Pilling Family Stories: #2 - Learning more about 'The Timmins Interest'

[NOTE:  As a reminder, you can find links both the audiofile and to the PDF of Doral Pilling's life story on the LaRue Investments website here:]

lots going on on p. 55

In the Moose Dome video I did last summer, I had used a bit of an audio of Doral Pilling saying "when the Timmins Interest 'took over' and literally kicked us out, we had quite a tumble."   

At the time I was making the video, I didn't really know much about the Timmins' interest, or about any takeover.   And so, I have been doing a bit of reading.   

It was on p. 55 that the "Timmins Interest" piece of the puzzle started to emerge.  As you can see, I did need to pull out some pens and colours to help me map out some of what was going on here.  There are a whole bunch of people named on this page:  R.H.Webb, Noah Timmins, J.J.Ranking W.H.Clearndon Mussen.   How did these folks play into the story?

To contextualize things, this in 1927ish.  And at this point, things are starting to really move on the 'oil discovery front'.  The 'problem' for the Pillings at this point was that they had invested 2.5 years of work to: 

1. 'discover' the structure (find Moose Dome)
2. acquire oil leases (held by The Trust Comany)
3. buy an oil rig
4. build roads
5. start drilling

So, in 1927, they bought the charter for an oil company. Basically, someone had already done the work of creating the structure for an oil and gas company, and the Pilling crew started there (rather than paying for a new company to be created).  The name of that company they bought is admittedly entertaining:  The Lucky Strike Oil Company Limited.  I have a little fantasy in my mind of finding an image or logo for that company, but I am guessing there isn't any such thing.  The first thing the Pillings did (in 1928) was change the name of that company to Moose Oils Limited.  And then, they assigned their oil leases to Moose Oils. 

R.H.Webb

But now, they needed money to really start drilling.   How to find it?   First player on the stage?  Col Ralph H. Webb.  Doral descibes him as a friend, and someone who "seemed to be a very fine man."   He was also the Mayor of Winnipeg (and later an MLA in the Manitoba Legislative Assembly): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Webb

He agreed to put the Pillings in touch with some friends from the East who could put up $150,000 for a half interest in Moose.   The friends were Noah A. Timmins and W.H. Clarendon Mussen.  

Basically, the proposal was for something like a 50/50 partnership where one half is putting in the money, and the other half is doing the sweat equity. 

Noah A. Timmins

The challenge one might anticipate (and one that we experienced for some time inside LaRue) has to do with decision-making.  Unless you have a way to break a tie, a 50/50 split can leave you in a deadlock.  And Doral tells us that the Pillings did not want to lose control.  

So the idea then was that Webb too would be one of the group (50,000 shares for having helped set up the deal), and if there was  a conflict, he would vote with the Pillings.  As becomes clear later in the story, Webb did not hold to his part of the deal.  However, without jumping too far ahead, the end result was that there were 999,945 shares issued:

• 47.5% Pilling Interest (held in the name of Edna Pilling)
• 47.5% Timmins Interest (1/2 Timmins, 1/2 Clarendon Mussen)
• 5% Col Ralph H. Webb 

At this point, I started wondering a bit more about who these folks were.  It was easy to find more on Timmins.   Amongst other things, the town of Timmins, Ontario would appear to be named after their family.  

It was interesting seeing that Noah A. Timmins is,  according to the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame, "unquestionably a founding father of this country’s mining industry." (https://mininghalloffame.ca/noah-a-timmins/).  Both the Timmins Wiki page and the entry on Noah Timmins in Dictionary of Canadian Biography point to the "Porcupine Gold Rush" of 1909.  Noah Timmins (who was the head of Hollinger Consolidated) was in on the ground floor. The wiki webpage says:  

"By the end of the 1920s, the Hollinger was the largest gold mine in the British Empire and paid annual dividends of more than $5 million. By 1927, a 3.5 mile aerial tramway was in operation.  In the 1930s, Hollinger Consolidated Gold Mines built 250 houses which were located in one area of the Town of Timmins. These houses remained in place right up until the late 1970s."

