Life North of the 54th

Transcript

• 00:00 - Some Early Memories
• 25:02 - Managing High School
• 34:33 - Fleeing the Nest
• 45:38 - Adulting

00:00 - Some Early Memories

Opening Theme Music:
[bass guitar riff]

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

Preston:
I'm Preston Brown. And we're excited to have you join us on our show. And today with us, we have Laura. So we'll have Laura introduce herself for us.

Laura:
Hi, I'm Laura Brown. I am the stepmom, mom, to these two wonderful gentlemen that, yeah, I'm happy to finally get around to doing this podcast with them and share a little bit about what my life was growing up.

Garett:
Thanks, Mum. Yeah. We love you too much to call you stepmom or something else, so we certainly call you Mum.

Laura:
And I love you guys.

Preston:
Yeah, you're mom to us.

Laura:
I love that.

Preston:
And we're grateful to have you and we're grateful to have you on the show.

Garett:
Yeah. We're really excited to talk with you today. I guess there's a lot of things we know about you, but also a lot of things that we don't know about you. So we're excited to learn some things and get to know you a bit more and hear your story about what it's like living north of the 54th in the Peace Country.

Laura:
It's cold! [chuckles] There, we're done, right? [laughs]

Garett:
It's cold for half of the year and muddy for the other half, full of mosquitoes.

Laura:
It's cold for 90% and not cold for 10%.

All:
[laugh]

Laura:
All right. That's what it feels like this year. It's all good. Yeah. So born in Edmonton back in July 1972, almost 50 years ago. [chuckles] It's a big one this year. I don't know if I'm ready for it. My parents, my dad was working there, and I have an older brother. Can't remember why my dad decided to come up to Grande Prairie, obviously, probably for work. And up we came. I don't know what time of year it was, but I remember living in our house on 85th Ave. Always growing up there, always playing at the little park on the corner. And in Grande Prairie, there was nothing south of us. Our backyard was a big mud pit.

All:
[chuckle]

Laura:
There was no business. There were no houses. You can imagine that. I guess we moved up here, I want to say 1973 or 74. I was just a couple of years old, so, yeah, pictures of me playing out in the backyard in the mud. My mom's mom was out there playing with me. And it was good times growing up. It was a small community then. College was only half the size. There just didn't seem to be a lot. Anyway, so just grew up there, went to a preschool. It was like was just reminiscing through my books. Today as I was getting ready for the podcast. I'm like, I know I went to preschool, but where and what. And it was a religious preschool, but it was just something my parents had put me in. And then my first recollection of school, though, was kindergarten. And the reason being is kindergarten was at the composite high school. I would get bussed over there in the afternoon. And I remember the big bubble windows that used to be on the side of it.

Garett:
Yeah,

Preston:
Oh yeah, I remember those.

Laura:
Yeah. And we would always try to climb in them and play in them, but yeah, that was definitely a recollection. And fast forward to my grade eleven year. We'll come back again. But my grade eleven year of French in high school was my kindergarten class. It was the exact same classroom. Obviously different. That classroom was my kindergarten classroom. I specifically remember that, which was cool because then my grade twelve French teacher was my grade four French teacher, Mr. Klucas.

Garett:
Wow.

Preston:
Definitely a small community then.

Laura:
[chuckles] So that's just some of the recollections of schooling.

Garett:
Do you remember if they had middle school, like an elementary school in the Composite High School and then changed it and made it more high school, or was it just full like K through twelve in the one school when you were there?

Laura:
No, they just pulled kindergarten in. I just don't know why, other than they probably didn't have room for the kindergarten in the school I would have gone to would have been Parkside School.

Garett:
Yes.

Laura:
Just off Resources Road there.

Preston:
Yup.

Laura:
They didn't have room, so they bust the kindergarten kids over to the comp.

Garett:
Wow.

