Luck led to romance, not what you would expect for a soldier on the Alaska Highway Project in 1942. But some men get way more luck than others.
Donald Hall had almost blown himself up applying a torch to a gas tank full of fumes. He survived. That should have told us all we needed to know about his luck. If it didn’t here’s this.
Zellma graduated from high school in a Rycroft, Alberta, came a few miles west to Dawson Creek in search of a job, became a waitress at the Wings Café. When Donald’s buddy Bill took her to a carnival, and Donald met her there. Sorry, Bill. Donald and Zelma fell in love on the spot.
Donald admits that love knocked his head a bit out of kilter. Sitting down one evening to eat a turkey dinner in the café, he got so wrapped in Zelma’s aura that he doused his turkey with catsup. Said a friend sitting nearby, “I’ve never seen anybody put catsup on turkey before.” A dumfounded Donald responded, “Neither have I.”
He drank coffee one morning at the same location. Needing to pay for it, he approached Zelma at the cash register. On the way he rolled up his dollar bill like a cigarette, put it between his lips, pulled out his zippo and lit it. “She looked at me like I was crazy, and for a few seconds after I got the fire out, I thought I was, too.
In late August Donald’s luck led to the ultimate triumph. He bought Zelma an engagement ring, proposed and she accepted. He got permission from headquarters in Whitehorse, and on October 19 they married in Rycroft.