My earliest recollections are of living on a farm rented from Ray Knight by my Father and his brother, Uncle Pete. It was located near the old Knight Sugar Company building, north and east of the town of Raymond, Alberta.

I remember one time I climbed up in the wagon. There was a little hole in the endgate, and I stuck my finger in it and then found I could not get it out again. Finally, I cried myself to sleep. When it was discovered that I was missing, all the hired men and everybody went out looking for me. Finally, they looked in the wagon and found me asleep.

We lived in a duplex on the farm, and I remember visiting the home of Uncle Pete in the other side of the duplex and playing with my cousin LaVern, who was about my age.

There was a large water trough, kept filled with water, and therefore dangerous for children who could drown in it if they fell in. My sisters Ilene and Lenna and I had been warned never to play in it. One day Ilene wanted to make mud pies, and somehow she convinced me that I could take something to the trough and get the water she needed. My Mother saw me, and came out and dunked me thoroughly in the trough as a means of punishment. And I received further punishment in the form of a good spanking.

We had a large wooden barrel in which we put all the kitchen scraps to feed the pigs. We liked to pull ourselves up to the top and holler in it. One time Lenna tried this, but overbalanced and fell in. As she fell, she turned a complete somersault and came up head first. She managed to keep her head above the contents of the barrel until we could run and get Mother, who had a big job cleaning her up.

I remember Mother sending Ilene, Lenna, and I to the garden to get vegetables one time. On the way back we had to pass our Darby Game hen and her chicks. She rushed at us, but Ilene and I were able to run past and avoid her. Lenna could not run as fast, and the hen flew at her, knocking her back on the ground. She pecked at Lenna and scratched at her. The pecking on Lenna’s forehead left a scar she had the rest of her life. We called Mother, who came out to see Lenna covered with blood and the hen attacking her. Mother grabbed a hoe and would have killed the hen if could have caught up with it, but the hen knew when to run fast.

Dad got horses from Ray Knight to break for the use of them. However, he had hired men who were careless with the horses and some were lost, some had broken legs, etc. When Fall came, Uncle Pete left. Dad was left to make good for the horses, which took all his share of the crop and his own animals, with the exception of one cow. He was able to keep some farming machinery.

We then moved into Raymond, and Dad continued to work for Ray Knight. As Ray could only hire a certain number of men, and could not pay them much for the winter (he was having hard times too), people told Dad he was a sucker if he worked for Ray in the winter for low wages when in the summer he would get good wages. But Dad worked for him that winter, and Ray told him he could have a job any time he was hiring men after that. Dad hauled feed, etc. out to the sheep camps during the winter. He bought a horse and named her Pet. She proved to be balky, but Dad worked her out of it.

He got another horse, a sorrel colt, and had the job of breaking it. When taking the horses to water one morning, the colt got away and ran back to its former home and Dad had to go and get it again. It was a restless horse. When Dad had it partly broken, he drove it in a team with Pet. One day Clarence Allred, who had heard that Dad intended to drive this team to a homestead in Manyberries, told Dad that he would not be able to make it that far with such a young restless horse. Clarence told Dad that he had a good horse he would trade for the colt—the colt looked just like a horse he already owned and in time he would be able to sell them as a matched team. Thus Dad got "old Steve," and he was a good horse.

The following spring we went to the homestead, about 108 miles from Raymond. On the way out of town we stopped at Aunt Laura Nielsen’s, Dad’s sister, and picked out a completely black dog, no markings of any kind, which was named Nigger. He was a good dog, and had a good time chasing gophers all the way to the homestead.

I can remember part of the trip to the homestead. We started out with a loaded wagon, and attached the loaded buggy to it. We also attached the cow. When we children got tired of riding, Mother and Dad would let us get down and run for a while.

One night we stopped at an abandoned farm and camped in the house. The house, toilet and barn and other buildings were all under one roof, with runways to the barn, etc.

When we got to Pondervilla (pronounced ponderay) Coulee, they had to unhook the buggy, and leave it in the barn, while all of us walked up the hill, with mother carrying a stone to put under the wagon wheel when the team stopped for a rest.

On a previous trip, Dad had dug a well in a low place and intended building a house there. But when Mother saw it, she did not want to live in a hollow, but up on a little hill, so she could see something. The first night we pitched a tent to sleep in--we brought two tents with us. There was lots of grass, above our (the children’s ) knees. Mother dried enough grass to stuff ticks for us to sleep on, lacking mattresses.

We lived in the tents while Dad plowed enough land to plant about five acres of grain. Dad went back to Raymond for another load of our stuff, and brought back enough wire to fence the grain. Then, he and others made several trips to the Cypress hills to get logs. I think it was about 30 or 40 miles. We got enough logs to fence the grain and build a dugout to live in. However, the neighbors cows got into the grain field, and after that no fence would keep the out, so the crop was ruined. The dugout was built about three feet in the ground, and about 3 feet above the ground.

There was a seam of coal in the coulee, and Dad went to Lethbridge and filed on it. When Dad went down there to get a load of coal for us, he found an outfit with three sets of teams clearing off the soil on the hill to get down to the coal. They offered to let hem go in with them, but Dad said no, he would take his coal from under the bank. they laughed at him and said he would be there all winter. Dad told them he could load his wagon and one for them before they got down to the coal. The fellow said if he could do that he would give him $4.00 (a big day’s wages at that time) for the load of coal. So dad loaded both wagons that day. Dad had worked in the mines in Utah and knew about mining coal and how to go about it.

Then they talked him into opening a mine to supply the people with coal. Dad went to Lethbridge and got equipment and a permit from the Lands and Mines office. He dug coal during the winters after that, but it worried Mother because he was out there alone.

John Pacy had a wider seam of coal on his land, and he and Dad worked it together for a couple of years. Then a fellow opened up a coal mine in opposition to them, and he reported to the Lands and Mines office that Dad was digging coal without a miner’s license. They sent a mine inspector out, but the inspector closed the other fellow down and gave Dad a permit to continue mining coal. However, after that Dad had to pay the government 10› for ever ton he dug.

Dad had fixed a small tent in front of the dugout, with a slope toward the dugout door. There was only one room in the dugout, which had one window, two feet by two feet, so the dugout was dark inside. The roof was of clay and did not leak. It was about as hard as cement.

Soon after we moved into the dugout, we had a heavy rain, which resulted in about 18 inches of water on the dugout floor. We children were sleeping on the floor, and our parents moved us up onto their bed. It ended up that I had to try and sleep with Effie (the baby, about one year old) sitting on my head. Move her to any other place and she howled. My parents spent the rest of the night bailing water.

In the summer time people always visited their neighbors on Sundays. One Sunday, Brigham Pickett and his wife and three children, Clarence Pickett and his wife and two children, and Mr. and Mrs. Francis, all came to visit us. Toward evening it started to rain, and it continued raining very hard all night. Seventeen people stayed in the dugout all night. Mr. and Mrs. Brigham Pickett slept in the bed. The rest of us slept on the floor, with the exception of Effie, who slept on the sewing machine, and my parents who slept on the stairs. I said "slept" but no one slept except the very young children. The rest of us stayed awake talking and laughing all night. In the morning the rain cleared away and the company all went home. Hospitality in those days was just the best you had.

I started school at age six, in a one-room school. Miss Florence Inglesking, (later Mrs. Claus Narum) was the teacher, teaching grades one to eight. Later she boarded at our house for a couple of years. There were, however, several other teachers at the school before she stayed with us. The school year was held from spring through fall, as it was not possible for the students to get to school in winter--they came from long distances. One year there was not enough to hold school. During the years I went to school there never was a time that classes went the full school year. The teacher got sick or something else prevented the completion of the full year.

Another teacher I remember was Miss Fraser. Her ancestor was an explorer, and the Fraser river in B.C. was named for him. Another teacher was a younger sister to Florence, Laura Inglesking (not sure of the spelling). She taught one year and then in the middle of the next term she went home one Friday night and died of appendicitis on Sunday.

One year we had a male teacher, who advanced all the students a grade, and then did all their work for them! When it was time for a reading lesson, he would read a sentence and have the students repeat it after him!

It was hard to keep in touch with the church. Sometimes missionaries came to the district and we held meetings. Sometimes there were a few L.D.S families and a branch was organized. Then some people moved away and so no branch again. This happened several times.

A neighbor, Mrs. Williams, had a baby about the time Thorald was born. She was a Presbyterian and soon though of having her baby baptized (by sprinkling). This lead to a discussion between her, Mother, and Mrs. Flemming. Mrs. Williams was sure she could prove that sprinkling was right. She got her minister to come and preach on baptism. When he arrived and saw people had note books and pencils ready to take notes, he got flustered and made a poor showing. Dad, who was well read in the gospel, also spoke. This aroused much interest. Dad wrote to Raymond and asked for missionaries to come out from our church. When the date had been set, I rode all around the district inviting people to come to the meeting. There was a good crowd and they seemed interested, but many said "Oh well, what I have is all right too." The only converts resulting from all this was the Williams family, who stayed in the church all of their lives.

I started driving four head of horses on a plow when I was about eight years old. Sometimes when I had a headache and was too sick to go to school, I would stay home and work, which I liked better than going to school. When I was 10-11 years old, I was driving six head of horses on a gang plow. I did all of the harnessing of the horses and hitching too. I drove a team of four horses hitched to a harrow and walked behind the harrow all day.

An outing was always held on July 1st for the whole community. If the weather was bad on the 1st, it was held on the nearest suitable day. There were ball games, foot races, three legged races, tugs-o-war, pie eating contests, horse races and, of course, a picnic. Not much else was available in the summer for entertainment as people were very busy, but they visited each other on Sunday.

In the winter time, complete families piled into sleighs, with quilts and hot rocks, to go to the school house or hall for debating contests, concerts, readings, and so on. After that, of course, there was a dance. The dance lasted until daylight. All the children learned to dance. When they got tired, they slept on quilts on the floor. Basket lunches were sold to raise money for community projects.

The first Christmas I remember on the homestead, Dad worked at the sheep ranch and got some money. Then he and Mother sent to Eatons for Christmas presents. However, it was so late in the year by then that Eatons had sold out of all the order except a sewing basket that was Ilene’s present. My parents felt very unhappy that Christmas, but it did not bother us kids much, and we had a good dinner.