So that is part of the link between Moose Dome and Timmins.  Or at least, it looks like the quest for oil was financed from the quest for gold.  Certainly, that is what was going on around 1927/28.

I did note that another connecting line seems to be that these men were "entrepreneurial" by nature, and not so much interested in the condition of the workers.  Here is a nice clip from the Timmins wiki page about working conditions in the Timmins mines in 1912:

In November 1912, 1,200 members of the Western Federation of Miners Local 145 held a strike at all three mines in response to a proposal to lower their wages.^[29] Mine operators hired gun thugs, who fired on the picket line and were ordered out by the provincial government.^[30] After months without work, many men chose to leave the settlement; only 500 miners returned to work in July 1913.^[29] The strike won the men a nine-hour workday and a pay increase.^[29]

Uh... gun thugs firing on the picket lines?   I couldn't help but think of the Great Strike of 1912 going on here on Vancouver Island at the same time.  

• Ben Isitt did an amazing PhD taking up the protest ("Patterns of Protest"), and talks about the Vancouver Island stike.  You can find the dissertation on line here.  I learned TONS from it (see pp. 49-74 for a discussion of the coal strike,  one that was finally ended by the militia)
•  https://dspace.library.uvic.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/0d2fd8fa-179a-48a5-ab09-d91ce734a4f1/content

• Audrey Behan, "Reasons for the Vancouver Island Strike"
•  https://wordpress.viu.ca/1912vancouvercoalstrike/ 

• Çağla Güneş and Rob Lyon, "The Great Vancouver Island Coal Strike of 1912"
• https://www.marxist.ca/article/the-great-vancouver-island-coal-strike-of-1912

Really, my point here is that Colonel Ralph Webb too seems to have not been oriented towards organized labour.   He was a politician, and a military man.  His life history is pretty darned interesting, and if you click here, you will see a page on him by the CEFRG (Canadian Expeditionary Force Research Group).  Perhaps there is also a link between his experiences there, and his very strong opposition to 'communism' (or indeed organized labour)?  On his wikipedia page it says: 

He was a virulent opponent of the Winnipeg General Strike in 1919, calling for the deportation of "radical agitators" and urging "the whole gang be dumped in the Red River".  .....   

After a series of labour strikes in 1931, Webb urged the "deportation of all undesirables", including communists, from Canada. 

Well, maybe that is all for today.   My takeaways?   Interesting to think about the larger picture of nation building, and extractive industries, and the ways capital was intervening to create space for these particular kinds of industries.   Of course, I am also thinking about the impacts (of oil and gas extraction, of goldmine tailing ponds, etc).  These are parts of the family history that I have just a bit of discomfort with, of course.  Trying to both honour the power of the family history, while also thinking about the logics of colonialism that invites us not to think too deeply about the intial conditions in which one could be said to "discover" oil, or "discover" gold.   And that is of course a story for another day.... 

Pilling Family Stories: #1 - Setting the Stage

This year, my sabbatical plan was to plunge into Pilling family history.  I was thinking, in particular, about ways to draw parts of this story into my Business Associations classroom.  What might there be to learn from thinking about all the ways that the family has encountered business structures over the generations? 

We all of us have had the great gift of connecting ourselves to the Shuswap lands because of Doral's decision to hold those lands inside a corporate form (LaRue Investements, Ltd.).  And we have also had the gift (which sometimes also feels at the same time like a curse) of trying to learn how to understand ourselves as a piece inside a family business.

my seven generations....

For the past 20 years, I have been thinking lots about "LaRue", but now I thought it would be fun to start taking steps backwards, to think about the pieces before that.  What about the Rockwool Business?   What about Moose Dome?  And, going back further, what about the Pilling farm that came before that?   And indeed, what about going back further yet, and asking what 'business' looked like in the 7 generations of our family (heading right back to England).

That is a big project, but I thought I could start small, and begin with a focus on granddad's autobiography. I wish I had done this while Arta was still around, so I could ask her now about the questions I should have asked much earlier.   Ah well.  So instead, I have been posing many of my questions to the internet!