Laura:
Yeah. But then it was high school students. So [chuckles] it's just where they had room for kindergarten kids. I guess. So then grade one through five, I went to Parkside. What I remember about that school was they had this huge incinerator where they would burn the garbage right next to the playground.

Garett:
Oh, man!

Laura:
[chuckles] Yeah, it's not there anymore. Thank goodness.

Preston:
Was that a generator for the school or the municipality?

Laura:
No, it was for the school. That's where they burned the garbage every night from.

Preston:
[laughs]

Laura:
[laughs] Yeah. We were always warned to stay away from it. And then by the time I don't know what grade it was, grade three or four, that school had grown so much that they brought portables in. And I remember that was kind of interesting as a young person on what that meant and having that extra space and such. Yeah. I think I'll just go through all the school and then go back and reminisce about life. Is that okay?

Garett:
Yeah, that's totally fine.

Preston:
Yeah.

Laura:
Then grade six. My mom thought it was a good idea to move us to Harry Balfour School. I think it was just easier with her being the secretary and keeping a better eye on us. I don't know if we're going to get into trouble or what. Yeah.

Garett:
Did she drive you to school?

Laura:
Yeah, we would drive and she would go speeding down 100 street every morning trying to hit all the lights green. And there were times the police officer would pull us over.

All:
[chuckle]

Laura:
Because she'd always end up running one of them, red usually, or yellow. [laughs] So my sister and I went there. My brother went to Montrose, when Montrose School was downtown Grande Prairie.

Preston:
Where the library is now, right?

Laura:
Yeah. There was an art gallery there type thing in between the, yeah, there was the library.

Preston:
Then the art gallery.

Laura:
Art Gallery, and before that it was Montrose. Yes. And that was just strictly junior high for that because he was a couple of years ahead of me. Then I had the privilege of, [chuckles] opportunity I don't know what it was. I repeated grade six, so I got to do grade six twice. I was pretty low academically, I guess they thought so I could benefit from that. It was okay, I guess. I was already a new student at the school, so I hadn't built a lot of friendships that first year at Harry Balfour. So it is what it is. And then school was school. Went grade six, grade seven, grade eight, grade nine at Harry Balfour. And then grade ten, I moved over to the Composite High School for ten, eleven, twelve, and then graduated in 1991.

Garett:
Do you remember how large your graduating class was in '91?

Laura:
I don't. I think I could probably find that out for you, but I do have our program from the Grad.

Preston and Garett:
[chuckle]

Laura:
But I lost my yearbook.

Garett:
That's okay.

Laura:
I want to say a couple of hundred, but give or take.

Preston:
I remember at Harry Balfour School when I was in junior high there finding your picture in the graduating class photos that they kept putting up the wall every year. Hey look, it's Mom.

Laura:
Yeah. [chuckles] So it's kind of a big thing. Like this is the last year for the Comp. Right? Because they built the new Composite High School here, so they'll be moving over there come September. So there's a lot of talk online of what to do with all the pictures and memorabilia from the days past at that school. Do they carry them forward and do a memory at the new school or continue that legacy of what the Comp is or whatever?

Preston:
Cause that's an old school, the Comp isn't it? It probably has black and white photos.

Laura:
It is very old. Well, if you think it was up in 79 would have been kindergarten for me. Yeah.

Preston:
You know, Garett, one of the owners for TurCon, like Cliff and John Turner, they graduated from that school. They were like kind of old when I knew them ten years ago. [chuckles]

Garett:
Yeah.

Laura:
But growing up from grade one to five, I remember walking to Parkside School because from 85th Ave it was just a few blocks down. And losing my scarf in the trees along the way and the long walk in the snow. And one day I remember the school next to Parkside was St. Gerard's. I don't think it's there anymore, but there was a huge sled being held there and a bunch of trees in between the schools. And I remember my brother was supposed to walk us home one day and we thought we'd go play on the Hills while we were waiting and all of a sudden he's screaming for help because this guy beating them up in one of the bushes and stuff with a steel toe boots.

