Shaun Newman Podcast - SNP Archives #42 - Barb Gulka

Episode Date: May 25, 2022

Born in 1943; at the age 6 she lived in Mexico, 17 on her own in Regina, 18 she was married and would eventually become a mom & foster mom. In Lloydminster she owned the Weaver Park Tea House, implemented the Lloydminster Flower Program & now runs a private garden "Raspberry Hill Garden's".  Let me know what you think Text me 587-217-8500 Support here:⁠ https://www.patreon.com/ShaunNewmanPodcast⁠

This is Zubi. This is Brett Wilson. This is Brian Peckford. This is Keith Morrison. This is Tim McAlloff of Sportsnet. This is Dr. Peter McCullough. This is Daryl Sutter and welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks.

Happy Wednesday. Hope everybody's having a great week. I'm looking forward to heading towards Loon Lake. And that leads me to my first, we're going camping this weekend coming up, up towards Loon Lake. And that leads me to my first sponsor of today. episode Jim Spanner at the team over at three trees tap and kitchen well of course they took over operating the pro shop and restaurant at the Loon Lake golf course and they're going under the name

three trees on the lake if if you look them up on instagram do a little creeping creepin you can you can see exactly what I'm talking about and I'm excited I don't know I maybe we'll get around in maybe we'll just go for a sass brailla maybe we'll go for me I don't know but pretty cool to go to Loon Lake and if you're in the area you can now eat some of three trees finest there. And of course, it's being branded three trees on the lake. So if you're in Lloyd, please, please book a reservation. Don't be this guy. It's always busy when I go on there. 7808-7474-7625. Follow them on social media. They got rib nights. They got live music. They got a bunch of different things going on. All you got to do is follow them on social

to find out when they're doing it. Deere and Steer Butchery, the old Norman and Kathy James Family built butcher shop on the Norsetta Highway 16, Range Road 25, has been renovated. Of course, I've been talking a lot about this. Barry the butcher signed on. He comes with 20 plus years of meat cutting experience. I got an opportunity to go sit with them and cut up a half a beef. And let me tell you, that was an experience. And I think if you're getting some beef done, why not have it out at the deer and steer

and go lend your hand to it, see how it's done? It's pretty cool. It's pretty gratifying too. I've been cooking on the barbecue here as spring, you know, slowly turned into summer. And I've got, you know, to cook meat that I cut up. And I don't know why. It's pretty gratifying. That's all I'm saying here.

Give them a call 780870-8700 and you can find out a whole lot more. Ag land, of course, this time of year is fun when all the tractors are out seeding. Heck even, Mom owned on the farm with the, with the, the tractor, rototilling the garden up, seeing all the different John Deere equipment out, seating. Of course, they do more products than that. They sell and service John Deer, Brent, Bobcat, Danglman, and AA trailers. But this time of year, Eggland, I'm sure, as busy as all can be,

if you're looking for equipment or what else they have, go to agland.celaan.c.c. To check out their full inventory, I give them a call, 780875-4471. that's agland.com. You can see what they're working with. Gartner Management is a Lloydminster-based company specializing on all types of rental properties to help meet your needs, whether you're looking for a little small office like myself or you've got multiple employees.

Wade can get you situated. Give me a call 7808-5025. Now on that ram truck rundown brought to you by auto-clearing Jeep and RAM, the prairie's trusted source for Chrysler, Dodge Jeep Ram, Fiat, and all things automotive for over 110 years. Mom, foster mom, owned the Weaver Park Tea House, implemented the Lloydminster Flower Program, and now runs a private garden, Raspberry Hill Gardens. She also happens to be a giant community pillar, talking about Barb Golko. So buckle up, here we go.

It is July 8, 2021, I'm sitting across from Barb Golko. So first off, thanks for, I don't know, allow me in your house. Well, this is going to be a great experience for sure. I'll tell you that right now. Well, we'll see. It's early on here, isn't it? Well, I always think it's going to be positive. I really do.

Well, I'll agree with you on that. I think any opportunity you have to sit across from somebody and learn some things is always a positive endeavor. Or just take the road with them. That's right. Yeah. Now, the way I start all of these interviews or try to is I want you to go back to your childhood and try and recollect for me. Regina growing up there, maybe some of your first memories.

Just try and give me a little insight into, you know, being a child, being a kid and Regina back in the early 40s. Well, I have when that was on the ticket or on the discussion thing, I thought, I'm going to tell you about my first two experiences remembering as a child. And throughout the family getting together, us all talking, we'd always sit around the table, grandkids, grandmas, grandpas, and we all just loved, we'd have popcorn or whatever in drinks, and we'd just talk, talk, talk. And we got at one point talking about dreams,

and that's your little kids, your teenagers, you know. And I brought this dream up, and I said, I've always had this dream, and I can remember it. I'm standing in a crib in this room, and I'm watching all these dogs running around on the floor. And I can see a washing machine, and I can see, you know, a tub that you do clothes in or whatever. And I said, I have no idea why I keep thinking or dreaming this dream or remembering this dream. And my mother was sitting next to me, and she looked at me, and she said, that's no dream. That happened.

And I said, really? there I am standing in a crib. Now this sounds really strange, doesn't it? But we had this little chihuahua black dog, and she was in heat. And my parents had left the doors open, and, of course, she ran into the house, and all these dogs came in the house. And they were running around in this room,

and I can see this baby standing there watching all this happen. My mother said it was a fact. It happened. And then another dream I told her, about or we were talking about. And this all, we laughed by crazy and I'd say, I think I was about six or seven. I'm not sure how old I was, but you had to go to bed.

Okay, there was no ifs, ands, ands, or butts. You went to bed. And I'd lay like a stiff board because the witch was going to come, and she would rub her hand up and down my face, and she'd across my brow. And my mother is, she says, a witch? She said, I used to do that for you. used to do that when you were into bed.

She said that was me. So those are the two. Memories that you have. Well, I don't know if their memories or their dreams. She said that happened. I would dream and I'd think, I remember that happening, eh? Isn't that wild? Yeah, isn't that wild?

What do you think about that years and years and years later? Well, I don't know. I mean, actually, my second girl, she can tell stories about when she was just a baby. And I'd look at her and say, now, whether she heard it or whether she remembers it. But these were two dreams that we were all sitting around talking about, eh? And those were the two dreams that I brought up. And supposedly they're the truth. And I can see the house, I can see the room, I can see everything.

And that sounds really weird, but that's the truth. Yeah, but there's a lot of things in life that are kind of weird, strange. You can't quite put your finger on it, you know? And I think that we have a subconscious that holds those memories. I really do because there's a lot of things that I can remember and that happen or have happened. And other people can't remember them. And I say, oh, yes, you know, this happened and I can show you this happened here. But whether, I don't know, but those were the two of the youngest.

Now, the rest of the time in Regina, we lived. My father, he worked for, he was a welder for Regina, what was it, the oil company there. They used to have big, and he was a welder anyway, for them. It just kind of walked out of my mind, it'll come back again. And it does. Anyway, it was for the co-op, cooperative. Blank. And I'm zero help right now.

It's just a blank. Anyway, he was a welder, and then he took his business into his own shop, and he would weld for truckers. And, you know, I've got pictures of 1950, 52 trucks that were sitting in his shop, and he'd be welding on them. And then from there, he went on to build houses.

He built the house that we lived in. He built a duplex next to us, and he built some other houses on the edge of, it was called North Annex. And we lived at three, and the house is still standing there, 322 Scar Street, New Regina. And there was a huge field from there on. So there was a lot of us kids on the streets,

and we didn't have, in those days you didn't have organized activities, I guess you could say. Like sports or teams or anything like that? Those things happened with school. Now, you played ball in school, you played basketball or whatever in school. But when the kids went on to the streets, basically all our parents said when the street lights come on, you get home. And that was, I'm sure, a lot of my, you know, my days playing.

out on the streets. My parents never knew where we were, but we'd watch the streetlights, and boy, you had it home, and that they came on, eh? So we played lots of games. In fact, we were laughing about it not too long ago. You know, anti-ante-eye over. Have you ever heard that one?

Can't say I have. You kick a ball over the roof of the house, and there's other kids on the other side, and you holler anti-ante-eye over. I did that once, and my shoe flew off, went through the piano window, I was not too popular.

But we had all those kind of games. And you just went out and you just played on the streets, say, and you had a really good time. What do you think of where we're at now with kids and organized sports? I don't know. Kids aren't definitely playing on the streets. I'll be the first to say my children. I prefer them in the backyard.

They're very young and we live in a busy corner. What are your thoughts now? I feel sad for them. I really do. And even people of my age, you know, we have, there's, I have lots of friends and we sit around and we talk about that. And we had such freedom then. I feel sorry for kids today because they're kind of, can they explore? Can they think that we explored, we thought for ourselves.

And we didn't get into trouble. The only thing that maybe some of the boys might have done was smoke. And they'd snitch a cigarette from their parents. or whatever, eh? And that was a big, bad thing. Did Barb ever snitch a cigarette? Yes. Yes. What did you think of cigarettes? Well, actually, I couldn't figure out why they were doing it. But I have to tell the story about when I was 15, that was in Cornell. I thought we were all sitting on a big wood pile, and we were watching the ball game. And we were involved, but I thought it'd be really smart. and take a cigarette.

And I really inhaled it, just like all the rest did, eh? And darn year fell off the wood pile. I was so dizzy and so sick, I couldn't finish watching the game. But I ended up being a smoker. Did you end up smoking? Yes, I did. Did you ever think, you know, like now, if a kid starts smoking, I mean, I'm not saying kids don't start smoking, they certainly do.

but the amount of social pressure not to smoke these days. I mean, growing up, you could smoke pretty much anywhere you wanted. Right. And without consequence, we're talking hospitals, airplanes, like restaurants, everywhere. Everywhere. Did you ever worry about that? No, I didn't, but I'll tell you what, this is at the dealership. When it was in 80, actually was my oldest daughter, she was pregnant,

and she was so concerned about the baby, et cetera, so she convinced us to quit smoking. And she smoked, and she was going to quit, and my husband smoked, and I smoked. I don't know if I smoke so much, but, you know, people have said if Barb can quit, if Barb can quit, anybody can quit. Because I just used to love lighting those cigarettes up,

and I'd light them up and sit them in my ashtray, and I had an office upstairs. And, of course, we smoked in the dealership. Everybody smoked in the dealership. And then she convinced us. And we went to, oh, I drew a blank again. What do you call those guys that get up there and... Oh, hypnotist.

That's right, hypnotist, yeah. We went to it in one of the hotels here. And they took a box. They went around with a box, and they asked you to throw your... cigarettes and your lighter in there. And I had no problem throwing the cigarettes in. But I said, do I have to give up the lighter? Yep, everything has to go into the box. I hated giving up that lighter. And it's so strange because I had no problem quitting. But I always had a lighter with me. I have no idea my attachment to the lighter. But... So you got hypnotized then? Yeah, hypnotized.

And was it like right after you were like, I don't need smokes anymore? There was actually five in our group that went and I think all but one one of the gals was in safe way and she didn't quit but most of us we all quit my husband quit my daughter quit I quit her friend quit um yeah that's a pretty good record for a hypnotist yeah you know you think all these different ways people are trying to quit habits the nicotine patch the gum uh I don't know there's my yeah I don't smoke so I uh I uh I I just know how much of or how addictive it is. It is. Yeah. My daughter had a really hard time. My husband had a really hard time. I didn't have such a hard time. I don't know why, but I think I, because I, I'd light it up and put it in the ashtray and oh darn, another one's gone. Take it out

and light up the cigarette and put it in the ashtray. I love lighting him up, that first light. Does that makes sense? No, it doesn't. But anyway, with the hypnotist, we all had to lay on the floor. We had to take a pillow with us and a blanket. We laid on the floor. And I could hear this fellow coffin and coffin and coffin, and coffin. I hope he made it. But anyway, they said, think, he said, think of something, you know, that you'd like to eat or you'd like to drink or whatever. and radishes went through my mind. Radishes. I don't like radishes to any extent.

