Olds in the Twentieth Century
Rural Alberta Reflections
Rural Alberta Reflections was the final project presented by the students to their teachers, representatives from the Heritage Community Foundation and the members of Mountain View Lodge
on May 3, 2001.
Scene 1: Present Day Olds, Alberta.
Great Grandfather, Great Grandmother, and Erin and Lee grade 10 students are sitting around a table. Great Grandfather and Great Grandmother are reading the newspaper. Erin and Lee are completing Social Studies homework.
Great Grandfather: What are you doing Erin and Lee?
Erin: Oh, we're just working on a silly Social Studies report.
Great Grandmother: And just what is this report about?
Lee: Oh, it's not really about anything very important or even very exciting. It's only about events in twentieth century Canadian history.
Great Grandmother: (Laughing) Well, the history of twentieth century Canada may not seem too important to you, and it may seem totally removed from your present lives, but for us the twentieth century was our lives. It wasn't just a few pages in a textbook. We're in our mid-nineties now and so have lived in each of the decades of that century.
Erin: I've never really thought of it that way. Usually when I think of history I just think about Prime Ministers, important dates, and of wars and things like that.
Great Grandfather: You need to remember that those Prime Ministers and those events affected the lives of millions of us "ordinary" people.
Lee: Right. I think I remember the teacher saying something about Social History, but I guess I wasn't really paying attention. I bet you two couldn't get away with not paying attention when you were in school. It must have been a lot stricter back then.
Great Grandmother: Well it was certainly different back then. We went to a one-room schoolhouse and discipline was usually much more severe. For instance we had to practice perfect hand writing and if we didn't get it perfect we would get strapped!
Great Grandfather: I never did learn how to handwrite like that! Maybe it was because I was always getting the strap. I also had to drop out of school early because I was needed on the farm to do a man's work.
Great Grandmother: Well, you know I liked school and all that perfect handwriting. I never missed a day - Oh, except one day - it was such a nice day - too nice to be stuck in that stuffy school house. . .
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[Scene One] [Scene Two]
[Scene Three]
[Scene Four] [Scene Five]
[Scene Six] [Scene Seven]
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