Garett:
Holy cow!

Laura:
So we ran for help. [chuckles] Yeah. It was crazy. Crazy times back then and even for a small town. So just graduated. So some of the things I remember as a child growing up, I remember the first time I got glasses as a child. And my dad worked at the college. And I remember we were there visiting him. And I went to take a drink of water and my face got so close to the water fountain because of I was not sure of the distance that I got water in the face. And family has told me that when I was looking outside in the fall and I'm like, oh, look at all the pretty colors of the leaves, because I hadn't really seen them because my one eye, my right eye, was so bad that I guess I just didn't recognize it. A memory from grade one was my teacher, Mrs. Forrest. I was writing with my right hand, and she took the pencil out of my right hand and put it in my left. I don't know why.

Garett:
Wait? Sorry, you mean the other way? She took it out of your left and put it in your right or? No! Oh?

Laura:
No, I'm left handed.

Garett:
Right. Okay.

Preston:
Yeah.

Laura:
She pulled it out of my right and put it in my left and said, you're left handed. I guess that decision was made for me in grade one.

Garett:
Wow. That's very opposite of what happened.

Laura:
Very opposite.

Preston:
Yeah. Because I heard about people that, people your age or older, one that gets slapped on the wrist for using the south ball. Right? Something like that.

Laura:
Yeah. Maybe I wasn't holding the pencil right. And she thought I could get a better grip with the left. I don't know the reasoning behind it, but that's what happened. It was a weird experience, I guess.

Preston:
That is very interesting.

Garett:
Yeah, that is very weird. [chuckles] Yeah. I guess as a follow up, how do you find being left handed? Are you dominantly right handed in other things, but left handed and writing?

Laura:
Yeah. So I only write with my left. Everything, and I eat with my left, but everything else, cutting. I use my right hand. And in golfing, I would use my right hand. Everything else seems pretty dominant. Right. But yeah, I guess somewhat ambidextrous. Is that the right word?

Garett:
Yeah.

Laura:
I remember getting my tonsils out when I was four years old back in 1977. It was in the old, old hospital. So we have the new hospital now, which is finally up and running. We had the old hospital, the QE II hospital, but before that one, there was another hospital before that, I don't know what it was called, but that's the hospital that I got my tonsils out in. And I remember I was in a shared room with another child who was like five and had swallowed a bunch of coins, and they were pumping his stomach out. [chuckles] And they gave me the window where the nurses station was. And I'd always peek up and they'd get mad at me, telling me to go to bed, but they were always in the room making noise! So it was kind of impossible that you want me to go to sleep but you're making so much noise and everything. So yeah. Summers growing up, probably more so when I was in junior high at Harry Balfour their science room was full of Boa constrictors and birds, cockatiels and budgies and hamsters. And we got the job of taking care of the animals during the summers when we were around. So the big thing was the snakes names were Fred and Barney and we would take them into the showers [chuckles] and rinse them off just by the gym cause it was right across the hallway. And we’d clean out the cages. And I remember having to go buy the food for the snakes and it was interesting to see how that all was, right.

Garett:
Was it live food?

Laura:
It was live food, yeah. So I remember going out to an acquaintance’s farm out in Grovedale because she had kittens. [chuckles] But I think by the second or third time that we kept going, she's like, no, I can't do this anymore. It's wrong. So she wouldn't give us food for the snakes anymore.

All:
[chuckle]

Laura:
Yes. It was crazy.

All:
[chuckle]

Laura:
It was sad, but at the same time, maybe it wasn't kittens, maybe it was bunnies, I don't know. But yeah, it was definitely an animal bigger than a mouse.

Garett:
Yeah.

Preston:
They're just animals and they're just snakes.

Laura:
They're just animals that need to eat on animals.

Preston:
As long as you didn't let it eat the birds and stuff that you were also taking care of.

Laura:
Exactly. Yeah. No, that wasn't happening.