I didn't at that time. So anyway, radishes went through my mind, and I started buying a whole lot of radishes. And we grew them in the garden, and my husband would say, what do you got all these radishes here for? Well, you like him, because he would take a radish, and his bread and his salt, and he'd eat.

Well, you like him. them, so I bought some for you. But anyway, it took me a long time to remember why I'm buying so many radishes. And it just instilled it in my mind. And I have gotten to like them maybe just in the last year or so. I, you know, we'll buy a package of radishes. But, oh, I used to have packages in the bottom of your crisper of your fridge, packages of radishes. And it was... Isn't the mind, you've already brought this up once with the dreams. Yeah. And I can see this might be a theme here as we go along.

But isn't it wild how the mind works? Yes. To enjoy just lighting up the cigarette, not smoking the cigarette. Didn't even say the first puff of the cigarette. You said just lighting it up. Oh, I love to light it up. And then now you get changed over to radishes and you didn't even like them until a year ago. That's wild.

Yeah, it is wild, isn't it? But you know something? I'm a great believer that what we have between our ears is the most powerful muscle in the body. I believe that. I think I could get on board with that. It's so, it's so, it's, you were saying when I first got here and was setting everything up, why I enjoy doing this is because I get to pick between your ears, right? I get to like flex that muscle, so to speak, and see what your experiences have taught you.

That's right. the brain is a wonderful, you know, insight into your life, your experiences, your lessons learned. That's where you store everything. That's right. It's a biggest storage. It's in the world. I mean, what happens with the mind, to me anyway. And going through all this genealogy that I've worked on for years, I just, you know, like I can remember, and I'm terrible with names, unless, for instance, I'll remember your name because we're sitting here and we're talking.

but if you were just introduced to me, names, you know, just don't stick with me. I don't know why, but I'll never forget what you did or what you said. And I have no idea why. But it's sort of put in that folder in my mind, that story or that what he said, what he looked like. And I'll say, that fellow or that lady said this, this and this. And I can't remember, but I can remember the story. I can remember what we talked about. I can remember all the interaction,

but be darned if I can remember the name. What does that say? I have no idea. There's just some of the mysteries of not only the human body and the powers of the mind and everything else, but the universe, right? There's so much that is unknown. And once again, I'll bring it up again.

The lovely thing about getting to sit around with, people in your stage of life is you've seen a lot and I have not even experienced half your lifetime you know and to to hear some of your stories and and just how your brain works is really intriguing to me so this has been fascinating so far um rewinding the clock back to regina what was uh what was regina you mentioned big fields uh playing until the lights come on and then you run home. Was there pavement everywhere? Was the capital buildings? Was it flowers? Was it? Eventually, eventually, but as a young kid in the North Amics, for instance, I'll just tell you about Halloween in the North Anics, and there was lots of us. And we would dress up in baggy clothes,

and our parents, my mother would give us a pillowcase, and we had this gell. And we had this galvanized tub that would always be in the kitchen on Halloween night and they'd say go. And we would hit every house. In fact, as a matter of fact, one of the friends that I have here in Lloydminster, she actually lived in the North Amics at the same time I did, but we didn't know each other. We just met here in Lloydminster. And so we often tell about, talk about the things that we did then. and you'd have this sack of candy until you couldn't,

and apples and oranges and there was no packaged stuff. There was suckers. They'd give you suckers and they'd give you the toffee, you know, the toffee wrap-ups and that sort of thing, until you couldn't carry that sack anymore and then you'd head back home and you'd dump it into that galvanized tub and out you'd go again. And there was no deadline for you to come home

and tell, say for instance, nobody answered their door anymore and nobody gave you any more candy or apples or oranges. So then you said, well, what the heck, why are we doing this? So we'd go home and need to have

a half a tub full of stuff that you could just take to school and munch on. What was your favorite treat you got from Halloween? Well, I have to say, if they ever threw in, you know, those cracker jacks, there were boxes of cracker jacks.

Oh, I love them. I love them. Boy, sometimes some people would get really generous and you get one of them in your in your sack hey and that was that was like gold that was the best house and to this day how many years later i don't dare buy it from safe way because i can't leave it alone but i love it it's the caramelized popcorn ain't yeah yeah yeah it's fantastic yeah fantastic yeah fantastic it's always interesting uh uh as kids you know as you get older but in your childhood what memories just stick with you and you can't you can never forget them grandma and grandpa used to

give us caramelized apples like candy apples like drizzle and i always remember as a kid like loving it but at the same time being like how do i trick or treat with this thing right like you know you're trying to eat the apple and you're trying to hold your bag and everything else to drive around and get more candy we never ever delved into it until we got home until the job was done let's put it that way we never ran around eating we never ran around tasting or opening and throwing packages. In fact, that was something that was a no-no. Oh, that was a no-no.

At least in our house and our friend's house, the friend's house, no, no, you don't touch it until you're done. There's no throwing garbage out there like they wouldn't have that, eh? No. And I think that's where I think that's where I got this. I hate garbage. I hate garbage being tossed out, eh? That was my inter, Lloyd Minister was really bad for a while

at the beginning, and that really spurred me on to try and clean up the city. It's garbage, and I think that's instilled back then. You didn't touch it until, and a lot of things, you know, like, you can't have this until you're done. You know, when it's all done, then you can have it. So it would be, for instance, as a little girl, I used to love the catalogs, and I'd cut out all the, you know, the moms and the dads and the babies and the furniture and all that, and I'd have a shoe box and I'd build my house. But I never played with it until I cleaned up my mast and threw it in the garb,

you know, the cutting pieces in the garbage sort of thing. Let's stick on that thought for a second here. So you're saying you would build a house out of a shoe box and then instead of going to the store and getting Barbie dolls, you create them out of what would have been, the Eaton catalog? Oh, yeah. Oh, we got catalogs. Yeah, Sears. and Eaton's catalogs

and oh the Christmas catalogs were just awesome yep that was my and I'd have a shoe box because you got your shoes in a box and yeah and then I cut little squares out and put my curtains on the windows. What did you use for curtains?

Well you cut them out in the catalog oh you cut them out in the catalog I got you I got you I got you yeah and then you have your moms and your dads and your babies and yeah and then the babies have a crib What imagination. I mean, kids still have wonderful imaginations, but they have different, you know, I don't know if it's good or bad.

It's just, there's so many things to kind of where they don't need their, you know, you can go into a virtual world essentially. And even as kids, we had Mario, right, and got to go into that world and enjoy that. And my kids now, with the power of Netflix and different shows always on and things like that, unless you spur them on to use their imagination and go play, which we do and it's fun to watch, nowadays there's ways where they don't have to really think too much. Well, I mean, they're thinking. It's a different type of thing. Well, let's put it this way.

I think that there's so much out there for them. Is that a good glass? I think there's a crack in it. That's all that was. Don't you worry about it? I was just making sure I wasn't breaking it. Oh, no. Then I'll make sure I didn't realize that,

because so many people handle it, you know, put them in the cupboard or whatever. Go back to your thought. Don't worry about me. Okay. Okay, what did I say? Well, as far as the kids go. Yes, imagination. Yes, I feel sorry for them because we had to,

I actually did get dolls for Christmas, and I would get, and I remember I still got my camera, that I got, I think it was eight years old, I got a brownie camera. But my dolls, I would dress them and pat them, and then I would put them in my mother's china cabinet. I didn't really play with them, but I could take these cutouts from the catalog, and I could do all kinds of things.

They would have, you know, like cars, and, you know, you could just really exercise your imagination. Today, and I had kids too, and basically, would you believe it, my kids didn't have hardly any toys at all. My son would lay on his belly, he'd pull out the bottom of the stove, and he'd have pots and pans, and he had wooden spoons, and he could fly all over the kitchen with them. You know, I felt that was good. They're thinking. I'm not thinking for them.

I'm not getting this gift, and I'm putting it in front of them, and then you play with it. it and pretty soon you're not interested in it so you go on to the next thing you go on to the next thing I don't know that's just my theory of it and I think that we really as kids we really enjoyed imagination I want to take I want to rewind this you've said North Annex a few times I'm sure it's just a part of Regina but North Annex doesn't mean anything to me so was North Annex just a part it's like a suburb. And I don't know if it's still called that. I went to Imperial School. I went to up to grade 6 there. And it was called North Anics. And off a second avenue, now whether

it's stuck, I don't know. I'd have to go and double check that it's still there. They still call it that. Or maybe they renamed the suburb. I don't know. What was your school life like? I like school up to grade six and my grade six year was I'll tell you the story about that one. My father was a traveling man. He loved to travel and he decided when I was in grade six that he was going to take us out. We didn't need to go to school anymore this year. He's taken us and we headed for Mexico. And he had, I think it was about a 1950 red one-ton truck. And he put a canvas on the back.

And my mother, my father, my brother, he was two years younger than I, the four of us in the cab, and we headed down south. And literally, that is a trip that I'll never forget. my brother and I used to talk about it a lot. He's passed now, but we used to talk about it a lot. And actually, my father was good at teaching us. Like, we didn't go to hotels. If there was relatives along the way, which there were a few of them,

we would stay overnight with them or stay a couple of days with them, which my mother hated, period. She hated that. And then in the back of the truck, he had like, like an air mattress and he'd blow up the air mattress so we had our blankets etc and we'd sleep in the back of the truck and he carried his extra tires back there too i can remember them i think why doesn't he move them out of here so we have more room and then he would let the end gate down and i have never eaten so probably that's why i don't ever hardly ever eat watermelon today

because we ate a lot of watermelon traveling down there but he also would start stop and show us the soil. That's where I saw were peanuts, how peanuts grow. You know, you dig up your plant, you got your peanuts under the soil. We bathed in the water along the way. There was no such thing as hotels. We ended up in Mexico City, and there were some experiences there, and we ended up in Wadalajara, and there was experiences there.

And when I came back, when we eventually made our way back, school was almost over in, and this is imperial school. So what the school had me do, and maybe that's where I got my first little experience, I don't know, but they used to have these maps that you pulled down in front of the blackboard. and I had to go to grade two, three, four, and five, and six class, and explain the trip and what we stopped and what we ate and, you know, the things along the way. That's what got me through grade six. My brother, he was more shy, and they held him back a year because they felt that he lost that year. My father was going to put us in school down there, but he was a guy that watched his pennies, really close, and it was too expensive to put us in school there.

So he said, here's a book for you, and here's a book for you, read it, learn, and we did. We sort of learned a little bit of the language of the people. How long did you go for? We left, I think it was the end of September. He let the school know that we weren't going to be there, and I don't know if we came back. April, May, or June. I'm not sure. Like, you're talking like six months?

We lived in an apartment building in Mexico City. And I was actually just telling one of my friends about this because Mexico today, you just don't go out in the street and play, right? They had a court, like there was apartment all the way around in a court in the middle. In the middle. Yeah. And basketball hoops. And at the time I was there, I was a basketball player, so I would join in with the kids and play basketball.

I really enjoyed that. And yeah, and so you could go out on the street, you could wander around, you know, sort of thing. And this, you know, with the kids, and you'd go to their, I call them Adobe's sort of thing, because they were just sort of like, what can you say, a baby. building, and there was an apartment. I guess you could call them apartments now, eh? And it was, I can remember, it was a gray cement apartment building. And, yeah, so then we had a lot of fun with those kids.

And then from there, I can't remember how long we lived there, but then we moved over to Wadalajara. And there we had a nicer apartment building. And one of the maids actually invited us to her, daughter's first communion. And we became friends with the kids there, you know. I hope I'm not boring you with all this. Do I look bored?

You just told me your father took you out of school. Yeah. And took you down to Mexico for essentially six months. Yeah. How many other people do you know that that happened to? I don't know any of them. Right. So I'm leaning in here.

