George’s Childhood Reminiscences

SUNMOUND RANCH AS IT DEVELOPED

Trees were planted to act as windbreaks, additional sheds were built to provide shelter for the livestock in cold weather and the Wolf Hill School building was moved here and used as a workshop.  An extension was added to the house to provide additional space for a family of ten children.  The temporary grain storage bins were later replaced by metal granaries.

MY EARLIEST RECOLLECTION

The setting is on the family farm when I was just over two years old.  I had a small toy wagon, probably a gift for my birthday.  This wagon had black spoked wheels with black tires, a    varnished wooden box with black letters on the side of the box, which I couldn’t read. 

On this particular day my eight months old brother, Leo was riding in the wagon.  I was pulling and a neighbor girl was pushing. The wagon became stuck in the dirt and I yanked on the handle to free it.  Leo fell out of the wagon and began to howl.  I was convinced that he was going to die.

Probably because of this I started to cry also.  I don’t remember what Elsie’s reaction was.  In any event, our mother came rushing out of the house to see what was causing the cacophony.  I think she determined that there were no serious consequences.

THE COYOTE HOUNDS

Our father, as well as some of the neighbors, liked to hunt coyotes in the winter. This required the use of hounds to chase the coyotes and eventually kill them. The hounds were carried in a closed compartment in a sleigh. When a coyote was cited, the hounds were released and they began to chase the coyote. One of the hounds was normally larger than the others and was considered to be the killer.  The hounds must have relied almost exclusively on sight, because if the coyote was able to reach a clump of trees or bushes and hide, they usually would not find the animal.  The pelts of the coyotes were worth about $10 each. Dad did not like to skin the coyotes so he sold the whole animal, for $5.00, to a neighbor who did the skinning and sold the pelts. This man also hunted skunks, so he had a certain aura about him.

The hounds were not universally accepted by the neighbors. They were accused of various undesirable activities, such as, scaring livestock, eating poultry and other misdemeanors. However, there was never any really serious opposition to them.

The picture shows one of the hounds at the other task assigned to them. This was acting as a babysitter and playmate for me. This may seem like a strange combination of tasks but it seemed to work.

THE BENNETT BUGGY

During the 1930’s many people who had cars could not afford to buy gasoline to run them.  This led to the practice of removing the engine and using horses to pull the vehicle.  The name Bennett Buggy came from the Prime Minister of Canada at the time, R.B. Bennett, who was considered by many people to have caused the depression.

Dad had a small business converting cars to Bennett Buggies.  He did a more thorough job than is shown in the picture.  He removed the body of the car and created what was essentially a rubber tired wagon.  The resulting wagon could be used to haul grain using horses or, as happened later, it could be pulled by a car.

The cost of the conversion was $10.00 if the customer supplied the car and $15.00 if Dad supplied the car.  He got the cars at auction sales or by hauling them away when the people did not want to keep them any longer.

HENRY DAHL AND RUFUS DUVAL

These were two neighborhood youths who were a dozen or so years older than my brother and I.  As I grew older I realized that both of them had a similar characteristic. They were “short a few cards of a full deck”.  This made them not ideal role models.

On one occasion, my brother, Leo, and I accompanied them when they went to haul a load of hay back to the farm. After the hay rack was loaded, the horses could not, or would not, pull it away from the haystack.   Henry suggested building us fire under the horses to encourage them to move.  In the meantime, Leo had given the horses some hay to eat.  Rufus commented, “The fire is not a good idea. The kid has a better idea, giving them food to build up their strength”.   Soon the horses were able to move the load.

My wife’s father tells of an incident on his farm.  His hired man was faced with a similar problem and built a fire under the horses.  The result was that they moved the load so that the fire was under the hay rack.  The result was that the hay rack, the load of hay, and the haystack were all burned up.

THE HAUNTED HOUSE

On a 640 acre farm that our father rented from a trust company the vacant two story house and a large barn were still there. We became convinced that the house was haunted and spent a considerable amount of time looking for the ghosts.   Not surprisingly, we never did find them.

Later on, Dad bought the barn and we demolished it and used the lumber to build granaries.  A neighbor bought the haunted house and hauled it to his farm, using a Caterpillar tractor borrowed from the municipality.  He converted it into a barn. This effectively ended the legend of the haunted house.

THE MISSIONARY BARREL

Our grandmother, our mother’s aunt, was quite active in her church in Calgary. Every year she would collect some used clothing, from the members of the congregation, and bring it out to the farm for us children. We called this “The Missionary Barrel”.

She would spend the time at the farm altering the clothing to fit us. As a result, we had clothing to wear to school, even though it was used and not always very suitable.  I can remember one occasion when I was the recipient of a pair of knee length velvet shorts.  Naturally, these were not typical clothing worn by the boys at Wolf Hill School and I was teased about them.  I was able to convince my mother that old coveralls were a better choice to wear to school.

Another characteristic of this clothing was mittens that had thumbs so small that one’s thumb would not fit into them. When we complained about this to our grandmother, she said that she didn’t want to say anything to the lady who knitted them because she would probably stop knitting them.  So we continued to wear mittens without being able to use the thumb.

