Obituary of Allan Bert Carlson

Allan Bert Carlson 1923 – 2009 Allan Bert Carlson, better known as A.B. Carlson was born in Lesley Saskatchewan to Andy and Muriel Carlson. He was the fourth child of eight children. When he was thirteen years old the family moved to Aggize, British Columbia. He travelled over Canada working at threshing and odd jobs until he joined the army in December of 1942. He served his country in Europe and was discharged November 10, 1945. He moved to Rose Prairie, British Columbia after the war to work on his brother Clifford’s farm. It was there that while he was working on the threshing machine that he met the 15 year old girl, Madeline Lundquist, who was helping with the cooking. A year later they were married. They homesteaded a farm in Rose Prairie which was on land they received through the Veterans Act. Though Allan farmed in the summer and trapped in the winter, these were not the most prosperous times. The move from trapper and farmer was to Dawson Creek, British Columbia where Allan began working in construction and on to the pipelines. He chased the pipeline to the Okanagan and up the Alaska Highway before deciding on a permanent career in trucking back in Dawson Creek. Once realizing that he wanted to be a trucker he found that he liked being self employed. This often meant cycles of employment and unemployment, this however turned out to be Allan’s way. A byproduct of this independence was that he also had to learn to be his own mechanic. This of course was self taught and meant that doing things the hard was the norm. Oftentimes these breakdowns were an all day-all night affair filled with plenty of grumbling and cussing. One of the most memorable times his truck broke down on the Hudson’s Hope road and couldn’t be fixed before nightfall. Allan and his son Alden had to stay the night in an old trapper’s cabin which was on the bank of a creek. The walls of the cabin were filled with packrats which made noise in the cabin at night. The cabin was outfitted with a flashlight mounted to an old Winchester .22 rifle used specifically for blasting rats in the dark night. After blasting a couple shots in the night Allan hit one on the third try. The noise stopped and everyone fell asleep. In the morning there was a big rat laying in the cast iron frying pan for breakfast. The rat got thrown out, the pan rinsed and Allan made eggs for breakfast. Alden didn’t want to eat the eggs because the thought of the rat ruined his appetite but Allan forced him to eat them. Then Alden began to gag so Allen said that if Alden didn’t eat the eggs that he would make more of them! That didn’t help with the gagging but the eggs got eaten nonetheless. He also taught himself how to weld good enough so that his repair would not break however there was always an overly excessive amount of material used making it ridiculously heavy. All of these self taught lessons would prove valuable later on as he had grandsons that often had vehicle problems and off he would go to try and fix their problems. Again these break down repairs were completed with lots of grumbling, cussing and swearing but still Allan would be there the next time he was needed. From his younger years through till his later years his greatest entertainment seemed to come from going for drives all over the country, usually for several hours, just to stop somewhere for a hot dog roast. Most of the time these entertaining trips were done at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour, fast enough to make you lose you hot dog in a hurry. If you were to complain to Allan about the excessive speed, the pedal went further to the metal! Allan Bert Carlson passed away October 6, 2009 at 86 years of age. A Celebration of Life service was held on October 9, 2009 at the Bergeron Funeral Chapel, Dawson Creek, British Columbia. Allan was interred in the Brookside Cemetery, Dawson Creek, B.C. Funeral Services were entrusted to Bergeron Funeral Services & Crematorium Ltd, Dawson Creek, British Columbia.