Shaun Newman Podcast - SNP Archives #12 - George Mann & Ev Long

Episode Date: January 20, 2021

Long time residents of the community, siblings, they grew up near Sandy Beach Saskatchewan. The central theme of the podcast is what life was like back on the prairies before running water & electricity. We discuss stories of heading to Onion Lake before the bridge was in, moving cattle across the ferry, self taught swimming, Lloydminster with two movie theaters (the Empress & the Rio), making a living/lifestyle with cattle on the farm. Let me know what you think Text me! 587-217-8500

Hi, this is Braden Holby. Hey, this is Tanner, the Bulldozer Bozer. Hi, this is Brian Burke from Toronto, Ontario. This is Daryl Sutterin. Hello, everyone. I'm Carlyagro from SportsNet Central. This is Jay On Right. This is Quiddiquity coming to you from Tuffino, Saskatchew. Hey, everybody, my name is Theo Fleury.

This is Kelly Rudy. This is Corey Krause. This is Wade Redden. This is Jordan Tutu. My name is Jim Patterson. Hey, it's Ron McLean, Hockeynet in Canada, and Rogers' Hometown Hockey, and welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Hump Day, Wednesday. Hope everybody's doing well.

We've got a great one on Tap Free. We're winding the clock again this week on another Archives episode. And this one was recorded back in May 2020, so it's a while ago now that it was first recorded. It is great. Nonetheless, I'm excited for you guys to hear it. But before we get there, let's get to today's episode sponsors. First, we have Jane Gilbert and team over at Coldwell Banker, Cityside Realty. They've served the community for over 40 years since 1976, and they're a passion about her community,

and they pride themselves in giving back through volunteer opportunities and partnerships as often as they can. You know, I was talking about it earlier in the week, and if you missed Monday's episode, I'll share it again. One of the random things, like she said they get involved in these random opportunities, and I don't know if there's any more random, this, the plastic bags. There's a lady from North Battleford, Lacey Lehman. She posted on Facebook looking for plastic bags, and then what she does with them is weave plastic, she weaves

plastic bags into mats for the homeless. I've looked at them. They're pretty incredible, to be honest. Anyways, most of us would just, oh yeah, I hear some plastic bags. Well, Coldwell got involved and became a place for dropping them off and just really, um, tried to help supercharge getting these plastic bags to Lacey so she can build more mats for the homeless. It was pretty cool initiatives, and I was kind of like, you're doing what now? But that's what you get when you team up with Coldwell Banker. Three trees tap and kitchen and collaboration with the kinsmen and Kinnets. They are doing telemirical steak night.

The kinsman will be cooking steaks outside, three trees, and then three trees will be packaging the steaks with a salad, potato, and dessert. The kinsman and kinnets will then be delivering your meals to your door. It is Saturday, February 6, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tickets are $50 for the steak dinner, or they have a $10 kids option, chicken fingers and fries. Each ticket purchase includes free entry into door prize draws and delivery of the meal directly to your door. The night doesn't end with the meal. They are also providing live stream entertainment that will include music by Buds Busted Nine Irons, live updates of silent auction items, celebrity cameras,

door prizes, for tickets you can call Lewis Stang 306-8217275 or Darcy Wildman 780871 4818. Crudemaster, since 2006, Crudemaster has been an integral part of our community and I could probably discuss all they've done and what they can offer in the oil and gas industry, but I honestly wanted to just shine a bit of a light on what they do behind the scenes for our community.

I'm talking about Heath and Tracy McDonald, who can continue to give to projects such as mine, the podcast. But I helped do the 12-hour live stream for the Health Foundation, and Crude Master was a donation there. When it comes to senior hockey, the Hillman hitman have been very fortunate to have partners such as Heath and Tracy and Crude Master giving to hockey out in Helmand. And just admire Heath and Tracy and the initiatives they have.

They have a successful business here in Lloyd Minster, but they continue to push for better things for all these community initiatives, and my hats off to their group over at Crudmaster. HSI group, they're the local oil field burners and combustion experts that can help make sure you have a compliant system working for you. The team also offers security of surveillance and automation products for residential, commercial livestock, and agricultural applications. Here at the podcast studio, they are,

they have the technology that has given us surveillance. They got the FOB key, nice and simple, getting in and out of the doors. They are working with Elkridge Resort to update their system there as it's been purchased. So they got some cool things going on there. And not just oil and gas, they've got multiple different ways they can help you, whether we're talking livestock, commercial, or residential. So make sure you give Brody or Kim a call today 306, 825, 663. A new one, Kiva Concrete.

You may remember Chris Weeb, he was on the podcast, way, way back at the start. And Kiva Concrete has hopped on since 1979, I should know this year, the year of the Edmonton Oilers. Kiva Concrete has been a family owned and operated business. That is almost 42 years of business here in the area, and they offer all concrete services from residential, decorative, and commercial flatwork. They did the new countertops, the Elk Ridge Resort, updating a few things there. Or I bumped into Chris in the summertime, and they were doing the new patio for Spiro's restaurant.

I suggest you hop on their Instagram page and chuck out all of Kiva Concrete's work and their latest projects that they're doing. Give Chris a call a day, 780, 875-7678. If you're getting into any of these businesses, make sure you let them know you heard about them on the podcast. If you're interested in advertising on the show, visit Shurray. Sean Newman podcast, Top Party Corner. Hit the contact button and send me your information. There's a few spots still available for 2021. Now, let's get on to that T-Barr 1, Tale of the Tape.

Longtime residents of the community, siblings, they grew up near Sandy Beach, Saskatchewan. They talk of days before running water and electricity on the prairies, self-taught swimming lessons, and moving cattle across the ferry. I'm talking about George Mann, and Eve Long. So buckle up. Here we go. Okay, well, let's start here. It is June 28th, about one in the afternoon, 2020. I'm joined by Evelyn Long and George Mann to talk about their history, their parents' history. So first off, thanks for joining me, you two. And we got Mr. Morgan Mann along to help

narrate as well. So thanks for joining me, guys. You're welcome. Thank you. So why don't we start there? Let's talk about the man's. You guys were just talking a little bit about being here before the bar of colonists. Why doesn't somebody hop in there and we can start with that? George came west. As a farm instructor. Yes, I guess so they went, well everything in the early days was happening north of the river. And so they were at Onion Lake. And he was a telegraph. He built the first. telegraph line into Lloydminster when the bar colonies got bar colonists got there and

that's how he met Granny man or granny Ethel Burgess Burgess yeah and she was a bar colonist yeah she was about 21 when she came over so perfect marriage age I guess did you ever ask growing up why Lloydminster like why this is Did your grandparents or your parents ever talk to them, talk about it? Not really. I think they came here because that's where they were, that group of bark halls was sent to. Yeah, they already had their pieces of land, their sections picked out to go to the farm. How many of the men came over from England?

Well, our grandfather had one brother and four sisters. and four sisters, wasn't it? I'm not sure. But I know some of them stayed in Ontario, and I'm pretty sure maybe there was three brothers. I don't know. Some of them farmed in the States. So the first man to come out was George Gwen, Sr.

Okay. And Evelyn, was he married when he came out to be farm instructor at Onion Lake? I think so. Yeah, he had a family then. And so it was his son, George Gwen Jr., Right. He was the telegraph.

