Life North of the 54th

Transcript Chapters

• 00:00 - Introductions
• 05:56 - Fairview, Alberta
• 10:25 - Retirement
• 13:48 - Seasonal Changes
• 15:18 - Education and Travel
• 23:38 - Stories from Fairview, AB
• 29:25 - Final Thoughts

00:00 - Introductions

Opening Theme Music:
[bass guitar riff]

Garett:
Welcome back to Life North of the 54th. I'm Garett Brown.

Preston:
And I'm Preston Brown. And we're very excited to have with us today on our show, Betty and Owen Stanford. So why don't we let them introduce themselves a little bit.

Betty:
Okay. I'm Betty Stanford. [chuckles]

Owen:
I'm Owen Stanford. We're over in Fairview, Alberta. This is where we've lived for the last 39 years.

Preston:
Very exciting in Fairview.

Betty:
When we moved to Fairview, there were 25 members here. And a month later, the branch president left town and Owen became the branch president.

All:
[chuckle]

Preston:
Very exciting. So I actually really don't know where either Betty or Owen where you guys grew up or how you met. Can we start a little bit at the beginning there?

Betty:
Sure. Okay. I was born and raised in Calgary. Never left Calgary until I married him. And then I never lived there since. [chuckles] Okay, say where were you born.

Owen:
I was born in Cardston. Then our family grew up. We lived in many places. I—

Betty:
Tell them about how you got to moving to Calgary, they want to know how we met.

Owen:
Yeah, that's right. I planned to move to Calgary. And when Betty and I got married, we lived in Calgary for a short period.

Betty:
Two years.

Owen:
Two years.

Betty:
Okay. We met at church. We were in the same ward at church.

Garett:
Okay.

Betty:
They did road shows back in those days. And we did a road show. And we happened to be a husband and wife in that road show. And we ended up getting married.

All:
[laugh]

Preston:
That's rather ironic.

Betty:
Not right after the road show because I think he did a mission. I did a mission before him and then he did a mission. I went to Australia on my mission and he went to—

Owen:
Denver!

Betty:
Denver, Colorado. And when he came home from that mission, then we got married. We have five children. One was born in Calgary. Virginia was born in Calgary. Ron and June were born in Edmonton. Tom was born in Ponoka. And then James was born in Edmonton again. And we moved north when June was in grade seven and Tom was in grade five.

Owen:
That was an interesting thing, how we wound up moving up into a forsaken place like Fairview.

Garett:
Yeah.

Owen:
In those days, I think Fairview had about 4,000 people. We're way down now. In those days.

Garett:
How did you end up in Fairview then?

Owen:
Yeah. I had been working for the government and doing computing, believe it or not. And I was looking at myself and I said, what am I doing, you know? And I'd go in the office in the morning and there'd be pile about six inches high of papers and I'd have to sign these papers. And that was it for me. And I thought, you know, this is so boring, there's got to be something better than this. And so I sat down and analyzed myself and what I want to do. And I decided that I wanted to teach because I thoroughly enjoyed that. So I sent out letters to all the universities and colleges here in Alberta and said, I'd like to work for you. And five months later, I got a reply from Fairview College. And they hired my spot. [chuckles]

Garett:
Wow.

Owen:
Yeah.

Garett:
That's amazing.

Owen:
But so there I was doing what I wanted to do and enjoying it. I really enjoyed teaching. I only went to universities and colleges because I didn't — I can remember what I did in high school and how me and my friends treated teachers and other students — and I didn't want to teach them for that reason.

All:
[chuckle]

Owen:
So we had developed a computer system. But what happened is there was a fellow that worked in a parallel position. I was managing web administration for social services. And he was managing accounts payable. And he got into some big trouble. And he wound up leaving the department. And I looked at him and said, I could be in the same boat that he's in. But I don't want to. And so when I was analyzing myself, I said, what do I want to do? And I wanted to, I said, here I'm trained as an accountant. I've got a CGA. The government sent me away for six months training in computers that were on the revenue side of things. So I was happy in computing.

Betty:
And you were teaching it.

Owen:
I was teaching it. Anyway, for the next 40 years, 39 years, I taught.

Betty:
You were teaching in Fairview for 39 years. And you taught in High Prairie for five or six years.

Owen:
Yeah, I moved around a little bit.