Or, more precisely, I have been heading to other archives and libraries to see what resources there are to help me get a bit more context for what Doral had to say in his autobiography. I am noticing that the more I scratch the surface, the more questions that emerge.   

I keep thinking it would be fun to make a whole bunch of small videos, so I could retell some of the stories I am finding, and connections that are to be seen.  But it feels a bit overwhelming.  So I thought maybe I just start with the blog?  I thought what I might try, as I walk down that path, to just start sharing (in more fragmentary ways) some of what I am seeing along the way.  If anyone might find these connections interesting or entertaining, it is family!   And maybe some of you will have ideas about other connections to be found.   

So... I am going to just use the heading "Pilling Family Stories" to organize these stories and fragments as I go along, while I am trying to think both about the 'business' side of the Pilling family history, and also to think about the ways that our story is connected to the larger stories of economy, immigration, colonialism, nation building and family.  hahah.  Some big questions!  But I will see if I can't share some of the interesting tales as I go along. 

 

Go for Gold!

 Volleyball season is from Dec-May.  There are 3 "premiere tournaments" at which your results determine your standing.  At each Premiere you go up in standing or down.  So eventually you end up playing teams that are just perfectly as strong as you.  By the end of the year you are playing exceptional volleyball against the teams that are just barely better or worse.  Then the provincial tournament and the national tournament in Mid May.

I got Michael into a 'club' in 2022.  It's expensive but if you coach then the fees for your child are waived.  I've coached Michaels team for 3 years, but this year I was planning on dropping off of Michaels team and playing on Alices team.  Michael is on the competitive U15 Canucks, and Alice went right to the competitive 'feeder team' U13/U14.  There is no U13 Canucks, but they do a blended 13/14 with girls that didn't make the actual U14.  Instead they can teach younger girls, and the younger girls can get some excellent experience before their actual U14 year.

I tried to get onto Alices volleyball team but Diego and Tolu were the coaches and they wanted two other 'girls' as coaches.  So I am just the parent, and I coach on Michaels team again.

Premiere 2 was this weekend.  Feb 27/28.  Diego couldn't coach so he asked if I would coach Alices U13/U14 team for the weekend.  Of course I was so excited!

We played on Saturday at the seven chiefs gym on the tsutina reserve.  Three games, and they won them all.  In the second game, they won 25-22 and then 30-28!!!  They are playing in division 3, but they are also playing against girls a year older than them.

On Sunday, because of all the winning, they were in the Semi finals right away.  Coach Diego showed up right at the end of the semi final match and the girls won!  In the finals, they ended up against the team that they'd beaten 30-28 yesterday.  The 'Cranes' for gold or silver.  The Cranes are a new club that plays down by Mount Royal.  I ended up socializing with their coaches a few times.  They were just wonderful people.  We lost the first game, it seemed as if the Cranes had figured us out.  The second game, we had some excellent serving and won.  In the final game, scored to 15, we ended up serving the lights out and beat them 15-5 in the third set to win the gold.  

I claim all rights to the gold medal and the success.  Rachel is 18, and a good coach, but it seems like teams need a younger relatable person and an older person to organize the line up cards, interface and organize timing when the games are starting, reminding to do timeouts in strategic points to try and ice the other team.  I was also filling Rachel up with all of the motivational talk before team chats, and most importantly of all I was cheer leading like nobodies business.  

The things that I do, are very strategic.  I know what a bad serve looks like, what a bat hit looks like, and yet when I see five seconds before things go bad, and know what they should have done, at the moment when the gym quiets from the cheer I'm yelling to them that they did it exactly right, and to do it again, and that they were perfect.  wait, wait, wait, wait wait,   EMMA EMMA EMMA EMMA!!! THATS THE WAY!  PERFEECT!!!!  DO IT AGAIN!!!!!

I think that it's a mormon thing.  I don't remember a specific mother at the basketball games cheering for me as a child, but I felt it.  I know that people were yelling my name, I know that there was positive feedback ALL OF THE TIME!!!