14:32 - Managing High School

Laura:
Some of the other question you asked me, Garett, were any favorite teachers I had? Nothing really for my younger years. But come high school when you're trying to build that connection and get through those classes, that might be a little bit difficult. Obviously, Mr. Klucas was a huge one. I remember going on a road trip and getting back super late and then going to school the next day. And this is, I think, grade twelve French. And I was so tired and I had to get caught up on some work, so I went to his desk and sat beside him or whatever and I passed out. I was so tired and he just kind of let me sleep there until I woke myself up realizing what had happened. And he was like, just go home, we'll get you caught up another day. [chuckles] But yeah, he was so patient and understanding. Another teacher that I always think of, and I wonder where she is now, is Nancy Rosendale. She was my biology teacher and she just really took the time to teach me and help me along the way and I really appreciated that. And then Mrs. Temple, I was always in high school, I did sewing classes lots and that was kind of my passion. And I made my own grad dress and Mrs. Temple was the teacher, and she just again took the time to help me through those steps of learning and such. And then there was my grade ten social studies teacher, Mr. Barber, I believe. He was an interesting teacher. He'd sit at his desk behind his newspaper and do his own thing. And I remember we were watching this slide show with a cassette tape, and he left the room for a bit. And it's obviously during the time of having a Walkman. So I had my Walkman with me and I think somebody dared me to switch out my music for the music on the slideshow while the teacher was out of class, [chuckles] so I did.

All:
[laugh]

Laura:
[chuckles] Anyways. So it was a slideshow on army and the Bedrock Times and stuff, and the song that came on was this Flintstones kind of rap. So it kind of fit until the teacher realized that it was the wrong cassette. [chuckles] And obviously I had to admit to what I had done.

Garett:
In order to get your cassette back.

Laura:
To get my cassette back, yeah. Yeah, I was a little bit of a troublemaker in junior high. [chuckles] A group of us decided to put chalk on the teacher's seat, obviously, when there was chalkboards back in the day, and we put chalk on the teacher's chair.

Garett:
Like chalk dust?

Laura:
Yeah.

Garett:
Okay.

Laura:
Yeah. And then we decided at the last minute it wasn't a good idea. And I tried to wipe it off, but at the same time the teacher comes walking in wondering what I'm doing. So I had to pay for her dry cleaning. So that was a lesson learned. A lot of the summers growing up we would travel. Some years we would go down to the Okanagan, down to Kelowna, and I remember going and again learning about the rattlesnakes down there. And they do little nature activities for the children that were camping in the area and stuff. So that was pretty cool. Or we would hop in my dad's old Suburban and haul our old little camper. I don't know if you guys remember seeing that in my parents' backyard when dad and I had met, it was just the tiniest little trailer. It would sleep four or five of us.

Garett:
It wasn't a tent trailer, was it?

Laura:
No. Anyways, it's just the littlest, oldest thing, but it would get us from where we needed to go. And I remember we would take that across from Grande Prairie, all the way across to Ontario to see my mom and dad's side of the family. So it's usually either the Okanagan are there. There was one time when we took the trailer down to the Okanagan. It was when the highway 40 wasn't paved yet. It was still gravel. And we were just moving along, and before you knew it, the trailer had wobbled and my dad's like, oh, that's not good. So he pulled over and one of the propane tanks on the front of the trailer had wiggled itself loose, gone under the trailer and was hissing out in the ditch.

Garett:
[gasps] Oh, no.

Laura:
Yeah. So we just left the propane tank. But then when we got to the Okanagan and actually checked the trailer, some of the floorboards had lifted and we're like, oh, this needs to get fixed. So very grateful that my dad knew what he was doing because if he tried to light the furnace that night, we would have [chuckles nervously] we probably would have blown up because of the gas leak in the pipes being broken and stuff underneath. So we were able to get that fixed and all was good.

Garett:
Do you remember seeing very many animals on your drive down? I suppose if it was highway 40 before it was paved, there might have been a number of them.

