Life North of the 54th

Transcript

• 00:00 - Growing up in the Peace Country
• 15:00 - Life on the Farm
• 33:06 - Swapping Stories
• 49:29 - One More Thing

00:00 - Growing up in the Peace Country

Opening Theme Music:
[bass guitar riff]

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

Preston:
And I'm Preston Brown. Welcome to our program today. Today we're welcome to have Jessie Meservy with us, who's grew up in the Peace Country, and we're excited to hear some of her stories and life experiences today.

Jessie:
Thanks for having me on guys. I did grow up in the Peace region, the majority of my life, and still, I guess technically live in the Peace region, just a little farther north. I have lots of fond memories, probably some would think they are a little crazy of growing up in the Peace area. When I was very small, we lived in Alberta in Cleardale, and my memories of there are very vague as I was quite young when we left there, just normal going out to the pasture with the cattle, going to the barn with my brother when he was milking, getting into trouble with my sisters that were closest to my age, that was a given. But most of my memories are once we left Cleardale and moved into BC, into the Townsend Valley. So I would have been six or seven when my Dad bought that property. And that was a little different as there's no running water or power source there. So I did grow up a little bit different than most people my age. I actually remember we did have a small solar panel and it was just to charge batteries for the electric fence. That's all it was there for. And I remember, I don't know how old I would have been when my Dad finally broke down, and I don't know if he bought himself a small generator. Anyway, he had rigged up a form of power to go into the cabin, and it wasn't anything nice for us kids, or it wasn't even for him. It was because he bought a 13 inch TV VCR combo that he had to be able to power in case when his grandchildren came to see him and he had too many rain days. So it didn't really matter about the kids as long as he had grandkids, I guess, I don't know. [chuckles]

Garett:
Being one of the grandkids. Yeah, I watched "Lord of the Rings" on VHS on that TV. I was pretty grateful that he got that TV.

Preston:
I remember me playing that Monopoly for the 100th time.

Jessie:
[laughs]

Preston:
So, Aunt Jessie, what was it first like in that Townsend Valley that you speak about? I remember what it was like when I was a kid and I remember what it looks like now, but how has it changed over the years to you?

Jessie:
Well, when we first moved into that Valley, there were no buildings at all. The previous owner obviously had done clearing, but the willows had come back and it was just trees and willows. And I don't remember where he got it, but there was a small camper when we were first up there that we stayed in. And when we first went up there, it was on top of the hill, not right down in the Valley because there was apparently a sow and two cubs that were living in our Valley. And so Dad didn't wanna have us down there right with them. We moved stuff over from Cleardale. What is now known as the generator shed was a chicken coop in Cleardale. It was going to be a chicken coop on the Townsend, but the bears wouldn't leave our chickens alone. So we no longer had chickens. At one point in time, we lived in it with its dirt floor and very, very little space, basically enough to have beds and a little tiny stove in the corner. So he moved that in. He had, when we, so they had, he brought tractors. I remember being in the pickup with Ken Knight, a friend of my Mom and Dad's. And my brother was driving one tractor, pulling a trailer with who knows what on it. And my Dad was driving the other tractor with a trailer loaded with who knows what. And when we came in, 'cause you used to have to come in on the 109 and then you would cut across the Gundy. And the Gundy is a little bit of a steep hill and turns going down and up the other side. And I just remember that the tractor brakes weren't that great, at least on the tractor my brother was driving. And he was nervous to go down the hill with the tractor. And Ken said, "Then don't, make your Dad do it." And anybody who knew my Dad knew that he probably didn't like that decision, but he got over it and he drove the tractor and didn't have proper brakes. And ended up in the ditch with the tractor. [chuckles] So we continued on with the one tractor and the truck, and then he would just go back and slowly got everything moved over and then down and in. But he did a lot of work in there. There had been a burn before we moved in up on the hill and he horse logged the logs and we helped build the cabin that we grew up in. We helped build the barn that's still standing. And we had helped him build a loading chute and a round pens for working cows. That was torn down a few years ago as it was rotting. It was all solid wood, nothing else. But not just being a different way of life, it was a hard way of life. It was an hour and fifteen to an hour and a half every time you went out to get parts or groceries or anything. So obviously it wasn't close to a school and we lived every other year with our Dad. So one year we finally convinced him that he should let us take correspondence so that we could stay at the farm all year with him. And we didn't finish it, not even close. So he wouldn't let us do that anymore. [chuckles]

Garett:
[chuckles]

Jessie:
So we, like not even close, not even halfway through the grade I don't think I got. So we weren't allowed to do that anymore.

Garett:
Did you get distracted with playing or did you just combination of playing and working than just not bothering?