05:56 - Fairview, Alberta

Betty:
Okay. What else do you want to know?

Garett:
I guess we also want to know, Betty, from your perspective, what it was like to move from Calgary to Fairview and what it was like then making a life in Fairview.

Betty:
Well, actually, we moved from Calgary to Edmonton. And that's when we had two kids. Then we moved down to Ponoka.

Garett:
Okay.

Betty:
Then we moved to Sherwood Park.

Preston:
Yep.

Betty:
We were there for five years. I really liked it there. I did not want to go north because I had some really nice friends there.

Garett:
Yeah.

Betty:
But we ended up coming north. And then we stayed here. Then we were here basically in Fairview for 39 years. But when the college shut down the business program in Fairview, then he went and worked the last five years before he got pension down in High Prairie.

Owen:
There were 39 colleges in the province of Alberta at that time.

Garett:
When you started at Fairview?

Owen:
When I started at Fairview, yeah.

Garett:
Wow. I mean, I would be hard-pressed to be able to name probably more than 10 colleges in Alberta.

Betty:
[chuckles]

Owen:
Well, they did combine.

Preston:
So even after all these years and you've since retired, you still find Fairview worth living in, don't you?

Betty:
We do. We will probably stay as long as we can here because our house is paid out. But if we ever lose the church here, then we'll go south because we only have 12 people coming out to church here now. When we moved here, there were 25. It went all the way up to 125 over the years.

Garett:
Wow.

Betty:
Now it's back down to 12. But we have a very nice chapel here. So we go to church here. And as long as they keep it open, we'll stay in the north. And as long as we continue to be fairly healthy, we'll stay in the north.

Preston:
Yeah.

Betty:
I don't think I'd like driving back in the cities. Where up here. I can drive here. I can drive in Grande Prairie and Peace River. But if I had to live in Calgary or Edmonton, I'd be lost.

Preston:
Yeah. You don't want to have to fight the freeway.

Owen:
The way the college system is here, you tend to have a job for five years. And then they rotate you.

Garett:
Okay.

Betty:
You stayed longer than that.

Owen:
Yeah. I stayed longer. You guys know Ron Wooley?

Garett:
Yeah.

Preston:
Yeah. We knew him growing up.

Owen:
When they made us a stake, they made Ron Wooley the patriarch.

Garett:
Yup.

Betty:
Yes. Yes.

Preston:
From what I remember, yeah.

Betty:
He was the first patriarch.

Owen:
And then he went to—

Preston:
He went to Fiji.

Owen:
Fiji. Okay.

Garett:
Yep.

Owen:
And so we needed another patriarch. And age-wise, I was next. So, guess what?

All:
[chuckle]

Owen:
I was patriarch until he came back. And then he went back in as a patriarch.

Betty:
You went back in as the branch president in High Prairie.

Owen:
That's right.

Betty:
When we moved up here, now this area was all under the Calgary mission.

Preston:
Yep.

Betty:
And we stayed under the mission until June and Tom went on their missions because it was the mission president in Calgary that set them apart. Then they formed the Edmonton mission. We went under the Edmonton mission. And then they formed the stake up here.

Preston:
Yeah.

Garett:
Yeah. When I served my mission in England, I met a ward mission leader there who had served his mission in the Calgary mission up in the Grande Prairie area and Sexsmith. And I'm sure he saw Fairview as well.

Betty:
Oh, okay.

Garett:
Yeah.

Owen:
Who's that?

Garett:
His name was Paul Farrar. He passed away a few years ago from liver failure.

Betty:
Okay. So, he's been branch president in this branch three times.

Garett:
Wow.

Betty:
He's been a branch president in High Prairie and one in Ponoka. [chuckles]

Preston:
Well, I've learned in my short life that, especially within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, if you are active, and you're normal, and you live where there's not very many members, you are always served in leadership. [chuckles]

Betty:
That's right. I think most of my life I've been in leadership positions. This is the first time I haven't had a church calling.

Garett:
They're giving you a chance to rest.

Betty:
That doesn't help, though, because then they'll look at me and say, what should we do about this?

10:25 - Retirement

Garett:
So, do you have hobbies now that you do? Like Gardening or things in Fairview in your retirement?

Betty:
I like to quilt. So, I go quilting every Thursday with the ladies and then I do some quilting at home. Up until two years ago, he was working at the museum and he did all the hiring for students for the summer for the museum for, I don't know how many years, seven?

