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Anchor Jensen
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Conversations
with Anchor
We have these little talks
over breakfast at Voula's or lunch at the Stoneway Cafe
or just sitting on the dock at the yard, He talks I
listen....Dick Carroll
George & Anchor "Disaster on Broad
Street"
Tony Jensen decided that
he needed a new wood steaming box and he heard that you
could buy sections of wooden water pipes, wrapped in
metal wire that the city had a surplus off. So he tells
his sons George and Anchor to take the Plymouth Station
Wagon (Plymouths First metal model) and go downtown to
the waterfront and pick up a couple of twenty foot
sections of pipe. So off they go, happy as ever just
doing another chore. They get down to the city waterfront
and get the twenty foot sections loaded into the station
wagon with the extra ten feet sticking up in the air and
way out the end of the wagon.
So George or Anchor whoever was driving the thing decide
they are going to go up Broad street. And when I say up
that’s what I mean! Broad is one of those Seattle
roads that feels like it goes straight up , so these two
head up Broad , happy as two clams , when all of a sudden
the front end of the Station Wagon starts to lift up in
the air and the pipes start to slide out the back. Holy
god what the heck is this, they yell, probably while
laughing their behinds off, and attempt to take evasive
maneuvers to stop a total disaster.
So George says to Anchor "one of us is gonna have to
stand on the front bumper to try and balance this wagon
and one of us is gonna have to drive like mad to get up
this hill. Oh yeah each of them weigh about 140 pounds
and that didn’t seem like it was going to get the
job done. I don't know who got what job, but I figure
since George was older he probably had Anchor standing up
there on the bumper while they made a mad eratic dash up
the hill. But sure enough they made it over and probably
continued to laugh all the home. More in relief , because
in the Jensen household if you break it, you either fix
it or you pay for it family or not no slackers allowed.
This is a design done by
Anchor's older brother George,. George started designing
this around
1936 and it was highlighted on the front cover of the
1938 issue of Pacific Boat magazine.
Conversations with Anchor #2
Dr. John Butler and A Broken Back at Maple Cove BC
Dr. John Butler was Anchor’s grandfather on his mothers side. Everyone in Seattle knew him as your friendly generous Dr. John, MD. If you or maybe your pet had a problem Dr. John came over to help. One of the worse incidents he had to deal with was when one of the lumbermen at Maple Cove in BC above Victoria broke his back.
As Anchor tells it: Anchor was in his teens and working in the woods with the lumber crew, some of the best men toppers and cutters around. They could drop a tree anywhere you wanted it, Unfortunately this time one of the East Indian (India) log handlers wasn’t paying attention and the damn tree fell on him. So while the lumbermen were cutting away the tree to extricate him, they sent Anchor on foot to stop the train that ran down to Victoria.
Anchor successfully stopped the train and came up with an idea to soften this poor guys ride to Victoria. He suggested that they pile a bunch of fir boughs to make a sort of shock absorber and then lay the stretcher on top of that , situated between two rows of seats.
The train headed out to Victoria and when it came to Cliffside one of its normal stops, it just blew its whistle and flicked its lights and went right on through town without stopping, They were afraid the stopping and starting would jostle the guy to death and it would have.
When they got to Victoria and the ambulance came to the station, the ambulance people asked who had thought of the idea of putting the fir bed in there , and all the people pointed at Anchor, and they said that was a great idea probably saved the mans life . So the ambulance staff picked up the fir limbs and the stretcher and place it in the truck and off they went to the hospital.
When they got to the hospital the doctors wanted to know what happen and Anchor explained the situation and asked they told AJ to hang around in case anyone had questions. Well sure enough here come the Mounties and they want to know what happen. So Anchor tells them the story again. Meantime the Doctors had taken x-rays and brought them out to show AJ and the Mounted police. They show the damaged area and said that Anchor and the crew had done extremely well and the man was very fortunate to be alive.
The Mounties brought the mans wife down to Victoria, and she met with Anchor and offered him a small gold pin in the shape of a sword and some money to pay for their trouble. But Anchor said no way, you need that and we all want you to keep it, then she says to give it to doctor John, and Anchor told her there is no way he would ever want her to do that, He is happy to be able to help her husband recover!
I have a lot of these anecdotes and will be adding them as time and Anchor allow.