by Roxi Harms
"Thank you, Adam," she said when he was done. "My father will feel better if you just talk to him. We just didn't know anything about it and his friend's reaction was a bit of a shock."
Jean's father was relieved after Adam talked to him, just as Jean guessed he would be, and offered Adam an apology. But when Adam left that night, he and Jean still hadn't addressed the question of a date. And he had no intention of waiting a year.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED TWELVE
A few more dates and long conversations, and the wedding date had been set for June, the weekend after Jean's birthday. In the weeks that followed, the gloomy wet blanket of Vancouver winter began lifting, allowing the light of spring to seep in. Hand in hand, Adam and Jean strolled the streets, and the seawall around Stanley Park, breathing in the sweetness of the blossom-laden trees that adorn Vancouver in springtime, and revelling in the promise of their future together.
A delay in the start date of the next construction project triggered an event that would steer the direction of that promise and set the course for decades to come. With a couple of weeks of down time coming up, Dave thought a pre-wedding vacation would be just the thing for Adam before he settled into married life. He said the Okanagan Valley was nice that time of year. Little did he know how the endless blue skies and the construction boom of the Okanagan would capture Adam's imagination.
With a road map spread open on the passenger seat of the new Volkswagen Beetle he'd purchased a month earlier, Adam set off. Each day he drove to another town, booked a room in a cheap motel, and strolled around, taking in the sights and enjoying the warm dry air that was so different from Vancouver. The night before he was due to head home, Adam pulled into a picturesque little town called Penticton, situated between two deep blue lakes. Before he'd even found a motel, he'd decided to stay more than one night.
When Adam left Penticton two days later, he'd introduced himself at several construction sites, a number of which needed bricklayers, and met a fellow who owned a block plant in a little town nearby. He said to get in touch if Adam was ever interested in living in the area.
At the top of the long hill just west of town, early on the third day, Adam pulled the Beetle over to have one more look before setting out for home. Gazing back over the little town, and the valley beyond, his mind whirled with possibilities.
On the morning of Adam and Jean's wedding day a few weeks later, George decorated Adam's Beetle with ribbons and bows, and drove out to Richmond to pick up the bride and her maid of honour. Adam's guest list was short, George and his girlfriend, Willy, and the Kalanovich family. But the little church was full enough. Jean's father was popular in the Swedish community, and of course there was Mr. Elder and the other men from Jean's office.
When Jean walked up the aisle on her father's arm, Adam couldn't take his eyes away. She was breathtaking. And she was finally going to be his wife. He was surprised at how short the ceremony was. Before he knew it, they were kissing in front of everyone and heading outside for pictures. Vancouver was beautiful in June, Adam thought as he looked around, and tonight there would be dancing. Dancing with his beautiful wife.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED THIRTEEN
"I'm going to be late for work again if that girl doesn't hurry up," Jean said impatiently. They'd been in their new apartment for a month. It was the cheapest one they'd seen, and it hadn't been Jean's first choice. The little cooktop didn't work properly and the bathroom, just outside their door, was shared with the girl across the hall and the couple that lived in the attic apartment.
Just then they heard the bathroom door open, and Jean rushed out before someone else got it. Adam had been getting up extra early to use the bathroom in privacy. Mornings were the worst.
"Remember that we're having dinner at Dad and Kay's tonight," Jean said as she returned. "George is coming too, isn't he?"
"I told him to come," replied Adam. George would enjoy something other than his own cooking. "Do you want me to pick you up after work?"
"Yes, please," said Jean as she pulled the curtain aside and looked out at the sky. "It doesn't look like the rain is going to let up. Are you going to be warm enough? Maybe you should wear your raincoat."
"I can't work in it. I'll be soaked by the end of the day like usual. See you tonight," he said as he kissed her goodbye.
That afternoon, George pulled into the Nordstroms' driveway a couple of minutes after Adam and Jean arrived. Jean's father and Kay weren't there, but there was a note to make themselves comfortable. They wouldn't be long.
"Do you want a beer, George?" said Adam. He'd already helped himself from the fridge.
"No. I want to talk to Jean," George sputtered as he came in and shut the front door behind himself.
"What's wrong?" asked Adam.
George turned and glared at Jean, where she was sitting on the sofa. "What business do you have telling my girlfriend that I'm seeing someone else at the same time?" he barked in German. Jean shrank back at his raised voice and looked at Adam for help.
When Adam had translated, she looked indignant. "Well, she asked me. And you are seeing someone else. What did you expect me to do, lie?"
"It's none of your business to tell my girlfriend what I am doing!"
"He says it's none of your business to tell his girlfriend what he is doing. Did you really do this?" Adam asked her.
"Of course I did, Adam. As I already said, she asked. And I do not lie." She enunciated each word.
"Well, nobody is saying anybody should lie, but what George does with his private life is not yours to interfere with."
Jean stood up, her eyes flashing. "I was not interfering. I simply answered a question truthfully. And I will not lie. Ever. And I expect the same from my husband." She walked to the door and began putting on her shoes.
"Where are you going?" demanded Adam.