He was a young man during the Real Rebellion. And then when Lloyd settled with the Bar Colonnis, he came to, he met Ethel at one of the Bar Columnus dances. Right. And I think about a year later, as Evelyn was saying, they were the first to be married in the Log Church. The one sitting on the east side of town. So when Lloyd Minster had their 100th year anniversary,

we did a reenactment of the wedding where I actually I married my sister. Yeah. I said it was a lot of fun. It was a really good deal. Yeah. And so we, everything from dress to we came up in a cart and buggy or a horse and buggy and in the church. And it was a, we got into costume and it was a real good event.

Yeah. There was a lot of older ladies there that were quite excited. Yeah. They were waiting in the church. 12. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They were excited just because of what they got to wear? I think there was that part of it. Evelyn was one of the lead organizers of the event,

so she could speak to it more so. What was your question again? Well, just you reenacted an old wedding. I'm curious, what were the things that in particular made it stick out? What details of an old wedding were you like, oh, geez, I haven't thought about that. And that's what they did back then. That log church was still there, and they were the first couple married in our grandie and grandpa.

Grandparents. Yeah, our grandparents. Right. I think a lot of the Bar Colniss, the original Bar Colness families, it was exciting for them to celebrate in that ceremony. So a lot of those families were there, and everybody came in dress of the time from, I remember gluing on with a fake mustache tag that come out of the side and a scotch cap. Oh, and there's there it is. Look at those hats.

The arc had we'll be able to pull that up, but man. Yeah. So we dressed, I mean, we looked very similar to that, didn't we, Dorff? Yes. Melissa had a dress quite like that. Yeah. Yeah. There was a whole week of activities, but that, I think, for our family, it was a,

a special day to celebrate to reenact that. Cousin Assel. Yeah. I needed to have six mics in here. Cousin Assel brought her cart and horse in and the bride and groom were toured around the park. Yeah. Yeah, it was very good. pretty cool to celebrate a piece of history like that, especially for this area, the first wedding.

The church still being here, being able to go in and actually see. Exactly. Yeah, that's pretty unbelievable. Our son, Ron was the minister. Yeah. Ron was the minister. Yeah. A family event. Yeah. I think the ushers were family, brothers and sisters. Yeah. Who was the bride and groom? Sis and I. Yeah. Dave was a black Or a flower girl

Yeah Yeah How about your guys' child? Let's go to I was talking to George Before we started Your mother died early on Is what I was told

Do you have memories Ev you would have been the oldest? Yeah, I don't remember her at all And your father never remarried No Well he did in later years He married Marguerite McEul Oh okay

Yeah But he spread his love Around the country That's all I'm going to say. How was growing up with your siblings? I mean, I know I grew up with Francis's kids, admired Morgan Merv playing hockey, but what were you three like as young whippersnappers?

Well, we were awful shy and quiet. Yeah. Somehow I find that hard to believe with us. Frank was only 15 months old. When your mother passed. Yes. And I was five. George was...

Holy man. Our grandmother's on both sides helped to raise us to a certain extent. Okay. And then housekeepers. And then I got old enough to do it. So I used to make the school lunches and George and Frank would get the horses and we would go to school. So you guys would ride horse to school? Yeah.

We had a sleigh in the summer or in the winter. Weather. And where was school for you? Black Rock, about two and a half miles across country. Right beside Justin Babies. Oh, right beside Justin Babies. Okay. You'd know where that is.

Yeah, absolutely, yeah. Yeah. Now, it was tough. How so? What do you remember about it being tough? Well. I mean, besides having to saddle up. We were alone quite a bit on the weekends.

Our dad was away a lot. What did your dad do for work? Oh, farm. And he built telephone line. If there was a job come up where there was a piece of telephone line to build, he could climb, so he'd build these telephone lines, him and George Payne. On the weekends, then he'd be working and you guys would be at home? Oh, yeah, sometimes.

We were home and little lot. Yeah, we were, yeah. Not always because of work. I remember one Christmas we had the tree up, and my mom had had all these little plastic candles that clipped on. Okay. And we decided to light them, and we let them all up and looked at it for a while,

and then we decided we'd better blow them out, and we could have burnt the whole house down right there. How old were you, do you think back when you were doing that? Not very old. At least you had to have a little. Grady lived right in the yard, but she didn't, like, she was getting older, and she didn't want to really get too involved in what was happening. But she did help us a lot.

Oh, yeah. And she'd have us down for meals every now and then. I think, and I think Pete ate there every noon hour. Yeah. She cooked dinner for him. So you guys learned to fend for yourselves at an early age then is what you're saying. A fair bit. Yeah, we came home.

The breakfast tables was still, the breakfast dishes were on the table, so I would get busy and wash that and then cooked potatoes. And you mentioned having hired people in the house to help chores or meals? It was housekeepers. We never had a hired man in the yard. And what did you think of having a housekeeper in the house? Well, some were good and some we didn't get along with some good. The ones you didn't get along with, what were his just attitude?

Yeah, and strict with us. Well, and one lady had five kids of her own. Living with you guys. She didn't stay a whole long time. She was only there a short time. Yeah. How often would you change out? Oh, they'd never stayed too long.

They didn't. No, found it tough enough conditions themselves probably. Yeah. I think so, and they were kind of in the same situation we were. They had... Looking for something. Yeah. To make a dollar.

Yeah. And for something better. Yeah. I would add, Sean, I've always, I think our generation of Dorothy and I and the kids, to speak for them, they had a tough upbringing. Their dad was a hard man and without the touch of a mom at home. and nothing extra wasn't easy, but for the three kids for Dad and Eveleen and Frank,

they became extremely close. And right, and to this day are very loyal to each other, and it made for kids that are united them as a family as three kids. And so Christmases and family celebrations all the way growing up were always celebrated together because of just how close the three of them were and protective of each other? We always went to the Lindsay's for Christmas Day. Yeah, the aunts, Pete's sisters, the aunts really looked out for you guys too, didn't they? Very much so.

We went to the Robertons for New Year's. Yeah. Did you live a time with Robertson's too, even? One year for high school because there was no bus. Yeah. So, yeah, so Annie Marion took me in. Be able to get to school.

Probably grade nine. And then we had a bus that went all the way up to Al Curve. Like, well, it was, what would you call it, George? It was a feeder bus. Yeah, but it was just a little van. Yeah, and we sat on the side. Yeah, it had benches, you know. Yeah, and they picked us up, and then Alfred

Harold Peterson and took us to Al Curve and then we got on a big bus so we got on that little bus about 7.30 in the morning yeah yeah and we had to walk out to the road I only lasted two weeks I quit school yeah what grade you quit school in I got two weeks of nine two weeks a nine well Frank and I hung in there where was high school for you Lloydminster you guys did come in what Yeah, from Alker, we got on the big bus, bussed into town. Yeah. What was the school back then in Lloyd? It was at the high school.

Was it the comp? Was it around back then? No, the comp wasn't around. But it was in the same area? What was now, it's been taken down Neville Goss? Novel Goss. Right in the same area, there's apartment buildings there now, Sean, where Bresidea Slared. Yeah.

Yeah. Was it? Was that the high school? Yeah. I don't remember that. I always marveled at the school because it was still around when I was a student, but they had this beautiful big gymnasium. And Queenie, the elementary school I went to, never had,

we didn't have a gym at that time. So going over to Jack, well, then it was called Jack Kemp was a real treat because they had a big gymnasium. Yeah, a high school gymnasium from their years of being a high school. So I've got to ask, George, you quit school in grade nine, what do you go do?

