My dad sent me to Mrs. Pritchard in South Slocan for music lessons. She drank in the beer parlour and likely told dad that I should be taking piano. After the first lesson she said that I should try elocution lessons. I didn't know what she meant so I kept going to the weekly lessons. My dad never mentioned anything about my going to the lessons so one day I decided I wouldn't go, and if my father mentioned me not being at Mrs. Pritchard's, I would tell him I forgot to go but I wouldn't miss the next one. He didn't say anything about me not going so I never went again. I used to go with Effie and Margaret when they went to their piano lessons, but just for the walk. Margaret started taking violin lessons. There's nothing much worse than having someone in the house learning to play the violin. There's nothing that sounds quite as beautiful as violin music.

She stopped dancing and pointed at him. "There's a bald-headed boy in the second row!" she shouted. The story was told on a friend of my brother Ken's who was able to get into the burlesque theatres at a young age because he'd turned bald while he was still in high school. Sometimes there were burlesque shows at the Beacon Theatre across the street from the Palace Hotel which is now Funky Winkerbean's. Whenever a star like Sally Rand. the famous dancer, or Stepin Fetchit, appeared at the Beacon, someone would add their name to the register that always sat on the front desk at the Palace. None of the famous people really stayed at the hotel.