My Canadian Years

I lived in Canada from June 1957 to the Fall of 1964. St. Paul l'Ermite, where Gordon and Irene lived was outside Montreal - a wonderful city that I am glad I had the opportunity of living near. If anyone ever has the chance to visit this city, I would strongly recommend it. The mood of Montreal, or I probably should say the province of Quebec, changed while I was there. The French and the English were friends and most French Canadians were fluent in both languages, so the language barrier presented no problem. But as the years went on, the French resentment against the English grew, and people who would talk to you in English suddenly said they didn't know English and the tension grew. It got much worse after I left, with all street signs converting to French only, and Quebec trying to pull away from the rest of Canada.
John Marsh and I married the day after Christmas 1959 and rented an apartment in Montreal first, then moved to St. Paul l'ermite living upstairs in a duplex.
Look at my photos over that time it looks like there was always snow - but I guess I just found that the prettiest time. Montreal was in a 'snow belt' and winters would bring up to 20 feet of snow on a regular basis. I loved everything about it.
I was able to bring my parents out for a month's visit while there and they played like a couple of kids in the snow. It was all magic to them.

I worked for Canadian Steel when I first went to Canada, commuting to Montreal, but was able to get into Canadian Arsenals later which was in St. Paul l'ermite. Gordon worked there also in the engineering department. If first worked in the Safety Department (somewhat boring), but was later promoted into the engineering department where I was the typist for 13 engineers. I found that fascinating and had to have security clearance to work in this department. Canadian Arsenals was the 'filling' plant for bombs and other ammunition. There were various 'secret' projects which required special clearance to be in on, and the engineering department was the most 'protected' department of all. The supervisor was promoted a couple of years before I left to a liason between the buyers (mostly in the US) and the actual production work. He asked for me to be transferred with him and we became a department by ourselves. I loved that job as it required my being involved in all phases of the manufacturing and there was never a dull moment.

They say that you never forget where you were when certain major events happen - and I was standing in my boss's office when someone stuck their head in and said "Kennedy's been shot".
There was a number of reasons that John and I decided to leave Canada and move to the US. It was mostly me - John was easily influenced and would go along with my ideas. He had a relatively good job, but it didn't have much of a future and he had a dream to be a deep sea diver. I did the research and found that there were two schools in the US - one in Florida and one in Alameda, California. I sent away for the newspapers for both places so I could get an idea of (a) how much it cost to rent apartments and (b) what the job market was as it was imperative that I got a job immediately. The Bay area far outdid Fort Lauderdale, Fla. so that became our destination. My reason for wanting to move to the US instead of living in Canada, might sound strange to many people, but I had lived in Canada long enough to become a citizen and I believed that people should become citizens if they were going to take the benefits of a country. But I just couldn't get the idea of becoming a citizen on Canada. I was always 'political' and used to enjoy the heated debates and discussions we used to have work during breaks and lunch, but I was also picking on the fact that the division came from those quoting the British point of view and those quoting the American point of view. I used to say "what about the Canadian point of view". Also at that time Canada didn't have a flag or a national anthem - they used the British flag and sang God Save the Queen. I could not see myself becoming a citizen of a country that didn't think of itself as a country - so after six months of paperwork, physicals, security clearances and proving our financial ability - we were bound for the United States of America........................

Motel 6 Operations

When I wrote before, I told how I ended up with Motel 6, but to continue from there. Sue and I were given a free apartment and utilities and a salary of $400/month. For this we ran the motel - covered the front office, rented the rooms, maintained the property, pool, grounds; hired and trained the maids, did the book keeping and record keeping and banking. The only help was the maids themselves. One of us had to be at the motel at all times, we were unable to leave the motel together. This continued for five months until we reached the point where we were training managers for the other motels and were able to get away for short periods when they could manage on their own and before they went to their own motel.