Oh, I went to farm and I guess you'd call it. I guess you'd call it. What did you call it? Well, I was helping out at home. Yeah. Well, you went to work with Lindsay's. I worked for Jim and Dave Lindsay, you'd know them. Okay, yeah.

Feeding cattle for the winter. Yeah. Did you ever think of going back to school? Oh, a couple of times. But when it come time to go, I didn't go. Do you ever wish you would have finished out school? No. No.

No. I wasn't a good student. What did you want to do when you were growing up? Did you just always want to farm? Yeah, that's what I thought of, getting back and getting farming. How about you have? You graduated from high school then? Yes.

What was it that you wanted to grow up to be when you're in high school? Did you have a dream of being a nurse? Okay. And I was very fortunate. I trained at St. Paul's Hospital in Saskatoon under the Grey Nuns. And all I had to do was put down $100 deposit. And that was it. Once we started working on the wards, we got a stipend.

We got $4 the first year, six the next, and then eight the last year. a month because we were shipped right out onto the well we had the first until the end of January we had class

and then they put us out right into work yeah and then we'd have classes with our whoever was over there looking after us you'd learn quickly yeah

and having a little bit of money probably it felt pretty good. Well, it did help because there was a little store and we could go and get chips or something once in a while. And my friend and I walked all the way down to the Avenue H pool and took swimming lessons one summer because we were on the right block that we had the time to go and that's when they were teaching them. So up until that point then you'd never learned swimming or never gone to swimming lessons? No. Do you both know how to swim? Yeah, we learned how to swim quite young because we lived right on the lake.

But never to actual structured swimming lessons? We were never taught the proper way. We just learned how to swim. Throwed on your back. So we tell him what Pete would say? Don't know. Sure tell him. What would Pete say? What the hell is wrong with you? Get down there and learn

swim. Pretty tough. Yeah. It's interesting. You know, you mentioned having a pretty tough father, tough upbringing. I always think the man, and, you know, an extension now, I guess you're along,

but the man's been always so extremely nice. And what was it then about the three of you, bonding together that you look back and pull like all the good out of that when you look back. Does that make sense? Yeah, I think so. Well, the three of us got along very well. We'd have our little spats once in a while. We did get along quite well. Siblings never have spats. No, never. What did you guys do for fun the three? Like what was your fun time? You're gonna... In the winter we had skates and I was a goalie

and I didn't really enjoy that, but we'd go down on the lake and frankly. Did you have pads on that kind of thing? I think maybe a newspaper or something. Tied to your legs? Yeah. And they were shooting an actual puck, I assume. Yeah, well, I told them not above the ankles, not above the ankles. How many times did they hit you above the ankles?

A few times. Well, let's talk about sports. Did you guys grow up in elementary school and onwards playing sports? You mentioned hockey? We didn't play much hockey, but we played a lot of ball at school, and we had a very good ball team at Black Rock School for a few years. Yeah. Now are we talking slow pitch?

No, orthodox. Orthodox, orthodox, okay. We actually made it right to Green Street in the playoffs one year, didn't we? Yeah, all the schools, you see, would play off and keep whoever got eliminated. and then about four teams would end up at Green Street at the final. Picnic. Track meet of the year, picnic, they called it.

Yeah. And we made it there several times. But never won her. Never won it. North Bend or Albion was too tough for us. They had too many kids. Isn't that just lovely to hear, like, you think now, when was the last time of ball term was ever played at Green Street?

Yeah. You know, it's been a long time. Yeah. And now you hardly have any ball minus in Lloyd, I think. I mean, Irma's got a really strong team and probably had a couple other communities but when you mentioned off all those teams like that's a

that's pretty cool. Would it be Coed then? Would it be boys and girls playing on the same team? Oh yes. I remember there was a team on and we didn't know if we're going to get there or not and all of a sudden we looked down and there was a car at the gate

they'd come to pick us up so we were really excited about that right George yeah I remember that yeah we had no riding and then yeah somebody showed up and picked us up and took us I can't remember who it was yeah do you remember who it was dad Bert Nois oh was it Bert yeah oh good yeah we we really enjoyed that playing ball yeah and we were pretty good I guess because they came and got us yeah yeah did Frank play with you as well that Oh, yes. So the three of you on a team together?

Well, we only had enough at school to make a team. So it would be then, if I'm thinking about this character, it would be boys and girls, it'd be a school team. So you would have an age group of, say, like, 7 to age 12 kind of thing? Yeah. Most teams had two or three little ones on. Yeah. Then they made a rule that you had to have so many. He couldn't have all great tents like North Bend or Albion, but I had...

They were winning too many tags. They got to put a couple of rules on. All the priest boys there, you didn't have a hope. What did... We beat out, what school was it that was on the 10-mile road that we beat out and got to go to... Maybe that was North Gully. Yeah, North Gully. Maybe that was where we went when they came and picked.

this up and played. Could have been. Yeah. Was it one-room schoolhouse where you went? Yeah. How many kids back then? Well, one time we had about 15, but Black Rock got right down to about nine kids. So then that's about the time they closed the school.

Yeah. Do you remember what year that was? No. I was already gone into high school then, I think. What was one teacher then? One teacher, yeah. One teacher, a little schoolhouse out in the prairie. Right.

What was discipline like back then? What was that? Discipline. Oh, it was pretty good, but there was always a little term where the teacher had to whack somebody over the side of the head. What would the teacher whack you over the side of the head with? No, it was just a ruler. Ruler? It was pretty strict, wasn't it?

Oh, yeah, some teachers were a lot stricter than others. Well, it was Nick Meekin, wasn't it, that we started out with? Yeah. Yeah. Then we had some younger girls that were just out of teacher training. They were pretty nice. They didn't whack you over the head with the roof. You feel like you got whacked over the head with the ruler a couple times, George.

Several times. Do you remember what you were doing on such occasion? Not totally. He's not telling him. I heard stories about Dixie Hutchin. Oh, yeah. Oh, Dixie. Were you talking too much?

And you got sent to the cloak room, and Dixie came back and said, George and I liked it in the cloak room. I can't remember who the teacher was then, no. How about weather back in the day? I know traveling two and a half miles to school both ways, at the best of times when you're taking a five-minute drive, the weather can change pretty rapidly,

but moving horses back and forth, having to saddle them up, on saddle them, everything. Was there times when the snow would come in and she'd be, we ain't getting anywhere, or did you have something like that? We had some very cold trips because of what was some, We had to go to the northwest and usually right into the wind. So about two and a half miles of school, when it was 20 below, it was a pretty cold trip.

I think the snow was deeper then, too. I think we got more snow. I remember we got off the tracks once, and where it was packed, it was good. We got off the side, and the horses were just lunging like that to get back on. How about the river? Did you guys ever go? you up on the river at all? No, not too much. Just we went to Onion Lake for something. Just sports days

or... We always went to the 1st of July, Onion Lake Sports Day. Oh, okay. Let's talk about it a little bit. That was because of Granny, I think that's what they did. They were involved with Onion Lake and Mands. Back then there wouldn't have been a bridge, correct? No, fairy. A little ferry. A little barge? Yeah, right at the He was. landing. Yeah. So you'd take the barge across and then ride horses across to onion or do you have... No, we had an old car. An old car? What did you have for an old car?