One Christmas we went to a Christmas party in the school house. There was no snow on the ground and it was a nice day, so we went in the buggy, taking quilts along. during the program a blizzard blew up, and it was a bad one. You could not see out at all. People put the horses on the side of the building out of the wind, and put quilts over them. We had programs as long as we could find people to take part. Finally, they wanted Dad to entertain, as he was quite a comedian. He did not want to, and mother tried to get him to refuse. But, the audience would not accept his refusal, and some of the men carried him up to the stage and he entertained them the rest of the night. There was much laughter.

The next summer Dad was driving from the homestead to Raymond and it started to rain, so he drove into a farm yard and asked if he could stay in out of the rain. The lady answered the door and he told her what he wanted. She said "Of course, Mr. Betts, you are always welcome at our home." Dad said, "Well, you seem to know me, but I don’t know you." She said, "Oh no, you wouldn’t know me, but I remember you from that Christmas party when you entertained us. My husband isn’t here right now, but you put your team in the barn and come in. He will soon be here."

People who had some capital and came out to the district to homestead did well, as they could hold out in poor years. They could get enough horses to put in a lot of crop. In good years, wheat could go 60 bushels to the acre. Crops had to be planted before the rainy season to grow. The good crop would carry them over four years. Those who had small outfits and got crops in late did not get a crop. Those who hit the bad years first soon left.

After many people moved away, Dad bought a house from John Hanson, which consisted of two rooms on the ground floor, a kitchen, and a dining-living room, and a room upstairs where the girls slept. My parents slept in the dining-living room, and I had a cot there. The dugout was then used as a blacksmith shop. When we first moved into the house it was such a change from the dugout that mother kept the blinds down all day to keep the light from hurting her eyes.

After we moved into the house, Dad built a cistern and we hauled water from the sheep ranch, where there was a flowing well. This was lovely, pure water--98 percent pure water and 2 percent minerals by analysis. It did have a flat taste until we got accustomed to it, much like distilled water. If they were watering their sheep, we had to keep back until they were finished, then get our water. We could also take our cattle to water there, but only when the sheep were not there, and we were not to let the cattle graze there. The well was 200-300 feet deep, and the water was always warm.

One day I took the team and water tank to the well. Thorald, then under 6, road Pet and drove the cattle to water. We started water running into the tank, and after watering the cattle I got on the horse with Thorald and we drove the cattle a mile to their pasture. The pasture was in the sand hills and there were lots of chokecherries. There were some people picking chokecherries in our pasture, and we decided we would go over and see who they were. We were loping along when old Pet stepped in a hole and fell. I blacked out to the extent that I could not see a thing, it was black as coal. I tried to find Thorald by talking to him and feeling around, and he talked back to me. By this time I was beginning to see, and we got back on the horse. She was a clumsy thing and fell a lot without breaking a leg. We went back and got the water tank, Thorald talking normally to me all the time. We had almost reached home when Thorald looked all around and asked when we got the tank, and how we got nearly home. When we got home, I took him in the house and Mother looked at us and wanted to know what happened. When I told her, she sent us both to bed and had the girls empty the water tank into the cistern and take care of the horses.

Later on when we left the farm, Dad let a family named Roberts have old Pet for the children to ride to school. Dad never did like Pet, called her a bone head, but she had good qualities too. If you fell off when riding her, she just stood there until you got back on. She did have very docile colts, no fire or life. But she was very good with children. She had a colt when she was 18-20 years old, and the Roberts children loved the colt and Pet. She had not had a colt for several years before this colt, and it was a surprise.

The flu came in the winter following the first world war. It was a terrible flu and killed lots of people. All three women in the Brigham Pickett family died, daughter, granddaughter, and Brigham’s wife. My mother was the first among us to come down with it. Mother was very seldom sick, but when she did get sick she was very sick indeed. She was followed by the girls, and then Thorald. We were milking 10-12 cows at the time, and before I got the flu, Dad and I took turns milking and looking after the sick.

Then I came down with the flu, and Dad had everything to do. He would go out and milk a couple of cows, come back to the house to take care of us, go out and milk another couple of cows. It took him all day to milk, water, and feed the cows while looking after us in between. He did this for about a week. Then, one Sunday, a young couple named Davis came to visit us. Dad met them in the yard and asked them to go and tell Mrs. Williams we needed some help.

After that Mrs. Williams and Mrs. Pacy took turns staying with use until we were better. Dad had mixed a batch of bread, but it did not raise. Mrs. Williams said, no wonder, it is too stiff, so she mixed it up again and it raised. We children soon recovered, but Mother was just a shadow of her former self, and was weak all the rest of the winter and through the next summer.

In the spring, we got "bummer" lambs (one of twins or motherless) to raise by hand. The summer after the flu, Brigham Pickett sent word he wanted to see Mother and Dad. When they got there, he wanted to sell the dish cupboard and all the dishes in it to Mother . Mother said she did not have the money and would not take it on credit. He told her if she would give him the four best lambs in the fall, she could have the cupboard and contents, and she agreed, although she told him it was worth more. He said he was going to let someone have it, and he wanted her to be the one who got it. Mother always loved pretty dishes, and collected all she could. He offered Dad all his blacksmith and carpenter tools for a steer calf in the fall.

In the fall of 1919, Grandfather Wixom passed away and Mother went to Magrath, Alberta to his funeral. While there, Mother came in contact with measles, but did not know it until later, after she was back home. Dad took her to the train station, about 12 miles from home. She had to change trains at Stirling to get to Magrath, and she came back again by the same route. Mother inherited her father’s gramophone and his shoe patcher, which were shipped to us.

After a short time, she came down with the measles and was very sick. She sent me to the mine to tell Dad to come home immediately. Dad insisted on getting out a load of coal first, and when he got home Mother was delirious with fever. Dad put hot water bottles around her with lots of covers, and by morning she was completely covered with measles and felt a little better. Dad’s sister, Eliza Richardson, lived about eight miles from us. Luckily she was there, as they usually went back to Raymond for the winters. Dad got her to look after mother and the rest of us as all of the children also came down with the measles. Dad had previously had measles so he did not get sick.

Dad gave Aunt Liza a cow for caring for us. They took the cow back to Raymond when they moved back there, and later sold her to "Snow" Mitchell, a very talented music teacher. He later went back to Salt Lake and held a music position in the church.

Mother lost a lot of weight and was weak a long time. We children soon got over the measles.

For awhile there was a shoemaker in Manyberries who spent his money as fast as he made it and did not pay his rent. When he left, the fellow he was renting from kept his hand tools, etc. and traded them to Dad. Dad got materials to repair our own shoes. Then, neighbors kept bringing shoes which Dad repaired for free. Mother told him if he was going to repair shoes anyway, he might as well move into Manyberries where he could charge for repairing shoes and get something out of it. We had to move anyway as there were not now enough children in the district to hold school at Catchem, were we had gone to school while on the homestead.

Dad bought a house about the same size as ours and moved it into Manyberries, and the next summer moved our home from the homestead into Manyberries and joined the two houses together, giving us enough room. Dad did all right in the shoe shop, where he also did harness work, for a couple of years. I helped in the shop after school and on Saturdays.

When I went to school in Manyberries, I should have been in grade 6, but they did not have any other pupils for that grade so they put me in grade 7. I could not do the work there, so they put me back in grade 5.

We had scouting one year in Manyberries. They had an outing in the Badlands, but I could not go as I had to work in the shop, and so I missed that and other outings. I learned the shoemaker trade the hard way.

After a couple of years in which the shop did fairly well, so many people moved away there was not enough work.

At harvest time, Dad and I went back to Raymond to work in the harvest. After harvest, Dad rented a house, and we went back to Manyberries and shipped all we had, farm machinery, cattle, and household goods back to Raymond. We rented the house in Manyberries to a fellow who was supposed to pay the taxes as rent, which he did not do, so it went back to the town.

During the winter in Raymond, Dad went to see Ray Knight and he put both of us to work. I attended school as much as I could, but my parents needed what I could earn, and I turned my wages over to them. The following spring, I worked the season for Grafton Hovey. The next year, Dad and I worked on the H.S. Allen farm. I attended the Raymond School of Agriculture in the winter but I did not go back the following winter because I would have had to give a speech and attend a banquet, and I was still much too shy for either. It took a long time to get over my inherent shyness.

My Dad raised sugar beets one year, but the harvest weather was very bad and it cost more to harvest them than they were worth. This was on land he rented from Ray Knight. Then Dad raised beets two years on Allen’s farm. He quit Allen’s that fall and worked at the sugar factory. He was laid off at the sugar factory, so he decided to open up a shoe repair shop and did harness works as well. When I was not working, I would help him in the shop. Lenna and Effie also helped him in the shop later on. He continued in the shop until after Mother died in 1943. Mother had been sick for about a year, suffering a great deal. She said she did not want to spoil our family’s Christmas, and lived until the 31st of December. It was a relief as she suffered so much.

Dad was called on a mission to Eastern Canada, and stayed 18 months. LaVeve had been staying with relatives, and was unhappy, so Dad was released. Altogether, I worked two years at Allen’s farm, two winters I fed sheep for them. Then I worked a summer again for Grafton Hovey. I helped my brother-in-law, Ileen’s husband George, build a small house on the folks’ lot at one time. Then I worked a year in Lethbridge at carpenter work. The next fall, I started working for Lewis Brandley, and worked quite a bit in the Mercantile Lumber yard, and also set up a lot of machinery for them. I ran the lumber yard Saturday afternoon while Bill Wiggle had a half day off. Thus I became a jack of all trades, and master of none. But I seemed able to do anything I set my hand to, in repairing, mechanics, etc.

I took my wages from the lumber yard out in lumber to fix up around home. I went downtown one Monday morning to get some lumber, but Bill Wiggle was not at the lumber yard. I waited until 10 a.m., but still he had not shown up. I went over to the office and got the keys so I could get my lumber. By the time I opened, there were so many customers I did not get away for lunch, nor until an hour after closing time. This was in the spring, and the busy season.

I found out later that Bill had come down with inflammatory rheumatism. I worked in the lumber yard for about a month before Bro. Allen came over and hired me! Another day he came over and told me how much they appreciated what I was doing, so I guess he knew I was there. He told me he would like me to carry on and asked me what wages I should have. I told him I thought it was worth more than farm wages, and he agreed. As nearly as I can remember, farm wages were $75.00 a month. This was about 1928-1930. I think I asked for $100.00 a month, and likely could have got more. He said he thought that $100.00 was all right.