The 'bookkeeping' in those days consisted of an 8-1/2 x 11 mimeographed piece of paper with a diagram of the motel on it with squares for each room. The number of the room was printed on it and when we rented it we would write the name of the person staying. All rooms were $6.00 and there was no tax, no phone and no extra charges. To close the books at night, we added up the number of rooms with names, multiplied it by $6 and that was the bank deposit. We made the deposit, attached it to the sheet and submitted it to the main office. We did not have a cash register, so our change was kept in a coffee can. The guests had to pay on a daily basis even if they stayed a week. I couldn't stand this method, so I developed a system which could handle paid advance reservations, and direct billing and keep a running tab of the business for the whole month. We balanced to the penny each day. The standard existing system on advance reservation pay at that time was to take the money and put it in an envelope until the people checked in and then use it to pay for their room!! I showed my system to the owners and they weren't really too impressed but agreed to let me submit two reports each day for thirty days to see how it went, and they agreed to continue with it after that. A point of interest on this was that we were using a little machine that printed receipts for the guests, this was put out by NCR. The salesmen (reps) for NCR kept pushing me to patent my system as they said it was a breakthrough for the industry. They pushed me for about three months and I just laughed and said "you're kidding"!. I guess they weren't. They must have passed it up their company, for the Chicago motel supply company that handled the usual forms for motels, started printing and selling my system and it became the standard for the industry!

During the first 60 days I wrote a complete operation, policy and training manual for the motels (I used the method and approach I had learned from the CHP manual). With no experience you could take the manual and rent rooms, clean rooms, maintain the room, hire the maids, train the maids, maintain the premises and handle all phases of public relations. The owners accepted this manual from me and as we opened the next four motels, I was promoted to Operations Director with an increase in wages to $600/month, plus a new car and a new home with furniture, rent free. I had it made! And Sue had no daily duties at this time, she only had to be available to assist me when we covered time off for the other managers.

The main office was moved to a new fancy building next to the court house at Santa Barbara. It was a two story building with parking on the lower level and the offices above. The office was split into three areas - the owners and basic bookkeeping section, the construction and drafting section, and the Operations Department. My department grew with two assistants and a chain maintenance man. Sue and I were offered and we accepted the chance to purchase one of their new homes, a four bedroom/3 bath home with furniture. They had adjusted my salary several times and I was now making $17,000 a year with automatic increases every time a new motel was opened. I was well pleased with that wage - it was slightly above what an university professor received.

I was also operating three non-company owned motels for one of our future lenders. This was on a manager fee basis. We used their money, had a separate accounting system and our company got 5% of gross for my efforts. One was in Las Vegas on the strip (120 unit with bar and restaurant), one in Palm Desert (60 units) and one in Long Beach (right on the beach with 62 units and bar and restaurant). The lenders were able to sell all three properties after the we redid them and put them into a profit situation.

How was it possible?

I look back and wonder how 'Dickie Boy' went as far as he did in today's world with a minimum high school education, consisting of agriculture, shop, minimum basic courses with no college prep. classes. My father finished 8th grade, and I'm not sure about my mother, but I know it wasn't more than the upper elementary level. Probably compared to today, this would be like a high school education. My father had beautiful penmanship and a real mind for math. He worked a lot with me on mine. I came out of high school with good grades but a poor system. My plus was that I could see, read, do and remember. Dad taught me as a child to do electrical installation and repair (which was always with hot wire). As a boy growing up we built two small homes, a shop building and remodeled numerous houses. I drove a farm tractor at home and for hire at 14. I worked construction for nine years - every type of building or project you can think of and then I became a California Highway Patrol traffic officer.

I think this was my greatest help, It showed me organization, policy, manuals and being on your own 98% of the time, making your own decisions and realizing that you could do it. It built confidence in ones ability and made one unafraid to tackle anything.

After the patrol, I took employment as a salesman for a chemical store. We sold wax, cleansers, paper products and power equipment. While I was there we took on a line of swimming pool supplies and I was called in on all the problem pools and became the local expert. I dealt with schools, stores, shops, government buildings and motels and hotels. I got a good education on the housekeeping departments. I set up and trained the personnel in several new motels. I was guest speaker at a county training class for the school custodians in San Luis Obispo.

As a result of this job, I became very knowledgeable about the motel business and realized that all I needed to break into this field was bookkeeping and paperwork. I had the ability to build the motel, repair the motel, train and supervise the employees and deal with the public.