Oh, I don't know what it was. It wasn't fancy anyway. It was black and square and George and Frank would fall asleep in the back. You used to pasture cows at Onion Lake though and have to try and get them back across the river. Lots of stories with that. Yeah, I remember when we

first year married. That was in later years when we put the on the ferry. Put cows on the ferry? Yeah, we'd drive about, oh, up to 40 cows, cows on the ferry. Really? And did they ever? The odd one would jump off, but they'd usually swim to, well, they would, they'd swim to shore. Yeah. Make it, we'd have to go downriver and pick them up. That had to be quite the same. Do you have any pictures of that? Do you guys ever take pictures of that?

Yeah, we've got some pictures of crossing the cows on the ferry. I'd have to look for them, but I know there's pictures there. Jeez, that's something that would be a sight, wouldn't it? It is. I've seen them. I remember whenever I first got married, who went out and watched you guys push cows on the ferry and come across, and there was one day a probably tried to jump over the front fence. We got her back leg, caught, and there were about four men,

came in and lifted the gate and the cow right up. and to get her free and that and she'd got kept got through that gate she'd jumped off the end of it and then the ferry would have

ran over top of her and it saved her actually there's just something you don't hear about anymore no those days are gone those days are gone yeah you truck them now

yeah well there's just too many ferries anymore right like in our area the paint and ferry is I go across it much every second day going to work, but other than that, there just isn't a whole lot of ferries anymore. Well, we were across the river and come back that way this last past summer just to say we'd been on the ferry from. Yeah, we went Harold out a picnic. I think he's going to have another

one, George. It's probably my favorite part of my day. It's you get on the ferry and you just get to turn the truck off and sit there and it's just peaceful. Yeah. Right? It's just peaceful. You don't get that a lot in life anymore. No. Going back to the sports days in Enion Lake, what did they have back then? Well, they had horse sports, so they had potato races, which was about five, six would line up. They'd have a stick in their hand, and they'd charge down and see how many potatoes they could get, pick one at a time, and come back and put down and keep. So it got pretty hilarious watching these people get up back and forth with a potato on a stick.

Jim Cana events Yes And then a horse race Yeah Because that's sort of what ended it It was a good day Because they had Everything was a bit wild and woolly

And you could get a laugh They had some booze Booze Or ice cream I was hearing booze I better sit up straight When did you guys meet your significant others? Oh, I met Leonard at the hospital when I came back and started nursing on the surgical floor.

And his mom was in there for something. Oh, wow, really? Yeah. So then he appeared at the nurse's residence one evening looking for you. Not with Galbatter trouble No, he hasn't had that Do you remember your first date? Or how about

We went to the show And we went up into the balcony balcony, yeah And guess who was there? Rob and Eileen What is the show? What was the show?

What building is that? What are you talking about? Oh, the old May Theater? The old May Theater. Yeah. It was called the Empress then. And it had a balcony. Yeah, it had a balcony.

Well, we went, Granny took us there. Like, we would go shopping on Saturday. Granny had to go shopping on Saturday. Get her groceries to get them to the car. And Pete would go to the bar, so we would go and see the show, and then go back and wait in the car until we can. The car to the bar closed. Yeah.

And then. I sat between him and Granny, and he would fall asleep, and I would sit with my left foot on the gas and steer, and we'd get home. Holy man, you must have been scared stiff by the time you got back. Not really. There wasn't, only one thing happened where you go through that dip by weavers. Somebody came across, and they hit their back bumper on ours, and it won't be it up. It was mad at you guys and he was sleeping.

Yeah. Do you remember, going back to the show, do you remember what the first movie was, or one of the first movies, or maybe a favorite movie back in the day that you guys saw there? Oh, that Grady took us too. I don't really, I remember there was a, if you went to the real, they were westerns,

and if you went to the emperous, they were something else. What was the other? place? The Empress. The Empress and which show. The Rio. It was just around the corner. Where would you say it was that? Between Skinnerville, there's a four dealership and the

Skinner Motors and So am I understanding Lloyd had two movie theaters? Two movie theaters. I wasn't aware of that. And they were usually full on a Saturday night. Interesting. How long ago did, well I mean obviously it was a long time ago because I don't ever remember it, but how long did Rio stay going then?

Oh, it was going until I was pretty well growing up. And they were both indoor? Was there outdoor movies as well? They were indoor. They were indoor. They always had a Christmas show because we, Granny, to always make sure we got to that at the Rio.

And what was the Christmas show? Just a movie? Yeah, a movie. It was the one year it was about a black leopard and Frank dreamed about that for a long time after. He really scared him. That wasn't a movie for kids. Sort of like watching the job.

Well, he thought the black leopard was coming. A black leopard or something. Yeah, a big black cow. How about you, George? How did you meet your significant other? My wife, she was nursing at the Lloydminster Hospital, and she liked horses. And we used to drive cattle from Marshall Tyndall.

He'd, we'd drive them right from Lloyd out to right by our place. And she got quite friendly with Marsha, so she started coming on these drives. That's how we met. And then you sweet-taught her. Yeah, being fairly smooth. That's there for the end of time. How did you ask her to marry him? Oh, I don't know.

I guess we just talked about it and decided we were going to get married. Do you remember where you got the ring from? Yes,ers. And where is that in Lloyd? Right in Lloyd. Is she come with you or did you go buy it yourself? No, she come. I told her you better pick it out or get it and she mightn't like it.

How about your wedding? How many people at your wedding? Oh, quite a few. What was it didn't sound like. That's a story in itself. Yeah. It was a big blizzard the night before, and it didn't look like anyone was going to get there.

What time he hears this? December. December, okay. And I got down there. Next, I see everybody started coming, and then they start telling the story. Harry Thompson from the Grater, and Ethel got him out about 2 o'clock in the morning.

When the wind and the storm was over, and Ethel had it figured out who always come into the wedding from up in this country, and Harry plowed him out. Isn't that a great story? Took the Grater and just plowed everybody out. Yeah. Well, he was operating the Grater.

so he knew how to get into the shop and get out. Everybody had to figure out who always go to the wedding. And Harry plowed him out. And then he got to the wedding himself. How was your wife on your wedding day? You know, I think of my wife on her wedding day when things aren't going right. I can't imagine a giant blizzard.

How was she doing? Well, she was pretty excited, didn't think of where he'd come. I said there'll be no one from our country. And they all showed up. Yeah. I remember. After we were in a son like bar for two or three hours before the wedding.

And I always remember Dorothy, she was just a baby, and the church was way up on a high hill. And we were kind of making smart remarks back and forth. And the minister came in and said, in the presence of God, and Dorothy Shaw, headshot, Where did you call it? Yeah, she started looking all around. How we...

How about you have? Do you remember how he proposed? Am I putting you on the spot? Do you remember your wedding day? Oh, yeah. Where did you get married? In the Anglican Church in Lloyd. In Lloyd?

Yeah. What time of year were you guys married? October 23rd. We had to wait until harvest was done. Oh, yeah, yeah, okay. It's interesting you don't hear that too much anymore, do you? About waiting until harvest people just get married and smack in the middle of everything. That used to be a big excuse, but you're quite right.

You don't hear people say, oh, I can't come. It's harvest time or something. Equipment. Harvest has changed now, though, too, hasn't it? Yeah, big equipment, Matt. How have things changed since you guys were young? What's one of the biggest things you look at and go, geez, some days I don't even understand that. How is that possible?