The office was across the road from the lumber yard, in the store, and I did not have a telephone. So I had some trouble about charging, as I could not ask if a customer’s credit was good. I charged to a few people who did not have good credit, but all Bro. Allen said was, "Do not charge to them again." Bill had charge slips in his desk two and three months old, which had not been turned in at the office. People had asked him to hold them and they would come in and pay them. So the girl from the office came over and checked through everything, and after that the slips went to the office every night. Once I charged to two people and did not put their names on the bill. Heber Allen brought them over and asked me who got the material. I had to think a while, but did come up with the names. Then they gave me a list of people whose credit was no good, so I knew who to charge to and who to ask for cash.

I ran the lumber year all spring through the busy season, and through the summer. In the early fall, when things were slack, Bill came back, but he could hardly move around. I stayed another week and they told me they did not need me.

I went and did Lewis Brandley’s combining that fall. The fall of 1929 was the beginning of the big depression and only farmers who got their grain in early, in time to have a bin held for them, were able to sell some grain at a good price. By spring, wheat was 25› a bushel (it had been about $1.25 a bushel the previous spring). And, even at 25›, farmers could not sell any. Grain just was not moving and so there was no bin room. Lewis could not pay me my wages, so he got his good friend, C.R. Wing, Superintendent of Canadian Sugar Factories, to give me a job in the boiler room, which had the best pay--35› an hour. Most of the mill workers were only getting 22› an hour. I worked in the sugar factory every run from then until we moved to Rosemary, in 1945.

I met the girl who lived across the road the first winter we were back in Raymond. She turned out to be the girl I married on the 13th of January, 1932, in the Alberta Temple. Her father gave us a little house that he had bought in Raymond. We lived there until about 1936, and then moved to Doris’ Father’s farm as he was no longer able to take care of it.

The farm was large when her father got it, and worked it with horses. But it was small in the day we worked it and it was hard to make a living, even with working at the factory in the fall. We looked around, and in 1944 sold the farm to the Evans brothers, who had a quarter section West of us and a half section south of us. We bought a half section of irrigated farm in Rosemary that belonged to the Stahley family. The Stahley’s moved to Stony Plain, north of Edmonton.

While on the farm at Raymond, the children had to walk about half a mile to catch the bus to school. Denyse stayed with here Grandmother Hovey and went to school at first, but after Colin, who was born the first summer we were on the farm, was old enough to go to school they could go on the bus. They came home very muddy on warm days, when the snow was melting or when it rained. In very cold weather, they both stayed in town sometimes. Rod was about five when we went to Rosemary, and Bartly was three the following May. We move to Rosemary on the 17th March, 1945.

One summer on the Raymond farm I rebuilt the fence on the East side of the farm. I had Colin, who was about five years old, with me. I used a two ton truck to stretch the wire, and after I had stretched the last wire, I had the one wire to staple at the far end of the field. It was getting late so, in order to keep from walking back to get the truck, I started the truck up and put Colin in it and let him drive to the other end of the field while I stapled the wire. Thus he had his first driving lesson.

The next spring, I traded the truck for a Ford Ferguson tractor. One day, Dad wanted me to take a calf of his out of to the farm to pasture. After she was in the pasture on the farm, she got out and started back to town. I took Colin with me on the tractor and went after the calf. We caught up with her about three miles from the farm. She would not let Colin drive her, he was not fast enough to head her back. So I let Colin drive the tractor and I went after the heifer. He was pleased to drive but when we got home his mother did not think it was a good idea.

The boys liked matches. One time Colin and Rod made a fire under the bed on the farm in Raymond. Another time Bartly lit a fire in the toy box in Rosemary, and Doris did not notice it until she wondered where Bartly was going with dippers full of water.

One time in Raymond (town), Rod was on the shed roof and for some reason had an axe. He reached down and hit Colin on the head with it, cutting a gash in his head. Those two had some good fights, as they were about the same size for some time. I can’t remember how Rod got a cut on his cheek, which his mother carefully taped together so it would not leave a scar. It was healing well when he had a fight with Colin in the barn and opened up the cut again, and it healed with a scar.

I built the children a playhouse in Rosemary, using burlap against the side of the brooder house. One day, coming in from work, I noticed a curl of smoke coming up from the playhouse. I immediately went over and spanked Denyse, going on the idea that she was the oldest and therefore responsible. It turned out Colin had coaxed her to light the fire. Colin ran and hid in the trees and did not come when we called him for dinner. Actually, the fire was small and not dangerous, but we certainly did not want them playing with matches. Colin was always fast to run and hide and wait for me to cool down. Denyse sneaked a lunch out to him as he missed dinner. Looking back on it, I think Denyse often got punished because she was the oldest. However she did like to lead the boys into escapades.

Later on, when we were in Rosemary, the roads being as they were, and having considerable rain, the school busses could not get through, so I picked the kids up at school. One time I had Colin sitting on the front of the tractor going home. I was driving in the borrow pit because the road was too muddy to drive on. The grass was tall so I did not see a ditch. The front wheels dropped into the ditch and Colin was thrown off. He turned a somersault and landed on his feet. He took off at a run as fast as he could go, until I called to him after I stopped the tractor. He thought the tractor was coming after him and he was trying to keep from being run over. I drove the tractor through the ditch and on home.

Doris did not feel it was safe to leave the three boys home alone, so they were rarely left. One time when we did leave them, Rod was kneeling on the kitchen table watching us drive away, when Bartly gave him a shove from behind. Rod’s head went through the kitchen window. Fortunately he was not cut. Another time when the boys were throwing spear made from willow sticks with nails for points, Bartly was hit in the forehead and the spear stuck under the skin and hung down. The other boys pulled it out and took him into the shop where they gave him some aspirin. When they were left home along, they told us when they were grown up, they would take the 22 rifle and shoot at cars on the road half a mile away.

One time I took the three boys with me and was giving the two older boys lessons in shooting the 12-guage shotgun. Bartly insisted that he have a turn, and I finally let him have a try. Once was enough, because the recoil flattened him down onto the ground on his back. When the two older boys told us that they had taken the shotgun out while we were away, and one of them almost shot the other one with it, we were glad the raising of boys was over. That ended their desire to play with the shotgun. It must be, that if you do your best to look after your children, some other power takes over when you can’t be there. Sometimes you wonder how you had to courage to raise a family.

One time the boys were chasing Denyse, and she locked one of the doors to keep them out, but they managed to open it anyway, and the knife she had used to lock the door flipped out, hitting one of her front teeth. So thereafter you could see where the chip was missing. It was not at all a small chip. Denyse, being the eldest, was away from home by the time the boys told us some of the things they had done. I wonder what she would have told us had she been there.

Thelma Coombs, who was a war widow with three children, was always wanting her house in Rosemary moved, and would ask the ward members to do it. One time Ing and I were helping with it. When we raised the outside of the house, we discovered that the floor joist were joined in the middle and had to be jacked up. The joists were 2x10s, two feet apart and there were 4x4’s around the outside of the house. As I had helped my father move houses before and I was careful to note that if I stayed between the joists there was plenty of room for me, so I volunteered to go under and jack it up.

Everything was going fine, till the building decided to move, and naturally it rolled off the blocks. When it started moving, I was careful to position myself between the floor joists. It caused quite a commotion. Bishop Norton was eating an apple, and he had a good portion of it left when he started to holler "there is a man under there, there is a man under there." The crew was making so much noise I could not make them hear. When things quieted down, I was laughing at them. I told them I was all right. After we got it raised up and the skids under it, they started looking for Bishop Norton’s apple. No one was ever able to find it, and they accused him of swallowing it whole.

After we got the house moved to where we wanted it, they let it down with pries. There were three men on the pry, and when the word was given to let it down Ing was helping on the end of the pry, and did not hear them. The other two stepped back, and it threw Ing six to eight feet in the air. He turned a somersault and landed on his feet. He looked at Bishop Norton, and said, "You damned yahoo." I don’t know how to spell yahoo or what it means, as it is an Italian word Ing picked up over seas. That was the strongest language I ever heard Ing use. Bishop Norton and the rest had a good laugh. And Bishop Norton forever after called Ing Yahoo.

One time Sweetheart (a horse we had in Rosemary) fell with one of the children, and rolled right over him. Later on, when the children were older, we got a horse from Ing called Goldie, a nice horse, and one they could be proud to ride.

Doris had jaundice, as a result of a stomach flu, all through the winter before we moved, and when we moved to Rosemary on 17 March, 1945, some of the children had the stomach flu. Rod and Bartly joined the family before we moved. On the way we stopped in Bow City and were able to get some ginger ale, which helped the stomachs, especially Denyse’s. The weather was warm and the roads were muddy. And, it did seem a very, very long way we had to go. We got stuck in Countess, and had to get a fellow to help, and he brought a shovel and dug us out! We later got stuck again near George Loewen’s farm. By then we were near the farm, so I went and got our tractor. Max Heggie had brought our tractor and a load of furniture, etc. from Raymond to Rosemary for us earlier.

We arrived on Saturday night, about 11 o’clock, after all the stops we had to make. It was the only day we could get a trailer for the cattle, which we shipped by train, that would go right through in one day. We paid a kid to go with the cattle and milk the cows, but he did not do it. We had a job, late as it was, and as tired as we were, to get beds out of the load and set up so we could sleep. In the morning we had to hunt for food and clothes in the load. That was one Sunday we could not go to church. I had to meet the cattle at Countess, and when I got there, they had just unhooked the cattle car at the stockyards. The cattle were very hungry and very hard to drive. For some time after that, they kept getting out of the pasture and trying to go back home. One time they got as far as Countess, and a fellow there put them in his corral and milked them that night and the next morning. It was about 10 a.m. when I found them.

Up to this time, every time we took Bartly, the youngest, anywhere, he wanted to go home right away. The next morning when he awoke, he looked all around and said, to our surprise, "I like this place," and never wanted to go home.

We had warm weather in Raymond before we left, and Doris was able to dig the plants she wanted to take with her and plant them again in Rosemary. We had a snow storm about a week after we arrived, with about four inches of snow, but it was not a cold storm.

The machinery was also shipped by train, but did not get there for about a week. We surely moved a lot of stuff, and Doris said she never wanted to move again if we had to take that much. It took about six months to get the house fixed up and everything in place.

The children had to walk half a mile to catch the school bus here too. In very muddy weather, I sometimes had to take them to school with the tractor and the little trailer, or with a box on the back of the tractor, as the school bus could not get through. In very cold weather, we had to watch for sight of the bus, which went on the road past us to pick up other children. If our children left when we saw the bus, they could travel the half mile in time to catch the bus coming back, and not have to wait for it and freeze while waiting.