The game ended and one of the kids said "Alice, are you coming to Boston Pizza?".  She looked to me, and I said 'of course we are'!  

I hate boston pizza.

We go to the team dinner afterwards so that 9 of the 12 kids that were available could chat and eat.  During the dinner Natashas mom Natalia was talking with me, and said that she heard a small group of our girls bad mouthing the other ones.  She asked if she should tell the coach.  

Now I had just gone through a moment with Michael where I was going to light the world on fire.  I had been supported by Rebecca on the path and tools.  I had gone half way towards writting a letter.  I'll say it again.... I was about to write a letter, with a CC line, and print it, and send it in the mail.  Thats bad.  Thats real bad.

After talking to the two parent groups about the two culprits in Michaels situation I noticed that the one whom is the real problem was still trouble, and their parents were not interested in contrition or accountability.  

I was talking to Mary about this and she said "you shall have no satisfaction".  That is what I shared with Natashas mom Natalia.  Natalia, register it in your mind, don't forget it, but just wait and see how much and if it's more often.  

I could have really gone crazy on that one family with that one little jerk, but I see that my mess would not have given me any satisfaction.  

The day after the tournament, the head coach Diego texted the whole team and said that the Cranes coach had reached out because one of our Canucks had written a mean post on Instagram about the Cranes.  He posted in the chat a copy of what all kids had signed.  The code of conduct for in person and for in social media.  He pointed out that it is a dismissible offense and that the posted should be taken down and that the child should come talk to Diego.  DRAMA!!!

Later on in the day, another post popped up on the team chat saying THOSE ARE EMMAS!!!!

J'acuse!!!!!

OMG, someone has just straight up pointed to Emma as the rude social medial poster.  I'm going to pop some popcorn.  Lets go!  This is going to be good......

I texted Miranda Johnson... Did you see!  OMG,  did you see the post, who is it!  What's going on!!!

Miranda said look at the post.  That was about someone leaving shoes at the gym the day before.  Aw..... nuts.... I was so excited for all the drama.

I am really enjoying being a grade 7 girl again.  So much fun.

The real gold medal:  Natasha is the quiet single child, tall girl that Alice made friends with first at Canucks.  Then she moved on a bit to Emily, who by coincidence is the daughter of someone that I went to Branton Jr High with.  So I talk to Emily's mom Catherine Irish quite a bit.  Sorry, I meander in my stories sometimes.  Emily, and Alice, and Natasha, and Taylor are the four tall girls.  All 12.  So the younger group, super extra tall, super quiet and demure.  None are gregarious and outrageous and big.  The real gold medal is that Natalia, Natashas mom, said that after the saturday games she said "I wish Richard could be our coach.  He's so calm and quiet and nice.".  

You could not give me a bigger gift.  A gift that is received more seriously.  A gift that will stick with me forever.  That the silent kids see what I'm trying to lay down, and appreciate it, and it helps them.  You could not give me a bigger gift.

On monday, after the tournament and the gold medals, this is what I came into.  The life thinks I can handle way more than I think I can handle.  

4 inches of water covering the whole buildings ground floor.  Where did we keep that insurance policy....

Have a little heart! (Catherine storytells Arta's 2017 heart attack)

 

Last summer, when a group of us were going through the last of Arta's papers and files, we were thinking about how to share and archive family stories/histories.  

At one point, we had come across a picture of Arta's heart, back in 2017 when she had a stent put in during a heart attack. 