Oh, I don't know. I think for me it's been in better shape financially. We were always very hard up. It seemed like when we were younger. Now there seems to be a few dollars around all the time. Makes things a lot easier. What's one of the stories then are things that stick out as being a young kid or a young man and not having any money that you look back on and you tell your kids,

you know, back when I was X, we were eating, you know, craft dinner and hot dogs or whatever, what have you. I don't, just that there's different times that we wanted to go somewhere where there was no money to go with, so it just didn't go. Did you go, as a young guy, did you go anywhere, George? Did you tell? Not on a holiday. I never did.

We just first July, stuff like that. But never anything further than the immediate area? No, not me. Rodeo got Dad and Frank out of the area, and that opened up a kind of a whole new world to them. How do you get to stumble on the rodeo? Well, we always had horses and rode a lot. And Marshall Tindle of, you've probably heard of Marshall.

He had a pastor out beside us. So he used to hire Frank and me to look after Scaddle, and then he started driving him right out from Lloyd. safe getting trucks. So we were his head of the honchos driving these cattle out. We'd get a bunch of greenhorns we'd have to look after too because all his kids would have friends that wanted to come on this cattle drive. But you had a little rodeo arena in the yard for a while too.

Yeah, we built an arena with a buck and chute and a calf shoot for roped and calves. Leonard's got some slides of that. Is that right? Boy, would I like to see that. I've seen George rope a calf in eight seconds. Up there when we were, Evan and I were going out together. Up in the yard, man? Out in the yard, yeah.

That's still a good time in a rodeo. And another thing after that is I remember when I were going together in that that they had horses trained. All they had was just slides on their half-time truck and they just treated the horses up to that back into the truck. You jump in, they throw a chain across the back on that was it. We're all horses everywhere. We're all horses all over the country like that.

Just drop the end gate on the back of the truck and undo the chain across. They jump in and do the chain up, and away we go. Did you have things on the side of the truck? She'd plywood. She'd a plywood on each side. Yeah. And on the front? Yeah, same thing.

And on the back, it's just a chain. Open. chain. And then we tie them up, like... The first summer, the first summer that I came home from nurses training, I went to five rodeos with my brothers. Is that right? In three weeks, I think it was. They were hard on the trail then at that point.

Yeah, they were. What events did you go in? Did you go on a mall? No. Frank rode bulls all the time. And I roped cows and used to get on a few bowls, but I started getting a little nervous of them. So I quit riding bulls. Just because they're a big giant beast?

Or did you have a bad experience? I got thrown off pretty hard a few times. They have big horns too. The best thing to do is not bother getting back on. You always enjoyed your rope more anyway. I like roping. Yeah. Where, when you're going on the rodeo, where all over did you go to?

Like, are we talking all Saskatchewan? We talked in the immediate area back then? No, not all Saskatchewan, but the Meadow Lake was the big one. And Old Battleford, not North Battleford, but Old Battleford had a three-day rodeo for, we were amateurs, you see. Yeah. So they had an amateur rodeo, and Onion Lake had one, and quite a few other little places to have a one-day rodeo. over on the Alberta side there were a couple

for sure you guys though remember when you went with McEwens to Banff and you've done Hinton in southern Saskatchewan I think you went pretty much all over well when we went to Hinton

it was in Banff and that kind of a holiday too and a chance to go and under a rodeo out there take everybody with you? Well it's just Frank of me yeah

and older to always be someone else around like Denny Robbie from Mar Wayne or Dave Kenyon from Lloydminster. I've heard stories about the road on the rodeo trail. Are they true? Well, some are. What was your beverage of choice you two growing up? Me, it was ginger ale probably.

Ginger ale? Anything in the ginger ale? No, I didn't know. No drinking? No, I didn't want anything to do with that. Did you smoke at all? No. How about you, George?

Oh, I drank beer. What was the beer you drank back then? Calgary, mostly. Yeah, Calgary. I always hear about Calgary. Sounds fascinating. I wish you had a crack at Calgary. That would be awesome.

Yeah. I was lucky because Dutchans, they went on a long trip down to Ontario, and they dropped me off at Edgson. Catherine's like they take me along to be with Dixie and went on a couple of trips like that yeah the one summer I got to spend a couple weeks with my aunt in Hamilton and we have three cousins there yeah real treat evening yeah they were they were good to me the dutchins were yeah that helped a lot if it hadn't a been for rodeo in a little bit Frank me would never got out very much at all

But we started going to rodeos, so we got away and learned how to provide for ourselves a little bit get around the country. Probably meet some interesting individuals, I bet too. Very much so, that we still know. What was it about cattle? You're a guy who was in cattle his entire life. Was that what your father did that?

No, he farmed. So grain farm, you mean? Grain farm, yeah, but where we live, the land is quite light. So Frank Meath quite quickly switched straight over to strictly cattle Because the crop would look good for a while in the spring And then my midsummer was getting dry weather That late land she just didn't produce Did you always enjoy animals? Do you guys love having animals? Was that a hard transition? No, not at all

I like having animals and it kind of went along with our lifestyle Moving cattle around and riding horses Yeah, we always had a horse to ride to school. That's how we got to school. And we had a sleigh in the winter. Well, in some winter's peats spent a lot of time building shavs because we had a one horse slay. Somehow they'd drop out of the...

Yeah. ...and get broken off. Something would happen to them. One time we were going to school with a horse in cutter, We went through a dip Shavs jumped out and went in the ground Cutter went up in the air Shows broke off and we went to horse

About 15, 20 minutes later The teacher come, not the teacher Gordon Boyd, a neighbor Oh, right. Come back driving a horse. This must be alonged to somebody. Well, one year, Frank and I've got the slate dumped us out and it went way up to Boyd's and he came driving it back so he did that a couple of times

because the road was plowed through the fields up to their place so the horse just followed the road yeah so they just followed it yeah when you first started over to cattle how many cattle did you have uh well we had about when we were younger maybe 35 40 cows. Then we started getting more and we've started, Frank and we quit school, or we're done school, we started renting more pasture, and then we started buying a little. We're up to about a thousand yearlings on grass now. What was the switch from cows to yearlings, steers? It just seemed to work better for us. There wasn't a light bulb, just went on and went, geez, you know, if we switched over to this, we could make X or we could get away from this. Well, one

thing was the winter feed. If we were short of feed, we didn't need to, we could buy towards spring. And where cows, they eat you out of house and home, it seemed like. So that was one of the big reasons we went to yearlings. Did you also see Marshall ran yearlings? Yeah, our neighbor. He was a bit like a mentor. Marshall Tyndall, we did a lot for him and we ended up with his pasture in the end too. He told us to forget about farming. He said, don't farm. We're going to farm. He said, don't farm, always get cattle. And Marshall always drove a big new car. It's kind of a good guy to take advice from him.

Look pretty good. How about in the nursing world? How many years did you nurse for? One full year and about a month and a half. Really? Yeah. Then we got married. Then Dorothy came along.

Then Alan right away. Then Dr. Skeen got me on birth control. Did you never go back to nursing then? Oh, yes, I did. I had an opportunity to take a refresher course, and I worked part-time at Jubilee Home for about 15 or 16 years, part-time. I enjoyed it. What do you both think about COVID-19 right now?

You guys have lived a lot of years and seen a lot of things, seen a lot of highs, lows, everything. I can just imagine. What do you think of what's going on right now? Go first. Yeah. I think, well, I think Lloyd Minster's been very fortunate because there aren't, there hardly any cases here at all.