"I am going home. I do not want to be in the same house as you right now. I am disappointed, Adam. If you aren't truthful, then what do we have?" She opened the door, and then stopped and turned back. "And another thing. I am your wife. And your wife comes first, always." She slammed the door behind her.
Adam and George didn't speak for a few minutes.
"You'd better go home, George," Adam said finally.
He sat for a while longer after George left. His mom would never have spoken to his dad like that. But Jean's strength was part of what made her so beautiful. And he sure wasn't planning on treating his wife like his dad did. He got up and headed out the door. He needed to find Jean and apologize.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FOURTEEN
It never really rained hard enough in Vancouver to empty out the clouds. Just a constant, slow drizzle. Penticton popped into Adam's mind often. And it wasn't just the weather. Kay was stopping by and telephoning often. Too often. She seemed to enjoy stirring up trouble with her opinions and advice. What did she know about their finances and their goals?
"Jean, honey. I have an idea," Adam said after supper one evening, as he stood behind her at the kitchen sink, arms around her waist as he nuzzled her neck. "Let's move to Penticton where the sky is blue."
"Don't be silly, Adam," she said, immersing a pot into the dishwater. "What about our jobs?"
"We'll quit. The stadium is done, and Dave can find a new superintendent for the job we just started." Adam had been supervising the construction of Empire Stadium, the brand-new venue for the upcoming Commonwealth Games. It had been a high-profile job, and he wouldn't have wanted to leave Dave in a lurch. But he was out of patience. "I want to see green fields once in a while and hear the birds and be dry when I work."
"We can't just quit our jobs."
"We'll get new jobs. When I was in Penticton before the wedding, I stopped at some construction sites. Lots of bricklayers needed. And I met a guy who owns a block plant who said to call him if we ever want to live around there."
"But we'll be so far from family. My father will worry. I'm his only daughter, remember? He'll worry that we'll starve
living in such a small town."
"I couldn't get much farther from my family than I already am. But we can drive here any time to visit your father and George. They can come visit us too. And we won't starve. Other people are making a living there. We can too."
"Okay," Jean said hesitantly. "If you think it's the right thing to do."
As Mr. Elder had predicted, Adam and Jean were a good match. Although they'd known each other only eight months at that point, the pillars of their partnership had been established. If Adam's fearless nature scared Jean a bit at first, her trust in his instincts already outweighed her fear. For his part, Adam's appreciation of Jean's strength and independence, as different as they were from the female culture he'd grown up with, continued to grow. Few men could be so fortunate.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FIFTEEN
With his ratty suitcase and a couple of boxes loaded into the work truck he'd traded his Beetle in for, Adam hit the road. He was disappointed that Jean wasn't with him, but she had decided to stay for a month to train a replacement and ensure Mr. Elder was in good hands.
Penticton was continuing to enjoy the so-called "golden years" of post-war expansion and within a couple of days, Adam had several jobs lined up building brick fireplaces in new houses. Next, he rented a little two-bedroom house he thought Jean would like, then organized a meeting with the owner of the block plant.
The plant sold its relatively small production mainly to landscapers and plumbers. Talking to the supervisors at the building sites around town, he learned that the concrete blocks and bricks used in buildings were typically brought in by rail from Vancouver. To Adam, the opportunity was obvious. If the builders used blocks produced locally, there would be no shipping costs and they would save money. The growth potential for the block plant was significant. Excited by the opportunity he'd discovered, Adam made a proposal to the owners of the block plant. He was willing to invest his entire savings of three thousand dollars and manage the plant in exchange for one-third ownership. Without blinking, the two owners agreed.
When Jean arrived, Adam was splitting his time between the masonry contracting company he'd set up for the bricklaying work, and getting the block plant into shape.
Initially he'd overheard a few comments about not giving work to ‘the German,' but word had spread that his fireplaces didn't smoke like the ones built by the other bricklayers in town. And as the builders in town got to know him, it grew beyond fireplaces, and for the first time in his life, Adam had more work than he could handle. Soon a hard-working German bricklayer from the crew in Vancouver named Andy Arnold was settled in the spare room of Adam and Jean's little house, and Adam's masonry contracting company had doubled its capacity.
The block plant was another story. The crew was competent and the plant seemed to operate all right. But Adam couldn't convince a single contractor to buy his blocks, even with the lower prices. Slowly, as Adam did the digging that he should have done before investing in the block plant, the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. For building construction, blocks needed a special certification. His blocks didn't have that certification because they didn't pass the "press test." Without it, no architect would recommend his blocks or sign off on a plan that listed them.
The salesman from the block plant equipment manufacturer confirmed Adam's suspicions. The plant would need all new equipment in order to produce certifiable products.