When we looked around in the farm buildings, we found a crate full of chickens which had been left. We told the neighbor, Mrs. Ankrum I believe it was, and she took them. She said she would look after them and then ship them, as that was what was intended. The people we bought the farm from, the Stahley’s, moved to Stony Plain, where there was no irrigation. Perhaps they were smart.

The first people to visit us in our new home in Rosemary were the Sillitos. One day, a team and wagon drove into the yard, and circled the house. It was Bro. Sillito (Red’s father) with some of his daughters.

That spring, I planted about ten acres of potatoes, and the rest into grain. The soil in Rosemary took so much more water than the soil in Raymond and I did not irrigate as much as I should have. The potatoes made a very good crop, but the grain was not too good.

That year there was a shortage of potatoes, and I sold $1000.00 of table potatoes that fall, and $1000.00 worth of small potatoes in the spring. Then, that was a lot of money.

The first year after we got all cleaned up and settled in the house on the farm, a terrible dust storm came from the South West, and blew dirt all over in the house, and into everything not sealed up. This was on a Saturday, and the next morning we all felt too dirty to go to church so we went to High River and visited Effie and Lovett. Doris said if she stayed home she would be tempted to clean up, and she did not want to work on Sunday. We left Colin in High River for a visit, and I went back to get him later.

Another time, Georgina and Paul Wollersheim came to visit us, and Doris’ mother went back with them for a visit. Later we went and got her.

In the fall of 1945, Thorald (Ing) and Lawrence came home from the army overseas and helped in the harvest. We fixed up what had been a brooder house and they stayed in it until Christmas. Bud (Harold Charles) was still in the Navy. We had some school teachers come out on Saturday to pick up potatoes, and Ing got his eye on one of them, and started dating her. at Christmas time, Thorald and Lawrence and Wanda Lybbert, the school teacher, went to visit Effie and Lovett in High River. And, while they were there, they talked them into getting married. She sent a wire back to the school that she was unavoidably detained for a day or so! Consequently, people decided they were getting married, and they decided to take them off the bus at Rosemary and give them a shivaree.

I had taken the children to school and had gone to the shoe shop Ken Williams had in the lumber building. As I stood there, I heard them talking about what they were going to do so I went to Bassano and took Ing and Wanda off the bus there. I drove them home to the farm. When the people met the bus in Rosemary, the bus driver told them that they had left the bus in Bassano, so they headed for the farm to find them, and me too. They thought I had pulled a mean trick.

When we got there, I hid the car out in the pasture East of the house. I milked the cows in the dark so they would not see a light. When I watered the cows, the pump squeaked like everything. I do not know why they did not think I was there. They did not see me until I got to the house with the milk. Then they found the car too.

Ing and Wanda hid in the root cellar, and the group looked in there with a flashlight, but did not see them. However, they did find their suitcases in the Brooder house, where they had put them. So then they knew that Ing and Wanda were home. I went over to the cellar and told them to come out. Donna Olsen said, "They are not there, we looked there," and was surprised when they walked out. So they all put Ing in one car and Wanda in another and took them off. We had thought that, seeing they were in the house, the would have a party there, and Doris had made sandwiches, etc. and used the last of our sugar ration to make punch. But off they went to have the shivaree, and we were left with the punch instead of sugar, and enough sandwiches to last a week! So all that trouble for nothing.

After harvest that fall, Ing purchased a farm in Gem. They stayed in the Brooder house until spring, then moved to Gem. Wanda taught until the term was over, and had Rod in grade 1. I bought some stuff I knew they needed at auction sales as I saw it, a kitchen stove, some harness, etc. They paid for it and got a government loan for they other things they needed and went farming. Lawrence left and was in Raymond and other places. Lawrence worked for me the next summer, and Bud, who had returned from the Navy worked for Ing. Lawrence returned for a share of the potato crop.

In the fall, I went to combine for Ing, and Bud came to help Lawrence harvest the rest of the potatoes, about half were dug. Lawrence did not get the potatoes up, and forgot to cover the cellar entrance. He and Bud went off, so the potato crop froze that year. Bud went to Calgary to work after that and married Emilie Wagner there.

When Dad came home, he came to Rosemary, after visiting in High River with Effie and LaVeve. After a visit, he went to Raymond, intending to open a shoe repair shop again but he found that there was no available building. He came back to Rosemary and opened there. For about a year, he was in a rented shop, then he bought a lot and had Hancock and Blackmore build on it for him.

The shop was in the front of the building, and there were living quarters in back. LaVeve lived with him in Rosemary, and eventually married a Rosemary boy, Noel Crapo, and they are still living in Rosemary in 1991.

Later, Bud moved to Rosemary and Dad built a room for the shop at the back of the building, and Bud had a Cafe in the front. Bud and Em had their first child that year, and when she attended school a year, I believe, Bud moved his Cafe to Brooks. Dad sold his shop equipment to Warren Jones, and went to Brooks with them.

One year we had heavy snow, and we had to travel through the fields, the road was impassable for about six weeks. We had a bad blizzard start while we were away. We got almost to the yard, but the snow had piled out from the trees and we got stuck. We left the car with all doors shut tight, but the next morning the car was packed full of snow. The wind was so hard that it found every crack around the doors and windows and forced the snow through.

While the car was stuck, the garage caught fire, because I had a fire under the tractor to try to get it going so I could pull the car out. it was very cold weather, about 30 degrees below zero. If the car had not been stuck, I could have pulled the tractor out before much damage was done to it. As it was, we lost bicycles and our canner and other things, as well as all the damage to the tractor. Later, I rebuilt the tractor. When all the snow melted, there was a flood in the town of Rosemary.

One year we had numerous blizzards. One Saturday, Jack Nielsen’s Caterpiller tractor worked all day Saturday and through the night into Sunday morning so we could all go to church. Another blizzard started while we were in church, so they closed the meeting, and we all went home. We just managed to get into the yard, which was a good thing, as Doris’ mother was with us, and could not have walked.

One year there was snow eight feet deep in places. Later, Lloyd Young plowed the roads out and we all chipped in to pay him for it. We had baby chicks arrive at the station in Rosemary, and only the tractor could get through. So, I had to go in on the tractor and take them home in the box. I protected them as much as I could, but we lost about one-third of them. Stewart Electric Hatcheries, where we sold the eggs, replaced the loss. That same year we had the worst flood in Rosemary. The drifts held the snow west of town, and when they melted and let go, the culverts under the railroad tracks could not handle the water. All the basements in most of the town filled up. The CPR (Canadian Pacific Railroad) paid for the damage.

There was a deep place in the irrigation canal below the check, which made a fine swimming pool for the children and they enjoyed it each summer. I bought a horse at an auction sale named Sweetheart. We had been wanting to get a pony for the children, and I thought she would do. She was a good horse most of the time, but every so often she would decide to ditch her riders. Then, I would have to ride her awhile, and show her that she could not ditch people whenever she wanted to. Then, she would be good again for awhile. One day Rod threw the old army saddle over her back and the iron stirrup flipped up and broke off one of his front teeth.

One year we lost two granaries, which we were using for brooder houses, and the brooders and turkey poults. One brooder had not been running like it should--it would get too hot. So, I looked at it, and changed it a bit, and though it would be all right. Doris did not trust it, and kept going out to check it until about 2 p.m. Then, she got so tired she lay on the bed "just for a minute" and went to sleep. When she awakened with a start, she could see the one granary on fire through the window. I had purchases a big Massey tractor that spring, but there was something they were going to do to it before I took it home. I was going to get it the next day. Had I got the tractor one day sooner, I could have pulled one granary away and it would not have burned. As it was, we lost both granaries and the contents. Stewart Hatcheries replaced the turkey poults at half price, and the good people of the church raised a little money for us.

Another time, Doris had gone to Mutual and I was alone at home except for Doris’ mother. A mouse had chewed the insulation off an electrical wire in the roof of the entrance, and a fire started. I phoned the church for help . I found that I could not control the fire and phoned back for the fire engine. After the fire engine came, Deloy Seely was on the bridge with the fire engine, and was swept off the bridge into the canal because someone had turned on a valve that was not suppose to be on. He hurt his leg, and as it did not get better, had to be in the hospital for some time. Too bad that Deloy had to pay for doing a good deed for us. Other people came out to help, and the fire was put out. They had to chop a hole in the roof to get at the fire. We had insurance which paid for repairing the entrance. The insurance company even furnished a powder to use in washing our clothes so they would not smell of smoke, and a spray to take the smoke odour out of the house.

One spring, I was hauling grain to the elevator, and took Rod with me. I had taken in two loads, and was going to take another, but before I got to the bin I could see a storm coming. I was about a mile from home, and I kept on going toward home as fast as I could. We were about a quarter mile from home when the storm hit. The hail was only about pea size, but a very heavy wind was driving the hail. I was on the tractor and Rod was in the wagon, and there was nothing we could do but keep on going. We were both covered with welts from the hail, and soaking wet and very cold. We gave Rod a good rubdown, a hot bath, and put him to bed. Later on, I got in bed too as I could not get warm anywhere else. In the morning we still had red bumps. If the hail had been the size of marbles, we would have been in bad shape. This was the only year I took out hail insurance, and the only year it hailed while I was on the farm. The insurance did not amount to much, however.

One night when Bartly was about 12, he woke us up to tell us he had a stomach ache. He made very little fuss, and we gave him a bit of weak soda water and he went back to sleep off an on. In the morning, he did not look too well. There was a parade or something in Brooks that day, and I took all the boys into Brooks to see it. We only watched until the doctor’s office opened, then I took Bartly in. He had appendicitis, and was operated on within two hours after I took him in. The doctor said his appendix was on the verge of bursting. That was one time I was glad I did not hesitate about going to the doctor.

We had many cottonwood trees around the yard. Denyse was subject to hives, and in the spring would get great big ones, especially on her legs from the cotton which floated around the yard. We cut the trees down.

We had purchased another quarter section of grass land, part of the E.I.D. grazing lease. They would bring cattle off the lease and put them in this quarter where the cattle would soon be though the fence and into one of our quarters. We wrote a letter to them and explained the situation, and they sold the quarter to us, which gave us another 200 or so acres of irrigated land.

I decided I had more land than I could irrigate properly, so I made arrangements with a neighbor, Jake Wiebe, to irrigate the home quarter. The arrangement was that if it rained so he did not have to irrigate, he took his share of the crop regardless. We had an abundant rainfall that year and he did not have to irrigate. We got very good crops and I had to build a tie granary, and still had grain on the ground. Jake would not take all of his share, as he said he had done nothing to earn it. He only took about 200-300 bushels.

