mind one 45 feet high. He gave me his equipment (spurs, belt, etc.) and I started climbing. I would go up about 10 feet and Stash would hoot and holler then I would slip and slide back down and the others would hoot and holler. This went on for a while but I finally got to the top and unsnagged that line. Then we all went to the liquor store and bought a lot of whiskey. This was in 1956.
Victor: How did you do with softball?
Walter: I was a good pitcher. There were teams that would pretty well quit because they knew no one could hit the ball. The batters would come up to the plate and just stand there looking as I threw three pitches for the out.
I ended up working for Comstock for about 10 years then they finished the contract and were moving the whole operation to Quebec to work on the James Bay project. They told me I would be a Forman and work as long as I wanted with the company if I went with them but that was a big move and I was about to get married so I got a job with BC Hydro instead.
Victor: While you were in Kitimat did you come home to see mom and dad?
Walter: Oh yes. After 1958 the road was completed through Prince George and I drove that road every year. There were places on that road where a caterpillar would pull through bad parts. It used to take 23 hours just to drive from Kitimat to Prince George and now it takes 8 hours. It took 5 days to get to Wynyard. I have been driving back to Saskatchewan over 55 times now!
One of the other projects I worked on was the Kemano dam. We were up 2600 feet working on the Kemano tunnel and there was so much snow that they had a tunnel from the bunkhouse to the cookhouse then to the tunnel. So you were in a tunnel all the time! The water dropped 2600 feet through an 11 foot tunnel which reduced to an 8 inch pipe at the end where the water hit the turbines. The water had so much pressure that the shut off valve was 10 inches thick and had to be moved by hydraulic force. The whole Kemano Power plant had 8 such turbines.
Lottery Side Money
Victor: How did you get into the lottery business?
Walter: We wanted to raise money to build an RV park in Kitimat in the 1970s. I volunteered to sell tickets and eventually had 43 people selling under me. I became an official provincial lotto distributor and started to make as much as $4000 per month!
Victor: So, you had a pretty good sideline going.
Walter: One year, I never cashed a single cheque from BC Hydro. They finally called me and told me I had to cash the paychecks because they had to do their year end books. This one guy had it figured if he bought enough tickets with all the number combinations that he would be sure to win. At the time you had to buy individual lottery tickets with one to five numbers. All numbers were on individual tickets not like now where you can get a bunch of numbers on one ticket. The cost for all these tickets ranged from $1 to $10. This guy had it figured that if he bought $10,000 worth of tickets he would win so he asked me to order him all these tickets.
When I got the tickets, I met the guy at night and he digs in his pocket and pulls out a big wad of bill and starts counting: one thousand, two thousand and so on but then he runs into a cheque. “Oops, he says, wrong money”. So he puts this all back into his pocket and goes into the other pocket and counts out $10,000 for me. No receipts.
I was still pretty new to all this and here I was with $10,000 cash in my pocket and I had to walk home. I got home and decided the safest place to hide the money was in the deep freezer. The bank was not open in the morning so I had to wait until after work when I got the money out of the freezer and went to the bank. The lady at the bank started counting the cash and looked up at me and said, “You must believe in dealing in cold cash!”
Victor: Did the guy win any money?
Walter: Yes, I think he won $15,000. There was a lot of work doing this. On Saturdays I would pack a lunch and all my tickets and drive up to Terrace and as far as Prince Rupert selling my tickets. I was the official lotto agent so I would go up to a store and ask if they wanted to sell tickets. They would tell me how many and pay me. After a while you had a large network of retailers selling the tickets.
Victor: Did you give the tickets on consignment?
Walter: No. Whatever they bought they had to sell or keep for themselves. The individual tickets were priced at 1, 5 and 10 dollars and my commission was 10%.
The Retired Inspector
Walter: One day I had a person call me who said he was retired from the RCMP and was interested in buying large numbers of tickets. He wanted $100,000 worth of tickets! So, he would order $100,000 in tickets but send the money first to my bank so I could then pay for the tickets when I ordered them. Of course, I had to ask what the hell do you do with all these tickets? He wouldn’t tell me on the phone but sent me a letter instead. What he was doing was selling tickets through the internet to people in Japan at inflated prices. He was selling $10 dollar tickets for $25 dollars and forwarding any winners their money by wire and bank transfers. He asked me if I was interested in quitting my job and doing this with him full time. I didn’t even meet the guy so I was kind of worried about going too far with this. I asked him what happens if we get caught? He said we will both go to jail. However, he said he was only going to do this for 3 year then get out.
So, he would order up to $250,000 worth of tickets and when they arrived by Loomis, I would put his address on the boxes and send them on to him. He would then sell them to people in Japan through the internet. He kept the tickets but sent out the ticket numbers by internet. Thus, when someone won money, he would claim the prize and wire the money to them.
We did this for three years. During this time he would send me a $1000 to $2500 just as a bonus. The lottery company was also impressed with my sales and I used to win all kinds sales prizes such as watches.
Finally, he said this is the last order. A few weeks later, this huge moterhome shows up at my place and the inspector comes out and introduces himself. He said, you should have come with me on this and you would be rich today. He gave me a very nice watch and an envelop containing a $5000 as a farewell gift. He only stayed for about 10 minutes, said goodbye and I never saw him again. This was the only time I had actually seen him.
The Greeks
Walter: But the Greeks were the most interesting. I would meet 40 or 50 of them in a parking lot and a couple guys would bring me up to $50,000 cash and tell me to get them tickets. They didn’t want their wives to know they were gambling so we had to keep it all quiet! I would hide the money and keep it for several months sometimes. I should have put it all in the bank and made some interest!
The Bet
Walter: Once I bet this guy at work a $100 on a hockey game. I bet on Montreal and he bet on Toronto. With about five minutes left, Toronto was leading 2-1 so he phoned me up and said you just as well pay up because your team is losing. I said that the game’s not over yet so he said if you still think Montreal will win why not raise the bet to $1,000! I said OK, you’re on. Well, Montreal went and tied the game then won. This guy was sure pissed off when he had to pay me $1000.
The Auxiliary Police
Walter: In 1960 I was asked by an RCMP Constable if I would like to join the RCMP Auxiliary Police. I was one of six people who joined up and we all did our training just like the regular RCMP. Every Thursday we had 2 hours of training and we were assigned to a Constable for a shift on Friday or Saturday from 7PM to 4AM.
One of the Constables I worked with a lot was a brand new female RCMP officer straight out of training from Regina. Her name was Bonnie and she was one tough cookie! Most of the time we had to deal with fights in the pub or family disputes and things like that. Kitimat was a pretty safe place so we had quite a few brand new RCMP stationed there. We were required to enforce federal, provincial and municipal laws plus the Indian Act. Once a year the city put on a big banquet for us and we had to wear our formal uniforms to the event. Police are not allowed to drink while in uniform so we could not have any liquor at the banquet.
I stayed with the Auxiliary Police for 27 years and when I turned 55 Ottawa sent me a certificate of appreciation for my work. I was officially retired from the RCMP with the title of “Auxiliary Constable – Walter A. Zelinski” on the certificate.
Family Information
Pat Seaby and Walter were married on September 17, 1958. They had a daughter Susan born in 1968.
Walter and Pat also had two other children however, one lived a week and one lived only 24 hours.
Pat died in 2008 in Vernon, BC.
After Walter and Pat were divorced, he met Bev Barclay in Salmon Arm, BC. Bev was also divorced at the time and had one child called Tara who moved to Vancouver. Bev Barclay and Walter were married in Laughlin, Nevada on December 31, 1996. As of 2010, Walter and Bev live in West Bank, BC.