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Olds in the Twentieth CenturyEvelyn Johnson InterviewInterviewer: What is your name? Interviewer: What are some of your favorite things to do? Interviewer: In the past what were your favorite things to do? Interviewer: During your childhood, how did you and your family celebrate holidays and festivals. Interviewer: During High school what did you want to do for a living? But again as I have said before I like doing things with my hands. The way opened up, and it was cause of the war. That I was able to take a business course. I became a stenographer. I was very fortunate because a lot of the young people weren't able to get farther education at that time Interviewer: Did you get a chance to pursue this career? Interviewer: What were your happiest moments of your life? I had an uncle by the name of Johnny Longdon. Back in the 30's and 40's he was very well known, and very famous. At the time he was one of the leading writers of the world. About twice a year he would come home to visit his parents. When he came home everybody gathered at grandma's house and we had a big celebration. I got to get a holiday from school so that made it extra special for me. So when my uncle came home that was a time for celebration. It's a happy moment for me when I've done something that made me feel good, accomplished something or had a responsibility or an assignment and it's turned out well. That always makes me feel good. But my happiest times are with my family. And as I say when I've accomplished something, and perhaps it's been very hard to do or been a struggle for me, and if I've got through it and it's turned out well then I feel good about it. Interviewer: What were your most embarrassing moments of your life? Interviewer: What is your earliest memory of your life? Now I look back and I wonder what I did on some of the days there were blizzards and storms, and I remember how I use to trudge through this field. The field was in the middle of a coolie. I remember sometimes snow being up to my waist, and I wasn't very tall and that was very hard. But on the other hand there were some good times too. Of course I spend a lot of time to myself because it would take quite a while to make this trip to and from school. I've never been one to waist time. While I was walking back and forth I would memorize poems. I like poetry. While I was by myself and there was nobody to hear me I would go say these poems. A lot of them I still remember today. And I remember finding little robin nests in the spring. Each time I'd go by this trail, I'd check on them. I called them my little birds. One good memory of the school is the Christmas concert. That was one time when everybody in the community got together. We didn't have the fancy lights, and things we have now. But they were great memories. When I was young it was at the time when Shirley Temple was very famous. I remember that my big sister would curl my hair for the Christmas concert, and she would roll it in rags and tie it up so I would have little curls all over my head, so I would look like Shirley Temple. She was very famous. Then in the summer we would have picnics, school picnics, and they were very enjoyable, too. In school we were all in one room, all grades together. I'm not sure at times if I learned what I was supposed to learn. If I learned what my grade was suppose to learn, or what the older ones or the younger ones were suppose to learn. But we were all in one room. It was kind of like one big happy family. And one teacher taught all grades at the same time. So that was quite different than what you young people have now today. Interviewer: Do you have any memories of World War 1 and World War 2? But I do have some memories of World War 2. I was just completing high school. This is the thing that helped me get my education. My brother in law was serving in the Navy at the time. He was stationed at a Squiamald. Which is a naval base off of Vancouver Island. Sometimes he would go to sea for six weeks at a time, and his wife would never see him. So she invited me to go and live with them after I got out of high school. This meant that she had some company when her husband was away. This also gave me an opportunity to get a year of schooling, which I really appreciate now. I will always be indebted to her for doing that for me, but then that's what families are for. But that was a wonderful experience, that also put me on the edge of the war a little bit. There were the navy men there, the solders, and the air force. There was a friend there from home that would visit us quite often. He wasn't sent over seas because he was a good trainer. He was needed more as a trainer. But sometimes he would tell us about these boys that would come back from Dieppe and the shape they were in, and some of the tragedies of the war. The city was in complete blackout. At night there was black shades on all the windows, there were no lights. I went to go visit Victoria a few years after that, and I was very surprised to see it in the light. Things were quite different. About 1944 the war was coming to a close and my brother-in-law was sent overseas to wind up the war. In fact he was serving on an aircraft carrier and the ship was torpedoed, and he was very fortunate because the torpedo went through the end of the ship where he had just changed shifts just before. He had just gone down to the other end of the ship to his bunk, ant the torpedo had hit the other end of the ship, and all his buddies were killed. That was kind of a terrifying experience. So we herd lots of stories like that, about the war. Then my husband and I were married when the war had ended, and all the solders were coming home, that was in the fall of 1945. So I had a little bit more to do with the war than the average girl on the prairie. On the other hand it was very nice for me. It was very nice to go to a dance and see 10 boys for every girl that was there. So I had a very good time. But that war was a very sad time and very hard on everybody. One more memory might be after we were married my husband was farming with his father. We were in market gardening and had to have extra help you know like to haul sugar beets. It was at this time that they brought the Japanese people from the west cost, just took them away from their farms, their lands, their businesses, and