Doris had gone into the poultry business, and as I got some feeder lambs, we were able to feed up all the grain. There was no sale for it, all the elevators were filled up, and grain was not moving. I had feeder lambs for at least two years.

One year, I had the lambs in a corral in front of the chicken coop. The strangest thing about it was that when spring came, the chickens sounded like lambs a lot of the time! That continual baa-ing had caught on in the chicken house. I also had some calves to feed some years, anything to make a living.

Abe Reimer rented the East quarter and the irrigated land on the new quarter for several years before he died.

The boys helped on the farm, but it did not seem that there was always a school, sports, or church event when I needed them the most.

For awhile, we had an older gentleman named Fred Singer who came out and helped Doris with the poultry. He lived in the bunk house and was a good help. When he learned that Colin would be coming home from his mission, he said she did not need him anymore. Probably he was getting tired of the same work and wanted a change anyway.

Denyse went to Vancouver with a friend to work the vacation between the last two years of High School. After the last year, she went back again to Vancouver and worked there, and eventually married there. I did not think we could all leave, so Colin, who was 17, drove Doris there for the wedding. The roads were not as good as they are now, and it seemed a long way to go.

My legs were bothering me too much to irrigate, so I rented the home quarter to Jake Dyck and went out carpentering. I had sold the new quarter to Abe Reimer. I believe I worked with Warren Jones first, and we built a teacherage in Rosemary, and other things. On my own, I was overseer of the building of a warehouse for Reuben Huber, and one of his big cellars, and an addition to one of the others. Then, I built his dairy buildings on the home place.

Colin went to Brooks to work for Bud in the cafe after school in Rosemary, had went to school there for awhile. Then, he worked for the G.M. Dealer as a bookkeeper until he went on a mission.

Rod milked the cows and got half the cream money, but it was a miserable job for him because of his hay fever. He milked them as early as possible to get the job over with.

After school in Rosemary, Rod went and worked as an apprentice mechanic for Murray Gordon Motors. They sold out to Mr. Ressler and he worked for him until he went on a mission.

Bartly milked the cows, and he was out for money, so he milked everything available, not only the milk cows, but some of the range cows too, and fed their calves. So, being the youngest, he had more money than the others had. We tried to do our best for all of them.

I built bale stokers for Allen Oler one year. Allen contracted with a company in B.C. for them to manufacture the machines, and Woodrow Stringam went in with him. The company changed the machine so that the patent Allen had did not cover it, and then started manufacturing it. The machine did not work properly after the changes they made, and they went bankrupt. As well, Allen and Woodrow lost a lot of money.

When we came to Rosemary, there was a good sized ward of the church there, which we attended regularly. Positions I held there were: Counselor in the Elder’s Quorum presidency, Counselor in the Sunday School presidency, Financial Clerk, Home Teacher, and Secretary of the High Priest’s twice.

Colin went on a mission to the Southern Far East. He mainly spent his time in Taiwan. he went for a three-year foreign mission, but it was shortened to two and one-half years while he was there. However, He stayed for about two and three-quarter years. Before he came back, Rod was called to the French mission for two and one-half years. He did not like to take French classes in school, but for some reason did not have a hard time learning French when on his mission.

Bartly went to the Central Atlantic States mission before Rod returned. We did not have much money when they went on missions, and on the face of it would not have expected to have much. but we managed to supply their needs, with the help of the Lord. Doris sold hatching eggs, which helped to have money for the missions. Strangely enough, she sold them until Bartly came home, then they did not need them anymore. They could get eggs with a higher hatchability from California. But selling hatching eggs served the purpose, and made lots of work for us, which must made for a long and healthy life. I built a big barn for Lonny Stringam at Foremost the year before Bartly went on a mission.

All these years on the farm, we tried to keep warm with a furnace in the basement, if I can call it that. Actually it was mostly dirt walls and floor. In cold weather, we continually had to go down and put on more coal, shake down the ashes, bring the ashes up to take outside to where we could dump them. When the North wind blew, no matter how much we stoked that furnace, the only warm place was around the cook stove in the kitchen. We sat around the stove with our feet in the oven when the temperature was 30 or more degrees below zero.

At those cold times, when we were selling hatching eggs, they chilled so swiftly that it was necessary to gather them so often we met ourselves coming back when we went out to gather them.

Denyse and Al came back to visit when Lance was of the age to crawl, and stayed a while. Then Denyse got a job in Bud’s Cafe, and they moved to Brooks. After that, Al got a job in brooks, Traci was born there, and I believe they left Brooks when Traci was around a year old. Al’s Father came to visit them while they were at our place, as he was working for the C.N. Railway, he came by train. Al also worked for C.N. for awhile. While in Brooks, Lance always teased us by insisting cows were bulls and milk was water. Just before he left, he laughingly admitted cows were cows and milk was milk.

I went to visit Denyse one Christmas in Vancouver. I rode with Goldie Tillack, who was also going there to visit. It was nice and warm when we left Rosemary, and we did to need a jacket. When we came back, there was 7 or 8 inches of snow on the ground.

The next summer Goldie Tillack, Stan Parker, and I went to Vancouver again, driving Rod’s Plymouth car. I brought Lance and Traci back with us for a visit. The next year, I believe it was, they came on the train to visit us. They were supposed to arrive about 11 p.m. in Bassano, and Colin went to meet them there, but they did not arrive until the next night.

At that age, Colin said he did not like children, but for some reason Lance and Traci followed him every chance they got, around the farm.

When Colin came home from his mission, he went to the School of Agriculture in Olds, which left him with a long vacation, so he took over the East quarter and had it in hay and grass. He got 20 head of cows from Bryce Stringham, on shares, and had other cattle. Later, when he went to Brigham Young University, he still came home to work for the summers.

We met Rod in Calgary when he came home from his mission. He came by air from new York, I believe it was. He had crossed the ocean by boat. If I remember correctly, Colin arrived in Brooks by train when he came home, and we met him there.

Rod when back to work for Ressler, first living on the farm, then moving to Brooks for the winter. While there, he found out Maureen Stringam was a very nice girl, and became interested in attending BYU.

After working for Jack Ressler all that time, Rod used his name as a character reference. Jack wrote back "he did not know him well enough to give him one." so Rod did not work for him anymore.

When Bartly came home from his mission, he did not tell us when he was coming, which was quite typical of Bartly. He came home by way of BYU and visited his brothers there. He came home by bus and arrived in Bassano. By luck, he happened to meet the Dunbars there, and they gave him a ride home. We heard someone come into the house after we had gone to bed, we got up to greet Bartly. (I suppose he did not know in advance when he was coming.)

Bartly got a job working for Bryce Stringam on his ranch for awhile. He tore down and old building, fed cattle, and so on. Then, when the next semester started at BYU, he was in attendance.

Bartly did not tell us for awhile that he intended getting married. But finally Colin told us, Jaqui made him phone us, and I must admit we were surprised. So Colin brought Bartly and Jacqueline Stoddard, and her great aunt Helen Atkinson up to Canada, and Bartly and Jaqui were married in the Cardston temple. Jaqui’s parents and her sister came also.

It seems Jaqui’s great aunt was a bit worried about what kind of fellow Jaqui was determined to marry. So she phoned the Bishop in Rosemary to find out. The bishop was not available, so she got one of the counselors, George Hornburger. I guess he did not say too many bad things. So her great aunt came to the wedding.

Our car acted up on the way home from the Cardston temple, so we had to go right to the reception, and Jaqui’s sister, Roselva, did not get to wear the nice dress her mother had made for her. That was enough to break a young girl’s heart.

All this time, I had been working away from the farm. When Colin decided to go to the University of Reno for his Master’s degree, and was not coming home in the summer, I decided we did not want the farm anymore. So, we sold it to Eric Enns. The money from Colin’s cattle had helped him through school. I had looked after them when he was not there.

We rented a small house in Rosemary, which had belonged to Brother and Sister Crapo, Sr. What a job it was to decide what to keep and what to get rid of, and the two years supply was the biggest headache. We had to put id down in the cellar at the Crapo place, through a door in the floor. I believe Colin was there to help us, and did not like the job. We bought a lot and a half in Rosemary, and the next year, with the help of Rod and Bartly during their summer holidays, we built the house. Bartly was married, so Jaqui was there too. And Denyse was living in Calgary at the time, and she and her two children took a two week holiday and visited us too. Surprising how many you can get in a small house for a while. Denyse helped paint too.

Of course, by fall it was not finished inside, but the boys had to go back to school. Rod was married that fall, and he and Maureen went back to Provo. Doris finished what needed to be done in the basement, finally. Of course, I had to go back to work too, and it took some time to finish the rest, but we moved in, finished or not.

Doris’ mother was very sick in the Brooks hospital for some time, and died there in August of 1965. We had planned a room for her in the house, so when we started it that was included, but she died without ever seeing it.

Denyse was still in Calgary when Rod and Marueen were married, so she came to the wedding, but the other boys were not there.

We were able to give Rod and Bartly something for working on the house, but we wished it could have been more. Our money was about gone by then, and we had to get to work to finish paying for the house.

When Rod finished at BYU, he went to work for Macys in San Francisco. He and Maureen stayed there for awhile, but everything cost so much, and when Maureen got sick and had to stay in the hospital for a few days, it was the final straw. Maureen went back home by plane after she got out of the hospital. Rod worked out his time and then he came back to Canada and worked for various companies, before going into business with a partner.

Colin, all the time since his mission, had been looking around to find the nicest, pretty girl he could find. So, it took him quite awhile, and he did not get married until after the other two boys. Colin came back to Canada after finishing at Reno, and went to work as a teacher at Olds College.

Bartly, too, came back to Canada and worked as a reporter. First for the Stoney Plain Reporter in Stoney Plain near Edmonton. He then went to work for the Edmonton Journal, then in Public Relations for Alberta Utilities in Edmonton, then Francis, Johnson, and Payne in Calgary.

Here, I think I will tell a little about some of the trips we have taken.

One year, when Doris was working at Bow Valley Veterinarian Clinic, on her holidays we went with Colin and Annette on a trip to the Coast. Loren was at the age when he could disappear so fast it was almost impossible to keep track of him. Water attracted him like a magnet does metal. Finally, we had to stake him out like we would a horse. They took their tent trailer, and we travelled leisurely. We crossed on the ferry to Victoria to see Denyse.

