........Comment by Bill Moore

...The forest around us

Hot tubs, blue movies and loggers

....I placed a very expensive long distance call to our dear editor of this prestigious periodical – The B.C. Lum-berman – and in a voice trembling with emotion asked, “Ed, what the hell is this about so-called Hot Tubs and Loggers?”
....If you are a faithful reader of this most broad minded of forest journals, you may recall the recent January issue wherein a group of people – male and female – were shown with smiling countenance, frolicking in a large wooden Hot Tub! But the real rub of the tub is the headline that caught my eye: “For The Logger Who Has Everything.”
....Now, if this were one of the glossy, non-forestry magazines that promotes “skin” – I would say, “Bully.” But in the staid old tradition of the B.C. Lumber-man? Can the Encyclopedia Britannica be far behind!?”
....Why, Ed? Why must our virginal loggers be shown in this light, and again name me a logger who “has everything.” For shame, sir, you must realize that this old staid journal is read in parts of the world other than West Vancouver and Yorkville. What will the Englanders say of us – to say nothing of the Finlanders. Have you considered the court cases, the humility of the countless aunties and uncles of loggers? And, most of all, the tiny tots?
These reliable pages have contained down through the last four to five de-cades that I can remember, the image of a logger as a man of towering strength, a veritable Ben Hur of the

 

....In your good pages he has been shown with bone dry hat askew, feet well spread apart – astride a goliath of iron. Jut-jawed, facing the world – a proud and serene man. Never once in all these decades of the Good Lumberman can I remember this archangel of the hemlocks being associated with the gentle Eve.
....No – I take that last statement back, Ed. On the cover of your magazine, circa November of 1972, you show two ladies atop a shipload of lumber. Actually it was back then that I grew

 
suspicious about the direction this fine male manual was taking. Now with the revelation of the “Hot Tub Caper” I am convinced that somewhere in your editorial staff lies a disguised Hugh Heffner, ready to tear down the immaculate image of our logger.
....I quote from your article, sir, of January wherein it states – “Most important of al…..the incomparable experience of feeling the childlike blissful comfort of worm water surrounding your body (bathing suit or not) while breathing fresh invigorating
Yellow Traktors, a giant of good taste and decorum.
 
WILL THE men of B.C.’s logging camps withstand the moral temptations that come with hot tubs? Bill Moore has serious doubts.
page 58  
British Columbia Lumberman, March, 1978

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air is unmatched. Many people say the Hot Tub experience is best on a crisp, star filled night, soothing vapor rising from the water, wine, close friends, quiet conversation” – unquote sir!
....Soothing vapor! Wine! Close friends! Indeed when did our typical jut-jawed logger need any of these, when for comfort he has his cribbage board and the good readings of an old Eaton’s catalogue? You would have him plied with demon rum and surround him with new found friends who would drag his soul into hell!
....I further quote – “A further part of the pleasures of the Hot Tub, it would appear, may well depend on who you are sharing it with. Not that there’s anything wrong with most of the guys who work in logging camps – but many might decide that togetherness can go only so far” – unquote.
....Now, Ed – from these last insidious lines I faintly detect that lovely Anita Bryant may wish to investigate some of our camps if she gets wind of your suggestive material, as is hidden in this last quote. For shame, sir!
....Can you not see the destruction of morale you may have caused in Saintly Sandspit or Holy Holberg – not to mention Happy Harwick Island. One can only visualize these fine forested areas with their true blue loggers – and see barge loads of Hot Tubs being unloaded to destroy the moral fibre of our fine lads.
....If this is the direction of your editorial staff, I would imagine that you are preparing a centerfold of some fine young muscled logger from one of the large companies such as the Potts Logging Co. I beg you sir to recon-sider this extreme journalism if we are to have our good tall men of the woods attend to their chosen careers – the gentle art of logging.
....It has also been drawn to my at-tention of late – via the Big City news-
 
papers – that so-called “Blue Movies” are to be – or have been – shown in some of our more remote camps that are unable to receive the exciting tv fare of the good grey CBC. If this be true – and such films as “Flying Danish Stewardesses” and “Deep Nose” are in truth being shown to our chaps in the Cedars – then I say to you, the world is coming to its rightful end. Why would our loggers want to see such evil fare when they could lay on their bunks and think of “Mother” and “spot” their dog, waiting for them back home in the little thatched family cottage. I feel certain the Red Coats
 
will be on to this caper and do their duty and prepare high priced raids on such camps as would show such film.
....You and your organization of writers, editorialists and foreign cor-respondents should remember the cold clear mandate you have been shoul-dered with – to uphold – in its finest glory – the upright logger of the forest around us. I trust we shall see no future signs of Heffnerism in your trusted journal.
....Rub-a-tub-tub! Indeed!
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.........................Keep out of the bight,
..........................................Bill Moore
British Columbia Lumberman, March, 1978  
page 59