brought them inland. We had a family come and work for us. They worked there very long. They were well educated, and good people. Also after the war we had a family that had worked for us for six years. The enemy wanted him because he was a very good pilot, a very clever man, and his wife and children were held in bondage. He and two nephews went in at night and got the wife and children and brought them out and there was gunfire all the time as they were getting them out, and of course they escaped and made it all right. Then they came to Canada and worked for us, and they were some of the finest people that we have ever known. They're kind of like family to us now all our life we've been friends. It was kind of sad to see what happened to these people. But on the other hand it was a way they could come to Canada. It wasn't long before they were in a business of their own and did very well here in Canada. So it wasn't a negative thing that they came to Canada. But the war had some very sad situations and I remember that quite well. Interviewer: What was your favorite time period that you have lived through? I have been very active and busy in my church all my life. I've had some great experiences there; I've worked with the young people a lot. I've taught young people. Another one of my favorite thing to do is teaching, I like teaching. So that's were I guess happiest moments have come from is my church activities and things I have been asked to do, and things I have accomplished. Interviewer: Do you have any memories of any fires that have occurred in Olds in the past? I was downtown that night before which was Halloween night at about 5 o'clock and the wind was very strong, and there were bails of hay all up and down the streets. I didn't know that this was a tradition in Olds, and I thought, what in the world are these bales of hay doing here, and gosh that looks dangerous to me. It was really quite a forceful impression of doom that I had. Then the next morning there was the fire. So it was a bit of a frightening experience. But were very grateful that they got it under control. Also a little schoolhouse was burned down, a one-room schoolhouse at the same time. Our youngest son was going to school there and the next day he had no school to go to because it had been burned down in the night. So that was a bit of a personal loss. Interviewer: What was the worst snow fall that you have ever experienced? Now my older son was working out of Calgary, and he worked for AGT at the time. He was out in the outlying areas, and he was snowed in. He was able to walk down the railroad tracks, and come to a telephone pole and climb it and wire into Lethbridge to send a car up to pick up the passengers that were stranded. One fellow had a bit of a heart attack, and my son carried his little boy to help this man, He was given recognition in the paper the next day as helping all these stranded people. But they had to airlift food to some places, because there was no way you could you could get through the snowdrifts. And of course the camping expedition fell through. So we all had one big party at home, had popcorn and played games because we couldn't go any were there was so much snow. But there have been lots of times we have had severe storms in Alberta, not so much the last few years. Then there was a really severe storm few years ago. We had friends that had lived in Crossfield, and they closed the highway around Airdrie and they had to stay in their car over night because there was just no way they could get through. Alberta can have some very severe storms. Interviewer: Has there been any weird weather or disasters that you have experienced in Olds? Now we have many wonderful memories. We spent 2 summers in Prince Edward Island, which were wonderful. We toured down to Washington and we had lots of good memories there. Then he felt it was time we should get back to Alberta, because he's a true Albertan. So he was able to get a transfer back to Regina and we lived in Regina 2 years. We got to know some very nice people there. Then an opening came up in Olds in the provincial building downtown, and this is what brought us back to Olds. We have really enjoyed our 23 years of living here in Olds. It's a very active community. I've worked with the fair. I've gone to the, trade fair for 23 years. Also I've done some volunteer work at the hospital. I do volunteer work during the music festivals. It's not hard at all to get evolved in the community of Olds. I have also done a lot of church service in this area too. And I think you should know that I have had 6 children and my husband's name is Cyril Johnson. He's spent half his life farming and the other half as a farm accountant, and this is what were what were doing in Olds now. A lot of people ask us why we don't move back to Taber or back to our roots. We tell them we kind of have some roots down here in Olds and we like it here in Olds. Being a college town there is a lot of things you can get involved in. We enjoy things like this last summer where we, have had the Senior's Summer Games. We were involved when they had the International Plowing match here and things like that were they need volunteers its very easy to get involved, and we like Olds Interviewer: Do you have treasured objects that play some importance in you life? If so what? I have a china dish that belonged to my Grandmother that she brought back from England. There is a strong tie to England for our family. Although I have never been able to go there, it has been one of my goals all my live to go back to England and see the area where my Grandparents lived a good part of their life. As yet I haven't gone. Interviewer: Do you have any other memories or experiences of anything else you would like to tell us? The first 25 years of our marriage we lived on the farm, and even though it didn't make a lot of money I felt that it was a great place to raise children. This is were they learn the value of work and learned a lot of basic values that are a great benefit to them now. I don't regret raising children on the farm. As I say we did enjoy 2 wonderful years in Prince Edward Island. We went to Washington to a dedication to our temple for our church there. That was a marvelous experience. We have traveled through Utah and California quite a bit. In the latter year of life I want to as I have