The Red Door Inn in Paso Robles (no longer in operation) was my launching stage. I was good friends with the managers (Will and Mokie Engleke) and had helped them set up and operate this new motel. I took a position of Asst. Manager and Night Auditor with them at $400 a month. Sue, Katrina and I rented an apartment next door. I started with them January 1st 1963.

The Red Door Inn was the 5th motel for the owners and we were in line to get our own motel when unfortunately the owner became seriously ill and subsequently passed away. Our bright future with them was obviously not to be. I began to look for other employment, checked out a couple or three locations and heard about a start-up company in Santa Barbara. Sue, Katrina and I went to meet with them. We seem to fit exactly what they wanted - a new comer to the industry like them, with knowledge of the business but not set in its ways. I think they saw that I was willing to roll with it as it developed and improvise as needed.

They had two motels in final stages of construction at the time and four more starting. One couple, a teacher and his wife, had already been hired and they managed one of the first two. They hired Sue and I on the spot and we were given the other motel which was in the business area of Santa Barbara, and next door to their existing office.

Sue and I opened this motel mid July 1963, and thus the Motel 6 chain was born......

Mind Set & Results during School years

When I started school my family were my friends. We never stayed long enough in one place to make outside friends, so I accepted this and said "I didn't need friends". This continued up to the 8th grade, and during that time I never let anyone get close to me. I guess the change came because I fell in love with my teacher. Her husband was away in the war and I felt so sorry for her. Nothing happened! (darn it).
We had a Victory Garden at school for our war effort. It was about one acre and we grew lettuce, tomatoes, celery, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, etc. During the last few months of school on Fridays, I was excused from class to make the rounds to all the classes (approx. 16) and take vegetable orders. In the afternoon I would fill and deliver the orders. We were asked by a Bakersfield radio station to talk about our garden effort and they selected me to go and talk. It was on the way back from this that we heard on the radio that President Roosevelt had died.
I became very active with the year book and a book of tales, one of which I had written. I also had singing parts in two shows and got a new suit for my graduation. My school grades up to that point were mostly B+'s, but in this last year my teacher gave me all C's in the first quarter. I asked her why when I was making 92 to 98 on the scores and she said it was because I could have gotten 100. My final grades were all A's. We didn't have any active sports at this state, just some interclass games. Next year in High School I went out for football (B team). I played right tackle and towards the end of the season, I became a starter. We lost all of our games, but we had a new coach who was strong on the fundamentals, so it was good for me. I made A's that year.
Later at Caruthers High, my grades fell in the A's and B's (about half and half). I never did like homework. My sophomore year I played on the Junior Varsity football team and earned by Block C letter. Junior year played football and basketball. Football full time , but my efforts on the Basketball was mostly sitting on the bench. But I earned by letters on both.

I was very involved in the F.F.A. A select group of us were taken to the State Fair in Sacramento. and also a week's camping at Shaver lake - all sponsored by the school . I won first place in a local quiz and received $20. Later, I went to the regional San Joaquin Valley tournament andwon a small trophy for High Individual Score. We also attended several judging contests (cattle) at Fresno State, Davis and Cal Poly.

In my Senior Year I was elected President of the FFA. President of Block C and Co-captain of the football team along with Dorland Short. I had a good year and was able to get some attention and as a result Coach Cook (shown in the photo following with me) was able to get me five offers of scholarships - Whittier College, Cal-Poly, Fresno State, UC Davis and Sequoya College. I still played basketball, but I wasn't too great, although I did help win a couple of games.


