October 8, 1971 - Saskatoon

The Pleasant Hill Grocery

I had to stop working at the restaurant because my hands have developed severe arthritis. I worked there over ten years as a prep cook, cutting potatoes, making egg rolls, and peeling 150 pounds of frozen shrimp a day, and the doctor said that’s what did it.
Since then we’ve bought a little grocery store for another source of income. My sister has come over and she helps out. Lately we haven’t been earning enough to make ends meet so I’ve had to go back to the restaurant. Usually I work there from 9 to 3 in the afternoon, then go home and work the store until 11 in the evening. We have to put the kids through school somehow. Jimmy has graduated high school and is going to art school in Alberta. We went to visit him in Calgary last year.
We had a scare the other day when someone called the health inspector on us. There were some complaints about Fido being in the store. Luckily we knew him; he used to inspect the Golden Dragon, and Wayne would always give him some Chinese food and a big box of lichee, which he loved to eat. When he found out we owned the store he just laughed and told us to watch the dog.