Owen:
Seven.

Betty:
Seven years.

Garett:
The museum in Fairview?

Betty:
Yes, in Fairview.

Owen:
The museum in Fairview.

Betty:
He likes to get on committees and things because he enjoys meetings.

Preston:
[chuckles]

Betty:
Meetings bug me because they talk about everything except what they're supposed to be talking about. They go too long.

Garett:
I agree with you, Betty. [chuckles]

Betty:
When I have a meeting at an hour, it goes that long and you're out. [chuckles] You get in and you do and you get it done. [chuckles] But he's enjoyed working at the museum. He's not doing it this year because getting a little more fragile. [chuckles] Is that the way you want me to put it? [chuckles] He doesn't walk very good.

Owen:
[unintelligible]

Garett:
Could you say that again, Owen? I couldn't hear what you said there.

Betty:
He said he forgot what he wanted to tell you. [chuckles]

Garett:
Yeah, we were talking about your work at the museum.

Owen:
That was interesting.

Betty:
He's been on town council. He's done stuff for the Fine Arts Centre. He's done all their books and stuff free for the Fine Arts Centre. So we do a lot of volunteer stuff in town. What else? We met your grandma and grandpa and your mother and your dad up here.

Garett:
Yes, that's true.

Betty:
Your mom and her family first.

Preston:
Yeah, probably when mom was young.

Betty:
When your mom was young. Yeah. So we went through all the courtship between your mom and Ron. [chuckles] She was living in Fairview at the time, wasn't she?

Garett:
Yes.

Owen:
Yes.

Betty:
Yeah. So she kept me posted with what was happening.

Garett:
[chuckles]

Betty:
And ask for advice every now and again. [chuckles] So I know, actually, I know your mom and James the best out of the kids, the three younger ones. I knew who they were, but I didn't know them as well as your mom and James.

Garett:
Yeah.

Preston:
Yup.

Betty:
I associated, I guess, more with them. They were in the age group that I was working with at church and stuff.

Preston:
Yeah, because they were growing up. They lived outside of Worsley, right?

Betty:
Yes. On a farm. Yeah.

Owen:
Can I tell you, the first time I drove to Worsley?

Garett:
Yeah.

Betty:
[chuckles]

Owen:
I stopped twice and asked if I was getting close. I thought I was going to drive off the end of the Earth. [chuckles]

Garett:
[laughs]

Betty:
I went up there visiting teaching. I don't remember who I was visiting teaching, but we had to go to Worsley. Anyway, you come in and then you hit a 'T' and it's a field and it was all white and the lady sitting beside me, she says, "Well, if we go much farther we'll drop off the end." But anyway.

Preston:
Yeah, there really is no more farmland or settlement in that area. That's kind of the end of the road.

Betty:
[chuckles]

13:48 - Seasonal Changes

Garett:
Yeah, I was wondering if you could talk about your feelings about the seasons of the Peace Country. It's different. It takes some getting used to up there. Do you have some experiences that you'd like to share about the weather or the summers or the winter?

Betty:
Long, cold winters and windy summers. [laughs] I grew up in Calgary and the centre part of Calgary is in a valley.

Garett:
Yup.

Betty:
So we always had warmer weather than anyone else in Calgary. If you went to the North Hill, they complained because they got all the cold and the snow. Down in the valley, we had nice summers and then I came up here and it was windy. [chuckles] But anyway, you get used to it, I guess.

Preston:
Yes. Do you enjoy the length of the daylight in the summer?

Betty:
Oh I do. Very, very much. I do enjoy that. Yes, because it's already light right now until 10 o'clock and then it's light again by five in the morning up here. So that's really nice. [chuckles] A few hours less.

Preston:
Garett, are you missing that in Toronto?

Garett:
Yeah, I do miss it in Toronto.

Betty:
[chuckles]

Preston:
Way down south in Toronto.

Garett:
I feel like the long, long nights and the cold winters are kind of worth the beautiful summers of northern Alberta. They're fantastic.

Betty:
Yes. It's nice to have the long days.

15:18 - Education and Travel

Preston:
So, Owen, for you, where did you obtain your university degree? Was it in Edmonton?

Owen:
University of Calgary.

Preston:
University of Calgary is where you studied?