So yeah, you have me on full attention. I'm wondering, multiple, lots of questions come to mind. The first one being, you know, where we sit today currently, you cannot drive across the border. Now, that is maybe changing with vaccinations. I'm not 100% sure. But back then, do you remember going, like, you would have been awfully young, but do you remember going across the U.S. border? I was 12. I don't remember going across the border, but, I mean, we went across the border. I was 12 years old.

Yeah. We traveled. I had an uncle in Portland, Oregon that had a grocery store. We spent some time there. and I helped my Uncle Sam and Aunt Mabel in the store. Did you ever talk to your dad as you got older to be like, what, spurred him on to take the trip? No, my father and I became buttonheads as I became more and more independent.

He, because I challenged him. He would come up with different ideas and my mother and my brother would get up from the table and my father and I would be sitting there. and he sort of goaded, he would goad me, and I think that he liked to hear what I had to say. But I think sometimes I never, you know, just talking about or my thoughts about what happened or where we did or whatever, right? But I never ask him any of those questions because it was his way or the highway. Yeah, I hear that, but you're a parent. When your kids were that age, did you ever think of, hey, we're just going to take off for six months?

Monson, and Grotto. Absolutely not. So that's wild. That is a very unique story to go live in Mexico City and experience different cultures and everything else. As a parent, I kind of understand his thought process a little bit, like to show how big the world to a kid is very powerful.

And not only that, I think, too, that we didn't have any. any frills or any nothing, like it was just, we would have soap and we would have, we'd wash our hair in the creeks or we stopped at a lot of, always at a watering, wherever there was water, we would stop. Like a well you're talking? No, like a lake or a lake or a spring or, you know, where there was water so that you could wash and wash your clothes and hang them up. and I think we sort of like gypsies at that time. Because that comes to mind because that's basically, you know, and my father and mother, they would go into a town and they would buy groceries,

and the groceries would be put in the back of the truck. And we just, and we had a camp stove that he would put, pull out and lit it up and cooked a lot of beans on that camp stove. And this sounds kind of weird, talking about it now, doesn't it? No, I know. I don't think weird is the, is the, I think it's adventurous, right? It was very, yeah. And even for that time would have been very unique, obviously, because you don't have

20 friends who did it. So it's not like he looked up a travel book and said, hey, there's this trip you can take for six months with your kids where they, they can learn and come back and whatever. I missed my friends in school. You know, I missed my friends. In fact, I could, until I sort of said to myself, well, there's no, I can't walk back. I have to go along with it, right? So we went and you just have to, you learned, and you met kids along the way, you know, different kids. And especially in Mexico, they had a whole different idea about kids, you know, kids did different things or. What do you mean? Well, they were very family orientated, you know what I

mean like, and the ones that we met, like they were very religious. We lived in this one, like in Wadalajara, and like I told you, the maid, we got really friendly with her. Because here's a couple of Canadian kids, you know, up and down the elevators and going through the halls and whatever. And so you would talk to the maids, basically a lot to the maids, more to them than the people in the apartments. And so they became friendly with you, and you became friendly with you.

with them and pretty soon you know you meet their kids or you meet their husband and you know and we were always as kids me being 12 my brother being 10 we were looking for kids to play with right and so in Wadalhar we got closer to I guess you could say the housekeeping people and her house they called the maids because that's what they did they took care of the apartment block and she invited us to her daughter's First Communion. Now we went to a place called San Blas, and it was on the edge of the ocean sort of thing, and it was a very remote, I don't know what you would call it,

but it was, I could draw it for you. It's like an adobe, big square adobe building, and it was cream-colored, and so you went into this main door, and in there there was all these doors that you went into, and each door had a family in it. But in the center they had their big fire pit, and this is where they had their celebrations.

Well, we were at a, they probably had lots of other celebrations, but that's the one we attended. And to this day, I can remember the one girl befriended me, and her name was Consuelo, and she took me to her apartment, and we sat on her bed, and there was a whole kind of curtains hanging all over. And I had my book to help me kind of, you know, talk. And by then I'd learned some of the words.

So we kind of, you know, had this friendship going. And my father, the people just loved orange crush. You know, bottled orange crush. And he went and he, as his gift to them, I guess, I don't know, but he bought wooden cases of orange pop. Orange pop. You know? And so her and I and my brother,

we were taking the pop out of the wooden crates, and we'd hand them to my dad and to whoever else was there, and they had this old, they'd have really old Coca-Cola freezers or coolers or whatever you call it, and they'd be stuffing this pop in there, this orange pop. And the kids were so excited because everybody loved orange pop. I don't know why, but anyway, that sticks out in my mind. So then they had, this is a little bit gory,

but my brother and I, my brother passed away in 2015, and we talked about it a lot because it really, really stuck with us. They sacrificed a little goat. Now that sounds really strange, right? But that was a religion. That's culture. Culture. Yeah.

And this goat was tied up in, in this sort of little porch area in the corner. And slowly they slit the goat's throat and the blood would, they bled it to death is basically what it was. My brother is, was 65 and I'm 70 and we can still remember how we felt about that, eh? That scene stuck with us all those years.

And that was, but that was their way, I would be, I was very, really upset at first. My father said, he basically said, be quiet. That's how they do it. And so you just be quiet, and that's how they did it. But when they had their ceremony, like the little girls had nice, white, beautiful dresses and veils, and the little guys had, you know, nice suits. And there was such singing and dancing and eating. And I don't know if we ate goat or not, but I just remember, you know, we had lots of food to eat, and it was a big celebration. And then, when the night was over, we had had a tent that was set up sort of on the sand, and that's where

we slept. And it was sort of a net. I can remember the net and thinking, oh, I can breathe through here. Because I, you know, I was claustophobic. Down there, my brother and I got stuck in an elevator too. So that attributed to my claustophobia. And I remember looking and thinking, I can breathe through this. This is a net. You know, I mean, I'm 12 years old and I'm scared I can't breathe. But anyway, those are some of, and then we made our way slowly back to Canada. And then we got back to Regina and

we picked up and within my father built another house and then we moved up to and he would sell the houses. and we moved up to Quinell. Well, so you didn't even come back and stay in Regina then. You just were pretty much... Just for that short time, and then we ended up going up to Quinell. Were you excited to get back to Regina when you're coming? Yes, but it was different because after you see all of that,

you know, after you're involved in that, a whole, that traveling and seeing that and... Experiencing different cultures and different worlds. different provinces and people and people and everything else. When you came back to the North Anics, like the kids that you were used to playing with or whatever, they didn't know nothing. You know, they were, I mean, that sounds weird, doesn't it? But you kind of...

You're beginning to start to have world experience. Right. You stepped out of that world. You understand how big the world really truly is. And before, you're right. And before that, we were in our own little world in North Anx. you know, and it was kind of sad in a way, but in another way that was just life. So then we moved on.

Did it spur on for your later years to go traveling lots? I've done a fair bit of traveling, yes. But I did traveling not so much by, well, a little bit since I was divorced, but prior before us getting married. No, we didn't travel a lot. But during our General Motors days, we did a lot of traveling as far as, you know. As far as the company went, you went? The company went, yeah.

You'd work for points or whatever, and you'd end up going, you know, to different conventions. You know, we were in like the Bahamas three times. You go over to, you know, Los Angeles, you know, go to Toronto, those kinds of tour. Now, before we carry on with this story, I got to know, a word because it's it's in computer lingo but you're not talking about computers adobe what is adobe they call them their homes so that was Adobe was just a style of house in Mexico yeah yeah and if you go back you may have said that but as soon as i heard adobe i'm like geez that's an interesting word but i didn't want to jump in because yeah and this is what they call this as well that was their

homes their adobe homes and if you go back you know to uh When my grandparents first came over and they made mud houses and that sort of thing, some of those were called Adobe's too, further into the south, eh? That's what they called them. They're Adobe homes. Did you grow up around your grandparents at all? Yes, a little bit. Yeah, a little bit.

My grandparents came from, on my mother's side, came from Odessa, Russia, and they spent some time in the U.S. with their relatives, and then they immigrated to Canada. And they settled in the Lake Alma area. And my brother and I, our parents would put us on the train when we were in Regina, put us on the train and send us down to. our grandparents and we go to and the fact I got pictures of that this barren prairie nothing to do out here. It'd be a chicken coop

a horse barn a house standing in the prairie type of thing and a few wagons around and my brother and I got so bored one time we said what are we going to do here you know anyway it was my uncle Johnny's farm and

he was a real horseman and actually he's written up in some of the history books too. And my brother and I, we found these beautiful colored rocks out in the field, eh? So our grandparents were visiting with some visitors that had come. And so my brother's name Steve. So Steve and I, we said, hey, let's do this. So we chopped up all those rocks. So we put them in a got a pail. We put a bunch of water in. And we're stirring and stirring and stirring because we wanted to see like red water and blue water. And so we entertained ourselves that way.

Well, the next morning, all H exploded. Those were the salt rocks that Uncle Johnny had in the field. For the animals. So, boy, did we hightail it, and we were hiding because Grandpa was furious with us, and Uncle Johnny, he was hollering for us. We were in big trouble, big trouble. Now, curiosity has me. Your grandparents coming from Russia, did you ever talk to them about Russia?

They didn't want to talk about it. I found all I wanted to know, and they never even talked to their kids about it. So I couldn't find anything out from their kids. Isn't that wild? The only thing that I know that my grandmother said where she came from, She supposedly had a sister. But she didn't know where her sister was because they put her in a wheelbarrel and they took her to Siberia. That's all my ground.

And then she told me another story. I shouldn't say that. She told me another story because it was always, you know, interesting in these older people, eh? And they, in their house, they were Roman Catholic. They were very religious. They had these big pictures of Jesus and Mary, and they'd say the rosary in the morning, and they'd say the rosary before lunch,

and they'd say the rosary after lunch, and they'd say it before they went to bed. Very, very religious. And my grandmother told me this story that when they got off at Ellis Island, and they were coming across on the train, they had two children with them, newborn and one a year old, but they had no food.

And Grandma says the babies were crying and Grandpa got out and stretched his legs when the train stopped. And he found a bag and in this bag it had a sandwich. And Grandma believed that Jesus was watching over them because that sandwich was brought into the train and they fed it to the year old, my mother's oldest sister, and they had that. That was their food, eh? And I heard a lot of stories about how tough it was, how hard it was. And when we did spend time with them in Esteban,

basically it was during harvest time, so you're shelling peas and you're cleaning carrots and... Well, the reason why I ask about Russia is, you know, back in those days, there is a lot of stuff that goes down. There's a lot of people that flee their country. And so I was just curious. And we believe my daughter is really into the genealogy stuff and that type of thing. And we are on the 23 and me site, you know, so all of a sudden I got all these relatives all over the place.

But anyway, she is so into that. You know, like we believe that our grandfather actually was a Jew, was Jewish. But he never, ever, there wasn't a word mentioned about it. No way, because that was big trouble over there. And my grandmother was German. And to this day, my daughter, Cheryl, says that grandpa was Jewish. and really if you go and look how the spelling and all that they had three different spellings of their names and let's face it they hid from the authorities well what i would give to take this back and to try and peel

it out of them because i think there's such um wisdom in what they went through not like what they lived through was probably worse than any human being should endure. Absolutely. But to hear it would be something very, very useful for the people of this time and moving forward to understand how bad it can really get because you can read about it. But to actually hear somebody talk about it and share their experiences is very powerful.

Yeah. And I think that we as my brother and I especially because I spent the most time with him, I have a sister that came 15 years after us, after me. But between him and I, we spent a lot of time together with the grandparents, when they'd send us down. In fact, the old train station in Regina, it's now a casino. And I went to a charity thing in Regina, and one of the items that you could bid on was the picture of the train station that Steve and I always got on and headed, you know,

can you imagine sending your children on a train by themselves to Estevan, from Regina to Estevan? And basically the guys on the train or the conductor or whatever, they were told to look after us. And we'd sit in our seat and we'd, you know, look. Did you enjoy the train? Yes, I did, yeah. And the fellows that came down, you know, they would kibbets with us kids, with my brother and I, we were kids.