Jessie:
Playing and working and thinking, no, I can do that tomorrow and then eventually not having any tomorrows. [chuckles] But it was, to supplement farming 'cause farming is a very hard lifestyle. My Dad used to work out from the farm. So when you talk to my Mom, Jane, she had talked about being in the Blair Valley. And when they had sold out, there was like a Christian colonies popping up. And so when we moved in on the Townsend, we would go over to the Blair Valley where they had originally had their property. And the Christian colony was no longer there. All their buildings were there. A lot of their stuff was there, like the buildings, a little bit of their equipment, stuff like that. But there was one family that stayed there that was basically just caretakers of the property. And we became really good friends with them. And over the years, they helped with calving. And the first couple of winters up there, we wintered our animals over there and they took care of the animals throughout the winter while Dad was working. But he always worked in order to pay for the farm. That's where he was happy, where he could grow things, where he could build with wood. And I moved around a lot as a child, a few times out of the Peace area, always came back. And there's always a piece of you that knows where home is. And so all the places I've lived, and I've lived in Fort Nelson now since '99, and there is one section of the highway that is literally in the middle of nowhere. And soon as I hit it, when I'm heading South, you get that feeling that you're almost home. And it is about five miles from the turnoff, not quite five miles, from the turnoff to where you would go down to access the farm at Townsend Creek now. We did a lot of stupid stuff when we were living there. We had open range for our cattle. So our cows would go out in the summer on open range and every night we would ride and check on them before I had my own horse. So it would have been one of the first years we were up there, we were riding. And this is a very vivid memory. And I did not actually know all the details of it until I got older and we were talking about it. So I was riding behind my Dad. And I don't even know if we actually had cows out on open range at this point in time or not. But I was riding behind my Dad and my sisters, Emma and Joleen just older than me, were on their own horses. And we were riding out and it had been, it was raining and it had been raining for quite a few days. So the Creek was swollen and it was muddy and gross 'cause the mud sticks to everything, really badly. And my Dad went to cross a smaller portion of the Creek. He was trying to find the best way across. And I remember wearing brand new rubber boots. And I remember when Dad went to cross, it was so bad that Ranger had bogged down in it and he was lunging to get out. And it was bad enough that my Dad actually had reached behind him and was holding on to me, like up against him 'cause I was behind him. And I just remember curling my toes in my boots thinking don't lose your boots, they're brand new. Don't lose your boots, don't lose your boots. And then after we got across, we then had to come back across because my sisters weren't crossing. And when we were older, I was talking about that. And I said, I remember distinctly thinking not to lose my boots. And my Dad said, lose your boots. He said, that Creek was so bad, I was worried about losing you. And then my one sister, Emma, she's like, it was bad, Joleen and I turned our horses around so they didn't even have to watch it. [chuckles] I'm like, the horses! [laughs]

Garett:
[laughs]

Jessie:
But it was a way of life, a very different way of life. We would get little thundershowers would, come in almost every afternoon, sometimes multiple times a day. And sometimes it was just enough to cut down the dust. And then sometimes it would rain, really rain. And there is a lot of clay in the area. And if you have never been in an area that has the type of soil that's up here, you wouldn't actually believe how bad it is. Like you can't even like kick it off your boots without losing your boots. And that's one of the things I've noticed as I've gotten older, people that have moved up to the Northern area later in life, that's one of the things they always comment on is, I can't believe the mud. Like what kind of mud do you guys have up here? Yes, it's the mud that wants to be there forever. And when it dries, it's rock hard and there's nothing you can do with it.

Garett:
Yeah.

Preston:
Yup.

Jessie:
I lost many, many boots, your feet coming out because your boots are sucked in so hard you can't get it out.

Preston:
Yeah, the kind of mud that I remember Dad one time, I think had to chain all four tires on a pickup truck to climb out of the hill.

Jessie:
Yeah.

Preston:
You know, like a chain for every tire is a lot more than typical.

Jessie:
I remember it was actually right after your Mom passed away, we had gone down to tell my Dad and it was June. So it was wet. And when we came out, we were chained up and in four low to come out of those hills because it was so wet and just chewed all the way out. But you can't, it doesn't fling off. Like it, you can't get rid of the mud. It just falls on. So four wheel drive is not enough.

Garett:
Yeah. I kind of understand a little bit more now why maybe your Dad wanted a TV for grandkids. 'Cause if you keep the grandkids inside in front of a TV instead of letting them go outside in the mud and then bring it all back, it's sort of a much better trade off.

Jessie:
It kind of is, especially when you don't have running water.

Garett:
Yeah.

Jessie:
[laughs]

Garett:
Yeah, and any cleaning that you're doing is gonna be water that you hauled in or something like that.

Preston:
And it's done manually.

Jessie:
Yeah. I actually think it was your Dad that bought him that TV.

Garett:
I think so.

Jessie:
And then as I got older, he really started to enjoy the TV. So we would watch "Red Skelton" when I would go visit.

All:
[laugh]

Preston:
He probably liked it.

Jessie:
But you know, we gardened, we farmed, I was the youngest, so I did get out of a lot of it.

Garett:
Yeah.

Jessie:
And I said, I moved every year. So there's every other year I was definitely not there, but all my best memories probably are in the Peace Region. I don't like the winters, I don't like the snow, I don't like the cold, but they have the best summers you can ever find.

Garett:
Yeah, the summers are never too hot. In general, the heat is just sort of right on perfect and the humidity is right on perfect and the days just never end.

Jessie:
Yes.

Garett:
Yeah.

Jessie:
Yeah, the long, the only downfall about summertime and the days not ending is you don't get the good Northern Lights until it starts to cool off. [laughs] And then it's not as nice to stand outside and watch them.

Garett:
Yeah.

Jessie:
But it's still worth it, so you do it.