They had trouble having nice lawns in Victoria, they look rather brownish, something like the lawns in Fort Worth in the summer. While we were in Victoria, we went out along the coast where we could dig clams, and also found a few oysters. Denyse made a big pot of good clam chowder. We visited the beautiful botanical gardens, saw the exotic birds, etc.

Another time, while Bartly and Jaqui were living in Calgary, we went with them in the 72 Dodge Dart and travelled through some of British Columbia. We went through Peace River, Grand Prairie, and also went to Prince George to visit Denyse, where she was living at the time.

Bartly and Jaqui hired a baby sitter while they went on the trip. She kept a diary of her experiences. She could not find Corbin one time, she hunted all over the house and the neighborhood, calling him. Finally, she opened the clothes dryer door, and he was sitting the there laughing. She had quite a story in her diary, but said she would not have wanted to miss the experience.

The first real family reunion we had was held at Rod’s house in Sherwood park. All the then family members were present except Lance. We had a very good time, and took some of the best family pictures we have. Rod and Maureen had room for all of us, and we had a very comfortable time. If I remember correctly we took corn from our garden in Rosemary.

The next family reunion we had was held at the summer home of Rod’s partner, Leo, on Shuswap Lake in British Columbia. Rod made all the arrangements, and all the family members were present except Loren, who was visiting his Christensen grandparents in Reno. Bob and Traci came from Gold Lake, and their baby Danny was very upset the first night in a strange place. Colin’s family slept in Rod’s camper, some of the children slept in tents, and the rest in the house (some on the basement floor). Bob and Lance went boating and fishing, but did not catch any fish as there wee too many boats on the lake. The lake was fine for swimming and much of the time was spen there.

On Sunday, we went to church with Bartly’s and Colin’s families. There, we met Boyd Gendleman and his wife, who was Thelma Okey’s daughter. She invited us all to dinner, but we did not go as Denyse was preparing a pot of clam chowder and baked salmon, which was a very delicious dinner. She cooked enough for twice that many and we ate it all! When we left, Bob and Traci also came to Brooks. The mill in Gold River were Bob worked was having a strike of workers, so Bob and Traci worked in Brooks until Bob needed to go back when the strike was ended.

We were travelling on a high mountain road while going back home with the edge of the road "hanging over space" and met a big trailer coming around the corner of the mountain, taking all the road, and barely managed to pull over so we could get past. Doris was very glad we were not any closer to the corner.

We stopped at McDonalds in Calgary for lunch. That was one time Jaqui did not call the roll. We were all tired and anxious to get home. When we got about half way home, I, for some reason, started counting heads and said "we are one short." Bartly pulled over to the side of the road and, sure enough, Shawndra was missing. Much as we hated to go the other way, away from home, we turned back to the first telephone, and Jaqui phoned McDonalds. And, then she phoned McDonalds again, and again, before she got the right one. She told them we were on the way back to pick up the girl. They had asked Shawndra how many there were in the family, and when she told them, they said "No wonder." They took her into the kitchen, gave her a McDonald’s cap, some goodies, and a lesson in cooking. So, by the time we got back there, she was happy again and said they could leave her at McDonalds any time. We were glad to get home.

We would like to have another family reunion, but it would not be as easy now that the members of the family are more widely scattered around.

One of the first long trips was when we went to see Colin in Reno, Nevada, and first visited Bartly and Rod in Provo. We wen in our red Dodge truck, and Reuben Huber lent us his camper to put on it. We went to see Bartly and Jaqui, and while there, they took Doris to the Genealogical library in Salt Lake. She enjoyed herself there, and copied many genealogical sheets. We watched General Conference on the TV at the place where Rod was living.

After visiting that area, we headed across Utah and Nevada, over the arid desert. All across the desert in Nevada we did not see another car, they must all have taken a better road! We were used to getting up early, and did not allow for the time change, So, we arrived so early at the place Colin was staying we not only woke Colin up too early, but his room mate also. I am sure Colin was not glad to see us, but we managed to have a good visit in spite of a bad start.

Colin took us to Virginia City. There we found it was too early in the season and the usual sights were not opened up yet, so we could not go through the castle, etc. We went to Nevada City and bought some natural stone cuff links, a tie clip, and some stones. Colin bought a commemorative plate for his mother, with a picture of Nevada City.

On the way back from Reno, we went through a valley. There was a wind and a very heavy gust of wind unexpectedly hit us, and lifted the camper off the truck and threw it in the barrow pit. We had to get a wrecking truck to come out and put it back on, but it was wrecked. Fortunately, the insurance covered most of the damage. Doris later glued the plate together and had it her dish cupboard for years.

The next year we went to Colin’s wedding in the Logan temple. We went in the truck, so Colin could use it to bring their things back to Canada. After the wedding, Bart was in Broken Bow, Nebraska, and so could not come. In fact, he was getting ready to move back to Canada. Rod was living in San Rafael, so he and Maureen came to the reception. Many nice pictures were taken at the reception by Annette’s father and by others. When Colin saw some of the pictures, showing him and Rod in the same picture, he called Rod "large economy size" because he looked smaller than usual beside Rod, which gave us a good laugh.

Rod took us back with him to San Rafael, and after a visit, Colin came and picked us up and took up back to Reno. Colin had his birthday there.

We left the truck for Colin, and I think the truck had never been so loaded. Surprising how much they had to bring to Canada. We went on our way in Colin’s car, a little Comet. We went East as far as Cheyenne, Wyoming, then up to Canada, fairly far north. We went through North and South Battleford, Saskatchewan, through Vermillion, Alberta, and back to see Denyse in Calgary. We phoned home and found both Colin and Bartly there. We went to Olds and helped Colin unload his things, traded back his car for the truck. Then we went to Stony Plain with Bartly and helped unload their things. We visited there a few days, then back to Rosemary, and back to work at the Hubers. When Bartly moved to Stony Plain there were Bartly, Jaqui, Jessi, and the dog.

I could tell the young fellows a little about courting. When Doris was in Lethbridge going to Garbutt Business School, and before I went to Lethbridge to do carpenter work, I rode my bicycle to see her. It was over 20 miles one way, and by the time I got back home, it was not only very late, but I was tired, and had to get up early the next morning just the same.

Not being able to remember just when everything happened, I think here I will write the various things which have happened to me, accidents etc. I do know that the Lord has spared my life, and spared me from serious accident several times.

While working in the Raymond Sugar Factory, I was climbing a ladder using one hand, a tube blower in the other, and I missed my grab with my hand, and fell about eight feet onto a cement floor, and broke my left wrist. They drove me home, first stopping at the Doctors (only the young one was there). He said it was broken all right, and I would have to wait until 10 the next morning, when he would take me to Lethbridge. The doctor who set my wrist did a very poor job and it bothered me for years.

Later, I broke the thumb on my left hand by bumping it. When they x-rayed it, the doctor told me that the wrist was the poorest job of setting a bone he had ever seen. It has only been the last ten years (now 1985) that i have been able to wear a wrist watch on the left wrist.

We are told in the temple that garments are given to us to protect our bodies, and I can testify they certainly have protected mine. When we were building our house in Rosemary, one morning I started the cement mixer to mix some cement, and my clothes caught on a broken pulley while I was engaging the clutch. As I had to pull the clutch out to disengage it, and as I was being pulled toward the machine, i could not disengage it. Rod and Bartly both saw my predicament about the same time. Rod climbed on the machine to stop the engine, and Bartly came to my assistance, and I told him to pull the clutch. I had on a pair of heavy carpenter overalls over my regular clothes. The mixer tore everything up to my garments, but they were not torn and my body was not harmed.

Another time, while working at Pheasant Valley Farms (Hubers), I was using the electric hand saw. Just as I was about finished cutting through a 2x6, my helper took hold of the piece I was cutting off, which caused the saw to bind and kick back. As it was a very cold winter day, I had on extra clothes and the saw cut through my coveralls and pants, and just barely nicked my garments. I was not even scratched.

In both of these instances, my clothing was so badly torn I had to go and change all my clothing down to my garments.

Another time, while working at Pheasant Valley Farms in June, we were sent out to pick up bales. We had two trucks and a front-end loader in order to clear the field with two loads. We had to throw one pile of bales from the loader onto the top of the truck. I stepped on one bale on the loader and it went between the tines and I fell about 12-14 feet onto a hard lump of clay. The other two fellows figured I was killed. I did not remember anything from the time I stepped on the bale until about half-an-hour later, but I got immediately on my feet and was walking around. The other fellows tried to get me to sit down, they kept telling me I was hurt, but I did not realize they were talking to me. The next thing I remember, they were still telling me to sit down and keep still. One of them went over to Sorensens, the nearest house, and phoned Doris to come and get me. "In fact, she is just coming in the gate" they told me.

I got in the car and asked Glenn Svensen, who was there, to drive me over to Sorensens so they could administer to me. I was in a lot of pain, and every little bump hurt. After being administered to, they took me to the hospital. We had a hard time getting there, as something was wrong with the car, but we finally made it. They examined and x-rayed me. The doctor can in and told me I had broken six ribs, but that they could not do anything for me, because my ribs were all back in place! I had some very miserable days and nights for awhile. A couple of days later, the doctor came in and told me that I was out of danger, and was going to live. I told him I had not doubted that at all.

The year before this, in June, while everything happened to me, Doris was visiting at Colin’s, and while she was there my back got so bad I had to go in to the hospital. I was there when she got back and spent about a week on medication.

One year after the fall at Hubers, in June of course, I was working on a building, taking the attic floor up, and the ceiling joist broke and I fell through onto a bail of straw. I lay there a few minutes. I thought I had not broken anything because it did not hurt, but when I went to get up, my right arm was above my head and would not come with me. I reached up with my left arm and pulled my right arm down across my chest. I asked the lady at the farm house to phone to Brooks for me, and Jack Fowler came and took me to the hospital. Dr. Randal examined me and said I had a complete dislocation of my right shoulder. Not to worry about it, 80 percent got better. I did not feel liking asking him what happened to the other 20 percent. My arm was paralysed at the shoulder, and it was over a year before I could raise my right arm above my head.

Before my arm was well, I was asked to go to Cluny and supervise the building of two large potato cellars. I was asked to ge because I did not drink liquor, and I would not influence the Indians to drink. This job took over a month, and helped our finances while I could not do regular work. The Indians worked well when they did work, but still drank too often.

In the summer of 1971, we went to Winipeg to buy some shoe shop equipment. We also purchased saw sharpening equipment. i opened up a shoe repair and saw sharpening shop in Rosemary, in the building where Dad had had his shop and where Bud had his Cafe.

