Our story by Bobby Floyd Fate 1

The first evening when returning home from the manager trainee job at Bell Canada was both good and bad. The good part: was a job and it paid well but the bad part was that I was doing the same type of work that I had been doing before going back to get my degree from college (unloading trucks, stacking material, and driving a fork lift). I worked about three month downstairs in this huge warehouse with all the noise of conveyer belts running all over the place, fork lift trucks, and other machinery doing every job that they had downstairs. Finally they put me upstairs with my suit/tie and now I was one of about eight inventory controllers. The bosses, as part of my training, were running me through the different inventory controller jobs.

I met a lot of good people there that became my friends, both English and French, but when I looked at the managers, 1^st, 2nd, or 3^rd levels, it was not looking good because most all had problems (ulcers, alcohol, or heart problems). I guess, what I’m saying: there was a lot of stress for the ones sitting behind a desk in a managerial position.

We (Jimmy Petts, another 2nd level manager & I) car pooled almost every day the 20 or so miles but stopped at a lounge on the way home very often and sometimes on Friday nights our wives would join us. One morning when we went to pick up the 2nd level manager, who was about 37, he had died of a heart attack early that morning.

Jimmy Petts and his wife Cristal, who had three beautiful young daughters, became our best friends the first year in Quebec.

Bell Canada had gotten part of a contract to install a new telephone systems in Saudi Arabia and Jimmy was offered and later took a year contract to go there ($50,000 a year clear- no taxes) and he asked if I was interested in going. As a 2^nd level manager he could bring his wife and his children’s private school in Europe would be paid for. If I took it, I would go as a first level manager but could not bring my wife, so I said no thank you.

Here is Jocelyne’s and my entertainment the first year there:

1. 
   buying furniture for our apartment,
   
2. 
   going to the cottage to be with family
   
3. 
   taking many trips to Saratoga Springs, NY to golf and playing the horses in the evening
   
4. 
   touring historic sites like Upper Canadian Village in Ontario
   
5. 
   Eating out at the great international restaurants in Montreal.
   
6. 
   Pawn shopping in old Montreal on Craig St and Notre Dame St.
   
7. 
   Spent a week-end at Quebec Ice (winter) Carnival in Quebec City, it’s like our Mardi gras. We had no room to stay in because everything was booked so we decided to take the train and spend the nights on the church pews like some others had done before. Everyone on the train was singing in French and having a great time and Jocelyne befriended a girl who invited us to stay at her friend’s apartment in Quebec City. There were about 15 others there in this single room apartment, sleeping on the floor. I slept in a clothes closet. A whole village, castles, etc. were made of Ice. Outside was the coldest that I had even been in ---minus 40 degrees not counting any breeze. No matter how many layers of clothes I put on, I was freezing. Everyone had their hollow walking canes with some sort of alcohol in them and we were no different because we had ours full of Scotch and as you walked in the crowds you would see all the canes pointing up in the air as everyone consumed their choice of alcohol and partying. Even though I could not converse with anyone at this time, we had a very cold but wonderful time.
   
8. 
   We took our first vacation together to the Grand Bahamas. The resort was owned by a Canadian company and they had including in the package price: flight there and back from Montreal, use of three 18 hole golf courses, all the booze you could drink, tennis, boat rides, two great (all you eat) meals a day, Olympic pool, billiard hall, ping pong room, nice large suites, maid service, parties and all of this for only $250.00 each for a 7 day stay.
   

A few things that I learned about the people and area around Montreal, Quebec, Canada our first year there:

1. 
   French Canadians are some of the friendless people that I’ve ever meet. They enjoy a good time. They truly appreciate it when you try to speak French.
   
2. 
   Most English people there are tight lipped and straight laced like in England but are good people.
   
3. 
   I never did see spring or fall but was told that you could smell it in the air.
   
4. 
   Baby, it is really cold outside in the winter time and it’s really a long season.
   
5. 
   Great snow removal: Never missed a day of work because of snow.
   
6. 
   Your automobile in the winter time must be plugged in to warm the oil or water or it will not start; I learned the hard way.
   
7. 
   Electricity is the cheapest anywhere.
   
8. 
   Some of the best restaurants anywhere.
   
9. 
   The cheapest (free), best, faster medical care that I’ve ever had.
   
10. 
    Very little welfare or unemployment.
    
11. 
    Construction workers are unionized and take their two week vacation the same time every year. You personally could work on your own home but dare not get anyone else like neighbors, relatives, or friends or you would pay a fine if they were not part of the construction union.
    