Preston:
That's the trade-off. You have nice long days in the summer and the winters are longer nights, but you can't see the Northern Lights up there.

Jessie:
It definitely--

Preston:
Which is a little bit of a gem.

Jessie:
Keeps you coming back. Northern Lights are amazing. And you can get, you know, a lot of people when they think of the Northern Lights, they just think of like a green streak across the sky. But up here when they're out, you can have pink and purple and green and they dance and they will dance across the whole sky. It's unreal. And people that live in the South, it should be a bucket list item to see the Northern Lights.

Garett:
Yeah.

Jessie:
But I mean, it's also hard to plan a trip around that. [chuckles]

Garett:
It is. Having studied some physics around the topic, it is hard to know when they'll be there. But even knowing some of the physics on why you get the different colors and why they dance, it is totally astonishing to just in awe, watch them dance and move. And it's like these beautiful ribbons of light. It's not like a hazy light. It's like a ribbon of light that sort of streaks around.

Jessie:
Yeah. It's hard to describe because seeing it in person, there's nothing that can describe it like seeing it in person.

Garett:
Yeah.

Jessie:
Yeah. Yeah, it's great.

15:00 - Life on the Farm

Garett:
How much would you say your Dad liked to garden? I remember being there in the summer sometimes and he had a very beautiful vegetable garden. You said that you didn't have to do as much work as your siblings 'cause you were the youngest, but you know how much he really liked to garden?

Jessie:
So I asked him once if he had ever decided to quit farming, what he would do as retirement because he wasn't somebody that could sit still very well.

Garett:
Yeah.

Jessie:
And he said, I don't know if you remember from when you were a kid, down in the Taylor Valley on the South side of the Taylor Bridge, there was that big garden where you could buy from them or you could pick your own and buy from them. And they had huge gardens. And he told me that if he ever decided to retire, he would need to live somewhere where he could garden like at Taylor. And if he didn't live somewhere where he could do it all year round, he would have somewhere where he could have huge gardens in the summer and then a woodworking and silversmith shop that he could put around in, in the winter months. Like he loved to garden. And he got that from his Mom 'cause Grandma Meservy had great gardens.

Garett:
I remember him telling me sometimes when I was helping him pick weeds as a kid, obviously I was complaining about the weeds. And he's always like, you can't have a good garden without good weeds 'cause weeds know that you're like, your soil is good and you got lots of good stuff in it. And when your Dad passed away, I remember tossing in a couple of weeds on top of the flowers that everybody put in on his casket 'cause I knew he was gonna need some weeds to pull in the next life. [chuckles]

Jessie:
[laughs] Yeah, he could have gardened for hours that man. He really liked it. He had rigged up, when I was pregnant with Jordan, I had gone down and it was springtime and he was getting ready to plant. And he had actually taken like a, an old broom handle, but more like a shop broom. So the handle was a little bit lighter and he had made this, it's not even really a bracket, but he had made this piece out of metal that the handle of the broom could go into the center. So it was like a little bracket and he screwed it on or whatever. But the metal piece went out to the sides and then it had two pieces of metal pointed down and he had it measured just perfectly so that he could pull it behind him and it would dig two lines for planting in his garden the perfect width apart. So he could do his rows.

Preston:
I remember that.

Jessie:
[laughs] Do you remember that tool?

Preston:
I remember, I know exactly what you're talking about 'cause I'm going there one year and all his rows were a little bit curved, right? Had a little bit of a crest to them, but they're all parallel.

Jessie:
[laughs]

Preston:
Right? 'Cause if he pulled the first one a little crooked---

Jessie:
Then the rest would.

Preston:
Every one after that would follow the same route.

Jessie:
Yep. That's what he did. And I mean, we grew up, well, he gardened, and in Cleardale I remember gardening too. And meat, like our canning moose meat and stuff like that. He always had something on the go, always had lots of stuff, always had a plan, always was prepared in case, you know, times got tough. So he stockpiled ammunition. I'm sure you remember that too. And he like, and he was the type of guy that everybody liked and he was very friendly. So he would talk to anybody. And my Mom had made comments about hitchhikers and he randomly picked up hitchhikers because, you know, they obviously just needed a hand. And sometimes they were a little on the crazy side and he had picked up one. I only met him once, but he was crazy. Like the warlocks were coming for him and he took off once from the farm when Dad had gone to town for parts or groceries. And Dad came back and his big, huge canvas wall tent was gone and his good ax was gone and his one rifle was gone. And he thought, oh no. And then a few days later he showed up and like, we weren't missing anything else. No clothes, no food, no. And Dad's like, well, what did you eat? And apparently he had shot a beaver and he roasted it, but like he didn't skin it first or anything. He said it wouldn't have been too bad if it hadn't been so hairy.

Garett:
Oh man.