Most people did their shopping in Brooks, so we started looking for a place in Brooks. Doris walked past the Theatre building, and the fellow was there, so she asked about renting the smaller place on one side of the theatre, in the same building. So, I finally got a place to open shop in Brooks.

The shop there started quite well. Bartly, who then lived in Calgary, came to visit us, and mentioned that he would not mind doing that kind of work. He went back home and thought about it, and we thought about it, and wrote to him. And, it ended up that we knew why we had built such a large house in Rosemary, and we were able to share it, and Bartly went in partners with me in the shop.

Later that year, because of the noise we made in the shop, and because of the smell of the dye we used, they asked us to leave the building. We looked and looked and could not find a suitable place. It was getting close to the time we had to move. Finally, as a result of earnest prayer, I am sure, we were able to buy a building from Harvey Astley. We had to move, and he let us move into part of the building before we had made a contract, or before he had any money from us, and before he could move out.

After Bartly came, we started repairing and making riding gear. We bought a harness machine for $150.00, that had been sitting outside for a couple of years, that was really worth about $600.00 or more.

The building we purchased was too large for the shop, so we went into other lines: Tandy Leathercraft, riding gear, and other leather goods. We got Doris to quit her job with Farm labour Pool and work in the store. At first, we had our shop on the main floor. Doris wanted to sell health foods, which became one of our main lines. It did make it hard to keep it clean enough for health foods with the shop there, so we moved the shop into the downstairs basement.

Later we sold wicker. We were one of the first ones to have it in Brooks. Bartly wanted to go into firearms, and we had a good line for awhile. Then it became harder to sell them, and we went out of the firearms line, but still sold a bit of ammunition and related items.

The business grew and worked out well. Then, at the time the boat people were coming into the country from Vietnam and Laos, we thought perhaps we could help some of them and that is how we cane to hire Vieng Khoune. Bartly taught him to do some of the leather work. There was lots of shoe work, and we got thinking how Bartly would manage if anything happened to me, and he had to do all the shoe work too. And that is how we came to send to Paraguay for Jin Ho Lee, a shoemaker. There just was not any one we could find in Canada at that time.

Then, to our surprise, Denyse expressed a willingness to come to Brooks and work for us. She did some of the repairing, and such things as relining leather jackets, and also helped upstairs in the sales. She stayed until Sandy came to see her, and after two visits she was persuaded to re-marry him and they moved back to British Columbia. Lance and Andrea had moved to Brooks and stayed for awhile. Lance cooked in restaurants. Then Andrea and the children went back, and Lance followed.

About 1982, things became slower all over the country, and so the income from the shop became less. We had talked a bit before about selling and moving. In fact, at one point the children had spilled the beans about our talking until perple were telling us they had heard we were moving to Texas. We did try to sell the business, without any luck for awhile.

Then, one day a lady came into the store and said she had heard our business was for sale and she wanted it. We were not sure this would amount to anything.

Bartly had been getting very interested in computers, and had bought several. At one time he thought of selling them, but decided against it. Then he thought he might as well apply for some jobs, any he noticed that could use his skills of writing and computer knowledge.

In the meantime Rod had sold out his business in Edmonton and Red Deer. This was almost more than he and his partner could hope for. He told us it was accomplished by fasting and prayer. His partner was a good member of another church, and they could not get him interested in our church, but he too fasted and prayed, and it worked. So Rod thought he would like to live in Utah, and moved there. We had talked of moving first so, after Rod moved, we wanted to move more than ever.

Also, a few years ago Colin had moved to Two Hills, and went into a greenhouse with Rod and his partner. After a lot of work, they decided it just did not make enough for all the hard work, so Colin had it on his own for a bit. Then, he too turned to something else.

When things slowed down, we could not afford to keep our help, and first Vieng Khoune had to go, and finally Jin Ho Lee. Then it was harder to keep things going, not enough people came into the store to make it very interesting, although we were making enough to pay expenses. We did keep wondering how long we would make it, as things were getting even slower. The oil people had moved out, and they had been the good spenders.

I had been called to be ward canning chairman, and went to the cannery in Lethbridge when there was canning for the Rosemary ward. Other than that, we did not get too much freedom from the shop. Bartly was always willing to stay if we wanted to leave. One time Jaqui took the girls to a Specially For Youth program in Provo, and Doris went along. I stayed to help in the store until Rod came and picked me up when they were moving to Mapleton, and Bartly was left on his own.

First one child got sick, and then another, and he had a terrible time. So, we decided we could not go off and leave only one person to look after the store any more. Another time, Doris and I went for 10 days to visit Colin. Bartly got something in his eye, and that made it hard for him. So we did not like to leave.

All this made us think it would be better to sell out. And then Bartly got a reply from one of his applications for a job. And guess where the job was? In Texas, of course. He flew down to Fort Worth for an interview and got the job. He had to be at work by May 7, 1984, and we had still not sold the shop. But, by this time we were praying hard, and we did not want to have it on our own.

Then the lady I mentioned before came into the shop again. Of course we had to dicker a bit, but finally the sale went through. We didn’t get as much as we wanted for the shop, but it was not too bad. We sold our shoe repair and saw sharpening equipment to Jin Ho Lee, and he started up a shop of his own. And, we sold the harness equipment to Roland Eastman, and he sold it back to Jin later. We did not do too well on the things we took to be sold at auction, but we got something.

Jaqui went with Bartly when he went to his job in Texas so that they could pick a house to live in, and Jerrin went with them. Jaqui and Jerrin flew back, leaving the car for Bartly.

As we had been staying in the shop during the week, and just going back to Rosemary for the week ends, we had a lot of stuff to move back to Rosemary. Finally, we got it all packed, and the good people from Rosemary helped us move it.

Then, all we had to worry about was getting it all ready to move to Fort Worth, and getting the house in shape to sell. We were afraid we could not sell it, as houses in Rosemary were not moving well. There were about six empty houses in the village at that time. We tried with ads in the Brooks Bulletin and signs in the window. Finally, Tim and Val Betts (Tim was Thorald’s son) came to see it, and they decided they wanted to buy it as Val did not want the girls to go to school in Brooks and because our house was such a bargain. They could not afford to buy it outright, so we made a deal, and they were to pay so much a month for two year, then buy it.

We cleaned the house up the best we could, did some painting, and so on, and left it in as good a condition as we could. Denyse and Sandy came to see us before we left, and they picked up some of their stuff, sold some, and Colin took a bit, as well as a bit of our things. So we were ready to go. The packers from the trucking company came to pack everything. We helped pack some things and got it done in time.

On Friday, July 5, 1984, we packed all the remaining things in our Dodge van and were ready to leave. Kadin had been going to stay at Tillacks, working for them until the trail ride he wanted to go on was ready. At the last minute, he phoned that he wanted to go with us. He had thought he could get a ride to Provo with people going to Especially For Youth, and then catch a ride to Fort Worth with people who came from there. Perhaps it would not have worked out that way.

We all got into the van, said goodbye to Rosemary (mainly Sister Burrows) and started off for our new home. We decided we would make a lunch for two meals each day, and buy the other meal. In our travels Jaqui took a roll call every time we stopped: Jerrin, Chantry, Damon, Ayrian, Anna, Tandy, Shawndra, Eric, Kadin, Jessica, Grandad, Grandma, and the dog. There were thirteen people and the dog Whiskers.

What, with the kids, the dog, and Grandma on water pills, we stopped at very service station we came to, and never bought more than $10.00 of gas at any one station. The van got so that it turned in at the service stations without any direction. It was a good thing that Jaqui called the roll, or we would have left the dog tied to a tree at one stop.

We stopped at a motel for one night, and arrived at Rod’s in Mapleton Saturday evening. The weather had been hot, and we did enjoy the nice cool breeze that comes in the evening at Rod’s.

Sunday we went to church with Rod’s family, and enjoyed a visit with them. Derrick was getting ready to go to camp, and he did have a big pack to carry.

Monday morning we started off again. Jessie stayed at Rod’s for a visit and got a ride to Forth Worth with some people who had gone to Especially for Youth.

We travelled through Utah and into Colorado. On the way, I cam down with a good cold, even in that hot weather. We travelled to Montrose, where Jaqui’s uncle and aunt lived. They treated us all royally. Her aunt even borrowed an apartment from her landlord for us, and I had a good rest there, and got over my cold faster than usual. They took us out to see some of the scenery. Montrose is a very nice place to live. Jaqui’s uncle took us all out to a cafe and treated us to a lovely smorgasbord type dinner. We stayed in Montrose for two nights and one day.

Then, we were on our way to Fort Worth, travelling though Colorado, we saw some awesome scenery, hills, canyons, much red rock, and views down the canyons. Jaqui stopped at a stall and bought some necklaces and native craft. The scenery was very attractive, but we did not see much vegetation or animals.

We went through a small corner of new Mexico, and spent the night there. Then we went on through Texas to Fort Worth. We Northerners did not recognize some of the crops we saw. Grain had been planted early and harvested. There were late-planted crops of some kind, in an early stage of their growth. The prairie grass was quite dry and brown by that time of year. We did see some Texas longhorns, but have since seen many cattle without the horns.

We stopped at a produce stand on the way to Fort Worth, and bought tomatoes, six watermelons, and other fruit. We arrived at the house Thursday evening, to find a Negro gentleman cleaning the floors. I think he gave up when he stood back to let the children stampede in. Also, Bartly was there, with Jaqui’s brother David. Bartly had noticed some watermelon on special, and he bought some for us. And do you know, we ate all those watermelon without any spoiling. Texas watermelon are good.

The Van with the furniture and goods had not arrived (we later found out they had trouble with the truck and had to stop and have it repaired) so there we were with a big house, practically no furniture or anything we needed. There had been an old, but clean-looking mattress left in the house, and we slept on that. Bartly and Jaqui managed on a bed Bartly had bought, and the rest slept in sleeping bags on the floor.

We camped out in the house until the Van arrived, later than we had hoped, Saturday afternoon. They unloaded everything, part of it had to stay outside until we could find places for it, and some of it was stolen.

We only unpacked enough beds to manage and very few other things, and left the rest until the next week, or when we could get around to it. Sunday morning Bartly had his first visitor, I believe, and we all went to church to get acquainted with our new ward.