You know, they really looked after us really well. And then the grandparents would be, like usually my grandpa was there at the train station when we pulled up. I got that hanging in my office, that picture. The picture of the train station? Yeah, you can go and look at it. Okay. Yeah, and it's the train station. And Steve and I talked about that often, you know.

We love to get on the train. You know, you had the freedom to get on the train. And then freedom. That's why when you ask me about the children today, there's no freedom. Really, there isn't. They're so afraid. You don't let your children out of your sight because for different reasons. And we experienced that freedom.

Now, whether it was because of my parents, my father, You know, and his life or whatever, I don't know why he gave us that, or why we had that freedom. But we talk about it like it was freedom. And I don't, you don't hear children outside anymore. I have my bedroom window open. And I'm so happy to hear some kids out there sometimes, you know. Either they're waiting for this. Monkey in a boat.

Right. Or they're over across the fence, you know, playing around. The voices. And, of course, I always let my kids play outside when. Because I ended up going back to Regina, and that's where I got married and had kids there. And I would stop at the screen door. Yep, there's Cheryl, there's Dean, there's Pat. Yep, you know, Deb, they're out there playing with the rest of the kids, eh?

You moved to BC. You said BC was beautiful, wonderful. Yep, Cornell. Do you graduate in BC then? No, we were only there for two years. and my sister was born there in 59 and we came back in the spring or the summer of 60. Yeah, spring of 60.

We came back. So you're your grade 12 year. I didn't go to grade 12. You didn't go to grade 12? No. I went for that year, for the next year, I went to Scott Collegiate in Regina, grade 10. And then my father was taking,

his family and heading to West Virginia and I said, I'm not going. And I was 16. And well, if you're not going, you're not going. And I struck out on my own. He shook my hand and he said,

good luck, don't take any wooden nickels. And from then on... Don't take any wooden nickels? That's what he would say. He said, that's not what he would say, that's what he said to me. What is wooden nickels? A wooden nickel is useless. So never take a wooden nickel.

That's an interesting saying. Okay. Always make sure your nickels are useful. Now, Barb, when you ask me if I get bored, what did I say when I walked in here? I honestly don't know a whole lot about you. This is the fun part, the exploring of a conversation and you're being open to exploring it with me. Excuse me, yeah. At 16 years old, you tell your father you're not going to West Virginia.

That's right. So what do you do? So at that time, we lived in the newest house on Argyll Street that he had built, and he had a suite in the basement. And he had it rented out to a family, a Salvation Army family. And through that Christmas, that fall in Christmas, I had gotten a job. Because you could get a job at 16. I got a job at Sears. the Sears catalog center.

And I started making some money. And when he decided that he was picking the family up, my mother didn't want to go, my brother didn't want to go, but I was the only one that said, I'm not going. Then my brother was younger than me. He was only, what, 14? That must have been hard. You know, when you talk about Steve,

so everywhere you guys went, you were together, the train, the trip to Mexico, everywhere. Absolutely, yeah. That must have been a hard decision to make. 16. Not for me, but for him, he missed me. You know, because you always had two, two, two. And my father was, my mother was more meek and quiet. My father was domineering. My father was domineering. If you know, when you say domine, he was very strict. Strict, yeah. Very strict. You already mentioned his way or the highway.

Yeah, his way of the highway. Like in Regina, we have. had one lot that was beside the house and he did not like a dandelion in that lot. And that was our job to pick every dandelion out of that lot. And we did it. That's why I can't stand weeds on my garden. But anyway, that was programming me to be a gardener, I think. I don't know. But anyway, we had to clean them up in every morning.

You got up and you went and stood out on the step and, oh, there's one, two, three, four dandelions, we've got to get them out. And there's no pulling them. You got to dig them out. You know, he had sort of like a screwdriver, and you dig and you snap. You dig and you snap. And when they were all clean, he liked his grass, his lawn. That was back.

He planted the lawn, and he liked it nice and green and clean. So, yeah. So anyway, that. So at 16, yeah, I'm... Living upstairs. with a family renting below? Yeah, the Salvation Army. And at that time, I had actually,

I had another job, Bob's Highboy. It was like a hamburger joint that you went, and I worked until midnight there. And then I had a job at a restaurant for a couple of months. And so I was pretty confident that I could make enough money to look after myself. And I said, I'm not going. And so there was, of course, a roar in the house, you know, type of thing.

And the Salvation Army people come up and they said, told my mother, if Barbara would like, we will help her pack and we will take her where she needs to go. Because they knew what kind of a relationship that I had with my father, eh? So the best way was for me to move on. And so as it turned out, I actually looked after some other children, babysat them, and their uncle said, and I got to be friends with his daughter, and their uncle, his name was Bill. He was just a gem, a beautiful man.

And he said, what I'll do to help you out, he said, you can live with Helen in the rooming house. She was on Halifax Street. and he said, I'll pay your share of rent until you get your first check. I said, okay. And then another friend of mine, a girlfriend, she said, there's a job opening up at the revenue building. Maybe you should apply for that one.

So it was called the Motor License Department in Regina. So I just turned 17, or was about to turn 17. And I went for an interview. And the fellow says, you better get back. to school, he says, I'm not going to give you a job. I said, I can't, I need, I need a job. I told him my father's leaving and I need a job. I got hired on there at the Revenue Building as a typist, typing up your registrations and that sort of stuff. So that was me striking out on my own. And I just turned 17, I think, when I got the job or close to that.

What did you, your parents and your siblings all leave? It's not like today. I always laugh and I say this, but, you know, there's going to be, I know most of the people probably listening, but who knows? Maybe they don't. Back then, it's not like you have FaceTime, and all of a sudden you're FaceTime and your family down in West Virginia. Like we're talking, I don't know,

was there a way to make a pay phone call, or was it all letters? Was there anything? My mother would write back and forth to the people in West Virginia. I actually, from that time on, never did see my father again. I'm 16 years old and on. You never saw him again.

Again? No. My mother and him, they went down to West Virginia, and they, his father's family lived there. And he wanted to know he had been abandoned by his own father back when he was eight, nine years old. And so going through all this genealogy and everything,

and we've come to the conclusion that I actually found his father. And we feel my brother and I talking about it, that he was seeking, he was looking for his own father. And this is the road he was. was taking. So my, his father was born in West Virginia and there was other relatives there. So they went there and my mother had corresponded with them and so they ended up going there. My brother went there and by that time my youngest sister, she was two years old at that time. So they all went down there and I stayed up here. And like I say, and then when they came back up, they went over to be,

and they lived in Chilawak for a while. And that's where my parents separated because my father was headed back down to the states again and my mother says we're not going. So they separated and eventually divorced. And my mother, brother and sister came back to Regina. My father went down to, well actually I just found in different places that he'd gone and rented. and then he met a woman down there

and whether they got married or not, I don't know, but he's buried down there in Texas. So that's where he ended up. Did it, this is, I don't know how to properly phrase this, but did you ever think of trying to find him again to talk to him or anything? No, he knew where I was. He knew where I was. He always knew where I was.

He wrote me a letter. explaining his behavior. I guess I just accepted his behavior. I mean, I'm a true believer even today. If you're not happy, go make yourself happy because you only have from this point to this point to be happy. And my mother was happier without him, and he seemed to be happier without her.

And as far as I was concerned, my life just carried on. And I made my own way. And I paid, I got my first check from Revenue Canada. And I paid Bill back for my portion of sharing, you know, Helen's room. And I moved across the street. And I put my down payment, $30. I rented my room, $30. on 18 block Halifax Street in Regina, and I walked to work.

And I tell you, walking in high heels just about killed you. But you had to, you know, anyway, I walked to work to the revenue building. How good did it feel to pay Bill back? Oh, Bill, he was such a gem. He was such a gem. I actually communicated with his wife up until the time she passed away

and actually, you know, I was sad to hear that he passed away. He was such, they were such great people. That's one thing in my life I've come up against great people. You know, yes, everybody has their ups and downs with relationships or whatever, but I have really been blessed by having people that are in my corner, I guess you could say.

I don't know how else to say it. But, yeah, I paid him back, and then I went across the street, and I was making, I think, $160 a month at that time. And paid for my one room, and then the bathroom was across the hallway. You know, those old two-story houses in downtown Regina, if you ever, you know, have come across those old houses. It was one of those? Yep.

And I had a room up there and, yeah, went to work for the government of, it said Revenue Canada, but was it Saskatchewan? Was it Canada? I can't remember. But you got your health care card from there and you also got your registration for your vehicle. So where does this story go from here? You're now a 17-year-old girl living by herself working for Revenue Canada. You didn't graduate with your grade 12.

No, grade 10. Which for the time probably wasn't that unusual, I don't think. No, lots of people did. Yeah, lots of people did. So where do you go from here? Well, from there, I met my husband in the spring of 61. When I see, it wasn't spring, I think it was like April March or something, something like that. Because I was a bridesmaid for a friend of mine.

And I had met him through Bill's daughter, Helen. And he come cruising around the building that I lived in. And we were all ready to go for the wedding. So I said, why don't you come along with us, you know? And, yep, so he came along to the wedding. And from there on, we started seeing each other. And one thing led to another. And he worked at Ipsco, Ipsco Steel Plant.

And there was a group of us, a couple other guys that worked there. And so we, you know, basically we'd go to dances. You didn't do it. Or you'd go to the driveway, or you'd go to the burger joint, What was your favorite driving? There must be a movie that sticks out in your mind that you enjoyed. You know something? No. No?

Actually, during this COVID time, is the most in my life that I've ever watched movies. Movies have never been in my... So loud yet? Movies have never been my forte type of thing. You've never been your jam. Sometimes I would watch them, but... It was never... It was a social outing then is what you're saying.

Yeah. I like the dances better. I like us going to the burger joints better. The socializing, you know, that sort of thing. I love to dance. It seems so funny to me that you go to a burger joint to socialize. But I suppose it was one where you pulled up and they came and served you and everything else. I was a car hop. You were a car hop?

Yeah, it was called Bob's Highboy. Oh yeah, you did mention this. Now were you in rollerblades? Nope. No, no, no. we had to wear these heavy, heavy outfits, pants and jacket. I remember that. They're almost like the material that the Army people wore.

Okay. It was terrible. You know, but, yeah. And we had to work, I can't remember. I think I started around four or five because it was right after school, and I'd run to Bob's Highboy up Albert Street and change into my uniform and get my first order and you took it out on the tray, and that's when you put it on the side of the vehicle,

and the people ate there. And then when our shift was over, get this. We all had to take the brooms and sweep the parking lot. We were, you know, think about today what happens. They don't sweep the parking lot anymore, but we had to sweep the parking lot. And then a taxi cab would take us home. Like there'd be three or four of us in the cab,

and then they take us home. Do you remember what you're making, working there? Well, I can't. Maybe 50 cents an hour? I don't know, not very much, but it was money. It was good nickels. It wasn't wooden. Yeah.

Yeah. So, I'm always curious with, you know, we're in Lloydminster, right? It's, you know, we're pulling you here and how you get it? How on earth do you get here? Well, when we first got married, we were workers. Basically, we put our paychecks together, and I signed, co-signed his loan on his car, and we got married. And in those days, when you got married, he was from the Priestful area.

So you went back to Priestful, and you had 10,000 people that came to the wedding. You didn't even know who they were. you know, it was big thing, you know, weddings were a big thing, eh? And so that's how we started out our married life. We lived in one of those walk-ups, those walk-ups or whatever you want to call them, those old houses. We had the third floor and then we had part of the attic, if you can imagine. Well, we lived there for maybe a month, month and a half, two months, and then we moved to a basement suite. And we lived there.