Owen:
Yes. Hey Garett, I have something in common with you that you might find interesting.

Garett:
Yes.

Owen:
When I came up here, I don't remember who, but somebody baited me and I started doing a PhD. I had a CGA, but I decided I was going to get a PhD. So I went after that. Oh, that was long, long, long and a lot of work. And I did it while I was still teaching.

Betty:
He took a year off and we went down to BYU for a year for him to—

Owen:
I got my master's degree from BYU.

Garett:
Okay.

Owen:
And then my PhD, I got when I came back.

Garett:
You also got your PhD from BYU?

Owen:
Not from BYU, no. It's from a university in California.

Garett:
In California?

Owen:
I don't remember.

Garett:
Oh, that's okay.

Betty:
When we went to BYU, that's when I got into quilting. I was a sewer before that. Made my own clothes type of thing. They do a lot of quilting down there, so we got into quilting. And then in the year 2000, he took a teacher exchange. So we went to Britain, to England for a year.

Preston:
Oh fun.

Betty:
The people in the ward said we'd seen more of England and Wales and Scotland than most people that lived there their whole lives. [chuckles]

Garett:
Yes.

Betty:
I don't know. Do you know our daughter, June? She was over there with us. She had graduated from BYU and had come over. So every weekend, we'd go someplace different. [chuckles] We got to see lots of, lots of things over there.

Owen:
Yeah, lots of England.

Preston:
Yeah.

Betty:
We went to Darwin's house. That was very interesting because we didn't realize that Darwin and his wife were very short.

Garett:
Oh.

Betty:
So their feet wouldn't touch the floor if they sat in normal chairs. So they cut them all off and sat that way. And I believe he had something like 12 children. That I found interesting to have so many children. But it was a really interesting house to go through. We had a little thing that you pack around with you and it tells you about, you just pressed which room you're in and it tells you all about what he did in those rooms and that. So that was one interesting place we went to, but we went to a lot of them. [chuckles]

Garett:
Yes.

Betty:
Do you remember any you liked the best?

Owen:
You know, we went, of course, and looked at a lot of the church sites.

Garett:
Did you see the Gadfield Elm Chapel in the southwest? It's the oldest chapel in the church.

Owen:
Yes.

Betty:
Did we see that one?

Owen:
Yeah.

Garett:
It was donated to the church by the United Brethren when Brigham Young baptized the congregation.

Betty:
Oh. [chuckles] I'm not sure if we've seen that one. Now, which part of England was it in? We got down to Stonehenge.

Garett:
Oh, it was in the Stonehenge area. It's north of Stonehenge in the South Gloucestershire area.

Betty:
Oh, okay. We got to go to both temples while we were there. Now, you will only get this, I think, in the church. When we went to the temple in Preston, okay, we went up there and they had a Scottish contingency running the temple that week because they change out, the stakes change out when we were there anyway. And so he'd gone to bed. I guess the kids had gone to bed with him. And I was still up and these Scottish people invited me to come over and play Crazy Eights with them. So while we were sitting there they asked me where we were going and I said we were going up to the Isle of Lewis, which is in the Hebrides because that's where my grandmother was born. And a lady says to me, "Oh, well, you won't make that trip in one day. I'm going to call my sister and you can stay at my house because I'm here. And you can just stay at my house overnight before you go on your trip."

Garett:
Wow.

Betty:
So someone we didn't know at all, just invited you into their house. We could have robbed them blind, [chuckles] which we didn't of course. [chuckles]

Garett:
It's very polite of you.

Betty:
I thought that was very nice of them to do that for us.

Owen:
You know, I can't think of anything that I didn't like about England.

Betty:
Everybody we met was very friendly. Some people said, you know, this group's not friendly or that group's not friendly. But, everyone we met was friendly towards us and good at giving directions and things.

Preston:
I always find traveling people are more friendly when they find out you're Canadian and not American.

All:
[chuckle]

Betty:
You know, that is right. That is right. You're very true there.

Preston:
Oh, I from Canada — oh, it's like, I'm sorry. I thought you were from the United States. [chuckles]

Betty:
That's what they said to us in the ward we attended in England. They were shocked because we'd come every Sunday to church. And they said, Americans don't. They come here, and especially during the war, they never, ever came to church. And they wouldn't take any church callings. And we both took church callings and came every Sunday to church. Even though we traveled on the weekends, we came back there for church most of the time.

