Big business, small people

Lars Widget stood tall as he surveyed his kingdom from the summit of Hedy Hill.
Colourful autumn leaves in the north, sparkling from the residue of.a light sprinkle of . -
rain. In the midst of all that colour a thin column of smoke rose, distorted by aslight | -

- southerly breeze. — Se, —- . ere
, At the source of that smoke he knew Gretchen was working her kitchen magic... |”
on bread; cakes and pies. And as always she would see that his workers, who lived in oe

the nearby bunkhouse, got their fair share. ' ra
His workers. ‘They were a good lot, hand-picked by Lars himself. A good. .
<S* example for his eldest son. William Arthur, better known as Billy, was 17 now and
he was working and learning with the crew, a crew that, for the most, understood,
the forest and nature nearly'as well as Lars. So
Billy was a good boy. Showed a lot of promise... Unlike his younger broth-
er, James Henry, who turned 15 last March. James was a trial. A rebel of sorts,
still in school but not liking it. A boy with no direction, no real commitment.
, Lars and Gretchen worried about his future and “lectured”. James’. _
scoffed at their efforts to “control his life” and made no effort to hide his contempt.
“What cari a father do,” Lars mumbled. The sound of his own voice bring-
ing him back to the present. : So -_

 ° "Tt was Wednesday, September 17, 1948. Lars had turned 40 the previous

week and had been in a reflective mood ever since. It was for that reason he
had left his workers during the mid-day break and walked to the top of
Hedy Hill. : Be ot Ck
Lars was very proud of his eldest boy, very worried about his ~
youngest. Widget’s Woods, as his forest had become known, was more |
than his life’s work. It was a legacy for generations to come. It
was the future of his sons... And of their sons. _
But there were a number of things outside his
kingdom he couldn't contrel that were causing a great
deal of worry, too. A lot had changed ‘in the past
- decade. Changes that had made his design for Wid-—
get’s Woods more complex. —— OO
In Lars’ opinion, many of the changes that
had taken place were not for the better. And also
in Lars’ opinion, things were going to get much
worse.

Ral

Early settlers had placed little value on —
timber in the area. They believed our placein
the world of commerce and trade would be |
found in agriculture. So instead of logging, _
they cleared fields and burned unwanted .. -
trees. Less than a decade later, though, |.
many of these “farmers” were making their
living in the bush and recognized the reality _
that logging was our forte.
Lars didn’t blame these early log
gers for the changes that had taken
place. In his words, “They were working in
a dream.” But 17 years earlier,he had ==
tried to warn them. | Pes