That's where our first girl was born is in the basement suite. I got married at 18. Can you imagine that? I just turned 18 on the 14th of September and I got married on the 30th of September. You strike me as a person with fewer regrets, if any. I have none. Do you look back and go, I may have been too young to get married? No, never. I was happy to be young because what can you say? You just, You adjust so much easier. You know, yes, it was, but there was lots of us that were young and 17, 18, 19, and married, and we had children. And we would have our beer and our popcorn and we'd watch our children play.

It's life. So. Well, that's, you know, if there's one stark difference in a generation, it is how young, Well, my parents were married at 20, I believe. Pretty sure it's 20. I'm forgetting right now, but I'm like 90% of 20 anyways. But they had five kids by the time they were 30, right? Yeah.

I wasn't married until I was, well, now I'm drawn up like 28. Yeah. And we didn't have her first until 30, essentially. Well, that's the same thing with my kids. They never got married until they were in their, like, 23, 24, 25. And I was married at 18. and married in September and the following a year later, my oldest was born in December, a year later.

And then 17 months later, I had my second one. And then Cheryl was about a year old and Patrick Cam. So I would say that I would be 22, something like that. I had my last one when I was 26. But in the meantime, I had a lot of boarders. It seemed like all the brothers and sisters wanted to come and stay with us and work, find their first job. So there was nothing like having a big long table and having fellows and... Having a full table.

Having a full table. And, yeah, so anything to make a few bucks, like I say, and then ended up. having this social worker is really what my husband sold her a car and she at that time was looking to place three children, two girls and a boy. And so my husband figured, hey, maybe we can help out the, you know, the kids, eh? So then he come to talk to me and I said, well, we can't have two girls and a boy because we already got two girls and you'd have like a war going on, eh? And so we ended up taking the boy. And then that was the foster son that stayed with us right until he went off to the army and got married and et cetera.

And his children still think of me as grandma. I'm curious about fostering. I think it takes a special person, special family to bring in. outsiders into a family dynamic and make it work. You're a lady who's lived that experience. What did fostering children teach you? What did it teach me? It taught me that, you know,

when you have your own children, you grow with them and you know what their behaviors are. When you have the foster children, they come from situations that are not happy. They come with food shortages. They come with abusive situations. And like, Patrick came when he was five. and how the welfare got those children is those children were hungry

and they were in the alley looking for food. So when they took the children, they found all three of them went to different foster homes. He had an issue with food. He would take food from the fridge and he'd hide it under his bed or in his pillow, under his pillow, in this closet, you name it, you know. And so it was really difficult to break him of that and let him know that there's always food here.

You know, if you want something to eat, you let mom know, and, you know, and you can have food here. You don't have to steal it. You don't have to hide it. That was a lot of his situations. He wanted, for instance, If he had an old bike, how we turned around and the one girl, the younger girl would get the tricycle, the second girl would get his bike, and he'd get a new bike, right? He didn't like that new bike.

He wanted that bike. He didn't like to give his sister that bike. He didn't care about a new bike, eh? So he had a lot of possessive issues, and you can't blame a child for that because they're afraid to love. let it go, right? And they're always, he was seeking, he was always seeking love, even from strangers. It was hard to rein them in and, you know, teach him otherwise, eh? Because he always thought it was better across the street. Like, for instance, when we moved to Lloyd, he would go and shovel the neighbor's driveway and sidewalk, but he wouldn't shovel mom and dads. You see,

He was always seeking something else there. And I had another boy that was a Lloydminster boy, and he was abused, and he was seeking. They were always looking for whatever they didn't have or however it was. and in Regina I had a girl that she was in a sort of a detention home and it was a challenge to keep an eye on her you know and try but she was a teenager and I found that what I said she would challenge all the time it wasn't easy to get to her you know

because she was very set in what she wanted to do and set in what she believed eh and yeah so it was and then I had a little First Nations boy the poor little guy he he was half the size of my two-year-old or three-year-old and he was two years older than her so he was malnutritioned and so again you know you have to teach them that they don't take all the food and shove it in you know and that little fellow he was terrified by the vacuum cleaner and a mosquito ended up on his arm and he was terrified of that because he'd spent most of his time in the crib. So even his legs were sort of, you know, it was hard for him to walk

and run. So you have to be prepared because that's why they're coming to you. The social worker, she was the same social worker in Regina and when she brought me the little guy, She said, I've washed seven layers off of him. You've got another seven to go. And he was terrified of water. So there's all these different situations that you learn, and you're almost prepared for. Okay, what's this? And how can we do with this?

And what can we do? But I'll tell you one thing. After that little guy left my home, he was adopted out. And the social worker brought me a picture of him. It was just awesome to see that he had grown in. into such a nice fellow, such a nice young kid, eh? And that he was so happy, because that was a little fellow that was scared of a mosquito on his arm, eh?

And, yeah, so there's all those situations that you have to. And there was a situation here in Lloyd that was difficult to, very difficult. And that young fellow, he ended up in Toronto, found on the street. What can say they just let me know that he had been found. And he went down to Drumheller, to the, he got into trouble, and he would always call us mom and daddy. And he left once, and then he wanted to come back again.

And he liked to start fires. And I just, at that time, I was lucky to be in Vancouver at that time. And I said, no, we can't take him back. because I couldn't jeopardize the whole family. You know, he had a thing with fire. Was it tough bringing, like, rewarding, I would assume, when you talk about one small boy, but was it difficult to bring you know they're coming with baggage

into your family's life? Was that difficult? Or was, like, did your children, enjoy that or my kids just sort of accepted you know like just like a friend like when the one here in lloyd minster came he came and he refused to get out of his pajamas and he sat at the table with a he really liked uh my son dean's hockey helmet and he put the hockey helmet on his head and he sat in his pajamas and uh he kind of like dared he would dare you to um Tell them to get dressed or whatever.

Oh, we kind of just ignored them. You know, if that's how you want to be, you can be that way for a while. We'll give you some time to get adjusted type of thing. And then after two or three, four days of that, mornings or afternoons or whatever, you bet there's some clothes for you downstairs. You go down, you have a shower, you get dressed, you put those clean clothes on, or you don't go anywhere, period. You'll just stay there until you get those on.

So you have to get to a point you get them a little, And then you get to a point that you're not going to accept their behavior from this time on. So they changed that behavior then. Then he became a young fellow that really liked his clothes, you know, and liked how he looked and dressed up, you know, and, you know, went off to school. And even the principal at ES Laird, because he was familiar with the situation. and he even said, wow, has he ever changed? He's come a long way.

And it was just that, I guess I have that persistence. I'm not going to give up on you, but eventually you'll do it my way. And he did well in school for a while. And then he was in Air Cadets. He was in 4-age. And then his parents got a hold of him again. And he went backwards. And it was sad.

There was other issues along the way, but, you know, I won't bother going into them. That must have been tough. It was. It was. Our dealership got broke into. And when I pulled open and I'd had a picture in my desk drawer upstairs with him and my other son and daughter in 4-H with their, calves and that picture was ripped in half. And I knew right then who had broke into our dealership and it turned out to be true.

Yeah. So it's, you know, like you don't, you're not successful with them all. The oldest one with Patrick, he was, he was an amazing kid. He had, he wasn't very good in school. And I went to the school and talked to them. And they were prepared to work with me, and he did really good. He was in a work-study program for two years rather than one, and he was an excellent employee.

He went out into the world, and the work-study program was, you went to school in the morning, and you went to work in the community in the afternoon. There wasn't a manager or a boss or whatever that was ever disappointed in him. In fact, when he was nine years old, he could change attire, just from working with my husband. Like he had the talent. And I don't know where he is today, but I wish him well, wherever he is,

and I hope he's successful because he definitely has or had what it took to be successfully. Do you think there's... I actually, I don't know the world. So is there enough foster families or is it a gross shortage of people willing to take time? kids in? You know, I would never, and I'll say this quite candidly, in this day and age, I would never be a foster parent. Why is that? I think because back then I had the freedom to teach the

foster children or treat them how I treated my own kids. And if they needed discipline, they got discipline. In fact, the Patrick, I'm telling you about, he would always get even with me. I'd say, Okay, you stand in the corner, you know, or you sit on your, well, that came later. But he'd picked the paint off the wall when he's standing in the corner, he's getting even with me. Okay, then you sit on your hands in the middle of the floor. But today, something like that might be considered abusive, right? Eventually he didn't, because he'd get next to a table like that, and he'd just pick away at it, and he'd pick the, you know, whatever he could do, he would try to,

until you got to the point that, I'd say, do you want to sit on your hands again? No, he didn't want to do that, so he'd behave himself, eh? And then he got with another young kid, and basically they threw a brick, threw a windshield of his truck. So the police come around, and I said, well, you did it, you did it. Police are here to pick you up. Where you go? The cop just kind of winked at me.

He took the two boys. He drove him around town, and there was no. more brick throwing after that never had that trouble again whether they did it or not i don't know but they didn't break any windshields anyway what do you think then barb about our current um our current situation with discipline and everything else now i'm i'm not sitting here saying the belt needs to be brought out and um anything extreme but at the same time um clear boundaries is what you set That's right. And they have to be adhered to, or you lose privileges or you're disciplined or whatever. You know, like, you just have to do that. I think, you know, I think today parents cannot be parents anymore. You're not your, I look at it and I say, you're not your child's friend. You're their parent. You're their guiding light.

And I've said to my children, the best thing you can do to your children or for your children is to teach them to survive out in the world, to make their way, to make their living, to be honest, to live up and be good standing people. That's the best you can do from them. You're not their friend. If they do something wrong, then we have to deal with it. I don't know that people can be parents today. I don't know.

Because... I think they can. Huh? I think they can. You think they can? Oh, yeah. Do you have the freedom to be parents? I think so.

Well, the rules have definitely changed, for sure, right? The world has changed, but I would assume from the time that you were growing up as a kid to when you had kids, some rules had changed, too. They're constantly evolving. Yeah, that's true. And in today's world, you can still be a parent. You can still tell your children. know and take things away and consequences and keep them accountable for their actions.

And I applaud parents that hand out the consequences because that's how you learn. Like I've always said, you never know love unless you've been unloved. You never know a full belly unless you've gone hungry. You know, you have to, and it's the same thing with being, you know, like, disciplined. Like, for instance, what's it, 2018, I had young people that broke into my home and stole my truck. And my truck ends up in the boonies, spray painted and wrecked and whatever. And those are not adult people doing that. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? And if it doesn't belong to you? It doesn't belong to you. I had each one of my children, like my daughter, she loved

chalk and blackboard and erasers, eh? She'd come running home and I always knew this one time she went running downstairs. And she was, I don't know, five, six, well, probably in grade one or grade two. Yeah, six, seven, something like that, eh? And I thought, oh, that's strange behavior. And I've always said, as a parent, you've got to stay one step ahead of the children, not behind them. So I thought, hmm, that's rather strange. So I went downstairs. She went out to play or whatever, or upstairs, and I went downstairs, and I'm looking around and looking around and think, what's going on?

Here she had stolen some chalk from school and the brush, you know, the blackboard brush, and she had tucked it down in behind some wood. in the laundry room. And I thought, hmm. So I took the chalk and the brush, the blackboard brush, and I brought it up, and I put it on the table, and I just waited. And, of course, when she saw that, just as a little one, you could see the look on her bed.

And I said, well, tomorrow, when you go back to school, you just take it back and put it where you got it from. She did. She never brought any more chalk and brushes home. My second girl, she comes. and she says, look, Mom, look what Ida Marie gave me. And she had Barbie dolls and Barbie doll clothes, eh? Look what Ida Marie gave me.

And I thought, no, Ida Marie doesn't give up her Barbie doll stuff, eh? And I said, oh, I don't think so. I said, you better take that back to Ida Marie and you tell her your story that you took it. Never had that problem again. You know, when you're talking, I just think your mother who was very engaged with her children. didn't, I don't know, let things slide, paid attention to what was going on in their lives. I did. That's, I don't think it's a unique quality.