This is a family picture taken on one of these visits.  The car is a Hudson.  Grandfather’s pride and joy was getting a new Hudson every two years.  It looks like I may be wearing the velvet shorts.

THE HOPEFUL MOTHER

On a visit to one of the neighbors Leo and I were playing with their youngest daughter, who was four or five years older.  After displaying her genitalia she told us that she intended to have a baby before she was sixteen.

I don’t know if she achieved her goal of motherhood at sixteen, but I do remember that, after she became a few years older, she was known throughout the district for her availability.

THE TONSILECTOMY

One of features of life in the country was the periodic visit of a clinic.  It was considered desirable for the children to have their tonsils and adenoids removed at these clinics.

On one occasion we had gone to the town where the clinic was located.  Dad noticed that none of us was wearing shoes.  When he asked about this, we cheerfully told him that it was because we didn’t have any.  He took us to the local general store and bought shoes for everyone.  We arrived at the clinic properly shod.

When I had the required surgery there weren’t any complications that I can recall, but I remember the daughter of one of the neighbors having a serious problem with hemorrhaging.   Eventually they were able to stop the bleeding and she had no lasting ill effects.

THE LOST PASSENGER

On one of our car trips to visit a neighbor, when the car went around a corner, the door to the back seat came open and one of my sisters fell out.  We were able to make enough noise over that of the car engine to alert Dad that there was a problem.  He backed the car to where she had fallen and it turned out that she wasn’t hurt.  This was probably one of the good things about a slow moving car.

THE ROAD CONSTRUCTION CREW

The farmers could “work off” their municipal taxes by building and repairing the district roads.  Dad was the foreman on one these crews and he used to take me with him sometimes.

The main implement used was the fresno.  This was a machine, pulled by four horses, with a long handle on the back that was used to control the loading and dumping of the dirt.  One person was required to drive the horses and another to load and dump the fresno.  I can remember Dad complaining to his brother about the inability of the teenagers, sent by their parents to work on the crew, to handle the fresno.   He felt that they didn’t have any strength.

OTHER MEMORIES

THE CAR THAT NEVER CAME

In 1936 Dad made a unusual decision. He decided to buy a new car. Accordingly, he ordered a Chevrolet sedan from the dealer in Craigmyle, about thirty kilometers away.  I think the cost was somewhere around $400.

We were eagerly anticipating this new vehicle which would have meant that we would no longer be riding in the back of a truck.  Unfortunately, a hailstorm arrived before the car did.  Since this wiped out the crop for that year Dad had to cancel the order for the car.

The car dealer was also a part-time pastor who came to a nearby school to provide Sunday services.  He kept the light blue car for himself so that we got to see what it looked like.  This probably made not having the car for our own family use more painful.

THE HAILSTORM HAZARD

Hailstorms were one of the major hazards to farming during the 1930s.  In a matter of minutes the hail could completely wipe out the crop for the year. The fact that there was very little rain during this period meant that the crops were very sparse at best.  However, they did provide some income.  Hail insurance was available, but was relatively expensive and not many farmers carried it.

However, there was one small benefit from a hailstorm. We could collect the ice and use it to make ice cream. Consequently, after a hailstorm we would rush out to gather up hailstones and use them to make ice cream.  This was a small side blessing to offset the damage done by the hail.

THE RUNAWAY HORSE

One day I was riding towards home when the horse decided to take control of the situation and began to gallop homeward.  At first this did not seem to present a problem, but as we started to get closer to the barn I realized that the doorway was too low for me to enter while riding the horse.  There wasn’t much time to think about this so I did the most appropriate thing that I could think of.  I fell off the horse.  Fortunately I wasn’t hurt at all so the incident was over without any real problems.

THE DYING HORSE

When I was about 12 years old one of the most traumatic experiences of my life occurred.

One of the horses that we had considered to be a pet when she was a colt grew up to be a fine example of a Clydesdale horse. In addition to being a good workhorse she was still viewed as a pet.  One morning this horse did not come to the barnyard with the other horses. I went to look for her in the pasture and found her lying on the ground, obviously very sick.

The next morning she was still lying there and appeared to be in worse condition. When I told Dad this he said, “Take your rifle and shoot her. If we leave her lying there the coyotes will probably start to eat her while she is still alive”.

I took the gun and shot the horse.  Then I sat on the on the ground with her head in my lap and cried.  I think this was the last time in my life that I actually cried tears.

THE CHANGING OF THE SPECIES

In the late 1920’s Dad decided to go into the horse breeding business.  Accordingly, he obtained a registered Clydesdale stallion.  It required a number of years, until about 1932, to build up a sizable herd of horses, to “break” (train) them and have them suitable for sale.

By this time, the market for horses was affected by two events.  The depression was well underway and farmers were financially strapped and not buying much of anything.  The other problem was the adoption of tractors to replace horses.  As a result there was essentially no local market for the horses.  The only market was in Quebec, this obviously entailed considerable cost to ship the animals that far.  A typical team of two horses would sell for $25.

