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CT: Oh, that never works out.

SRL: And the friend just wasn't a businessperson, and absconded.
It was -really bad. Dad made a point of hiring veterans, and
the bunkhouse here was all solteros they were all unwed
men from the First World War.
A wonderful bunch of men, and they drove the tractors
and they did all of those kinds of things. I can still
remember the horses and the wagons, but they were phased out
when I was very small. But the tractors were the big thing,
and those were going all the·time.
We knew these men well. I remember one of the big
things at Christmas was decorating the dining room up there.
There was a separate cookhouse ...

SL: Across 126, that direction?

SRL: No no no, right at the end of the bunkhouse, where the
office- is? That was the bunkhouse, with all those little
rooms in it, and then there was a space maybe just -this wide
from here to here

SL: Four or five feet

SRL: With sort of an alleyway, and the dining room and the big
kitchen. So we decorated for Christmas, and then we had
what we called a Christmas pie, and it was a great big, this
-big around bowl

SL: Almost, a yard in diameter

SRL: with little funny Christmas. gifts in it, wrapped, with a big
long string, and then there was a paper·cover, on this thing
to make it look like a pie. And they each would pull a
string, and they would get a_ funny little gift out of this
thing. We did that for years. It- was something everybody
looked forward to and got a big 1augh out of it.

SL: When you were talking about the tragedy, or the failure, of
the Billiwack Dairy, I thought you.were going to tell the
story of the bull.

SRL: Well that, too, but that came ... Dad itill owned Billiwack
when he bought Camulos.

CT: Okay, let's back up a little bit.· Where was he living when
he bought Billiwack, here?

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