I think lots of parents are like that, right? I was scared not to. Like the school ES Laird would have dances for the kids. I showed up at the door. Well, I would pick two kids up. Pick the kids up, and I'd drive them there, and I'd say, I'm coming to pick you up. Oh, you don't have to do that, mom. We'll catch your ride home.

Oh, no, no problem. Even the other kids that they brought with them, like their friends, they didn't like me to pick them up because they wanted a horse around after, eh? But guess what? I was the one standing in the vestibule waiting to take you home. And one young girl, she was quite upset with me, and she said, you don't have to take me home. I said, oh, yes, I do.

I brought you. I'll take you home, and you and your mom and dad can decide what you do after that, but I'm taking you home. And, you know, that's just what you had to do. Nothing gets by Barb. Poor old kids just want to go out and cause a little mischief in the street 7-8. There's Barb White and get in the car. That's right.

That's my foster son because he had some issues. And he skipped school and went to the pool hall. And that was down across from the old CIB building. It used to be a pool hole right in the corner. And I found out about it. I said to him, don't you ever do that again? because I said, I'll come in that pool hall and I'll wop your bum all the way home down that street. He didn't trust that I wouldn't do it.

He never went to the pool hall again, at least under my roof. Did Barb ever skip school? Never. Never? No. My oldest girl did. She went out into the park at ES Laird and her and her and her friends were sitting there eating sunflower seeds. And I had such a good relationship with the teachers

because I actually subbed at the school in the afternoon just to let my kids know where I'm here. I'm always here. I'm watching. And the school phoned me. They said, this is Cole come. Were you aware that Debbie skipped school? And I said, gee, no, when? So she told me.

and I was working at the time. And so I went down, my husband was down at the far office, and I said, I got to run out for a while. I'm going to go and pick Deb up. What's for? I said, well, you wouldn't guess which one skipped school today. My husband looked at me because Deb could do no wrong in his eyes, and he says, not Deb.

I said, oh, yes. So I went down, picked her up after school. we went to the burger joint A and W and I said you got something to tell mom and the tears just started to roll she never skipped school again at least I and nobody told me she did put it that way

we've been talking about you know it's fun to reminisce about your children doing you know being children you know testing the limits testing the water man I see you light up when when you talk about your children, those must have been fun years.

They were to a certain extent. I was always anxious because I never wanted them to get into anything bad or anything, you know. As a saint, like my youngest son, he was kind of mouthing, he used the F word a little too often out in the playground there. Don't you know? That's one good thing. What was Barb's punishment for too many half-bobbs? I picked him up from school. They never took the bus from.

I picked him up from school. And I said, how are you doing today? I said, what happened? Really, he knew right away that I knew. So he told me that he had to write all these lines. I don't know, 100 lines out. I will not say, I will not swear anymore. I will, you'll say, good.

When we get home, you'll do two more sheets of that. And I said, then you can take it back. to the school and you take it back to the teacher and you hand it to him and you apologize to him they're had that problem anymore whether they did it or not i don't know but it didn't come back to me how did you keep them you know like uh you know probably my biggest fear as a parent right now as my children get older right they're a stranger strangers are always you know you hear the stories and you that makes you a little nervous but i always think I think there's so many good people in our community.

We just have to find that sense of community again, especially coming through the year we've been in. But another big one that everyone, I don't think anyone can disagree with, is drugs. Drugs are, I mean, any town you go to now, you just hear about it. And I don't know, growing up, maybe I was naive. That's a very, I could be very much in the right in thinking that. But overall, I just don't think drugs were as prevalent as they are now. Were you worried about that with your kids growing up?

Yes, I was. But I was a firm believer. As a firm believer that nothing is hidden, we've got to talk about it. And I said to my kids, if you go and get pregnant, I know how to handle that. I know how to handle a baby. but if you go and you take drugs and you mess up your mind or whatever your body, I'll have to find a place to put you because I don't know how to handle that. And that was it.

That was, we had we talked about, we always talked about the drugs. And there was friends of my kids that got messed up in drugs. And I have to say, none of my kids and none of my grand, well, one grandson smoked pot. But I think my daughter did the same thing much the same as I did. They sat down with them and said, well, that's the way you want to spend your money. That's what you want to do to your brain? Your choice. But they couldn't handle it.

And so far as much as my son is a policeman, he deals with a lot of garbage. My daughter raised two really good kids, 32 and 30 now. and they were overseas and, you know, they came into contact with a lot of people. And my daughter in California, she's got two sons. And fingers crossed, you know, they're all, and they're in their 25s and 30s. So hopefully that they, you know, proceed on the same path they're on. They're very much into hiking and that kind of stuff. They've got jobs, you know, they're working.

And same thing with my sons. He's got three children. All three of them, the two girls are doing university, and they've got jobs. The son, he's 15. He's now started his job at Dairy Queen, and they're responsible kids. And that's why I say to my kids,

when you have children, when you have babies, it's up to you to teach them the right way so they don't mess up their life so they don't spoil their life because there's so much out there that's good. You don't need to go for the bad stuff. And like I said, I don't know how to handle somebody that's messed up on things.

I don't. I'd have to find a place to put them. And they knew that I'd find a place to put them. I think they knew that because I couldn't handle it. and I feel sorry for kids that I feel sorry for kids that somehow get involved in that

how do they get involved in it I think you have to give your kids good self-esteem that they don't have to follow anybody be your own I got three kids that are totally individuals like I mean they don't even sometimes support each other they'll argue back and forth points of you know And I think people have to be individual.

You have to be your own self. Well, I was thinking when you said, you know, being very open, even with sex and drugs, right? You're being very open. If that's your choice, that's your choice. But understand, I can't follow you down this path, essentially. That's right. Very empowering to a young mind to be like, it's going to be your choice. Yeah.

Right? But at the end of the day, I can't follow you where you go if you go down this road. That's right. And to make them understand that. And I think you have to be really open with it at a young, well, you know, at a young age, I think, you know, like I noticed with my kids, 12, 13, maybe they start younger now, I don't know. But you just have, it's there. You have to talk about it. It's there.

It's life. I know you know how babies are made. We need to have babies. But you have to look after those babies. babies and I remember saying to my kids too if you make a baby you are forever that parent you can't walk away from it you can't leave it you're forever a parent huh it's not a pet no it's not a pet no not that pet owners want to give up their pets but if you need it to you could and for most part nobody's going to look down on you for don't yeah and and I even remember saying it you know to to

my son's wife today, we were walking downtown in a small downtown. It was a wedding. And I can remember saying, because I was sad, if people choose to have babies, or even if it's a mistake, and you end up getting pregnant for whatever reason, you're forever a parent. You're forever a parent. It's a forever thing. And you have to be prepared for that responsibility for.

forever, don't you think? I'm a parent at this age and I'm still parenting. Probably one of the, well, is it a big life-changing moment having a child? Absolutely it is. And to have a child and to feel that weight of responsibility is both unnerving and yet maybe one of the most powerful things that a human being can experience. Isn't that the fact, yeah, for sure. Right?

Yeah. There's no, at least I'm speaking for myself, there's just no walking away from that. Once it's in your hands, right? Yeah. That's a pretty cool moment. Those are moments that are definitely ingrained in my memory. And the thing is that you have this life in your hands, and that's really what it is. Yeah.

And that's not to say that you don't forgive if they stray one way or the other. You still forgive. You still say I support you, but I don't like me. what you did. I don't like how you behaved. But, you know, it's, yeah, that is the, that is the, and that comes, when you think about fostering, fostering little children, man, that was so heartbreaking. To see this little guy, he's half the size of my, and he's two years older than my daughter, and I put him in the tub, and he's scared of the water, he's just shaking.

And I want to get him to, you know, this won't hurt you, this won't hurt you. And he's just shaking. How did that child get to that point? You know? And man, those things stick with you, you know, like that was a, that was hard for me to understand. Because my kids get into the tub and. And love it. Love it.

You got water all over the place and they're having a blast, eh? and even we met back in the days we'd have company and you'd have two little guys and you put them both in the tub two little girls and you put them both in the tub and never think a thing about it and they loved it and they're splashing and they're playing

and this little guy is just sitting there just trembling just trembling he's so afraid of the water you know I always think we look around the world for the problems of the world, and yet you hear these stories and you realize how close to home they really are if we just open up her eyes kind of. Yeah, they're right.

And I always said, you know, like there's so many children out there, so many children that, you know, like if you can't have children, there's always children to nurture. There's always children to guide. There's always children, you know, there's always children. And many of those children need good influences. Good influences, yeah. Yeah.

And whether, you know, like I look at my life and my father being so strict. And my mother, my mother was, she didn't say much. She just kind of coasted along, eh? And I guess maybe I leaned a little bit more to my father's way of raising children because I was all scared for my kids. You know, I don't want them to get into drugs. I don't want them to have an accident, you know. I don't want them to, you don't want your children to suffer is really what it is.

So you're always trying to guide them and hopefully prevent that, eh? And I would say a parent can just do what you can do, but you can't turn your back on your responsibilities. I want to switch to a passion in your life, I would assume. You mentioned coming to Lloyd and seeing the garbage everywhere and making it a personal mission maybe to know more of this. Could you maybe walk us through this a little bit? Well, I guess I could stem it from my father and mother, even my mother, they always like to have tidiness, cleanliness,

no garbage around it. And that's how I was raised. And maybe that's stuck in me. I went to L.A., went to visit my daughter, and one of my friends said, hey, can I come along with you? So my neighbor, she'd come along with me. And we were a great traveling pair. And I would drive, and she had the navigation page, eh, and the map.

And so we decided we got a hotel, and my daughter was close by. and we decided we were going to drive from Los Angeles over to Vegas. And so we get the map out, we're going. And I'm driving, it's a nice drive. And she said, oh my God, she said, look at the garbage along the fences, mattresses, and just garbage like you wouldn't believe. I said, well, that's nothing. We got that in Lloyd.

We do not have it like that. We don't have like that. I said, excuse me, Bev? I kind of laughed. And I said, when you're driving, because she was my neighbor in the country, and I said, when you're driving out, I said, take a look. And I told her where to look, headed out north on 17. There was that, it's much, it's so nice now.

I just love it and I smile when I go by it now. But I'll tell you, it was just garbage in there. and we were very lax in this city cleaning up garbage. And when I took over the, when I opened up the Weaver Park Tea House, you see all those trees there? It's a big fence around it and everything now. But that fence didn't used to be there. And the garbage that would land in there, and I would get, you know, we were forever picking garbage. Anyway, I'll go back to the Vegas thing.

So when she came back, she took a look and she says, because we would walk out in the country together after work. And are you getting tired? No, I'm getting cramped from sitting here. Sorry. No, no, no. Please do not apologize. I am enjoying all of this. Let me be very clear.

But I love how you're in tune with my body movements. I'm just trying to crack my neck. That's all I'm trying to do. Please carry up. So anyway, she said we got together. We went walking. She says, oh, I know. She said, I never noticed that.

I never noticed that. And I have an article that the newspaper interviewed with me, and I saw it because I went back and looking at the stuff that I've done. And one of my comments was, that's what I hated so much about, We were so dirty. We were so messy. And, oh, but we have the markers downtown. They just had got put in, eh?

And my comment, and it's in the newspaper there, I said, you can have the most beautiful chandelier hanging from your ceiling. But when you walk in and you see nothing but garbage all around you on the floor, You won't even notice that chandelier. You'll notice the garbage. And that's what you will remember. You're not wrong. That's right.

And I think the city made a mistake or I don't know what, but they invited me to join their tourism board. It was called Lloydminster Tourism and Convention Authority. So when I started up the town. And Barb wouldn't have a voice on that. She would just sit there and smile and nod. and you're right. I don't waste time like that.

I don't waste time. I always said, in fact, in my LinkedIn article there, you can say, I say meetings are a waste of time. They are. You can go out and do something instead of sitting in a meeting. But anyway, that was my pet peeved. And so I hired a junior, actually, I had a junior partner, and together we hired these young boys to come in pick the garbage at Weaver Park and the trees and everything.