Garett:
Where were you located and based out of?

Betty:
We were in Abbotsford.

Garett:
Okay.

Betty:
How far out of London? About half an hour?

Owen:
The city of Wattsford was just on the inside of the ring road.

Garett:
Yes.

Owen:
And we were just inside that.

Garett:
Okay.

Betty:
Part of it, we could hear the noise from part of that.

Garett:
Yeah.

Betty:
We were fortunate when we went over there too. James was 15 at the time, but he was going to turn 16 the next month. But the guy selling us the train passes. He gave us family passes because he wasn't 16 yet that we got to use for a whole year. And so we could take the trains in and out all the time at reduced prices, which was very nice. [chuckles]

Garett:
Yeah. I really love taking the trains in the UK. It's lovely.

Betty:
And the Queen Mary turned 100 while we were there. So he got to march. Him and June and James all marched in the parade. I got to walk by her.

Garett:
Wow.

Betty:
Exciting.

Owen:
You know those guys with the beaver hats?

Garett:
Yep.

Preston:
Yep.

Owen:
When we were standing there waiting for the Queen's procession to come by, the sun was just blistering hot. And I noticed that, I said, come down here—

Betty:
I didn't go to the march. They had a whatever to Elizabeth that we attended. And that's when the guard stood so he blocked the sun from shining on me. [chuckles]

Owen:
Then we figured it out. They're not going to break.

Garett:
He stood there with his big hat to make a shadow for the Queen?

Betty:
No, for me.

Garett:
Oh, for you!

Betty:
So the sun wasn't in my way.

All:
[chuckle]

Preston:
What a nice fellow.

Betty:
Yes. What a nice fellow. We were walking in the underground one time and I had an apple core. And I said to the, one of the guards along the way, I said, "Where's your garbage cans in here anyway?" And he says, "Garbage cans? We can't have garbage cans here." And I says, "Why not?" He says, "Because people put bombs in them." [chuckles] He took my core anyway. [chuckles]

Garett:
[chuckles]

Betty:
Three months before we were to leave, they went, tried to bomb one of the bridges in London, but it didn't go off properly. It was one we went over quite a bit. It didn't go off.

Garett:
Was that with lots of disagreements with Northern Ireland and the IRA?

Betty:
Yeah.

Garett:
Okay. Yeah.

Preston:
Was those that called the troubles.

Betty:
[chuckles]

Garett:
Thank you for sharing that. That's really interesting.

Preston:
Yes. A little bit of a British excursion.

Betty:
Well, when you're young, it's fun to travel. So that's when you want to travel. When you get old, it's too hard [chuckles] to do a lot of traveling.

Preston:
I haven't been to England.

Betty:
So, unless you've got somebody like Virginia who comes along and does everything for you and then you can travel. [chuckles]

23:38 - Stories from Fairview, AB

Preston:
What year did you two get married?

Together:
In 69.

Betty:
August of 69. Oh, ell, we were married in the Cardston Temple.

Preston:
I must say that is some time ago. Congratulations.

Betty:
Yes. We'll be married 55 years this year.

Garett:
Yeah. Yeah. I was just doing the numbers.

Betty:
That's doing pretty good. Even in our little small ward, we're the only couple that's been married the whole time. Everyone else in our ward has divorced once or twice already.

Garett:
Congratulations. That's really amazing.

Betty:
Yeah. Yeah.

Preston:
Yeah. I'm coming up to five years. So I got to start somewhere.

Betty:
Yes. You got to start somewhere. Five's good. Well, you have to remember that you don't divorce. You work out the problem instead.

Preston:
That's right.

Betty:
Yeah. But I don't know. I guess some problems aren't workable. I don't know.

Garett:
Yeah. My wife and I are coming up on eight years next month.

Betty:
Eight years. Oh, good.

Betty:
I haven't lived in Fairview myself, but I have visited many times because I went to college at Fairview myself.

Betty:
Okay.

Garett:
I took the carpentry program while I was there. So I got to drive there every day. [chuckles]

Owen:
[chuckles]

Preston:
I commuted from Grand Prairie. To Fairview for eight weeks on four different occasions. But I loved it. I loved going.

Owen:
You like that road.