FFA continued in the Senior Year and once again I won the $20 for High Individual and this time Cecil Ripley (France's brother) was a Junior at school and secretary of the association. He and I were excused from class to study together for two weeks, and we went on to win the #1 prize in the Valley. I won the high individual award again. Later I was sent to the National FFA Convention in Kansas City by the local merchants and local farm groups. We were gone for a week Friday to Friday. On that first Friday we were playing Easton in the afternoon and the train was supposed to leave at 2pm (in the middle of the game). I played the game and they put me on a train and I was able to join the original train in Sacramento. We were on a Pullman and stayed on it during the whole time. We arrived K.C. early Monday morning and attended the three day convention and tours and started home Thursday morning. On the Sunday I had discovered that I had a broken rib from the Friday game and I was taped up by the Red Cross. I was still able to play the Friday game on my return. To get me to the game, Coach Cook arranged for me to get off in Bakersfield and get on the daylight flyer (100mph) and in 58 minutes arrived in Fresno. I changed into my uniform in the car and arrived at the end of the 1st quarter and played the rest of the game. I was not full power but we did win over San Joaquin Memorial.
The game of football was different in those days. There was very limited substitution. If you were taken out you couldn't return until the next quarter. As a result some of us played the whole game. I missed the first quarter of the game mentioned above and 10 minutes of a Fresno-Edison Game when we were up 35-0, and I had broken my nose. As a result of this Coach Cook built a nose guard for me and I was the first to CUHS to wear one.
As a result of a problem I encountered with the teacher in charge on the KC trip, I was removed as President of the FFA. I had up to 20 witnesses which would have cleared me, but our new principal would not follow up against a fellow teacher (adding that the punishment would be good for me!) Needless to say my memories of him are not the greatest!!
My goal was to take up one of the scholarships and I wanted to be a teacher and coach. I agreed to accept the offer from Sequoia College, but when the time came in the Fall, I had worked construction all summer at $90/week. School teachers were being paid about $2800.00 a year. I decided that I was better off staying with construction. I made that decision and I have never questioned it nor looked back.

I begin life in Canada

I left Southhampton England and traveled across the Atlantic to Quebec City on the SS Skaubryn with the Skaugen Line. It was an interesting ship with a strange history. It was actually a Norwegian ship that was loaned to the Germans under some old agreement to make one voyage a year across the Atlantic. The Norwegians were proud, so they made this their little flagship. It really was beautiful inside. The crew was German and the ship only held 1000 passengers - very small incomparison to today's liners. I was in a cabin with a lady with her two small children and we were both pleased to find that we got along fine considering we were expecting to spend the next eight days together. However, our first full day at sea, we hit the ocean and even though this was June, the swell was enormous and the sea very rough. Breakfast that first day had two full sittings in the dining area (it only seated 500). Lunch saw just one sitting and by dinner, there were only five long tables. By the next day we were down to two tables and that continued until we entered the St. Lawrence Seaway and calmer waters. I never saw my fellow passengers from the middle of that first day at sea until the day before we disembarked in Quebec. Considering I was not a good sailor and would usually get sick whenever I was on a boat, it is really remarkable that I made the whole voyage in good form. I think it had everything to do with being 20 years old, on a real 'high' at the adventure of the whole thing and the excitement at going to a new country.


Gordon and Irene met me off the boat and we drove to St. Paul l'Ermite, a small village outside Montreal where they lived with their three boys - David, Garry and Trevor. It was my first experience of living with small children and I really enjoyed my time. They called me Aunt Market!
The first winter was another totally new experience. I experienced 30 below weather and we had a record 24 feet of snow that winter. I loved it. It is hard to describe the absolute magic at walking at night with the street lights sparkling on the snow and the crunch of the dry snow beneath your feet. We had the first snow Halloween night, and a few snow falls after that but as Christmas approached, there was no snow and I was really disappointed - I had so wanted to experience a White Christmas. John and I had started dating by this time and he and I went to midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. We came out to a heavy snow fall that kept up all night - Bingo! A gorgeous white Christmas.
I can't believe I was ever this slim and this young!!!!!
My first work in Canada was with Canadian Steel. I had to commute into Montreal by bus which wasn't bad until winter came and we got held up by some of the snow storms. After about a year I went to work for Canadian Arsenals in St. Paul l'Ermite, so my commuting from then on was done on foot.

It would be April before we started to have a thaw and it was amazing how excited we would get walking to work on the country road to actually see the pavement. It was our first sign of spring. Canadian Arsenals had a canteen where we would take our coffee breaks and lunch breaks and it was in a separate building from where we worked. At work we would have our dresses/ skirts and blouses, hose and highheels - standard office wear. But to go across the grounds to the canteen, one would don the leotards over the stockings, then thick socks and boots. Then would come the sweaters, heavy wool coat, scarves, headgear (make sure to cover the ears), gloves and mittens on top of them. We were now ready to brave the 10 to 30 below weather and head for a cup of coffee!!