And I said to the young kids, you pick, if you pick five bags of garbage, I'm going to give you $5, $1,000 for each bag of garbage you get there. Well, I have three boys that come, and yep, they pick the garbage. but you want to know something? The dad of one of the boys, he had to come and make sure that I wasn't taking advantage of those boys. I was so disheartened.

I thought, these young boys are just picking garbage in the trees. We're not taking advantage of them. In fact, if they brought me five bags, I gave them $5, plus we had homemade cookies they can have due. And so I thought, gee, maybe I better not do that because maybe people might get upset. So we picked a lot of our own garbage there.

But anyway, I hate garbage. And so I became a real maggot city hall. The garbage queen. Yeah. And the city, this goes into the communities in bloom. And the city, of course, I got to know a lot of the people there just from being on that board. but there is a little bit right there. We're in the center there.

By being on that board, I kind of flexed my muscles, I guess you could say, when I said. And I went through, I think, four mayors, four different mayors, but they always knew that I didn't like the garbage in the city. So they got a little bit busier. Your story gives me hope because I just, you're a doer or not a talker, right? And so I just think when you get community members that push, things can change awfully quick. And we have. Yeah.

And that's all you need. You just need people to get out there and do things. And do it. Yeah. I went to the city and, of course, I'd go to the, meetings and the mayor and bless his soul is a great guy Ken Baker and Tom Lysick, Roger Breckle, they all heard me and I you know at first they said you can't do this and you can't do that and you can't do the next thing I wanted a clean city I wanted trees I

wanted flowers and one of the fellows that he was in parks and recreation and he heard me make lots of noise and then he decided to corner me I guess you could say and say we got this program communities and bloom it's an international program oh okay he said barba you interested what's it all about and of course then I had the tea house plus I had T-CBII I was running two businesses and And anyway, I said, yeah, let's see what can happen. So he says, well, if you can gather up some people, he said, do you think you can get some people that are interested? I said, well, I'll give it my best shot. I still have the book.

I read a whole bunch of people's names down. And I gave him the sales pitch. And I said, we need to clean up our city. You know, are you willing to help? This is the program, Communities in Bloom, and the city will help. and blah, blah, blah, blah, I gave him all the whole spiel. And that first meeting, I think we had something like 18 people show up. And in fact, his boardroom was too small.

Scott ran to another boardroom and was pushing shares in there. He says, oh, my gosh, he said, I didn't realize we'd have so many people show up. And, of course, with every organization, you have people come and go, they've got lots of ideas or whatever, eh? And so you utilize those ideas, you listen to them. But my biggest obstacle, and I have set it right in front of them, so I'm not saying anything out of place, was City Hall. And they told me that I couldn't do this, and I couldn't do that, I couldn't put anything on the highway, and no, they didn't have any money for this.

I wasn't really asking them for money, so I thought, doggone it. I'm going to do it somehow. So what happened to me is when I was in my, I had sold the tea house and I was running, I had a TCBY treats, which was frozen yogurt and I had a lunch. And it was right across from the dollar store at the Rendell Park center. And we had a real busy, busy, busy lunch hour. And I went into the kitchen and I kind of was leaning against. there and I said, oh, I looked at the clock and I said, that's five after one. What happened? Because I'll tell you, we had a full house. We had, we were just running, eh, just running.

And then all of a sudden I felt this pain in my leg. And I was, oh, what's happening here? So I moved over to the stool and I put my leg up. Oh, pretty soon the pain was going across. Oh, my gosh, I got to go to the washroom. I went to the washroom and I laid down on the colds floor and you know because oh I thought well maybe that's what is this I got one a heck of a Charlie horse but what was going on with me and then I came out and one of my friends come in and she says what's wrong with you I said oh Mary I got to go to the hospital I said can you take me she says I'll get my car and so she went out but I went around and sat at the table and one of my staff was there and she was really quite worried I said Pauline call the ambulance I can't

feel anything I was totally paralyzed from the waist down. So as it turned out, they came, they picked me up, they took me to the hospital, but nobody knew what was going on, and my doctor was on holidays at the time, and Saskatchewan being Saskatchewan, that's where the hospital is, and I'm an Alberta patient, they couldn't access my files, if you can't believe that. So I didn't know what was going wrong with me. they didn't know what was going wrong with me.

They couldn't see any medical file on me because you couldn't go across the border with your information. Hey, what, that was just unbelievable. But anyway, so as it turned out, the hospital, I was in really, really bad pain, so they put me just about right out. They phoned Edmonton, and Edmonton said, no, we can't take her.

We have no room. So then they turned around and they phoned Saskatoon, And Saskatoon said, well, we don't have any room right now, but let her come down. So the ambulance drove me to, and I was in the back, and they put me in this box sort of thing, so that I wouldn't move, and took me to Saskatoon. And to make a long story short, what they ended up finding out is I had a blood clot on the spinal cord, and it wrapped itself around, and it shut down the nerves and the blood flow to the bottom part. of my body. So eventually they told me that I was one of some 50-ish people that something similar

like this had happened. So I came back from Saskatoon in a wheelchair or in a scooter. I was in the hospital there. It happened. What year was that? 2002. October the 9th, 2002. How does one wrap their head around that? I have no idea. They came in, and I lived in number seven across the road here. And they came into the hospital room, and of course they stick you with these needles and everything.

You don't feel nothing. You're totally paralyzed. And they did the whole scan. on the brain to see if something happened there. I had a spinal, see if something happened there. They put me, I had an MRI and they put me in the, and of course, claustophobia. Oh my gosh. They put me in this big tube. And they were really quite calming, but that's where they found. They said the blood vessels off my spinal cord were like burnt noodles. And that, that's is what had happened is basically.

So I came. Could have anything being done? Like it was like a stroke to the spinal cord. Yeah, like that is, I'm trying to think of the word right now. They have several different explanations. I got them all in my medical records, but yeah, it was at T-11, T-12, right in between. and they had no idea. One young mother was at the hospital,

and she'd just given birth, and something similar had happened to her, but at the base of her neck. And she was pretty well paralyzed all the way down. But she was a young mother, and they said, because she was young, she recovered. She phoned me,

and we had some chats. And she was learning how to walk again and how to have feeling and anything. So it was something similar to that. Mine was T-11, T-12. And I had great community support. And, of course, when they, you know, they think, okay, your life is over, more or less,

eh? I just had to figure out how to live on wheels pretty much Well, my defense partner in hockey for nine years, Brewman, got in a really bad truck accident And, I mean, saw him in the hospital Not even, you know, I don't know how many days after it was But regardless, moved the story along a few years and he's in a wheelchair

and I just he now he's a younger man younger than me and I just always wonder you know how difficult it must have been for him to go from being so active and you know for him specifically to be in like the

fruitful years of his life not that as you get older they aren't fruitful but you know really in the This happened to me when I was 59. Right. And what did I say before we started? I was asking what old year because you still got the zest for life. And I look at you and I go, that must have been a hard ordeal to come to terms with

when you've been such an active person in society. Yeah, I had a daughter, Pat's wife, ex-daughter-in-law. She says, don't you ever sit down? When are you going to sit down? People would say that to me. Oh, Barb, sit down. Sit down. Just leave it.

Sit down. I'm so glad I didn't sit down because now I have to sit down. I just kept on going. Yes, it is a, it is a, and people, people expect that you're going to be different. I'm no different now. I am because I'm on a scooter or I'm in a chair. But when you and I are sitting at the table here, I'm no different than I was before. It don't mean nothing.

Don't mean nothing is right. And I had one lady, I had lots, but not lots, but several. And she said, well, it doesn't look like there's anything wrong with you. And I said, well, no, there's really nothing wrong with me. Did you think there was something wrong with me? And I kind of embarrassed her a little bit. And I thought, don't say that to somebody. You know, don't go up.

And it was at a chamber organization, eh? And she was a business person. And I thought, how rude. But then I thought, well, maybe she was trying to be funny and it just didn't come out right. Who knows? But, you know, just because you travel around in a different fashion, doesn't mean that there's any.

I am so thankful. I just say, I thank God. Absolutely every day that it stopped where it did. Because if it would have went into the brain, where would I be today? A healthy body and the brain doesn't work. I am so, so thankful. You got your most important part. The biggest muscle in the body.

Yeah. I find that, well, I found that, you know, we're over two hours now, Barb, we've been rolling along. Do you need to go? No, do I need to go? Where am I going? I still got a couple questions for you. Okay. But I find this chat very, no, I found it very enjoyable.

I'm sure the listener can figure that out by now, as I've said it for the seventh time. You mentioned that, you know, when I was trying to line this up with you, that you're gardening. And I was like, I ain't gardening. Okay, whatever. Right? I'm like, obviously it's a passion still and whatever. Well, you get over here and you're talking about the Raspberry Hill Gardens, that it's a business, and it's a private little garden.

What is it about, why not just have a, I don't know, why that? Because I can see the possibility. Like you asked me about communities of bloom, and the city said, no, we can't do it. And I thought, what am I going to do? I know a lot of business people in this city. I came back on the scooter, and I was lucky enough to get a place at the hamstock because I couldn't, I had stayed.

in my other condo. And I can't go up and down the stairs. And I was lucky enough, a fellow had just either passed or left, and I got his bachelor apartment, 300 square feet at the hemstock. Second floor. I moved into there, my kids moved me in, and I sat one night, and I bawled all night long,

and looked out the window and thought, what am I going to do? What am I doing here? I got to suck it up. I'll figure out what I can do. It was one of the nurses she came and she's knocking on the door. The night people said, Barb, are you going to be okay?

I said, I'm fine. I'm going to tell you. I thought, what can you do? You can't sit around and cry about it, right? I got to do something. I got to live. I got a life to live. So then when the city were being,

what had happened, We had gathered up, we had a chairperson and a secretary and treasurer on this community's in bloom organization before I went to the hospital before I had a stroke. And so they were having a difficult time putting it together, and they kind of tossed it in the air. And so here I am. What I had done is I had gotten on the phone and I phoned business people. I thought if City Hall won't help me, I'm going to the business community. And I gave my sales spiel to them, I guess you could call it.

And I said, this is what we want to do. We want every business to join us, to clean up their property. And how we're going to raise funds is you purchase a flour barrel, a barrel, a wooden barrel, of flowers, you see them around town. And you pay us, it was $75 to start with, and then we ended up going to $100. But anyway, and I always ended up by saying, so-and-so, will you help me do this?

And do you know something? Every one of them jumped on board. I can't, I think the post office, well, no second year, and whatever. He was the only one. He wouldn't go for it. He had him and I had a little go-round because when I come back in the scooter, I said, you don't have an door opening so that I can get into the post office. He said, that costs too much money. He said, do you know how much that costs? And I said, I need to get into the post office. Anyway, we went back and forth like that.

And so eventually I did a little bit more researching and everything and phoned a few more people and he got the automatic door on the post office. So then the next year I turned around and phone him and say, I'm looking, are you prepared to join us again and get your, he would get three barrels of flowers? And he says, what? He said, you got your flowers. He said, it cost $4,000.

Sorry if I'm raising my voice. No, you're doing it. He got $4,000. He said, you got your door opener. He said, I can't afford flowers this year. He never got back to me. He never wanted flowers again. But anyway, I laugh about that because I see all the flowers around the community now.