Jessie:
So he was a little weird, but so this is, so he was from the States and what happened is he'd been traveling the Alaska highway or something, but he was with his uncle and they'd gotten in a fight and his uncle had kicked him out in Wonowon and left him there. So Dad had felt sorry for the guy. And you know, he was helping Dad, Dad was feeding him. I'm not sure how much he was helping him because when they were cutting posts, you know, the warlocks would stand them back up and stuff. So I don't actually know how long he was there, but he used to write to my Dad after he left, but he had said before he left that he was going to drink out of the Peace River because he was told that if you drink out of the Peace River, that means you'll always return to the Peace Country if you've drank it out of the river. So he was making, he was going out of his way to make sure he drank out of the river before he left. And then he would randomly write to my Dad. My Dad would randomly get letters and my Dad would never write them back. And I said, I said, well, why don't you ever write him back? He said, well, because he was a little different and he firmly believed that drinking out of the Peace River would mean that he would return. And I'm scared that if I write him back, he's going to tell me that the Peace River is telling him he has to come back to see me. [laughs]

Garett:
[chuckles]

Jessie:
So he would never write him back. [chuckles] But the Peace calls you home, I guess.

Garett:
It does. Yeah. I feel it too when I go back to the Peace Country. I can't tell if it's familiar because it's where I grew up and it was just formative or if it's because it's just such a beautiful place.

Jessie:
Yeah, that would be, that would be hard to decide because yeah. But I've lived in, when I was younger, I've lived in Calgary, I've lived in Pennsylvania, I spent time in Montana, I've lived in Washington. I've always came home to the Peace. And then I came a little bit farther up to Fort Nelson and then I decided, well, there was no point in ever moving south again 'cause every time I moved a little bit farther south, I would move a little bit farther north when I came back and I didn't want to go any farther north. [chuckles]

Garett:
[laughs]

Jessie:
So, and still even now when I have a free weekend or whatever, I still go to the farm on the Townsend. The roads are totally different. It's really easy access now. I mean, there's still no power or running water, but Joleen has a generator that always runs and starts really easy, that's nice. You haul water, whatever, but it's home.

Garett:
Yeah, so I wanted to ask you, Jessie, what keeps you in Fort Nelson then? You're saying like, if you move farther south, you might end up farther north and who knows, just suddenly pass Whitehorse and then go all the way up to Dawson City.

Jessie:
Yes, and as much as I'd like to visit Dawson City 'cause I've never actually been that far north, I definitely don't want to live any farther north.

Garett:
Yeah.

Jessie:
I liked Fort Nelson for raising my kids, but with my kids leaving for school, my kids will never, as adults, come back to Fort Nelson.

Garett:
To live, you mean? They'll come back to visit you, I assume.

Jessie:
Yeah, they would come back to visit me, but they would never come back to live here. So I will be moving once I decide what I want to be as an adult. The biggest decision for me is deciding where I want to live. So I'll probably only end up in the Fort St. John area 'cause that's the closest to the farm. [laughs]

Garett:
Yeah, yeah. What sort of things about Fort Nelson were really great for raising your boys there?

Jessie:
It's a small town, so that part is nice. They can't get into much trouble because everybody knows who they are and where they belong. They have some really good teachers up here. Like, both my boys were in band and they have a phenomenal band teacher up here. They've traveled, they've done all sorts of stuff with that. Work was good for me as a single parent. The income up here was probably higher than most other places, so that was a bonus. Really, Fort St. John isn't much different, even Grande Prairie, but you go fifteen minutes out your back door and you have everything to explore if you want to. We're a four-hour drive from the Liard Hot Springs. We're three, three and a half from Muncho Lake, which is cold, so cold, but extremely beautiful. We have parks and plodding trails and rivers everywhere. It's just beautiful. It's right in the foothills, starting into the mountains. It's gorgeous. Some of the most beautiful countryside you'll find driving the Alaska Highway. I mean, up north is gorgeous too, but I love driving the Alaska Highway from Fort Nelson to Fort St. John, especially in the summertime when everything is green. It's just beautiful.

Garett:
Yeah, and that drive from Fort Nelson to the Liard Hot Springs is also really incredible. Along the lakefront there, where it's just winding along and you have like a cliff on your right and a lake on your left and not much road in between.

Jessie:
[chuckles] It's a little bit startling to people who have never done it, yes. [laughs]

Preston:
Yeah. So have you traveled many unique places within the Peace Country itself, Jessie?

Jessie:
I mean, I've done, in the Peace Country, not really. I've spent a lot of time in the back country of it or in different sections of farming areas. But I mean, when I was younger, we used to go just outside Hudson Hope and there was waterfalls. It was like a mile and a half hike into, and you could, it was low enough that you could jump off the falls into the pool below. Just north of Sikanni, there's the Sikanni Falls, which you can hike into and you can be at the top or you can do a different path and stand down at the bottom of them. And down the 147 at Pink Mountain, sorry, the Halfway River is, you're right in the foothills and the Halfway River goes through and it's crystal clear and beautiful and really anywhere. You can just go for a hike anywhere and it's nice. I've quadded, I've horsebacked, I've whatever, but not really specifically traveled to a location to see it, it's just the backyard.

Preston:
Yeah, it's not quite a tourist destination per se, but there are a lot of things to see if you know where to go.

Jessie:
Yeah, and I mean, obviously the most common places people wanna see are, you know, things like the hot springs or yeah, the hot springs. They like Muncho because it is totally, really cool to be able to, yeah, like Garett said, there's a cliff face and you're, you know, two feet from the edge of the water. And there are things to see, but yeah, like as much as the Peace Region has to offer, you're right, it's not so much that it's touristy unless people wanna take the time. 'Cause any campground you can go for a hike from and see all sorts of things.