It's a concern. Yeah. I think about it. especially when my daughter's working at the hospital all the time I think about her all a time yeah and being in crowds yeah yeah but but Lloydminster was what have they had about one case in the hospital something like that they had a mild breakout yeah they had a wild breakout yeah yeah six or seven off that but that was pretty much the one instance yeah yeah so I don't know that the radio it seems like

it's getting a little worse right now. Yeah. Well, I... It only takes one person to get it rolling again. Yeah, you have to be careful. In your lifetime, have you seen anything even remotely close to this? I haven't. No, I don't think so.

How about the riots going on in the United States right now with George Floyd? Have you ever, you know, you've seen some things again in your time that may be something similar, Is it just the connectivity of social media and being able to be, you know? What Leonard says is they form a circle and shoot in. Shoot in. The Americans are in trouble. Well, I think that with George Floyd, a lot of people on these demonstrations didn't even know what they were demonstrating about. They just got out there because they liked to vandal them stuff.

Well, it's an interesting time we live in when you can live action shot being on the front line. And so you have people take advantage of it for sure, whether that's looting or whether that's just being a part of the march to build their social media presence, I guess. In the last 10 years, it's changed. And I can just imagine, you know, asked a little bit ago what the biggest change is that you've seen through your lifetime. Because there's been so many. Oh, yeah. Total change. How about farming?

How is farming changed since you guys were kids? Well, we didn't farm much, but just with a six-foot tiller when I was a kid. You'd lucky to get 20 acres a day seated. Or now you can see two or three hundred. The big equipment, lots of change. And nice equipment. Yeah, that's a big change. Did you have power growing up on the farm?

53. And 53 you got power. Yeah. What years were you two born? What was that? What years were you born? 41. 44.

41 and 44. So you had a few years in the beginning with no power then? Oh, yes. I remember no power. Freakling the gas lamp at night. Oh, well, that... A couple of medals on it. Once they throw a pretty good light once those mugs got lit up.

Do you miss those days? Not at all. Cold in the morning. How about running water then? Somebody had to work. Running water? We didn't get running water until we were getting a fair age. In the 50s, sometime.

Late 50s. So did you have just a hand pump well then? or fail in a rope. Pale and a rope? It was pretty shallow, though, because the lake, the lake's so close. But that's how we got our water when I was a kid. Yeah.

I even remember when Pete in his house got indoor plumbing. Yeah. So you didn't have indoor plumbing and water growing up. Not until I got married. Yeah. And then we bought a trailer and it had plumbing in, I can see. Yeah. Who was some old fellow that?

put the plumbing in for Pete. Tom Younger. Oh, was it Tom Young? Yeah, helped him. Did you take cold bass, hot baths? Oh, no, hot. Saturday night. Once a week?

I got to go first. Once a week out of bath. Well, let's talk about that for two seconds. Saturday nights was bath night. Yes. And you'd heat up. In the wintertime, you'd, you'd melt a bunch of snow, so you had soft water.

And we always had a... It put a reservoir on top of the kitchen stove and fill it with snow, and then you'd keep having snow until you had about half full. Then everybody used the same water. I was first, though. The wood stove had a reservoir on the side. Okay. That was kept full of water.

and it would heat up. And otherwise you have to heat it on the, over the burners, over the... Geez, do you ever just look around and see, you know, in the waste of water, the... Just how... Oh, yeah. You wouldn't have wasted anything back then. Oh, no. Hmm.

That's something to think about, isn't it? Yeah. What did you do when you got power? Did you flick on every light in the house? Did you run around? Oh, no. Not like you were in the day. The lights all had to be switched off and just the light were going to run up a big bill.

See, oh everybody was very reluctant to use too much power when they first got it because they weren't used to it. They were used to just having the coal oil lamp in the house, so when the power come, if you left the kitchen and went to the living room, shut the lights off in the kitchen. Or at least that's what we did anyway. Yeah. First thing we had was a refrigerator. Yeah. That must have been quite the thing, too, being able to keep all your food.

Oh, yeah. Sorry. I just said it made an awful difference when the power came. Got a deep freeze in the fridge. How about gardens? Did you guys grow big gardens? Oh, yeah. That was mandatory.

Always had a good garden, yeah. And a cow to milk for milk. It was always a... So always had food. Yeah. Lots of wild meat. Potatoes. We always have lots of potatoes.

Yeah. We ate a lot of deer meat. He could cook really well. Yeah, he was great at frying with the frying. And he was an old hunter. He was always... If anybody could get one, he could. Each of you have kids, obviously.

What were some of the things you tried to do as parents in the early years? Go ahead. I'll talk for a little bit because I got three kids, four and under, and it's busy. And so you're trying to, I don't know, be around, instill good values, discipline, la-di-da-di-da. But I know specifically, George, I know your three kids, and they're exceptional human beings, and I'm just assuming that ever your kids are as well. So I was just wondering what you guys did early on coming from your upbringing, what you were like, you know what I'm going to ensure that.

We always give them a little bit of work to do, but always give them time to have some fun too. We tried to keep them busy. Yeah, put them in organizations like. girl guides and scouts my kids went through 4-H 4-H yes I think 4-8 was one of the best things we made them feed their calves and get them ready for show and then they made a few bucks I don't think if you looked at it the other way that you made too much money because you had to put the feed all into them anyway but you didn't feel it and there was money for

the kids and they could buy some of the stuff they needed. One year Charlotte's calf got away in the yes school grounds and had a terrible time catching it. She said that's the only time I didn't cry when my calf was sold. In regards to parenting in general, what was one of your fears you had of your children? Oh, my biggest fear, especially when they went to town and we were kind of born in the bush, raised out there, if they'd get him with the wrong crowd. I thought about that a lot.

Was there anything you tried to do to make sure they didn't? Well, I tried to keep them quite involved in sports and keep them busy at home when they were home. How did you get two sons that are pretty good hockey players, George, but did that come from you? No, no, it didn't come from me at all. must still come from Maryland Well, it's interesting to have kids in the building

So what did Do you remember growing up more What George would do to like In regards to sports? Well, we were given every opportunity Some of the opportunities they didn't have as kids we were given And yet still mixed with some values of There's going to be some discipline

and some work ethic and it was a great childhood and environment to grow up in. And on Evelyn side, lots of music in the family. Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah, Rod's teaching singing lessons in Edmonton and he, Grant McEwan, and he also performs. And Dorothy, I guess you had some piano lessons. Girl guides, yeah. We got them in organizations that kept them busy,

and they had lots of friends and camping in the summer. Yeah, Alan. How about marriage? I think we all know sitting in this room, marriage is not exactly easy, and there's days that come and go, and there's easy times, better times, hard times, awful times, et cetera,

that you work through. Was it something that you did with your marriage? I guess how did you make it work for as many years as you have? It's easier now, I think, than when the kids were growing up and Len was busy farming, so he wasn't there a lot. They'd go early and work late. That was probably the hardest part. But they turned out.

okay. Yeah, we were kept quite busy all the time. Maryland worked, that was sometimes a little tough because I'd have to get the kids fed, get them to bed, get them up in the morning to go to school. But I don't know if we were survived without her not working for one time. But is there anything you'd like to pass down your kids when it comes to a relationship? that you're like, listen, just never stop X or something along that lines, that's made your relationships work?

Well, I don't know. I think we'll make sure you always think about the other person and think about what they're going through, try and get along. We worked together quite a bit, too, and took meals out to the field and all that sort of thing. do our part. And we always took time to enjoy ourselves. We don't saddle up all our horses different times.