And so what happened? Barry Helm from Pioneer landscaping. I talked to Barry. He came out to the garden. I said, Barry, this is what I'd like to see. let's see what we can do. He volunteered time. We bought the flowers. And so when the upset with the treasurer and the manager and all that was going on, we had over $10,000 in the bank. And I said, I am selling. We got to follow through with that. You know, these other people didn't want to be

involved anymore. And I said, we got to follow through with that. So I couldn't let it go. What are you going to do? You got $10,000 in the bank of the business community. They want flowers, right? So from there, there was just a lot of stuff that went on. And I was chairperson for, I think, did it turn out to be nine years or whatever? Anyway, we stopped. I said I'm resigning. I'm resigning from being chairperson of the organization.

and we were at 320 barrels. We started out with 100 barrels. We got up to 320 barrels over the course of time because people saw what it does. What it does. And you see those flowers and they were with us. They cleaned up there. And I had no hesitation because I knew a lot of the fellows or whatever

or business people and I'd say, gosh, you know your lot looks kind of weeds. Can you know? You're saleswoman, you. Yeah. And you know what? And then what happened, we ended up showcasing our city, right? But we were only beginning, so we could only go into the little groups, and then gradually we can go into the big groups. And then I kind of got a little hot water when I entered Lloyd Minster on the national stage.

I said, I want them to see us across Canada. And I'll tell you, the city stepped up, the business people stepped up, and you know something, I got tons of pictures of us. And it was just so great. What can I say? And we have flowers today. And we have a clean city today. I'm so pleased with the city. Oh, you got a corner here, a corner, there's not a big deal. but you know the city really is much cleaner than it ever was before I know I know you weren't alone in this endeavor but I always find it very interesting the power one or well the power one person yields if they put their energy and momentum into it what kind of change they can enact on a on a place on a people on a society on extrapolate that as far as you like because you know, maybe somebody picks up what you wanted, I don't know, five, ten years down the road. Maybe it's a group of people.

Who knows? You don't. But your upbringing leads you to here, which then leads to, no, this isn't going down in my watch, right? Yeah. And I just, in fact, the girl that was with me there, she mentioned there's that little planting by, Kentucky Fried Chicken over to the side. There's some trees and plants and out over there. Well, I wanted that.

Well, actually, Tom Lysick was saying, if you want to clean up a place, there's a place. So I went and looked at it. And I said, okay, Tom, I said, the pavement's got to come out. Oh, don't you worry about that? I'll take care of that. Because it used to be a fish and chips place there, eh? He said, I'll take care of that.

And so I said, oh, okay, are you going to get the dirt? When is it going to be done? Because I was planning on what, you know, not just me, but I mean, I had a good board. I'm not just saying me. It's just that I was kind of the pusher, the nagger. I always say I was a nagger. You weren't a pusher at all. So we decided what we were going to do there.

And there's one fellow there, and he volunteered. And we had two trees he had to plant. And so he's digging down and digging down. And he said, hey, Barb, he said, there's cement. down here. I can't get past the cement. Not cement, pavement. He said, there's pavement down here. And I said, what? Doggone it. Tom didn't get rid of the pavement.

I said, plant the tree. Those are two, we were talking about it today. They are so good. But you know, I said to her, you know what happened to those trees? They couldn't go down to their roots are gone out. And they are so stable. And they're just seeking, and you watch. Just keep your eye on those trees. They bloom, so beautiful, and that whole little piece there.

And now the city looks after it and takes care of it. But it was so funny. I thought, he didn't take the pavement out. I said, plant the tree. And away it went. Two of them. And they're gorgeous. They're there.

We were laughing about that today because she brought that up. Anyway, that's what I did. And then we had like Musgrave agencies, we had the city, we had the businesses, we had synergy, not synergy, but all the credit unions, they were all because you know what, except there was a couple in the city hall that were really upset with me because they felt that city wasn't ready. And I was putting too much pressure on everybody and there's no fun anymore and that sort of thing. and I said, we'll do what we'll do. You know? And we got, I believe, I'd have to look, but I think it was like 87%.

And we did good. Did it ever bother you that people maybe didn't like how hard you pushed? I would park my truck in the Lloyd Mall and I had strangers come up and say, Hi, you're the flower lady, aren't you? You should have to read all those. articles. I mean, I don't think I was abusive. I don't think I was nasty. I don't think I don't get that out of you at all, Barb. You're driven and you knew what you wanted. Right. And too many people will say,

oh, it can't be done this year or it can't. And if there's one word I'd like stricken from the record, it is can't. Can't. There's no such thing as can. Yeah, you got to find a way. You, when you drive around the city, you just note those wooden barrels when. I take, what, I'm going to be on the lookout for it now. Yeah, just look at them. And I actually, we sort of, our communities and bloom group, because people were getting tired and I was nine, ten years at it, I was kind of tired. And you don't have the volunteer spirit at that length as you do at the beginning,

eh? And so it was really hard to keep everybody enthused and what are we going to do, et cetera. And it was time that the city stepped up and took over a lot of responsibility. Because at the beginning, I had young people that were volunteering. These guys were lifting these heavy flour barrels and placing them. And, you know, I had to do the maps. And we had a secretary, a treasure. And, you know, like, it became a job for a lot of people, I think.

And so at our last place, You became so successful, it became so big that it became work. That's right. Instead of just a hobby and a little project that's fun. And now you see the people that have taken over, they're getting paid. We created those jobs. They're getting paid for it. Our last flower bill was $8,000.

And I said, hmm, so guess what? Everybody got so used to the flowers. The homeowners would dress up and we'd have, we'd have competitions, we'd have put a whole big center spread of houses and what people had done and all that sort of stuff. Maybe, you know, this is, I don't have the answer to this question, I don't. As there's a, there's a lifespan on how long a volunteer organization can be volunteer.

There is. You know, we just did bike for breakfast in town and raised, the money is absurd. I don't know how on earth had happened. I don't know it started out as this little bike trip, just this little tiny idea. And man, it blossomed into something like that is just this giant. Yeah.

And it came from, I think it was 11 or 12 volunteers. Nobody's getting paid. It's exactly what you're talking about. Yeah. The attention, when you talk about volunteerism, the attention span is only so long. And everybody has a life to live. Everybody has a family.

Everybody has things to do. But it's those people at the top, and I have to honestly say, I kind of got worn out. You know, it's like, for instance, okay, I've got you to this point. Just take it. Do I have to keep telling you and telling you,

you know what I mean? And it's not keep telling, but I guess you can say, can push it. You're hoping somebody steps up like a young barber. and take it over. And they did. And they did. And the plantings on the side of the berms,

the mayor Rob Saunders, he was a super, super supporter. He was my go-to. And when the judges came to town, I couldn't take them around. And Rob Saunders did. And he showed them city. and, you know, and like I say,

Musgrave agencies just went bent over backwards to help the organization. And it was, and they planted those trees. And I remember them planting the trees. And, of course, at that time I had this little brown S-10 truck with my scooter in the back and everybody would recognize it. I just went by there. I was headed out to the garden and they were planting.

And they waved because I just laid on the horn It was so good to see them planting trees. You know, so it, yeah, it has been, and I'm happy with it now. Now it's a business for people. It started out as a volunteer thing. And the natural progression of trying to keep something going is they have to find a way to motivate people that are barb. Yeah. And money does that.

Yeah. And, yeah, but money does that after, but the volunteerism, has got to be there so that you can prove that it can work and that people want it and people wanted so at the end what we did isn't that an interesting theory yeah yeah so it's i phoned everybody and i said this is what's happening and are you willing to pay ten dollars for your barrel you bet everybody you we want our barrel we want our flowers and i said well we're not doing flowers anymore but contact somebody will contact you about the flowers but they bought the ten dollar barrels from us. And we had, I believe, $8,000 in the bank. So eight of us took $1,000 and we chose our charity we wanted to give it to.

And different people chose different, like Libby Young, and I chose a pioneer lodge and donated the $1,000. but we specified it has to be for beautification. So that was my... That's pretty cool. Yeah, that was the communities in bloom. And then from there, I thought, well, it was kind of boring for a while. So then I ended up being Secretary-Treasurer for the Lloydminster Handyvan. So I was that for six years.

And then I said, okay, enough. I'm going to take one year off and play on my guard. garden. And if I really want something to challenge me, I'll go back. But my garden is my life blood, let's put it that way. My kids love it. My friends love it. The people that have come there and love it, you know, like it's, I just have private. It's not, people say you should advertise it. No, no, I don't want to advertise it. If you know me, you talk to me, and I know you, and this is the rules and regulations. And that's really cool. We make a deal, and they like it. There's been birthday parties, there's been family gatherings.

The largest one was... Maybe there will be an anniversary dinner there in August. You never know. You never know. You can have more than one? Like just more than just yourself and your wife have a party, have a family party. I'm going to have an intimate, I think. Yeah. I think it's a really cool spot. I've got to go take a look at it now. Give us, you can go and look at it.

I always say to people, there's big signs on the gate that say, no trespassing, all that. But I had to do that. You know why I had to do that? I had people driving in off the road, and I didn't know who they were. And they were all nice. There was not one person that wasn't nice, but I, you know, I was just a little nervous when it, you know, you don't know who's driving in. So that's why the signs are up, but I always tell everybody, if you know who I am, you're more than welcome to go and take a look.

But right now, like I say, that it's looking pretty good, but we're, I'm cutting down tree. I'm not doing it, but I asked my, it got to the point that I used to just. just have my family help me or the odd friend help me. But I'm kind of wearing my shoulders and my arms out. So I said, come on. So a young fellow Jason Deck, he was here, and I know his dad, Pat Deck, and awesome people. And they did our windows. So I talked to one of the girls and I said she sent me over their little business card.

And, whoa, they'll do lawns and stuff. So then I phoned him up and talked to Jason, and I said, oh, you just do city. Okay. I said, well, I guess that kind of leaves me out. He said, what do you mean, leaves you out? I said, well, I have a garden out on the four mile there. And I said, I need somebody to take care of it. I'm getting older.

And you can only do so much off of a scooter. and oh, he said, I used to drive by there. He said, I always wondered what that was. And so anyway, as it turned out, I met them out there. They walked around. They looked at it. They said, sure, we'll take it on. So they're learning because just by, you know, like me, how I would do it,

and any helpers, I would do section by section. It's about three acres now. It's pretty close to that. Oh, wow. It is big. And there is your lifeblood. Yep, there. My kids don't, I've had so many people that want to buy it.

And my kids said, no, Mom. You can't sell it. And I said, well, if you guys don't look after it, just remember, I'm sitting up on that cloud, and I'll be after you. Somehow, some way you'll know. Well, Barb, this has been a treat. I really appreciate you, allow me into your house to sit and chat. And I know I missed, I probably missed a thousand questions, but it has been thoroughly enjoyable to sit here and get to know you.

Well, it's good to know you. I've heard so much about you too and what you, and I'm a member of the archives. Of course, I've always pushed for years. I guess I've been an archive member for a long time. I don't go to the meetings because remember what I said about meetings. Anyway, they understand. I financially support them. I talk about them because we need the archives. We definitely need it. And my tea house was next door to the museum.

And at one time, people would come to the tea house and say, wow, this is the best museum in Western Canada. And I said, yes, you tell the world. But things are changing. You know, the museum is taking a different route or whatever now. So different things happen and it'll be what it'll be. And time marches on, doesn't it? It does.

It does. It does. Thanks again for having me. Well, thank you for coming. Say thank you to Lynn and to Vicki and to all those that have been kind of on my case and saying, you've got to do it, you've got to do it. I said, no one wants to listen to me. but it seems I've been doing an awful lot of talking.

I would disagree with that. This has been enjoyable. Thanks again. Thank you. Hey, thanks for tuning in today, guys. I hope you enjoyed it. Barb was a fun when I got to go to her house and a very, very interesting lady. Certainly enjoyed sitting, I enjoy all these.

Who am I kidding? All the archives are a ton of fun to sit and get to hear somebody's life story. It's been a busy couple weeks. Obviously last week it was five in a row. This week we added in the Tuesday mashup. And once again, I'll be back on Friday. So it's busy, busy, you know, full steam ahead, so to speak. If you like what I do, like, share, subscribe.

And you can always check out the Patreon account link if you're looking for some, you want to support financially. I appreciate it all. I mean, you're giving me your hard-earned time. That's appreciation enough in my book. but hey, I do appreciate all you fine listeners tuning in each week and give me some of your harder in time now. Go rule the day.

We will catch up to you Friday.