Garett:
Yeah, there's no highway straight to the sights. You gotta wind your way through it and you gotta feel it.

Jessie:
And I mean, unless all they wanna see is the wild animals, which you do tend to see less and less on the highways until you get a little bit further North. The buffalo don't seem to wanna leave the highway, but you definitely don't see as many moose or we've seen a lot of bears. In the spring, there's still a lot of bears along the edge of the highway, [chuckles] but you definitely don't see the wildlife like you used to when driving the highway.

Garett:
How do you feel that Peace Country has influenced your outlook on life? You were talking about growing up much differently than most people your age without running water or power, but that and also just the Peace Country in general, how do you feel like that's influenced the way that you view the world?

Jessie:
It probably definitely tends to make you a little bit more, not necessarily hardworking, but you definitely put all your effort in to get something done in the least amount of time possible. You do it as smart as possible and as quick as possible so that you can move on to your next chore. [chuckles] That would be from having to pack water and not wanting to waste anything. So you do what you can with what you have in as timely a manner. And the Peace Region itself, I don't know, like I said, you leave, but you always wanna come back home. It's just, well, for one, I definitely noticed it when I moved to Pennsylvania. People are not quite as friendly and as open the farther East you go. Whereas my kids grew up saying, "Who is that person?" Well, I don't know, you just see them. So they say, "Hi." Everybody says, "Hi." Everybody waves to you. I remember asking my Mom that as a kid, actually, all the time. "Who is that person? "Why are you waving to them?" She's like, "Well."

Garett:
Me too.

Jessie:
[laughs] Because.

Garett:
Yeah, I would ask my Dad the same question. He's like, "Do you know that person?" He's like, "No, they were just being nice."

Jessie:
Yeah, because that's, and I mean, it could be everywhere in the West. I don't really know, but I know it's very strong in the Peace.

Garett:
Yeah.

Jessie:
I grew up in the farming community. So everybody still very much helps their neighbors out if you need help. I live in a small town now. If somebody needs help, there's always somebody that's going out of their way to do a fundraiser to help raise money for them or whatever. And I know part of it's because I'm in a smaller community up here, but it just makes it feel like you're from a community that even though you don't know everybody, you kind of do. Gives for a good vibe, a good feeling when you're, you're not nervous to walk down the street or wave to a random stranger. [laughs]

Garett:
Yeah.

Jessie:
But it's always home, always wants you to come back.

Preston:
What was it like being a youth or in high school during your time, Jessie?

Jessie:
Well, cell phones were very rare. Only one or two people had them in my high school. But other than that, I think for the most part, I mean, it's the same. You have the same, you have the kids that are into sports and the kids that are extremely academic and the kids that just kind of don't fit in anywhere.

Garett:
Did you go to high school in Fort St. John?

Jessie:
I did. Yes, well, grade 11 was in Fort St. John.

Garett:
Were you spending time with your Dad and your Mom that was making school difficult or were you just with your Dad in the summer in the cabin and with your Mom during the school year?

Jessie:
No, it was every other year.

Garett:
Right.

Jessie:
So originally I would move province to province for each school year and then eventually it became country to country.

Garett:
Right.

Jessie:
Which was a little bit challenging, but, and maybe, I mean, I don't know, maybe that's part of the reason why the Peace Region is so much in my blood because it was the one stable part in my world. Like I came back to the same area every other year. But I mean, my best friend, I met when I was eight years old at the Charlie Lake School and we're still friends now. And I moved away a lot of times in the 32 years since then. It was definitely better that I was going to school in town, even though I couldn't be at the farm because at least I was doing school work then. As we got older, more and more of our time was only spent up there during the summers because we had other things to do. Joleen was into sports. Life happens when you're a kid and get to start seeing the whole world. It changes things. But the farm has good memories for all of us. It has, [chuckles] so we used to hay in the Blair Valley.

Garett:
Right.

Jessie:
And we had a swather. So all the cutting head is at the front of it. So it's very front heavy. And going into the Blair Valley is a very steep, crappy road, very steep. And this is one of those times that I was so very thankful that I was the younger child. [chuckles]

Garett:
[laughs]

Jessie:
We were moving the swather over to the Blair Valley so we could start cutting. And it was just Joleen and myself and Dad. And so Joleen's just over two years older than me. And we were, I wanna say, I wanna say she would only been 11 or 12, if that. And we were at the top of the hill going into Shiloh Farms is what they called it. And we stopped and the swather was tied off to the front of the pickup 'cause we were coming down behind him, but he was tied off to us to keep him held back and from at the really steep parts going over. And [chuckles] he ties it off, he's giving Joleen directions, make sure you keep it in this gear, make sure you keep the line as tight as possible, keep it slow. And what did he say? Don't lose control or I'm dead or something along those lines. [chuckles] And then he goes and hops in the swather. All's I remember thinking is, I'm glad I'm not the one driving the truck.

All:
[laugh]

Jessie:
Because we didn't really have any other options. I was taught to drive at a very young age because if I was ever alone at the farm with Dad by myself and something happened to him, he wanted me to at least be able to make the neighbor's house which as long as it was dry, I could have in the truck. [chuckles]

Garett:
Yeah, yeah.