For a ride or something like that, get the kids riding. Marilyn was very interested in riding, so she was quite interested in getting the kids out, getting them on a horse. Sports days in the summer, we could get together. Did lots of stuff as a family. Right. advance like you were coaches or leaders in the clubs and things that the kids were involved with. Yeah, that's true. Yeah.

You know, I think that's part of it. I would just add, I think they both married into good families and sometimes that's part of the, that's an important part of the package is it's not just your your partner or your spouse, but the family that comes with it. And I always thought that for both Evelyn and dad, they married into good families. There was lots of support there. Couldn't not succeed. And I guess I feel the same. I was fortunate enough to do that myself.

As was I. And doesn't it make a difference? It certainly does, yes. I think that's a big part of it. Grandma liked to spoil the kids, though. Not all smooth sailing. No, I went over there one day an owl and was walking around on the countertops. Yeah.

You always like to climb on everything. Yeah. Did you volunteer in the area? Volunteering? Yeah, well, if there was any community thing going on, I was always one of the ones that would go and help. Exhibition board? I was on the exhibition board for 20-some years.

That was volunteer work. Absolutely. Yeah. Did you enjoy the exhibition? Very much. It was time to quit, but I hated to quit. That's a long time to be on anything. Yeah.

When you look back at your career there or your time there, is there an event or something you guys did that sticks out, George? Not overly. We had some good events like the Silver Spurr Horse Show that we used to put on. We'd bring in people to come from all. all over. That was quite an event. And then the fair was always took a lot of work. But we have very good managers, Dick Jones and Mike Zedorich. So I enjoyed the Exhibition Board very much. Many of your years were chairing the 4H in the Bullseil. Yeah. So I enjoyed that too.

And I got to know a lot of people by being the chairman of the Bullsale. A little closer here. How more do you have? I was a girl guide leader for quite a few years. And Dorothy went through the program. We had camps down at Whitney. Dilberry Lake in the summer. And you were on the music festival board. Right, yeah, I was on the musical festival board

for quite a few years. Because, well, Ron was the one that was the most interested in music. But Alan, Alan was too. He's quite a good drummer. He's a drummer of the year in Saskatchel. Drummer of the year? Was he? Yeah.

And the band of Povey. Yeah. Very successful band they had, didn't they? Walking after midnight. And now was on the road about four years before that was in Gipsfell. No kidding. Have you heard of them, Sean, the Gips brother? Yeah, I have.

Yeah, they had a really good band going. Yeah. So who's, are you a musical then? Me, musical? Yeah. No, Leonard's the music person. Leonard's the music person. I know the man's side is.

You can hardly whistle a tune. Yeah, our kid, well, Ron's very musical. Yeah, yeah. And Dorothy are musical too. Doris kids. Yeah. Yeah. Carries on.

Yeah, it does. If you could go back to your 20-year-old self and impart some wisdom, what would it be? Oh, I don't think I'd do things much different than I have done. Maybe get away from home for a little while. That's one thing I didn't do. Did you ever travel anywhere? Not big time. Went to Mexico.

Yeah. Four of us had out one winter gone for six weeks. drove to Mexico Drove to Mexico Yeah Yeah Floyd Mitz Frank and me and Wayne

Unison And who was the other one Kenyon Dave Kenyon You were ready to get back From that trip too Oh yeah I'd had enough Six weeks was too long

You did a few work camps too Dad But you always You had a yearning to be at home Yeah Yeah He was a homebody Yeah

Frank traveled all across Australia judging rodeos down there and helping them. Yeah. Well, he, for years he'd take his trapping his fur money and would spend a month of February

many cruises in Australia. Yeah. Yeah. He did a lot. He'd love to travel. Yeah, you did. When Frank would go away and travel in Australia, how would you keep in touch with him? Or would you? We wouldn't. I'd send the odd postcard. He might send a postcard. He might send a postcard.

but we never sent one to him. Did you? No, we didn't know where he was. Did you ever worry about him? No. No, he's off having a good time. Yeah, he's having a good time. No, I never worried about him at all.

Francis James. Pretty resourceful. Yeah. Yeah. If you could go back to your 20-year-old self, would you pass along any wisdom? That's when I was in nurses training. I'm not sure.

Keep on studying and learning, I think. What's your guys' favorite decade? If you look back through your lifetime, what was your favorite decade you've lived through thus far? Good question. That's a tough question. I don't know. I think probably maybe 40.

And what was it at 40? Well, a person was a little more stable. had some money. The kids were in a bunch of different sports. And if I'm doing my math correctly, that's what, mid-80s? Yeah, and I enjoyed their hockey very much. We're a little more stable. When you're around 20 years old, there's not too much money around. You're trying to get started.

Did you go with the boys out of Ode East when they were going to the Allen Cup, anything like that? No. No? I couldn't get away. It was too much to do at home. with both them gone. Did you go up to Stony Plain? Yeah, I went to Stony Plain. What did you think of that?

Good. What did you think of all their hockey? Did you end up going and watching them when they played all over? Who was that? When you were watching the kids? Oh, yeah. Did you go and watch them at all when they were, I mean, when Morgh's in Acadia, were you, did you ever go out there to watch them?

I've seen him playing Toronto, but never got to Acadia. Maryland did. Yeah. But say we're in Toronto. What was that of? For the nationals. Yeah. And so we went to Toronto.

Marilyn quite enjoyed that trip to Acadia. Yeah, because she brought my grand, her mom, came with her. Right, yeah, that's right. Yeah. I know they had a great time together. Yeah. And how about yourself? What was your favorite decade?

When the kids got older in their teens, so what year would that? The 80s. The 80s were a fun time to be alive. Yeah, because they were learning and we had more time together, Leonard and I. So nobody wants to go back to when I'm right now, or you got four kids or three kids under four and you can't, your hair's falling out. In other words, your best years are yet to come. Yes, to count.

That's right. Yeah, yeah. Hang in there more. Yeah. What's the biggest advancement that you've seen over your lifetime? In the human race? Oh, in the human race. Yeah, what's something that you just...

Getting electricity was a big thing when we got that, but I don't know about urbanized us, yeah. No longer having to worry about how you're going to stay warm. Yeah. No, that's right. I think electricity was probably one of the best, greatest things we ever got. Yeah. late while you've

$540 a month A year was not What was it? $540 a number of checks in my mind But I can't remember what $540 a year For electricity Boy that was high

Yeah Granny was still alive then So that probably helped I remember when we got Power First time I figured How much did you say

Yeah Maybe it was a cost of any entity. Because I know they were talking about there was two houses in her yard and they were scared they were going to have to pay $1,000 instead of $500. But they didn't. It was that covered of one yard. Yeah. Granny didn't put a lot of wiring into her house.

No, but she had power. Yeah. Gershaw and Ron Harris through wire mom and dad's house. How about the biggest event? You know, you've seen, I mean, JFK being assassinated, landing on the moon, where he could go sports and Canada winning something, right? 72, Malcolm X.

I can just list off, keep listing off different historical things. But what sticks out in your mind is maybe one of the things that... I would say landing on the moon. I couldn't believe that when they could send up a satellite and put people on the moon. Do you remember where you were? Yeah. Where were you?

I was at home watching it on TV. Did you crack a Calgary beer and go, holy crap. I couldn't believe that they could do that. I still can't believe they can do that. Oh, that was a highlight for me. It was a big step, but it seems like they haven't done anything. Well, SpaceX just put another rocket in space the other day, another week, I guess, a couple weeks ago. But we don't hear much about it.