Preston:
I love that road, I could drive it with my eyes closed. But I always loved coming through the Dunvegan Valley right before you come up into Fairview. It's beautiful.

Betty:
Oh, that's the part of the trip I don't like. [chuckles]

Betty:
What? You don't like coming down the grade, crossing the bridge and going back up.

Betty:
Yeah. Crossing the bridge. [chuckles] It's pretty. It's a pretty drive.

Preston:
It is pretty.

Betty:
Provided you drive slowly enough going down in the valley and across the bridge. But yeah, it's very pretty.

Owen:
Hey, who else have you got to podcast with?

Garett:
We interviewed your son, Ron.

Preston:
Yeah.

Betty:
Oh, did you? Okay.

Owen:
He probably wouldn't have stoped talking would he.

Preston:
[chuckles]

Garett:
He was courteous enough to not talk too much, but it was great talking with him.

Preston:
Yeah.

Garett:
We also spoke with Jonathan Oakey, the younger.

Betty:
Okay.

Owen:
He's down in Cardston, isn't he?

Preston:
He is.

Garett:
Yes. He's in Cardston.

Preston:
I don't think we've spoken from anybody else from Fairview, have we?

Garett:
I don't think so.

Preston:
We spoke with Kim Houlder from Grimshaw, is where she grew up. But she also was in Grande Prairie for a long time.

Garett:
And we've talked to our parents. And you might know Rob Blum.

Betty:
Yeah. We know Rob. Him and Janice come to church here every Sunday.

Garett:
Oh, do they?

Betty:
Yeah, they do. He's the high councilman. So they come to help to keep our numbers up a little bit. Every Sunday.

Preston:
[chuckles] So they're making that trip.

Betty:
He's quite a talker. [chuckles]

Preston:
Yeah. He is very long-winded.

Betty:
[laughs]

Owen:
I thought he was just doing that for us.

All:
[chuckle]

Preston:
No, he does that for everyone.

Betty:
[chuckles] Well, the first time around, it's interesting. [chuckles] Yeah, that's all right. We like them. We get along good with them.

Preston:
We, of course, had a lot of fun. We got to talk to our uncle Jim Brown on the show.

Betty:
Okay.

Garett:
Yep.

Preston:
And his wife, Pamela, from Fort St. John.

Garett:
And our aunts, as you were saying, you knew Kim and James well. But we also talked with their younger siblings, Emma and Jessie.

Preston:
We haven't spoke with Auntie Jolene yet. We should have Uncle James on the show sometime. But I don't know how busy he is.

Garett:
He's very busy.

Betty:
[chuckles] He's interesting. Very interesting. I always liked James. We got along. I knew James. James and Kim the best. And so we always got along, you know, with those two. I don't know if you know Georgia Yates.

Preston:
I don't think I do.

Betty:
She lived in Grande Prairie for a couple of years. But anyway, she's just got married two or three years ago to a fellow that lives down Mountain View. So she's in James's ward in Mountain View. So he knows her. And anyway, he heard we were coming down there. So he invited himself over [chuckles] to her place. [chuckles] And then June was with us on that trip. And so he took June back over to his place to show her all his neat things that he has. I don't know what the cute little fuzzy things were that he had. But anyway.

Garett:
[chuckles]

Owen:
He had a muskox. A little muskox.

Preston:
Yes, he did.

Betty:
Okay. Yeah. So that was interesting. So, yeah, when we go down, we usually try to see him and talk to him. So we've seen him about two or three times since we've gone down there. When we go down.

Preston:
Oh, fun.

Betty:
Don't get down there very often anymore.

Preston:
No. Do you have any good stories of our mom, Kim, and James at all?

Betty:
I don't know. They were good kids. That's all. Never got into trouble as far as I knew. So I think their mom and dad had broken up by the time the three little ones sort of, you know. How much younger? They were a good 10 years or something younger than James.

Preston:
Yeah.

Betty:
And so I never taught them in church or anything. I don't think I taught James and Kim either. Whose ages would they be? Would they be in Virginia's and Ron's age group?

Owen:
Yes.

Garett:
Kim was born in 69.

Betty:
Okay. So Virginia would be the closest to her. And then there would be Ron and James would be the next two closest ones, I guess. So that would be their age group. So then I guess know them because they were going to the dances and things. The activities they had with the stake and stuff.

Preston:
Yeah.