Jessie:
But yeah, so it was a way of life.

33:06 - Swapping Stories

Jessie:
What do you guys remember? You lived there for a short period of time.

Garett:
I remember building a corral and that was a lot of work. We used railroad ties and rough cut---

Jessie:
Planks.

Preston:
Like two by 12.

Garett:
Yeah.

Preston:
They were huge.

Garett:
Yeah, they were huge rough cut wood. But then it was so much work pounding and tamping but I assume it's still standing.

Jessie:
It is still standing, you betcha.

All:
[laugh]

Garett:
It is so much work.

Preston:
I remember building it.

Jessie:
I remember helping collect the railway ties sometimes.

Garett:
Where did they get them from? Was it like an old railroad that was decommissioned or something?

Jessie:
Yeah, yeah. And I don't even, I shouldn't say I remember getting them. I remember helping them unload once or twice and I'm sure he probably wrecked the suspension in his truck hauling as much as he was with the truck that he had.[chuckles]

Garett:
[chuckles] He probably had like a half ton truck and it was a ton and a half of wood or something.

Jessie:
Probably something like that. Maybe a three quarter ton, but yeah. [chuckles]

Garett:
I don't know when he got the school bus but I remember him having the school bus and like us helping him sort of renovate the inside of that school bus to be sort of a camper of a sort.

Preston:
Yeah.

Jessie:
Yeah, so I always thought it was just my Dad but the older I get, the more I learn, it's a lot of it's more a farmer thing. Well, the price was right.

Garett:
Yeah.

Jessie:
But you don't need it. Yeah, but the price was right. Okay, okay. [chuckles] Or maybe it's just poor farmers. I'm not sure which, but, [chuckles] 'cause I hear the same stories more and more and I work with a guy who was raised kind of like me. Obviously he had power and running water and stuff but he is like that too. He's a mechanic by trade, but he'll be like, "Well, we can't get rid of that." Or, "Oh, but you know, that's," I'm like, "We're not buying it 'cause it's the right price." I've heard that way too many times in my life. [chuckles] No. So that's, I remember the bus, yes.

Garett:
Yeah, I remember we'd done up the bus so that we could go and like stay the night somewhere with it and we went to Pink Mountain with it to see some friends. I don't know which friends we saw. I just remember that there was a horse that likes to eat hamburgers or something super odd like that.

Jessie:
[chuckles]

Garett:
I was just like, I don't know why this, 'cause as a kid it was like, why is a horse eating hamburgers? Anyway, I remember, so we had the bus done up and your Dad, of course, had stored a couple of rifles and something inside the bus. And our older brother, Travis, was like, "If the cops pull us over, don't say anything about guns." Not even anything, not like, "Oh no, we don't even have a pistol." And things like, "Don't say anything. "We don't want them to search the bus."

Jessie:
[laughs] Which is funny because you don't see cops in that part of the world very often at all. [chuckles]

Garett:
[chuckles] I know. And who's gonna pull over a school bus, yeah.

Jessie:
Yeah, and I grew up with guns everywhere. It wasn't a odd thing at all for me. But yeah, [chuckles] he used to do funny things. There was something that Mom said and I lost it now. See, I'm getting old. Oh, I'm getting old. But I remember they worked on a farm when they were married, when they weren't together, always had farm work. I remember in Fairview, so I'd have been really little, in the grocery store, but it was never with my Mom. It was always with Kim because Mom and Dad, or Mom or Dad, I guess whoever came to town, was picking up the parts. So Kim was doing the grocery shopping. [chuckles] I'm pretty sure she probably did a lot of the housework and stuff for the three youngest kids 'cause my Mom was probably in the field the majority of the time. And I remember Dad giving her crap for packing too many pails of oats at the same time. You're gonna hurt yourself. I remember that from when I was a kid 'cause Kim was really tough. And Joleen, as we got older, I remember my Dad basically lecturing Joleen for the exact same things. I don't care that you can pack it. You don't need to. [chuckles] And all of us were probably a little tougher than most girls our age due to packing oats and water and such. Most of my memories are very fond from fun and enjoyment. Yes, it was hard work. I remember being out in the field with my Dad and it's freezing and there's a fuel issue and can't work with gloves because you can't feel anything and you're dealing with small fuel lines and the diesel fuel is leaking out on your hands and your fingers are freezing and I don't even know what I'm doing. I'm just doing what my Dad's telling me to do so he has an extra set of hands. [chuckles] I remember he did really like it when your Dad would come up if he was having an issue with the tractor 'cause your Dad is very mechanically inclined and he'd be like, "Well, how about, [chuckles] could you take a look at..." [chuckles]

Garett:
I remember my Mom would go to the auctions in Grande Prairie to buy stuff and she bought two sacks of whole wheat flour or something like that. And she said that somebody had commented and asked whether or not she needed help carrying it and then she just like lifted up all of the sacks and just walked down. She's just like, "Nope, I've got it."

Jessie:
Yeah. [chuckles]

Preston:
[chuckles] I forgot that story.

Garett:
I think that trait is inherited 'cause I know that working construction with Preston and I is sort of just like, it's like, "You got that?" It's like, "Yep, yep, I got all of it. Don't worry, all of it."