The photo was quite a thing, and we wrote up a post about rivers and veins.  Here is a link to that post:   https://larchhaven.blogspot.com/2025/08/rivers-and-streams-or-artas-coronaries.html

Back then, we had promised to tell the stories around the image of Arta's heart attack.  We recorded Catherine's story (on August 4, 2025), but I only just got the video uploaded.   If you want 11 minutes of fun and mayhem (everything ended well, and we got an additional 4 years with our mom), then follow the link below.

https://youtu.be/dqcqLtW9J0U

Baking as Connecting? reflections on Mints, Banana Chip Cookies and Cinnamon Buns

Today Bonnie called and asked me about the recipe for Mints.   I was reflecting on just how many thousands of pans of mints I have made over the years, and in every place I have lived. (ie. Here is a post on mints from the London years)

Given the intolerance both my kids had to dairy, it was a blessing to have a recipe that was allergy free.  I made it so many times that the recipe remains permanently etched on the inside of my eyeballs.  But for those looking for the recipe, here is a version from the 1989 Bow Valley Ward  "I Love Homemaking" cookbook!

Once that cookbook was in front of me, I noticed the 3 very brown bananas sitting on the counter.   And that led me to flip through the cookbook til I found my own personal favourite, "Banana Chip Cookies" (credited to the younger "Becky Johnson" version of myself!)   

For once, all the ingredients were present and accounted for, and so, Duncan and I engaged in a baking exercise.  We managed 4 trays of cookies: 2 with smaller cookies, 2 with larger.  Our only 'modification' was to use mint flavoured chips (vs. regular semi-sweet).  Great success.

Before...

....After!

After cleaning up the dishes, I found myself flipping through the cookbook, thinking about the different kinds of 'desserts' or 'maincourses' that people loved to make back in 1989.  For example, more 'popcorn balls', and jello-based deserts.  One of the recipes was for "Jello Salad" (p.31), and it included a notation saying "A simple recipe for husbands to make!"  LOL. 

And then I came across mom's cinnamon bun recipe! In some weird way, reading it was like having a visit with Arta.  I could totally hear her voice, her style of explaining things, and her humour (ie imagining the delights of death by cholesterol; or the very idea that I would be making regular batches of bread so big that I could also toss in a pan of cinnamon buns at the same time)!  

I ended up highlighting the parts that made me smile, so I can go back and re-read the recipe when I feel like I want a good visit.   

I also ended up wandering out to the family blog to see what I could find about cinnamon buns there.  More than a fair few posts out there, giving me even more great visits with Arta!   

• 2018 - "Cinnamon buns for D&D
• 2019 - "Pizza and Cinnamon buns [for D&D]
• 2016 - Whose Cinnamon buns are the best
• 2018 - "Smellerama" [Cinnamon buns for Indigenous Law Class] 
• 2018 - "Proofing Bread"
• 2018 - "Cinnamon Buns with Maraschino Cherries
• 2016 - "Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary Party"

(also got to remember a great 2022 post by Mary with a photo essay of the process from start to finish of making cinnamon buns for her birthday!) 

London 2025

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Dec 9 Tues

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Dec 8

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Dec 7 Sun

Up at noon, out to Tusauds, over to Camden Market.  Home.  Was going to go to British Museum for the rosetta stone, skipped it for time.

alice: liked buying cardigan.  buying shirts.  Ed Sheeran was funny.  

Betty: loved buying fluffy scarf looks like fox.  

Michael: michael star was wax museum, not my droids joke.  

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Dec 6 Sat

With Jamie and Abby.  Went to the Science Museum.  Did all but 1st floor.  Showed up and 100 horses in derby carts went down the street in front of us.  Went to "honest burger" delicious.  Went to Harods, so expensive.  The toy section was crap.  Went to a book store later for the book with no pictures for Andrew Gipps "Halle" to read.

michael: harrods challenge.  cramped, over heated, hard to navigate. hanging out with Jamie/abby funy.

alice:the wind up mechanical things.  liked time with jamie abby.  Liked a book store with 6 levels.

betty:at honest burgers, the kids meal, the burger was delicious.  the oj glass was small, travel mug, paper straw.  crappy straw.

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Dec 5 Fri

 In Dublin, flew Dublin-London at 9pm.  Plane was 1hr late, arrived at airbnb at 11pm.  great Airbnb.  Weird girl sitting by Miranda on the flight.  

