Big Bad Tom

The thing about working in the bush in the old days was that you spent more time with your partner than your spouse. Usually one also tipped a few back after work with the boys. A bonus on the amount of wood you cut was a daily routine. We’d see who made the most bonus at the end of each day.

One of my partners, Tom Brigdal, was a big man, I would have to say he stood five foot three. On the second day we worked together in the morning I told him about us making
$47 bonus the day before. Tom said, “I never made forty seven dollars on a pay period let alone in one day. Holy crow!” We went to work in a stand of huge spruce sailors – beautiful wood. What I didn’t tell Tom was that we were on the bottom edge of the bonus sheets; all the other crews were making $75 or $100 per day. None-the-less we worked hard and at the end of our first pay period we had a grand total of $347 bonus. Tom walked like he was ten feet tall.

Each day when I would get home from work my missus would tell me all about the previous day. Tom would go home after work and share his day with his wife Heather.
That first day we worked together Tom told Heather every detail. The first coffee break we took, while Tom was getting the lids off his Tupperware ready to pour the milk on his cereal, I had inhaled three cookies and a cup of tea. “Well Tom,” I told him, “I guess we better get back at ‘er.” Tom told his wife Heather, “That Lloyd makes me dizzy!”

Payday came and the thing about bush workers back then was they played just as hard as they worked. We hit town and the beer store – it was payday, right? We worked together and on payday we drank together. Yes, Tom was one of the boys. No dinner, just cold wet beer. The first to wash down the dust, and then a second one, and then a third.

Tom felt he had better get home, but we got him all wound up, telling him, “Tom, you’re the boss. There is nothing wrong with having a few with the boys after work.” Tom replied, “That’s right, I’m the boss!” By the wee hours of the morning every one headed for home.

The next day Tom was not out in the bush. I went to work by myself, which would mean a double bonus. By eight Tom arrived at work. It turned out that Heather had locked him out! Tom had slept in his pickup truck. He had no lunch and an empty water jug. An unspoken rule in the bush was that if your partner showed up hung over, you showed no mercy. You worked harder and faster.

I recall telling Tom that day, “Make sure you let your wife know who the boss is. There is nothing wrong with having a few with the boys.” Tom repeated, “That’s right, I am the boss.”

Tom and his wife lived at the end of the trailer park from me. With the windows open we could hear Tom upon his return home from work that day saying, “I‘m the boss and no I am not coming out from under the table!” Talk around town was that Tom did not win that battle.

Tom now lives in the Dryden area and he still works in the bush.