Jessie:
Yeah, and Dad wasn't a very big guy, but there wasn't, I don't think I've ever seen him not be able to lift anything. He was tough, really tough. And it could be just a family gene, maybe. I remember when we, 'cause the cabin is moved from where it originally was and raised the roof and stuff. It still hasn't been finished, but raised the roof and they were lifting the big top beam in place. And so the tractor forks would only lift so high. And then they had people on ladders at each end with ropes to help lift 'cause Lonnie had rigged up something to help push so the tractor forks would go way farther than originally it would have. So we had, I can't remember who was up at the one end and the one guy that went to go up the next end because the ladder was extended so far out and he was a big guy and the ladder was moving too much 'cause it was too extended in his weight. And so Joleen's like, "Just come down, I'll go up and do it." And it was some friends of the family. Well, they used to be really good friends of Joleen's and he kind of always treated Joleen like another daughter and [chuckles] she'd gone up and so she's pulling on the rope, helping pull this beam up. And the guy that had been there, the construction guy or whatever, I don't know how much he was actually doing 'cause Joleen does know a lot about it. And Kent was mumbling under his breath about Joleen being up there on the ladder. And he's like, "It's really heavy. I don't think she should be up there. This construction guy." He's like, "I agree. I don't think she should be up there. She can't lift it." He's like, "I'm not worried about her strength. I'm worried about her damn brains. I know she can lift it. Just doesn't mean she should." [laughs]

Garett:
[laughs]

Jessie:
I'm like, "Yep, yep, that's my sister." So Emma too though, even though she's just tiny, same way.

Garett:
I remember a summer at the farm, your Dad was letting me shoot the 22 and that's when I learned that I really do not have a knack for shooting. He had some little target, like a tin can or something lined up. And I was there, it wasn't that far away. It must've only been like 20 yards. And it was just like, pop, pop, pop, nothing. Just like, I'm pretty sure I've lined it up. I'm pretty sure I know how this scope works. Pop, nothing. It's just like, I cannot hit anything. So as much as your Dad had guns around, I would never have been any help to him if I had to shoot something. [laughs]

Jessie:
[laughs] When my boys were little, Joleen bought them a little 22 for their birthday. Well, Joleen and Emma had gone in on it together. Joleen has her gun license, so it would stay at the farm with her. And it was just a little open site, just a nice little 22. And so, you know, they get it and she's going over all the safety rules and all the whatever. And Jordan takes his turn. And after a little bit, he's, I mean, not bullseyeing it, but he's hitting the target, doing pretty good. Caden, he couldn't hit anything, like anything. And we're like, what is going on? And so we, you know, we stop and we start going through everything again. And Caden's like, yeah, yeah. I mean, he was little. He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I'm like, okay, how are you sighting it? Like when you're aiming. And he's like, you look through here and you line up this there. I said, okay. I said, what do you see after that? He said, grass. I said, that's where the target's supposed to be. Oh, so I don't know what he missed in translation. [chuckles]

Garett:
[laughs]

Jessie:
After that, he did hit the target a couple of times, but yeah, it was funny. He's like, grass, I don't know, [chuckles] you know. But every year they all go down to the creek where we used to swim and play in the mud that you can't get off your bodies. It's kind of tradition, I think.

Garett:
Yeah. So long as the creek's not too high.

Jessie:
[laughs] Yes, middle of summer is best.

Garett:
Yeah, there's always, every year, there's always some new piece of driftwood to play on.

Jessie:
Yeah, the deep swimming hole has moved. It's around the bend this way now. Oh, no, next summer it's over there. You just gotta find it.

Garett:
Yeah, whatever spring thaw rushes down the creek and move stuff, changes stuff.

Jessie:
Yeah, yeah.

Garett:
I remember one summer we were on horses and we were by the creek and there was some low spot that when the creek lifted, like when the creek overfilled, it would splash over. So there was like this super muddy spot on the trail. And I was on the back of the horse, holding onto my brother who was in charge because I was younger and Preston was with Grandpa. And the back legs of the horse, I don't remember which horse it was, but the back legs of the horse just sunk into the mud. And then of course the horse sort of freaked out and jumped and lunged forwards. And I slipped right off the back of the horse as it jumped out from underneath me and I slammed it in the mud.

Jessie and Preston:
[chuckle]

Garett:
And it's like, well, I guess at least I was already basically on the ground when I fell off the horse. So it was fine, but it's like, wait, come back.

Jessie:
Well, [chuckles] I'm pretty sure it might've been the first time or one of the first times that Kim ever brought your Dad up there, he fell off a horse. I'm pretty sure that maybe Aunt Debbie, the first time she came up there, also maybe fell off a horse. David never fell off a horse, but he's a mechanic. And before he was a mechanic, he was very mechanically inclined. They had gone up and he wanted to do things the old way. He wanted to ask Dad about marrying Emma. And of course Dad had something that he needed fixed in the shop. So he was in the shop with Dad and they were working on something and Dad was pounding on something with a ball peen hammer. And when David asked Dad at right around the same time, he asked Dad, head of the hammer came off and flew in the air and split open just above his eyebrow. [laughs]

Garett:
[laughs]

Jessie:
And he was, [chuckles] I'm sure he was thinking like, is that a no? [chuckles] My ex-husband, the first time I ever took him to the farm, it was calving season. And Dad of course had been up checking cows when I got there. So we had walked up to see him and apparently we had good timing. He had a cow that he wanted to run into the barn. He was gonna have to pull a calf. We got it into the barn and Dad was talking away and getting ready and doing whatever. And I said, okay, I'm gonna go back and see Donna. And John said, well, what am I gonna do? I said, you're gonna help Dad pull a calf. And he said, well, why are you staying? I said, I've done it before. It's your turn. And I left him there.