Went to the gardens in Dublin as something to do, nice to walk around.  Drove for the last time in Dublin.  Went to 'tesco superstore' and filled with diesel.   

went to the goose on the loose for breakfast.  good restaurant.  Richard ate blood pudding sausage.  Delicious.  

Tatoos, and vikings.

betty: at goose, betty got an american style pancake and ice crema and nutella, best papncake ever, oj glass was tall.  

alice: beating dad in chess, eating at goose, liked the rain after tesco, driving in circles around the airport.

michael: taking goose photos at the restaurant, vikings screamiung at us.

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Dec 4 Thurs

Ate at Quays a second time, they sat us at the same table and we sat in the same seats.  The waiter picked up a knife that Michael dropped.  

Wetn to an outdoor carnival, alice and betty went on the big swing that spins.

Went to the Dublin Musseum in Collins Barracks.

Left our Dublin Airbnb for the last time.  

michael: second time at quays, same seats.

alice: being on carnival ride, eating quays, the museum.

betty: quays burger was really delicious. when dad asked for oj, but they got her apple juice.

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Dec 3 Wed

Miranda graduated.  Got lucky and sent links for people to watch from london and canada.

late into the night graduation.  snacks afterwards and photos.

picked up graduation gown.  took photos.

up in the morning.  into downtown to go to the leprechaun museum, coffee at place with barista in pink hair.  Got there late.   They let us in anyways.  

An exciting time to be excited.

alice: seeing mom graduating was fun, story about selkies, the leprochaum story was amazing, hot chocolate was good.

betty: leprochaun museum, funnest ever went to, instructor was a girl named mauve with red hair.  good story teller.  climbed on a giant chair.  normal chair for a leprochaum. liked giant chess peices on the campus of the university.

michael: oral story telling thing, stories how rebecca tells stories.  liked that mauve, the guide, michael asked "could i climb on the chair" and she said, "wait", and after the idea, michael was the first one up. pastries that we got after mom graduated, those were good.

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Dec 2 Tues

Girls got ears peirced.  

fish and chips

ate at Quays for the first time, walked aorund the peirs, rainbow bridge.  

Dublin castle, walk shopping.  

betty: getting ears peicrced for the first time was hard.  it was weird.  looked like belletrix lestrange of harry potter.

michael: getting the newsies hat.  Using in and loving it all the time now.

alice: liked judging bridges.  liked tasting real fish and chips.  Liked getting second ears pierced. 

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Dec 1 Mon

flight to dublin.  Leave calgary 5pm, arrive in dublin 9pm.

almost didn't make it to flight, buses were late, got to airport 55 min before flight, long security, at the gate on on the plane 5 min after getting to gate.

lamborghini, 

V&A again today, another whole date at the V&A.

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Nov 30 Sun

V&A vor the first day.  

Halle, visit at Andrews, Windsor Castle, 

sideways house.  slanted house, guaards looking in manholes.

long walk, 

old trains at windsotr.

picked up by jamie, he liked me seeing him.

first time that we "drove" in london.  Before this was tubes and busses.

ate at polos chicken.

Michael: every time michael tried to engage with halle, girls followed suit.  

alice: halle, hopping around ring around the rossie. seeing the castle, learning about the castle.  Seeing how happy I was with Archie, holding the baby.

betty: liked the crooked house, at windsor castle.  Richard says "those stairs are great for burping", and michael saying "glad you got your burps out".

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Nov 29 Sat

breakfast at local go local, 

V&A for the second time.

betty: at go local, had pancakes that were spoungy.  Not enough syrope. 

alice: second v&a was better.  less churcy.

michael: started coding when we got back to the house.

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Nov 28 Fri

Arrive Friday 10am.  Stay up.  Go to Shrek maybe, and something else.

went to shreks, bad.

saw big ben for the first time.

went on the london eye.

had terrible fish and chips outside the london eye.

michael: shrek was terrible.  beyond terrible.  the london eye was cool.  i liked the london eye for that day.

alice: so tired after the eye that she was in a state of dream.  mad that we did all the tourist attractions the first day.  shreks for too much for kids.  london eye was too slow.  food place food was so fucking crappy.  