The man living in the apartment over the garage finally moved out about three weeks after we got there. Then I had a big job getting it to where it was fit to live in. I practically had to make it over. Everything had to be redone. It took until the middle of October until we could move in, and still some things were waiting to be finished. It was very hot that summer, and we had to buy an air conditioner so I could stand to work in the apartment. I built a kitchen cabinet, and Doris finished it, sanding and painting. We covered the walls with new paneling, painted the ceiling on the living room, and had new ceiling tile for the rest of the ceilings. I built a clothes closet along one wall. I changed the stairs from inside to outside, which gave us room for a tiny storage room. I put new plywood on the floors, covered it with linoleum tile. Eric, Shawndra, and Kadin painted the outside of the garage, but did not quite finished on the high parts.

We found we could not find all the things we liked in the Fort Worth stores. We thought we had found more interesting foods in Utah. However, we certainly found all we really needed. It took all our spare money to refinish the apartment.

One nice LDS family were very helpful. Sister Gonzales was at the door soon after we arrived, offering shopping hints and bringing dinner over for the adults who were unpacking on Saturday night. We soon made many nice friends in the church and enjoyed attending the Fort Worth Sixth Ward.

Soon the Dallas temple was dedicated, and we were able to attend the dedication. There were apostates and others who put up quite a resistance to people attending open house at the temple. They handed out pamphlets against the church and one person wore temple clothing in front of the new building and told many falsehoods about what had happened when he went through a temple. At one point, it was necessary to turn the sprinkling system on to cool them off. One missionary was knocked down and police were called at one point. All this opposition ceased once the temple was closed to the public.

We were able to go a couple of times for ordinance work, and we also went through two sessions of the temple. Our names were cleared for temple workers, but by that time it was almost time for us to leave, so we did not do any work there.

We enjoyed going to yard sales in Fort Worth and looking through the stores. At Christmas time many of the old houses were opened to the public and the Christmas lights were something to see. Each year we drove around to view the Christmas scenes.

It did not rain from the time we arrived in Fort Worth until fall, so it was very dry. Mysteriously the broad leaf trees knew when to shed their leaves without any frost, and when to leaf out again in the spring. There are many nice trees in Fort Worth, Red Bud, Magnolia, Crepe Myrtle, and so on. The trees seem to have such a nice shape. The roses are beautiful there, and many are in bloom in April.

The first time Eric rode his bicycle in Fort Worth, he left it at the side of the Army and Navy store. When he came back to get it, it had been stolen.

Grandad Stoddard brought one bike for them, and Bartly bought another at a yard sale. Eric and I fixed them both up. Then I fixed one for Shawndra, and one for Tandy. I had bought a bike and Anna is using that. Then, I fixed up one for Ayrian and one for Damon. Later they bought one for Chantry, so they can all ride bikes at the same time.

Fruit trees grow in Fort Worth, and we found apple, peach, and plum trees on the lot. This spring (1985) we planted a walnut, a pecan, and apricot, peach, plum, fig, pear, two grape vines, and a blackberry. I doubt the plum, and maybe the peach, will live. We also planted some roses.

Last January the temperature got down to freezing, while we had a bad case of flu. The water pipes, which were on the outside of the house, froze both on the house and our apartment. The first time on Saturday night. A neighbor brought over a little water Sunday morning, with which we managed so we could all go to church. Later that day, we found we could get water from the tap set in the ground for irrigating purposes. It took a day or so to get all the pipes thawed out. A couple of sections of water pipe had to be replaced.

Another time, it got cold enough to freeze the pipes a bit, and that is about what our winter amounted to last season.

One night someone picked the locks on the workshop and stole five electric drills, my rock grinder, an electric welder, an emergency generator, besides other boxes we had brought with us from Canada. The insurance covered everything except the things in boxes which we could not identify.

Chantry’s first bicycle and Jerrin’s tricycle were stolen from the yard. A long time resident of Fort Worth told us that she lived on the same street 10 years ago, and then you could leave your doors open all the time and no one would steal anything.

The city picks up anything left out past the sidewalk in front of the buildings. If anyone wants anything left there, they just help themselves. We put out an old cast iron bathtub and an old gas range from the apartment, and they were gone by the next morning.

We had been getting money from the house in Rosemary, and thought we should go back to Canada for a couple of months, to keep our Health Insurance good there. So we made our plans and started getting ready. Doris wanted to leave before the very hot weather, and decided on about the 15th of May. It was very hot at the end of May last year. After had our plans all made, a letter came through in 5 days (if you want something to come through in a hurry it takes two weeks!) from Val telling us they had not made friends in Rosemary, and she was too lonely there, and they were going back to Brooks the end of May. So we would not have the money we had been counting on from the house.

We decided we could manage financially somehow, so we started getting ready. Bartly and Jaqui took us around to some second hand stores (there was one called yesterday’s Gold, but we did not buy anything there) to look for luggage. One place we found a very large suitcase, in an off-white color, which looked good when it had been cleaned. Another store had a long flight bag, and a shorter one, just what we needed, along with what we already had. As we were going to be gone a long time, we needed to take quite a bit with us, our two largest suitcases, two flight bags, two smaller cases, my tote bag, Doris’ bag-sized handbag, as well as carrying our heaviest coats over our arms. All our cases were filled to the last quarter inch of room, so we had to strap them to keep them from bursting open and scattering our belongings far and wide, at the worst possible time, of course. We reserved our flight time, actually on the 8th of May, as we did not want to travel on the week end.

Bartly and Jaqui took us on a trip to see some of the country before we left. We started out West of Fort worth, and travelled through several town and saw some nice country, everything was nice and green at that time of year, not brown like it will be in July and August. We decided we should start back, and on the way looked for the site of an old cow town (Abilene), but there was nothing much there when we did find it.

It had looked like rain all day, and started in before we reached home. The wind was blowing and heavy rain came after that. later we learned that they had a tornado-like storm that evening in one of the towns we had been through, the one nearest to Fort Worth. Two people were drowned when their cars were swept off into a canal or something. If I remember right the name of the town was Westfield. We were glad we came home when we did.

Finally, May 8th arrived. We packed our bags in the Van and got in, and the grandkids came to bid us goodbye, good trip, etc. all but Chantry, and she was crying so no goodbye there. Bartly, Jaqui, and Jerrin took us to the airport, where Jerrin enjoyed watching the airplanes, landing on the ground and taking off. We had a bit of time to wait and then it was time to board the plane.

The trip was uneventful, everything going according to schedule. In fact we arrived a little early at every stop. The weather was clear most of the time. We could look out of one side of the plane and see the ground, nice and green, and look out of the other side of the airplane and see mountains capped with snow. As we came in to land at the Salt Lake airport, where we had to change planes, we could see the results of the flooding, not much change from last year.

We had a good look at the city of Calgary as they had to circle the city to come in to land. There was not half as much traffic as in Fort Worth. When we came in to land at the Edmonton airport we did not see anything of the city. When we were through customs and had collected our baggage, Colin was waiting for us. It did seem a long drive to St. Paul after our flight.

But we soon went back to Edmonton, as Colin had an appointment the next Monday to write an exam there. We went by the way of Lac La Biche to pick up Janelle and take her with us, so it was even longer this time. We spent the time in a shopping mall while Colin was busy, then we had lunch. We then started back, and took Janelle to Lac La Biche, and visited there awhile. Janelle and I played several games of pool, she said she was just learning, but I was too.

Before we played pool, we had another meal, not because we were hungry, just because we would be before we got home, and anyway, it was fun to eat out.

We visited at Colin’s a few days, while looking for an apartment, then decided the best we could do was to get one in the same building as theirs, which we did--much easier to see them, etc. We got one on the third floor, theirs is on the fourth floor. So, it was not far to go when there was a phone call for us.

We bought two chairs, a foam mattress, some plastic curtains, and Colin and Annette loaned us two chairs and a table, one Annette’s grandmother had used for genealogy, and we moved in. We have been comfortable and managed well with what we have.

For exercise, I have walked around most of the town of St. Paul, and Doris has walked more than she did in Fort Worth, probably because the climate here now agrees better with her.

We made doctor’s appointments (nothing wrong with us) and Doris has a dentist appointment and has just seen the optometrist for new glasses. Doris worked getting Colin’s genealogical book up to date. Then she told me, that to use our time, I should tell her my life’s story, and she would write it down. This was something I had managed to put off until this time.

One night we went to the fashion show held in the High School. The girls had done an excellent job sewing the clothes, and there were a lot of them, all modeled by the girls who made them. Doris said the girls had picked styles that could have come from the cover of Vogue magazine, and were suited to the girls who modeled them. Heather wore two she had made, and she looked exceptionally nice in hers. There was also two skits, and some very nice musical numbers, High School choir and individual singers as well. Some presentations were made.

I went to the trade fair held here, and it was excellent too. Colin was the MC for a couple of the shows. There was some outstanding singing by a teacher, who was also an entertainer. His eight-ten year old son also participated. the orchestra played Western dance music, which was very good. They were supposed to play until nine o’clock, but ended up playing until 10 o’clock. The last number was a dance number for the kids. Four women got up and danced with them, and after the first bit of awkwardness wore off, did they go to town. Gideon thought it was a gyp joint, as he handed a fellow $5.00 for a 50› shot at one booth, and the fellow told him he would not give him any change, he had to take it out in shots, then only gave him five shots! Later the fellow was not there, and I think he had been bounced after he was found out.

I stayed until it was over and rode home with Colin.

We have liked attending the branch of the church here, it is nice to be in a small ward again. The people are very friendly. We met some people who know Rod when Stake members came here to change the branch presidency.

One Sunday afternoon, we went with Colin and Annette to a natural spring with very good drinking water. They like to get water there, as the water in St. Paul tastes musty.

We have now purchased our plane tickets to Prince Rupert to visit Denyse. We are leaving July 2, and returning July 16, when the family will meet us at the airport and we will ride to Rod’s with them. It will help us both to go together.

See Autobiography of Doris H. Betts for what happened after this.

18 March 1986.

Doris and I have been in the Mission Home since the 12th, and as we are supposed to keep a journal, I guess it is time that I put a few words in it.

I have had a very hard time in learning the lessons, and I don’t suppose that it will ever be easy, but the Lord will help if I do my part. I never imagined there could be so many missionaries assembled in the MTC.

Doris and I have been called to the Fort Lauderdale Florida Mission, and I understand that it a very beautiful district. Doris is worried about the heat, but we will have to wait and see how it will be.

Sunday the 23rd of March. It is now ten o’clock, we have just finished our sacrament meeting, which was very good. Our group, which consists of four couples, presented the program. Doris has gone to the Sister’s meeting, so I am by myself for a few minutes.

We attended the Temple yesterday, and had a very good session.

We do not know how long we will be here as we have not yet received the notice of our departure date. The rest of our group have theirs.