From Fred Hall 1944

Dear Stuart: -

Thanks for your very interesting and prompt reply. You sure were quick, weren't you! However there is no need to apologize when you are a little late in writing because I understand that you sure must have your hands full at times, particularly in the summer months.

Your letter was very interesting apart from the organ news. So one of your sisters is getting married. That means that you will acquire a brother-in-law. Is he an organ fan? If not - well, 'nuf sed.

Siincerely hope that you get the end of your house off and on again before the snow sets in. Brrrrrrrr! What a place to live. Oh well, we get our share of cold weather, too. Prairie people say they feel colder here at 25 (blow me down! there's no 'degree' sign on this tripe writer!) or 30 degrees than they do on the prairies at 10 or 20 below. It's the damp atmosphere. But at the worst our cold spells only last a week at the most, - that is extreme cold. Our cold snaps usually run on this schedule: Sunday, cold perhaps 25 ABOVE, Monday colder, 15 to 20 ABOVE, Tuesday very cold, maybe 10 ABOVE, Wednesday temperature about the same, overcast, may start snowing a little, Thursday, not quite so cold, still snowing a bit, possibly three or four inches by now. Friday morning you wake up to a "drip drip drip" and you find that during the night it has risen to 33 or 34 ABOVE, it is raining, and the snow has all turned to soup, (Not one of Heinz 57 varieties, either) and by the end of the week the weather is all back to normal again, - like it was when you were here. The foregoing is just an example of one of our cut and dried "cold snaps."

I must clear myself now of an impression that I seem to have given you about Eleanor's Latin!!!! AHEM. She has COMPLETED HER THREE YEARS AND WAS RECOMMENDED AND DIDN'T QUIT! That's that. Now I can breathe easily again. In other words, she has learnt all the Latin that was necessary in her course. I just had to tell you this in order to get back in her good favor again, - that is if I ever was.

Now, harrrrrrrumph! ORGANS, ah yes, - organs! First to clear up any misunderstanding re mine, I believe if you consult my last epistle you will find that I suggested wiring up the contacts to the switchboard, leaving enough cable to facilitate installing same in console. This wouldn't cost too much, would it? Needless to say it would be a far better job than I could do myself. I hope that you have ordered my stop tablets, that should pretty well complete the console.

I am quite busy just now working on organs, but not my own. I have just about finished a blower for Mr. Dix which he is going to put on a small organ that he is installing. This organ is about the same size as my own, that is the one that I now have in the dining room. I have also to make a small swell box for the same organ. Then (working for Mr. Dix) I had a repair job on a blower on a decrepit three-manual tracker (ugh!). The blower had been connected to the trunk by some rubberized cloth, which had now perished to such an extent that a gunny sack would just about have done as well. I replaced this with a section of heavy inner tubing off a truck.

Dix is now installing a small organ in Victoria West and I think he wants me to make a swell box for that, and also there is some work to do on the ornamental case.

I have made low C and C# on my pedals. They have passed inspection by both Mr. and Mrs. Dix who said they are, QUOTE, "Beautiful pipes" unquote. I have not made the stoppers for the ends yet, but when connected to the fan they sound as an open pipe, so I guess that they are alright. They are, of course considerably over 9 ft long overall, and I got my scale from Audsley's "Art of Organ Building" low C is 5 3/4 x 8, and halves on the sixteenth note. Eleanor calls them 'boxes.'

Yes, Mr. Dix told me that you had bought that organ up at Kelowna. Well you must have lots of spare parts now, anyway. I believe that I am getting some bellows from Kelowna. Chandos told me there were two sets up there, one 32" x 45" for, I think, $14.00. He is sending for them and this one should be just about right for me. It would save a lot of work.

Thanks a million for your pressing invite to your organ dedication. Sure, I would love to come, and I don't mean maybe, BUT, like you, when I think what I am going to need for the organ, pipes, magnets, leather, bellows, chests, etc. etc. etc. and I have to pay the balance on the keyboards and switchboards, - well?????? Also there is the little matter of time. One can hardly swish there and back over-night. HOWEVER, my wife has a cousin in Edmonton, and she says, "You can drop me off at Amy's and then go on and see Stuart," but I am afraid that won't be until after this blinking scrap is over. If I did a trip like that I would like to do it by car, but right now there is the trifling little matter of GAS. I sure would like to see you, not only you and the organ, but see a real big prairie farm, - do you call them 'farms'? Maybe I could come in harvest time and then I could pay my expenses by driving one of those mow-em-thrash-em-bale-em-contraptions, - what do you call 'em, combines?
I am afraid there wouldn't be much prairie left if ever I got on one of those things.

I guess that will be a great home-coming when your uncle arrives. He will sure have lots to tell. I bet his wife and family will be counting the days until his arrival.

Looking back over your letter I see that you have the fatted calf ready picked for when I come. Well, HANG ON TO HIM, he will be all the bigger when I DO come, and then we will have nice BIG juicy beef steaks instead of little dinky VEAL steaks!

That's about all this time. You understand about the wiring, do you? Have the contacts connected to the switch-boards, unless it would be a very expensive item, and also if your friend Cyril can spare the time.

I saw a 1/3 HP motor advertised in the paper today for $16.00 so I went and bought it. I may use it to run a small lathe or saw or someting, and anyway it will be good stock in hand for any future blower. I think it should have enough pip to blow the new organ. I can get a regular hurricane out of a 1/4 HP in the fan I have just finished for Dix. The one I now use to blow my present organ is 1/6 HP.

Well that's all this time. I shall be very glad to get another letter from you as prompt as your last one, - how about it?

Incidentally, at work we are making one or two thousand sash (I have not seen the order yet, so don't know exactly) for the Sterling Hardware Co. Saskatoon. Know em? Also, another funny thing, the manager of this outfit used to be boss of a place in Victoria where I worked once, several years ago. He had a row with the company, and it developed into a lawsuit, and then I never did hear the end of it. Now he turns up in Saskatoon.

With best regards, write soon,

Fred