Betty: got chicken nuggets and chips.  two big chicken nugets.  didn't taste the best.  a bit sweet.  outside watery.  Used ketchup packets to make the chjps edibble.  At shreks adventure, super liked, in the flying red taxi bus thing.  and when sleeping beauty introduced herself, drury lane, and then went to sleep, and then started her speach over, and over, 3,4,5.

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Nov 27 Thurs

flight details:

michael putting blanket on face during sleep. 

alice: fun playing games, fun watching the tv.  exausting that couldn't get any sleep.  all tiring and boring.  really silly that betty forgot something.  really silly that michael forgot something..

betty: flight was exausting.  super tired, maybe got an hour of sleep.  the tv screen was nice, you could change brightness.  turn volume down.  games were a bit boring.  

michael:  me and mom doing pokemon go raid  in the airport.  

Fly, into the night, arrive tomrorow mornng at 10am.

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Alice

We are currently in London, which seemed like a dream to my no-hours-of-sleep brain the day when we first arrived. I learned that I can't function properly without at least 2-3 hours of sleep the hard way. We then saw the London Eye; the first 10-20 minutes were great, then it slowly downgraded for the rest of the trip. But the view was amazing, at the top it was a panoramic view. I would highly recommend to go on it once, but not too many times. We went to Shrek's Adventure. I didn't enjoy it that much, the whole thing is not recommended. It was fun, yes, but also really boring, and for 2-5 year olds.

Today we went to the V&A, which was absolutely amazing, I loved seeing how many spoons there was in that place. We then went to the London Dungeon at 4; major jump scares, but it was still one of the most fun things yet. I have had such a fun time so far, and am slowly working my way up to a British accent, I hope I can get a full one on our journey back. Then, in Dublin, I'll work for a Irish accent. My friend does a great one, I love it. He goes like, "That there's my son! The leprechaun on the pot of gold there, riding the rainbow!" And, "Your a lepreCHAUN(lep-re-chon)!"

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Michael

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Betty

Yesterday we went to a Shrek tour. Today we went to the London dungeon. 1 person from each talked to me about my hair. The Shrek: a witch lady "Look at your magical hair that changes color!" London dungeon: Sweeney Tod "Look at that hair. It would make a nice wig! I'll pray for you." That was fun!!!

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Richard

Flew out at 5pm Calgary time.  Landed 10am London time.  Most didn't sleep, but we stayed up all day to fight jet lag.  We went right to Shreks Adventure and london eye.  Fish and chips at the london eye, i complained and got a second patty.  Videos and photos at Big Ben.  H98 to Hounslow West, on the Picadilly Line to South Kensington, transfer to the Circle Line, down to Westminster, and walked across the river to and from the fun.

Second day we woke up really late, everyone was messed up.  We found a breakfast place further out of London.  Go Local Cafe.  "traditional breakfast".  Nobody but Richard and Miranda ate the "beans" which really is white beans in tomato soup...  The sausages were big , but not flavorful.  The "fried break" to me just seems like extra buttery bread.  Delicious.  Skipped "Natural museum" because it was alrealdy 1pm, we went down to the V&A and Michael lost his mind loving it.  Went to the "london dungeon" at 445, and then bought food along the road out at Hounseth wich was amazing food, ate in the hotel, and to sleep.  Michael tried to apply 

At the VA, there is a 1780s exhibit about balloons and the first travel by hot air baloon.  The brothers that took the first air balloon trips had the last name.... gonfler, or something like that.  "blow up" in french.  That made me laugh.  Montgolfier brothers.  But I prefer to remember them as the gonfler brothers.

Links to the photos so far.....

2025, London England

https://photos.app.goo.gl/okqCDYStoKMCwrDy9

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Doral Pilling's Autobiography - a copy of a copy of a copy?

 

Growing up, a copy of our grandfather Doral Pilling's life story sat on the shelf. The distinctive blue cover with its gold lettering made it an easy find.  I knew how to find the pages with the stories I wanted to hear again and again,  mostly the stories about childhood pranks, or his time at the olympics.  