Carefully, he put a business case together and presented it to his partners. But no matter how compelling the numbers were, both owners were focused on retirement and investing in new equipment held no appeal. Adam drove home from the meeting fuming.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SIXTEEN
Christmas 1954
"So I telephoned the salesman from the equipment manufacturer and asked him to come back up here and meet with me," said Adam. It was a few days before Christmas. Willy and Mary, newly married, had driven up from Vancouver for a visit. The men were enjoying a drink in the living room, while Jean and Mary fixed supper. "He came over for supper and we made a plan. The bigwigs at his company have agreed to finance me to buy the equipment that I need to produce certifiable blocks. Then I went to this bank called the Industrial Development Bank. They lend money to start-up businesses that they think have good potential. I told them my story and they agreed to finance the construction of a plant," Adam laughed. "Can you believe it?"
"Wow, so you're a big businessman in Canada now," said Willy.
"Not yet," Adam replied, refilling Willy's beer glass. "I still need land to put the equipment on. And I don't know how I'm going to afford that. Land is pretty expensive around here. But I talked to a guy named Sid Canyon who owns one of the big general contractors in town. He says that the city council is releasing some land for industrial use and selling it cheap. Just the cost of putting in the water and electricity and paving the road, which is peanuts compared to what it would cost on the open market. So I'm going to look into that when everything opens up again after the holidays."
"That sounds exciting, Adam," said Mary from the doorway where she'd been listening. She waddled back into the living room and sat down slowly. "Sorry, it seems like I'm bigger every day. Feels like I'm having triplets. Jean says to tell you supper is almost ready. And she told me the exciting news about this house too. Wow!"
Adam grinned. "The landlord agreed to half up front and the rest at five hundred dollars a year for the next four years. So with a couple of good months to end the year, and the room and board money from Andy, we were just able to do it. It makes a lot more sense than paying rent every month. The. . . "
BOOM! Suddenly the house shook with the force of an explosion.
"Jean!" Adam leapt up and ran for the kitchen.
Jean was standing in the middle of the kitchen with a terrified look on her face.
"Are you okay, honey?" Adam asked, grabbing her by the shoulders and looking down into her face.
"What happened?" said Willy from the doorway behind Adam.
"I don't know," said Jean, looking towards the stove. The stove top was lying on the floor beside an upended cooking pot. Food had splattered in all directions and was dripping down the wall. "The stove just exploded."
"Goddam oil stove," said Adam, his arm around Jean's shoulder. "How that thing works has been a mystery since we moved in here."
Mary had waddled back in from the living room and stuck her head in around Willy. "Look up," she said.
Jean was the first to start laughing as the four of them gazed up at the long black strands of tar dripping from the ceiling.
"Guess you can't call the landlord to come take care of this, hey?" said Willy.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEEN
1955
After Christmas, Sid Canyon offered to have his secretary write a letter for Adam to send to city council applying to purchase three acres of the newly released property. When it was ready, she read it out to Adam. It said that he, Adam Baumann, was going to build a block plant to supply the construction market in the Okanagan Valley, employing approximately seven men at first and increasing to about fifteen. Him. Adam Baumann.
The response from city council arrived a couple of weeks later. There were only three lots on offer, and Adam's application letter had the latest date stamp of the four they had received. Unfortunately, there was not enough land available to offer him any.
This was a serious problem. Without land to build on, he'd lose the financing he'd been approved for.
"I figured that would happen," Sid said when Adam showed him the letter. "I told you I was applying for one of the lots, and a lawyer by the name of Christianson applied for one. The third applicant is the owner of the drive-in theatre at the end of the street. He just wants that strip at the end to expand the space for cars to watch his movies. Christianson doesn't need the land. It's just too good a deal to not get in on. And like I already said, I got so many construction jobs on the go that a local block plant would be worth more to me than that land.
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"Here's what I think you should do. Request to meet with the council and tell them that you plan to build your block plant right away, and therefore you will create employment immediately, and that if you are not allowed to buy one of the lots, you're going to make it publicly known that you have been refused land even though you are the only applicant that is planning to develop the property and create jobs."
Adam was hesitant. He'd been making good progress meeting the business people in town and showing them he was good to work with. Getting offside with the city council seemed risky. But he was pretty sure he could trust Sid, and he needed that land.
On the appointed day, Adam parked outside of City Hall and walked nervously into the building. The council had invited all four applicants to the meeting. Adam had only just sat down in the waiting area and said hello to Sid when they were summoned into the council chambers. Adam could see his letter lying in the middle of the boardroom table with three other letters. Nervously, he cleared his throat and explained his plans for the property, and his grounds for why his application should be granted.
"Mr. Baumann," the mayor said when Adam finished speaking, "next time we open up some land for development, we will ensure that you are notified and given first choice, but I'm afraid your application was the last one submitted and this offer was on a first come, first served basis."
Adam swallowed hard. He was new in town. He was the youngest in the room. And he was German. But he needed this land.
"Mayor," he said as clearly as he could. He'd been working hard on pronunciation. He cleared his throat. "Mayor, sir, I think that one or more of the other applicants has no plans to develop the land. However, I will be building my block plant and creating jobs immediately. As I said, my equipment is already purchased. I think that if I am not granted one of these lots, then it will be a shame for the town of Penticton that the land will sit empty, and the people of the town should know about this." Adam held the mayor's gaze while he delivered the speech he had practiced.