Garett:
[chuckles]

Jessie:
I don't know, he probably was zero help, but I left him there. Maybe everybody had something fun to do, but it's a great place. And like even Joleen's spouse now, Hugh and his kids, they all love going up there. It's our place. There's actually with the new driveway off the 13 road, there's a spot if you're on quads and you just come through the gate and you just start to go down the hill and you can stop. And Hugh and I like to sit there and just park there because you can just see the view. 'Cause you can just see the whole valley and it's just gorgeous, perfect spot to view.

Preston:
Really appreciate hearing all your stories and insights Aunt Jessie.

Jessie:
Not sure how great they were, but okay. [chuckles] It's definitely a different lifestyle.

Garett:
Yeah, for me, I've always felt like I've been adjacent to it 'cause I only spent a couple of summers up there, but even spending a few weeks living in a place where there is no running water or electricity really makes a difference when you do have it. It's just so convenient when you have it.

Jessie:
Yeah.

Garett:
And especially, actually, most especially having a toilet that is inside so that you don't have to in the winter time go outside and sit on a frozen thing. Just that's not great, the dead of night. Like, I think I'd rather just stay in bed. [chuckles]

Jessie:
Did you know that the first time, probably the only time, I ever remember my Dad having any form of toilet in that cabin, it was one of the old styles where a five gallon bucket fit in it. And it like, so it enclosed the whole bucket and had a regular toilet seat on it, but it was just a bucket in it. And he had one in the cabin and had an area all closed off because the year I was pregnant with my first, we spent Christmas there. And it's the only time we actually spent Christmas there. And he did not want me to have to go outside in the middle of the night in the winter time. [chuckles] I was pregnant. [laughs]

Garett:
[chuckles] I remember when Jim and Pam, at least their kids came, like three, at least three of their youngest kids came to the farm. And they went out in the night with a flashlight and did their business. And then the curiosity got the better of them and they took their light and they peaked down and then [chuckles] they dropped the flashlight down. And then they had to walk back to this cabin in the dark. And got a second flashlight.

Jessie:
Oh no.

Garett:
And dropped the second flashlight down there too. [chuckles] Just like, come on guys, don't do that.

Jessie:
[chuckles] I actually remember when you guys lived out at LaPreece, we were all out there. I think it was boxing day and Pam and Jim had come up and we did tobogganing and we had all sorts of, we had lots of fun. And your Dad actually had, it was like a giant round lid for something. And it was all fiberglass. And there was like a baseball field. It was all cleared out down from where your house was. And so us older kids, I don't know what he rigged up. He rigged up something and had it attached to the hitch of the pickup. And he was going through that field, pulling us with his pickup and spinning us all around. And it was a lot of fun. But there, you had a generator there, but when it was daylight or whatever, the generator would be shut off. And your cousins, always having power, went in to go into the bedroom, I think. And they went to turn on the light. And I mean, you guys weren't very old and they're like, the light's broken. And I'm pretty sure it was Travis just went, "No, the generator's not on." And they had no idea what he meant, even though he was way younger than them. They were like, "What? What do you mean?" [chuckles] He's like, "The generator's not on." But yeah.

49:29 - One More Thing

Jessie:
Like my Mom said, 'cause they came up, when my Dad came up, his brother and his parents came up. And I remember, so my grandma passed away years ago and she is not buried beside her husband. And so my grandpa passed away, I think in '82. I don't have any memories of him at all. And I remember having a conversation. Well, it must've been after the fact because my grandma did not get a plot beside my grandpa because she was going to go home to be buried in Idaho. That was the gist of it. So she had gone home. And this is where I remember the conversation is she had gone home to Idaho. And when she came back, she was like, because it's half desert down there where they grew up. And she was like, "Who wants to be buried in that God forsaken country? "I am being buried right here." [chuckles] So by that time, the plots around my grandpa were already gone. So when my grandma passed away, she's actually buried next to her best friend. [chuckles] Same cemetery, but not near grandpa because she thought she wanted to go home, but apparently the piece was actually home.

Preston:
Well, we really appreciate you volunteering for our program, Jessie, to share your stories and experiences with us. It's great to hear your side of the story.

Garett:
It has been really nice.

Jessie:
You're very welcome. I think it's great that you're doing it too, because there are a lot of stories that are just good to hear.

Garett:
Thank you so much.

Jessie:
You're welcome.

Garett:
We'll see you around.

Jessie:
You bet, have a great night.

Preston:
You too, take care, Aunt Jessie. It's great to see you.

Jessie:
You bet, love you guys.

Ending Theme Music:
[bass guitar riff with drumbeat]