Well, now they're all about putting things on Mars and, I don't know, testing everything there. Right. Is it the moon then for you as well? Probably. I always ask about JFK being assassinated because, I mean, a presidential. Yeah, that was... President being a sad... I don't know what it would have caused up here.

I don't know if there would have been uproar. I don't know if the TV would have been lightened up if, you know, on the farm, I was just like, oh, somebody got shot down south. Yeah, but it was very... It was very covered everywhere. Everything was JFK being shot. It was very sad.

Probably lasted for a week. Because I think he was one of the people that could have helped the United States. I mean, look at who they've got now. It's terrible what's going on. It had to be quite significant because I still remember exactly you talking about it with us growing up that you and Frank were hunting deer at the time and heard on the radio. They kind of even job.

And you just sort of went home after that. Yeah, it was. It hit Canadians too, didn't it? Yeah, it did because just the kind of person he was. Yeah. If you could get in a time machine and go anywhere, where would you go? Right back to where I'm living. I don't want to go anywhere else.

Just would go back to maybe some earlier days in your life? Oh, earlier days? What I would. Or you would just go right home from here? Yeah. Actually, I was fortunate because Dutchans, they had a girl, Dixie that was the age of George, and they went down east, and I had an aunt in Hamilton, and they picked me up and took me down there and dropped me off and then picked me up on their way back.

That happened a couple of times, I think, yeah. Yeah. And that's my mom's sister, so I actually had a chance to get to know her and her sons. She has three sons. She has. They're still there. And you got to do that road trip several times? Twice.

Twice? Yeah. We didn't go down there, did we? Oh, we did? Oh, yes. A train. Right, we went on the train. Took a train out east.

Yeah. How was that? Climbled on in Sassatuck, had a berth and we slept. And I remember we went across Ontario. It was in November or early October, and the lakes were froze. And when we came back, they'd thawed off. And when we were going down there, the trappers were coming out across the lake. You can see where they worked the way across the lakes.

And then they stopped the train and then get on the train because it was their only way in and out. interesting it was an interesting trip it was a couple of older ladies in the same places in the same area

that we were in yeah they were quite a pair of ladies are you taking a time machine back to your host as well get me out of here

I think probably the best years with the kids in minor hockey and assists and figure skating and showing horses. I totally enjoyed all that. And those were the best years, I'd say. Do you have anything left

on your bucket list you'd like to do? No, not really. I kind of like to take it easy now. I'm not a traveler. No? No. I don't like getting too far from home. I'm 70. now and I'm not

living home. It's the best place to be. You'd mention Trump and, well, you alluded to Trump, I should say. It's one of the things I had brought up, but politics, is that anything you guys have followed along with in your lifetime? Is there a time when you went, man, this was

the best time or this was the worst time? Not for me. It hasn't been. I'm not, wasn't into politics. politics too heavy and I can't say that I've complained about anything. I don't do their job. I married into a very political family. So I just went along with it. Do you remember the first time you sat down at the dinner table and they said down at the dinner table and they said,

started talking politics and you went, oh boy, I'm in over my head? Probably. Because I never got really involved in politics a little bit when I was in nurses training because one of the head nurses was really into it. I was on her board at the time. There was an election, so she was keeping us all up to date. but other than that I never really thought about it very much until I married Leonard

well before we finish since I have more well since I have everybody in here if there's something you want to ask the two of them I think it would be apt right here is there anything you've ever wanted to ask your dad morgue or is there something that you'd like to put on the on the history books nothing right

right off the top of my head Sean I could pass the mic here to Dorothe. Or you can hop up here. Come on up. Yeah. Well, I was just going to say that I think one of the great things about our family is that we always talk about things. And when we get together, you know, we have so much fun laughing.

And so, yeah, I think that listening to Uncle George and Frank tell stories in the past has really kept, you know, kind of our history alive. and yeah I can't think of any other questions either because I think we how about this is there a story that they used to tell or tell that they haven't told you we can't tell those stories I see some good stories for sure yeah lots of humor they found from their I think upbringing and and past and survival stories stories in some cases and yeah and I think that's one of the things that make them the positive people that they are is that you know somehow through you know everything they went through

they find the ability to laugh and I know my dad always talks about loving to go up to the man's because everybody laughs and has a good time see the positive side of life yeah yeah Andy Marion was always happy and full of stories. Andy Evelyn worked so hard. I remember getting up early and going out and she had ducks that she let out and fed chickens and pale bunted some calves. Oh, they've worked in they?

Yeah. And then she still cooked and did the housework in the garden. Yeah. Remarkable. I hate to ask a question about Frank, but I'm going to anyways, because I have siblings. How tough was it to have Frank go? It was very tough for me because we were awful close. We talked things over.

I found it very tough. I tried to hide it, but it was very tough. Yeah, we still really miss them. I do. I didn't see them all that much, but he was a great guy. What's your favorite Frank story? There's quite a few, but I can't just think of them right off-handed. What about the ones that used to go up to those old fellows and help them?

What was your cows on that? And he'd go in for coffee and they're cups. Oh, yeah, that was this one place we went and helped him do cows and stuff. I won't mention the fellow's name, but he made his tea. after grabbing tea and I kind of looked at my cup, I give it a little rub with my thumb and I could track right inside. He said, it's all right on the inside. He said, I had a cup out of it an hour or so.

He said, he let us ride right through his pasture though. He was quite generous that way. We went on a hike the whole school class. Yeah. We rode around by his house and asked him if that would be all right. Oh, sure. Well, thanks for coming and sitting down. I know you guys were a little bit nervous to come do this.

And if I've missed anything before I cut this off, please, Maure, you're the guy sitting with a book of history in front of you. If I've missed something on the man or any of the stories, we still got time. I think they did a great job. Yeah, I think you did a fantastic job. It's been really pleasure. I think we got her covered pretty well. Good.

You're ready to get home and get back. We had great grandparents that really helped out. I say we had great grandparents that helped me. Oh, yeah. Granny Man was always a little edgy with us, but she said, She was there when we needed her. Very English, Sean. We didn't see Grandma Ogram quite as much, so she never gave us hell.

No. Well, thanks for coming in, guys. I appreciate this. I know the Lloyd Archives will really appreciate having you guys talk on here and a little bit about your stories and everything else. Thank you very much, Sean. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you.

Well done, Sean. Hey folks, thanks for joining us today. If you just stumbled on the show, please click subscribe. Then scroll to the bottom and rate and leave a review. I promise it helps. Remember, every Monday and Wednesday, we will have a new guest sitting down to share their story. The Sean Newman podcast is available for free on Apple, Spotify, YouTube,

and wherever else you get your podcast fix. Until next time. Hey, guys, I hope you enjoyed the episode. If you're sitting there going, I wonder if you did some bluepers today. Let's just say I struggled a little bit today. So here's a couple laughs for you. First, Jen Gilbert and team over at Coldwell Bankers,

Cityside Realtors. Oh, fuck. That's not going to have them. And surrounding area, they are present. Fantastic, Sean. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Shit. Give them a call today.

Oh, fuck. With salad. Oh, man, I am butchering tonight. I've heard, uh, nonsense. Uh-huh. HSI group, they're the local oil-filled burners and combustion apps. Uh, blub-dib-da-bo. You heard about them on the podcast.

If you're interested, if you're interested, if you're, if you're, fuck. If you're interested in advertising on the show, visit shan-newmanpodcast.com. Oh, fuck.