The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Earl Lister was born in Dauphin in April of 1924 to Anne and Jim Lister. Earl was raised in Dauphin along with a brother and two sisters. Earl's father, Jim, was an engineer on the train working for both CNR and Hudson's Bay Railroad. He was away from home a lot. He brought the steam engine passenger train into Flin Flon and was also the engineer on the first rail liner to come into Flin Flon as well as being the engineer on the last rail liner to come into Flin Flon. When passenger service was curtailed into Flin FLon, Jim Lister took a job as the train's engineer bringing ore from Chisel Lake (Snow Lake) to Flin Flon till he retired in 1964. He was an engineer for 51 years. Earl joined up for service in August 1942 after finishing school. He went into the Navy and was on the "Derry Run" for about a year. Once the Germans surrendered, Earl went to the west coast and fought against the Japanese and then later looked after the ammunition dumping. He was officially discharged in November of 1945. During the war, Earl's parents and siblings had moved to The Pas, so Earl joined them there. Earl trapped during the spring in The Pas and then his brother-in-law, Lawrence Dion, asked Earl to "cover" for him while he took some time off, working as an electrician. See 'Arrived' P.# Con't from P.# While doing this job Earl met Orville Thompson from Thompson Electric who had come down from Flin Flon to do some refrigeration work at a place where Earl was doing the electrical part of the job. Orville asked Earl to come to Flin Flon to work. In 1948 Earl came to Flin Flon and worked with Lew Parres, about January of '48 till the middle of April when the ice went out, at a diamond drilling camp. Then he joined Orville Thompson in his business which had had a name change to the Electric Shop. Earl worked for Orville for 41 years. The original office was in the Old Industrial area opposite Sorenson Construction (later to become Mote's Custom Cabinet). Then Orville started up the laundromat on North Lane and when that business closed, the Electric Shop was moved over there into the same building. Earl recalls that when he came to Flin Flon in 1948, the Main Street was paved. He remembers the first major fire that he saw on Main Street was at the Corona Hotel. The hotel was situated down from The Blue and White (where the Saan Store parking lot is now, then there was Northern Groceries, then the P&G Bakery and then the Corona Hotel.) Earl also recalls the Richmond Hotel fire where the Centennial Library is now. Earl met Carrie Humbert in 1951. Carrie had a daughter Roberta from a previous marriage. Earl and Carrie were married in 1955 and they had a son Jim. When Earl first came to Flin Flon the population in 1948 was about 5,000 to 6,000 people. He remembers that there was far more shopping back then, compared to when Flin Flon grew to 16,000 and officially became a city. Carrie and Earl recall places like the Shamrock Meat Market that was owned by the Donaldson's. As well, they talked about a place called the Box Lunch that was near the Shamrock Meat Market. The Box Lunch was later bought and moved to the location where the Post Office used to be and where the Fire Department is now, and it was called the Depot Lunch and was owned and operated by Jack and Mary Reid. "Boy, could they cook!" says Earl. Carrie recalls there being a ladies' fashion store called the Sharon Gaye that was in the vicinity of where the Saan Store is now. During the years of the Electric Shop, Earl said that they put through 23 electrical apprentices. Some of the local guys that went through who he remembers are: Ken Highmoor, Don and Ray Larrivee, Grant Young and Nell Campbell. Earl recalls doing wiring for the hospital when the new addition was put on after the Catholic Church was torn down. He wired the Royal Hotel's new addition after the fire. Earl said in the early years he was on the road a lot. "I used to keep my suitcase packed," he laughingly says. "I'd take out my dirty clothes and replace them with clean ones and be ready to go." In 1956 he got the electrical contract job in The Pas (for two years) wiring the Guy Indian Residential School. "I also wired the shaft at the Moak Lake mine, which was the start of Thompson," he said. "We also wired power into four Indian Reserves for their schools and hospitals. They were Split Lake, Cross Lake, Nelson House and Rossville." One of the trips Earl recalls was going to Rankin Inlet. He said it was a seven day trip for a four hour job. The freezer in their fish plant broke down. He had to travel by train and plane to get there and back. Earl retired from the Electric Shop in 1989 and just worked for himself for about a year and a half. Carrie retired from the Cash and Save about the same time. Originally Carrie did a lot of volunteering at the hospital, till the fourth floor was closed down and made into offices. Earl spends his spare time in the winter ice fishing. He has himself "a cozy little ice shack" where he spends many hours fishing and watching TV! Carrie does a lot of knitting. They both belong to the Royal Canadian Legion. Earl has 51 years of service in and Carrie has about 45 years with the auxiliary. Earl is a member of the IOOB and they can be seen as a couple still cutting a mean rug! Thanks so much for sharing your story with us!