29:25 - Final Thoughts

Owen:
You know it's funny, in the early days of us coming up here. The church was organized as a district, no, it was part of the mission.

Betty:
It was part of the mission. We already told them that.

Owen:
And so, if the kids wanted to get together, they had to drive. And our kids would drive over to Beaverlodge a lot.

Betty:
No, Fort St. John. Beaverlodge came here a lot.

Owen:
Yeah, they came here and the kids would drive over to Fort St. John.

Betty:
That was the three groups that met mostly together. When they stayed here, the girls slept upstairs and the boys slept downstairs. [chuckles] In sleeping bags. [chuckles] Can't have them together, they had to be separate. Yeah, Virginia is a person who likes to organize things. So if she wants some fun, she'll get in and organize it. So then there was a little group of them and they wanted dances. So we said fine, you can any dance over here you want. [chuckles] So they started going around to each area in the groups and dancing. I think that's how your mom and Ron met, was going to some of these dances together.

Garett:
Yeah, I have a photo of my mother at one of those dances, I presume. It was a halloween dance and she had a spiderweb design all on her arm and on her face.

Betty:
Well the kids used to plan them all themselves and if they needed a place then we just opened up here. And said, yup, you can have anything you want over here. So they would all travel. That age group all travelled so they could do fun things together.

Garett:
Thank you so much for sharing.

Betty:
Well, we've enjoyed talking to you and telling you a little bit of our life, I guess. [chuckles]

Garett:
Yeah. We feel like that everybody has had an interesting life, or has an interesting life. And we mostly interested in letting people tell their stories.

Betty:
Where do you put this on so that people can listen to it?

Garett:
It will be on the internet. And it will be available where people get podcasts. So on anybody's smartphone, they'll be able to listen to it.

Betty:
Because I know my daughter June will want to listen to it.

Owen:
And Virginia will too.

Betty:
Yeah. Virginia will too.

Preston:
Yeah. We have our own website called, PeaceCountryLife.ca. Garett's the mastermind behind the program. So he's the one that put it all together for us.

Garett:
Yup.

Betty:
So is Ron's posted yet?

Garett:
Yup.

Preston:
Oh yes.

Garett:
If you want to go straight to Ron's, then you can do a slash and then 17.

Betty:
Okay. I'm interested in seeing what he said about the North. [chuckles]

Garett:
Yup.

Betty:
He wasn't too happy when we moved up North because we lived in Sherwood Park and they were training him as a quarterback. Got up here, no football. [chuckles]

All:
[chuckle]

Betty:
No this, no that. [chuckles]

Preston:
He definitely did not mention that.

Garett:
He did not.

Betty:
[chuckles]

Owen:
Because he didn't get on the team, or the position rather, he might not have remembered that.

Preston:
No worries. But we're very grateful that you took time out of your day to share your stories and your memories with us, Betty and Owen. It's been a pleasure.

Betty:
Oh.

Owen:
I couldn't believe the amount of patience that you guys have.

Betty:
[chuckles] You didn't know you had patience, did you? [chuckles] Yes, when you're dealing with elderly you have to have patience because they repeat things. [chuckles] They forget what they tell you so they have to tell you again.

Preston:
[chuckles]

Betty:
Okay, well thank you very much for having us on.

Garett:
Yeah. Thank you so much for coming. We're grateful to all of our listeners. For anyone interested in giving us feedback or writing in a story for us to share, you can email us at lifenorthofthe54th@gmail.com. You can also visit our website at PeaceCountryLife.ca. And as we come to the end of this our third season, we're very grateful for all of our listeners. We hope that you have a great summer and we look forward to sharing more stories with you again this coming fall. Thank you so much for coming. We hope to see both of you around sooner rather than later.

Owen:
Well I want to wish you the best in your efforts.

Garett:
Yeah. Thank you too.

Preston:
Thank you.

Betty:
Well thanks again.

Owen:
Yeah, this was kind of fun you guys, so thank you.

Garett:
Yeah. We're glad that you had fun as well.

Owen:
Yeah, I enjoyed listening too.

Betty:
[chuckles]

Garett:
[chuckles]

Preston:
Alright. Well, thank you a bunch again.

Betty:
Okay. Bye-bye now.

Garett:
Yup.

Preston:
Bye.

Ending Theme Music:
[bass guitar riff with drumbeat]