By way of contrast, a pony, suitable for children to ride to school, would sell for up to $25 locally.  We also raised these, for our own use and for sale, but in limited numbers.  They had to be very gentle and well trained so that a young child could ride them.  I was, generally speaking, chiefly responsible for this training.

As an adjunct to raising the horses, Dad earned some money by “travelling the stallion” (taking him around to other farms to impregnate the farmer’s mares).  This was very time consuming but did bring in a little cash, and enabled him to learn where the best cooks lived.  After it became obvious that horses were not a quick, or even a slow, way to riches Dad switched to registered cattle.

THE BARBED WIRE TELEPHONE

It was common practice to use the wire fences as a method of carrying telephone messages. It was necessary to provide an overhead wire at every gate so that machinery could pass through underneath the wire without affecting the telephone service.  The installation of the wires could be done by the farmer; the installation of telephone instrument normally was done by someone in the community with a bit more skill.

Each household had a unique ring signal that was generated by a crank operated magneto and in order to call a particular house it was necessary to use the crank on the telephone to ring the appropriate number of long and short rings. Everyone hooked up to the system heard these rings and could listen on the phone. This was known as “rubbering”.  Some people spent a good deal of time at this and consequently were well versed in the neighborhood gossip.  The electric power needed to carry the voice messages was provided by batteries in the telephone. 

Sometimes someone with access to the regular telephone system, usually a business in town, would also be on the party line and could relay messages to people on other party lines, or to people who had regular telephone service that was provided by Alberta Government Telephones (AGT).

One of the problems with the system occurred if a cow wandered through a fence and broke the wire; then all those houses beyond the break would only have service to people on their side of the break.  An advantage was that there was no monthly telephone bill to pay.

THE MURDER NON-MYSTERY

Our involvement with this event began late one night, in 1936, when a car drove in to the farm yardand a voice announced, “This is the RCMP. One of your neighbors has been shot, through the window as he sat in the kitchen of his house, and we think that Happy may be involved.  Have you seen him recently?”  Happy had been the “hired man” at our farm for a couple of years, but since we hadn’t seen him for some months we were unable to provide any information.

The next day the victim’s nephew did not come to school and he subsequently told us that the police had asked him to accompany them as they looked for Happy. It turned out that they did indeed find him riding on a wagon on the way to Craigmyle.  The police took him into custody.

It later came out that the victim’s wife had been the instigator of the murder. She had been involved in an intimate relationship with Happy and, in fact, had encouraged him to have a similar relationship with one of her daughters, who was 14 years old at the time.

It seemed apparent that the principal unknowns in a typical “Murder Mystery” , namely WHO?, WHY? And HOW?, had been explained and therefore the event did not qualify as a Murder Mystery any longer. 

In due course, they were both tried and convicted.  Happy was sentenced to death and was subsequently executed at the jail in Fort Saskatchewan; after having been befriended by the former Craigmyle car dealer, who had by this time started a thriving church, Beulah Alliance, in Edmonton. The victim’s wife was sentenced to life imprisonment.

There were six children in the victim’s family, ranging in age from five to eighteen years.  The two eldest moved away and the others were taken in by their uncle, who lived on an adjacent farm.  They continued to attend Wolf Hill School, and I don’t think there were any problems with the others at school.  However, it must have been a terrible experience for them.

The final installment of the saga, for me, occurred some 25 years later when the victim’s wife came to the church, in Edmonton, that I was attending.  Because I think churches have a role in helping people in need of advice and support, my decision not make any attempt to contact her was a very difficult one for me. She was obviously having difficulty adjusting after so many years in prison. After a few weeks she stopped coming.

THE BEEF RING

In the 1930’s very few rural households had electric power and consequently most had no adequate cold storage available.  Some used icehouses, but there was no reasonably accessible source of ice in our area.

A common solution was the formation of a “Beef Ring”.  This was an association of twenty to twenty five farms.  During the summer months, each week one of the members would contribute a steer to be butchered.  The meat was then divided amongst the members, an attempt was made to provide some variety in the meat provided to the individual members.  The person who had the required facilities and skill and who did the butchering did not have to contribute an animal.  Usually the people in an area would take turns picking up the meat and distributing it to their immediate neighbors.

During the winter most people could, sometimes with the help of a neighbor, do their own butchering and freeze the meat to store it until needed.

THE WORKFARE PROGRAMS

The initial program intended to provide employment for men not able to find work was known as “Relief Camps”.  In Alberta these were primarily involved in doing development work in the National Parks.

An anecdote about these camps that circulated widely was; a new arrival went to his foreman and complained that he didn’t have a shovel.  The foreman responded, “Don’t worry, you’ll be paid anyway”.  To which the complainant replied, “But that’s not fair.  Everyone else has something to lean on”.

The Social Credit government initiated a different program aimed at farm “Hired Men”, who were usually out of work in the winter.  They paid the man $5.00 per month to stay working on the farm and the farmer $5.00 for feeding him.  Some of the farmers gave their $5.00 to the hired man.

A non-governmental philosophy expressed by some farmers was, “If you raise and sell two or three extra pigs. That will pay the hired man’s wages.  And he will feed them.” 

I suppose you could say that this is a capitalistic viewpoint.