A Man's Man - My Father

Lee Kenneth Topper was born on the 4th of July 1905 in Stillwater, Oklahoma to William and Mary Topper. William was a brick/stone layer and the family grew up with a moderate income. You will remember that William was what was known as a Sooner, having homesteaded the property outside Stillwater before the territory was actually opened up to the white man.

As I grew up and whenever possibly, I was like a little puppy, following my dad everywhere. He told me a lot about his growing up. He and his family moved to California (Orange County) when he was only 14 and stayed a couple of years before returning to the Ripley, Oklahoma area. When he was 19 he and his cousin got a motorcycle and dcided to see the USA. This would have been around 1924. They took off west and covered all of the west coast, working odd jobs for gas and food (like washing dishes) - and sometimes they simply did without. They lost the motorcycle as a result of an accident on a wet road and crossing a RR at a 45 degree angle. From then on they were hitch-hiking, walking and riding the box cars (rail) when possible. They both returned to Ripley. Dad said he had had enough of the fast life and wild living, so he started going to church, looking for a good christian girl. She came in Lowney Mae Craig, the third child of William and Etta Myrtle Craig, who were local farmers. They were married June 7, 1927.

Lee and Lowney moved to Delano, California area late 1927 or early 1928.

Dad's background was oilfield work, construction and farming. He was always looking to make an extra buck. At one time he took an old auto, stripped it down, put a duster on it applied sulphur and cyanide gas in the vineyards. Applying the sulphur was poor pay (there was no hazard there), but applying cyanide paid $1.00/acre. It could only be applied between 2am and 5am, and there had to be zero drift. Everyone living within 1-1/2 miles had to be advised. Sometimes it would take up to five days for the conditions to be right, but once started he could do 80 acres in about 40 minutes. That was fantastic pay - but it was deadly poison and he earned every penny. He took me out sulphuring some nights - but never on the cyanide.

He did business with a lot of people and everyone liked him. He once told me that he could have been a rich man if he could have learned to shave without a mirror. But lieing and cheating people would make it impossibly for him to look himself in the eye with a mirror. He said "Son, if you look a man in the eye, and shake his hand, the deal could not be more binding".

He never said "I love you, son", but actions speak louder than words. And he would relate some experiences with me that I know were intended to make me more manly.

He would not miss a football game I was playing in, and attended all father and son activities and if I ever needed help, he was always there to back me up. He always used to say "if you choose to dance, you must pay the fiddler. If you are innocent, I'll back you. If you are guilty, I won't bail you out). He treated me as an adult from age 15 on. From that time, it was never NO, it was "I wish you wouldn't".

Dad was highly respected in his work (rigging). He was night foreman on the building of a dam and for three summers in early 1950's he worked in Greenland building Thule AirForce base. He was in charge of unloading materials and equipment. At Morro Bay, he set the first generator for the power plant.

He contracted Hodgkins disease while at Morro Bay and was operated on in the Fall of 1955 in Fowler. They were unable to get it all, and for the next two years we saw the steady slide downhill.

When I graduated from the CHP academy in March 1957, I was not expecting any members of my family to be there. But I looked out and there was my dad - he had ridden the bus up to Sacramento and then rode back with me. He was able to make one trip to Bakersfield when I was posted there and I was able to take him out on patrol with me.

Labor Day 1957, it was a CHP maximum enforcement day when everyone had to work and I was working the highway from Formosa to Kettleman City. I was called in to the office and given a leave of absence - they had received a call that my father was dieing. Sue, Katrina and I hurried to Fresno, but we were too late. Dad had waited until he had heard that Louise had given birth to her first child Denise, and he rolled over and left us. At the funeral in Kerman (officiated by Lowney's brother Cecil), there were over 250 people in attendance. The church couldn't hold all the people who showed up.

I loved and respected by father very much and hope he was as proud of me as I was of him.