said before compile more histories of my ancestors my families to pass down to my posterity, so they will appreciate the blessings they have of living in this fierce land of Canada, in particularly Alberta. My father came up from Utah with a wagon train in the early days of Alberta. I think it was about 1904 that he came up. He loved Alberta too and never went back to Utah except to visit. He thought Alberta was wonderful. It was very interesting living in Kitchener, Ontario. We have a lot of experiences there. We didn't like the weather in Regina, but strangely enough they say the 2 years we stayed in Regina the weather was very mild. Usually it is very cold there. We were quite fortunate enough to not hit the cold spells. We have been very blessed with the family. My husband just a year ago had his third heart valve transplant. His doctors say it is a miracle that he survived as he did and has the good health he has now, which has been a great blessing in our lives. As I've said been very busy and very active in our church, and hopefully we've been a good example to others and help a lot of other people. It's also a great thrill when your children accomplish things. Were very proud of our family and the things they are doing. By living on a farm in there younger years they learned the value of work and the importance of an education. Another thing, my husband never went to war because he was helping his dad on the farm. All the other members of his family were in the war. At that time he had a brother who was about 24, who was a bomber pilot who was shot down over Holland. They were directly headed for a little town. He ordered his crew to bail out. If he had bailed out with the crew, the plane would have gone right down into this little town, and would of probably killed many people. So he stayed with the plane to steer it over the town. He went down and died with the plane. We have heard since that people in Holland buried him. In fact we talked to somebody this summer who had been back there, and they said that they have built a monument in his honor because he had saved this little town. There are lots of war stories like that one. I'm sure every family could tell something similar to that that happened during the war.
My husband also had several brothers and brothers in law that were in the war.
We were married in 1945, which was at the end of the war.
My brother in law that was torpedoed was sent home for a rest after his boat was torpedoed, and he figured after his rest that he would go back over to Japan but the war ended before that. There is another special experience that my husband and I have enjoyed, and I feel that it would be a missing part of my life if I left it out. We were privileged enough to spend three years of our life in service to our church to work with native people. We worked with them in Hobbema mostly with the Samson band. We spent three years getting to know the people and working with them, and learning to love them and appreciate their culture, and some of the problems that they faced today. Also to learn basically what genuine good people they are. and can be. We developed a great love for them. We almost look on many of the families there as part of our own family, because we spent so much time with them. They will always be very dear and very special to us. Interviewer: What about your family life, do you have any stories or any thing you can tell us about? I've started to write some stories of different stories and special events that have happened to our family and in our family life. Someday I hope to write them up and print it just for my own family. I have been very fortunate to have family histories, like of my grandfather on my father's side. He joined our church over in England and had a desire to come to America, and he walked across the plains with the early pioneers. His family shared a wagon with another family, and they only had a quarter of the wagon. The front had supplies, and two families shared the back. So there wasn't any room for him. So the only time he got a rid and got some rest was when his wife would change places with him. She would walk as far as she could to give him a little rest. Other than that he walked all the way across America. I feel that was quite something to dot enable me to have a good heritage that he did this for me. I hope that I will always remember it and teach my children their heritage and what their ancestors did for them. I have 2 books full now that are full of ancestors and histories. It's kind of what I want to do with the remaining years of my life. I've kind of narrowed thing down to 3 priorities: one is my genealogy. One is my gardening; I have 9 flowerbeds. The other is quilting, and I want to make heirlooms for my children, so that when I'm no longer here they will have things to remember me by. All my family is like me: they like to create things. And of course the children are much better at it than I am. Some of the grandchildren are professional, because they have been able to go to school and develop their talents. So that's a good legacy to pass on. Life is interesting, and as some have said a "Do it yourself kit. Its what you make of it" you can be happy or you can be unhappy, and there isn't a period in your life where your always going to be happy there will be sad times. Sometimes very devastating things happen to us. But it's how you handle it that is the most important thing. I'm very grateful to my parents for the teachings that they gave me. And to my church that has given me a way of life that is very beautiful. I hope I can always measure up to the standards that it has set for me. We know some very fine people here in Olds. Old has some very good people here. Another thing I enjoy very much is line dancing with the seniors, and doing things the seniors do, and try not to get old too fast. I've spent a lot of my life teaching crafts. I have taught a lot of classes through the collage, and the women's institute, and for the town. Different classes like in genealogy, and sewing and quilting, and any thing that I can share with people. I love to mix with people and share what I know. It's been a very busy life; we've had a happy life. There is time when there has been sadness but I guess that's life. Interviewer: Thank you for your time. |
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