12. 
    No one drives slowly
    
13. 
    They love their summer time.
    
14. 
    They all enjoy their alcohol.
    
15. 
    Wine is a very common drink with dinner. We had it every night and bought it by the gallon.
    
16. 
    The primary language spoken in upper management in most large companies was English, all others French.
    
17. 
    I did learn some French curse words while in the warehouse at Bell Canada and my wife told me not to repeat them. Most anything associated with the Catholic Church like chalice or tabernacle are as bad as an American saying GD.
    
18. 
    Appliances and automobiles were more expensive there at this time, but many other items were cheaper.
    
19. 
    Wages were much, much better than in the States at this time.
    
20. 
    The Canadian dollar was about 85 percent of the US but today they are about the same.
    
21. 
    Sales tax as well as provincial & federal taxes were higher than in the States.
    
22. 
    
    

Someone told me about a non-profit organization in our small town that for quite a while had been looking for a General Director. Here was the deal: They had rented an empty furniture store, where we had bought our furniture, and had just started what we in the States would call a sheltered workshop for mentally handicapped adults. The manager was who helped start this was a French (from France) lady, Madame Cormier who spoke very little English, was not paid but volunteered with another English (from England) Lady Mrs. Norman who spoke very little French and at the time they were taking care of 8 to 10 trainees, as they called them. They had a board of directors whose President was Mr. Boucher, totally bilingual. They were looking for a full time bilingual person to set up run the whole thing. They had no French or English Canadians willing to take on this project because the pay was so bad at $125.00 a week which was provided by a small grant from the provincial government with no guarantee for more funds the next year. Call me stupid if you want but I wanted this job. To be totally in charge, use some of what I had learned in college, to work almost totally in the French language, to help the disadvantaged and to give back and not take. Madame Cormier and Mr. Boucher hired me on one condition that I learn to speak French by taking a three month full time classes that the Quebec Government offered every immigrant. The government also paid a $125 a week to take this eight hour a day class that was about 30 miles from where we were living.

Within three days after quitting my job at Bell Canada, I fell ill, had to have an emergency operation and stayed in the hospital for a week all of which made me postpone the start of the French classes. After recuperating for three weeks at home, I started my classes at La Prairie, Quebec. I drove to Longueil near Montreal and from there took special buses just for immigrants taking the French classes. There were over 100 people taking these emersion French classes.

The class was a lot of hard work but also fun. Our cute petite blond teacher about 35 was from France and after introducing herself in both broken English and French said: “I know most of you know some English but starting now no English or other language will be spoken here except for French.” And no one did. Our class was a melting pot of Nationalities. Some were: three Americans, one Greek, two Germans, one Portuguese, one from Spain, one Honduran, one from Mexico and another from El Salvador. No one was under 25 and the oldest maybe 40. It was made up of men and women and the small class of about 12 was perfect.

To understand my situation: my IQ is normal, I do not have an ear for sounds like music or languages, the worst subject in college for me was English, not as bad as it was but still had a strong southern accent at that time and had two quarters of French in College that I made C’s even with my wife’s help.

I was not the only one in class having a hard time, most were. The Germans were having the hardest time and the easiest were the Spanish speaking nations.

After two months, we students decided on our own on to meet at a bar after class. Great experience because we were able to talk to each other in broken/bad French, in fact the guy from Honduras invited us to his apartment in Montreal on the following Saturday for a home cooked traditional Honduras meal that he prepared. Many of us went and it was great.

After graduating from the class I went to work as Madame Cormier’s assistant for about a month. Before I could become the General Director, the board of directors required me to take nearly two months of classes at the National Institute of Mental Retardation at York University in Toronto. I stayed with one of Jocelyne’s uncle in his 10^th story downtown apartment in Toronto (I called downtown the concrete jungle, it was cold and windy)

After finishing the classes, I was “ le Directeur Général de L’ Atelier Richelieu” (translated means the general director of the Richelieu Workshop) in Beloeil, Quebec Canada.

I increased the clientele from 10 to about 25 in 6 months, hired Claude Langevin, a French Canadian, as an instructor to replace Madame Cormier who now only volunteered some times, also increased the number of part time volunteers and got us some paying contracts. We were still on a shoe string budget but everything was about to change!!!!