Uncle Cornelius (Neil) S. Kehler was asked to go to Churchill MB, to build a service station that would have two 10,000 gallon underground gas tanks. In a place like Churchill, this is a tricky task since there is either rock or sand under the surface, and the timing of the excavation must be very accurate, coinciding with the outgoing tide. This was a task he wanted to tackle and get it over with. The tanks and a large backhoe were on site, with the added advantage of the 20 hour a day, continuous sunshine – all was set to go.
All went well, the excavation, outgoing tide and the task at hand. They installed the tanks, installed some of the piping and immediately backfilled them with sand and compacted it. Neil had made arrangements to pump water into the tanks immediately, so as to keep the tanks from floating up, when the tide would come in. Neil then picked one man Steve, to stay behind all night to keep an eye on the pump and hoses. With everything in place, Neil and his son Dennis went for supper and checked the job once more, before retiring to bed.
Early the next morning Neil hurried out of bed, into his clothes and set off to the job site. To his horror, he found that both tanks had popped out of the sand, and Steve was not to be found. He looked around and found a 16 foot 2×4, picked it up and set out to find Steve. Walking down Main Street, Neil was screaming at the top of his lungs, calling Steve strange names, and hollering “Steve, today you die!”.
Back at the hotel, son Dennis awoke from all the screaming on the street, looked out the window, closed the curtains and went back to bed, too embarrassed to face the day. Steve was never to be seen again, or at least not until Neil left Churchill.
Glen Kehler, a Berliner Kehler, resides in Winnipeg, Manitoba.