All these years later, and a copy of that same book is also within easy reach in my own home, along with pieces of paper tucked in between various pages to mark out the stories I too would return to for sharing with my own kids.  

Doral's life history is a goldmine.   There is so much stuff in there that is wonderful. This year, Duncan was taking a course on autobiography, and I suggested that it might be fun to actually use Doral's life history to work with.  He took it to his teacher to pre-vet it.  The teacher agreed that it was an amazing document, but also said that in order for Duncan to really engage with it, the teacher would need to have access to the text itself.  It is not that it needed to be 'published', but that it needed to be 'publically accessible.'  

And it wasn't til that moment that I realized that it was not.  And now it is! [click on this link to access it over at the LaRue Investments site: https://larue1964.wordpress.com/2025/11/12/doral-pillings-life-history-1975/].  Here is the backstory.

Somehow, because so many of us in the family had a copy of this book on the shelf, I often forget that it was not 'published' in the conventional sense, and it thus not easily accessible.  Afterall, it is a 'book', right?!  :-).  And that makes it look kind of 'official'. 

There are some small portions of it that are quickly accessible.   For example, way back in 2012, when someone was writing up a little history of the LDS church in Calgary, Arta shared with them some pages from Doral's life history (and posted them to the family blog):  http://larchhaven.blogspot.com/2012/09/doral-pilling-p-89-to-94.html.  But that is only a few pages of the text.

Certainly, the content is publically accessible, since it in the result of a series of interviews done in 1975:  Doral Pilling was interviewed by Charles Ursenbach as part of the Western Oral History Program, and the audiotapes (9 hours and 40 minutes) were deposited with the Alberta Provincial Archives.  I realized I didn't really know much about this Oral History Program.   A quick websearch took me to a page at BYU, which suggested maybe a context for this interview:  https://reddcenter.byu.edu/pages/oral. Other might have a richer account of the backstory.

In any event, the preface to the book does say that the written history is based on that oral history, and that the transcript was "edited and revised by members of Doral Pilling's family under his direction."

I was curious about who those 'members' were.  They are not named.  My suspicion (and bias) is that it was Arta, and that she has simply stayed in the background, minimizing the work she had done.  For sure, I have memories of seeing Arta (and Kelvin) set up one of those old tape to tape machines at the table, and of her turning the switch to stop and start again while she was typing things up at the same time on the old Underwood manual typewriter.  Now I am curious if others of the aunts or uncles helped with transcription?  Maybe.  But it does make me smile a bit to see her/them documented for the purposes of history as "members of Doral's family" rather than having their actual names appear. 

The process of photocopying also provides space for reflection. I remembered Arta pointing out in various documents that she could tell when they had been typed on Doral's typewriter because of the ways that specific keys were showing traces of wear and tear (or were a bit uneven in how they struck the paper).  Looking at the book, I felt like I could indeed see the traces of keystrikes on the text from that old beast of a machine.  It is that same heavy Underwood machine that Doral typed all his letters on, and that eventually made its way to our house on 26th ave. It is the same beast of a machine that I learned to type on, and the one on which i typed out so many of my university assignments.  Is that a real memory? 

Richard's copy also missing pages

Small side note, in making the copy, I realized that pages 26, 27 and 28 seem to be missing from my copy. I sent out a note to the other siblings to see if their copies of the book were different.  Doral provided photographic confirmation that his copy was also missing those pages.   And so, now there is a mystery!   

Is this just an error made by Arta in page numbers?  Or is there something particularly juicy in there?  Something salacious?  A map to hidden treasure?   Does one of us need to head to the audiotapes to see if they are also missing something?  If anyone has clues to the mystery, let us know!

ADDENDUM: November 25, 2025

Mystery solved!..... There IS no mystery!  I went back to listen to the original tapes of Doral telling his story.  It moves seamlessly from the bottom of p.25, to the top of p.29 (nothing salacious hidden in the gap)