Laura:
I don't remember seeing anything more than we see now, like the usual deers, and moose, and bears. It's very wildlife. Right.

Garett:
And you would drive down through Jasper National Park, too.

Laura:
Yes.

Preston:
You have to go down by Lake Louise through Golden or would you go on the west side through Valemount to Kamloops?

Laura:
Valemount to Kamloops.

Preston:
Yeah. I think that would be the shorter way if you're going. Probably a better road, at least compared to the highway 93. I don't know what that would have been like in the 1980s.

Laura:
Yeah, I don't know. We always had our destination to get to because we only had so much time off, my dad only had so much time off work, too. But then I don't know what year it was. My dad had a dream that we were going to move back to Ontario. So he decided that he quit his job and take a flight and go out to Ontario and find this piece of property that he dreamt of, which he did. It was a gas station with a house attached to it and I think a little bit of a restaurant. And I remember going and seeing it that next summer. But for whatever reason, the financing fell through and now my dad is without a job and we didn't get the place that he thought he would. So then my dad became a caretaker at Harry Balfour School, which I think he enjoyed. It just wasn't the same as an accounting job. But by then, accounting had changed in regards to more computer usage and stuff and my dad was just getting older and just didn't have those skills. Anyways, another trip I remember, growing up, I know it's not much of the Peace area, but we had taken a VIA rail train trip with my mom and my sister out to Pembroke to see my grandmother.

Garett:
Wow.

Laura:
Which is really cool. Three days and three nights on the train. So it was a long trip, but so memorable.

Preston:
Did you have to drive down to Edmonton to start that train? Because I think the V line, it doesn't go any farther north in Alberta then Edmonton.

Laura:
Right. So we drove to Edmonton and then got on in Edmonton and it was like I say, three days, three nights down. And I remember one night, I think it was somewhere in Manitoba. And the train had stopped in the middle of the night. And on the train, we weren't just in the regular where everybody just sits. We actually had sleepers. So we woke up because the train was stopped and my mom was like, oh, don't worry about it. And the next day we found out that part of the bridge was a little bit unstable and they just took their chances again to see if we could get across. [chuckles nervously] I guess it was stable. We're here. My uncle from California and his wife had come up and yes, those were good memories with Uncle Harvey and Aunt Rita and Uncle Harvey always wanting us to take us out to the chip trucks.

Garett:
Did you go all the way to Ottawa or Montreal, like you didn't go to Toronto first or do you know?

Laura:
No, we stopped in Pembroke. That was the stop. Yeah, that's before Ottawa. So that's as far as we needed to go. Yeah.

Garett:
Okay. That's, just guessing, that you probably would have spent almost half the time then in Ontario on the train.

Laura:
Yes, probably. Yeah. It was good times. Like my sister and I, we made friends on the train and we could just run wherever we wanted to. It was like really free for all on the train, which was really cool. And the caboose of the train had a dome on the top of it, so we would go up there through the tunnels. It was pretty cool to just have that experience.

Garett:
Yeah, that's something that we want to do. Take a train out with from here.

Laura:
Yeah, for sure.

Garett:
It's not much more expensive than flying, but it's a journey on itself. Like you're saying, like it's three days, so you're going to pay the same price as flying. Well, I might as well it it's fly faster, but it's not the same yet. Not the same.

Laura:
Let me just backtrack here and turn my page over here. Growing up, I remember my mom would take my brother and I and sister to the library for bedtime stories. And that was when it was downtown on the corner of 101st street and 100 Ave where the hobby store is. And you go down the stairs and just around and that's where they have their little story time and you'd wear your pajamas. So as soon as story time was over, you'd go home and hop into bed.

Garett:
Wow.

Laura:
But that was just something we would do as kids.

Preston:
That's quite unique.

Laura:
Yeah. Very unique. I don't know if that they do it anymore. I know that they did when you guys were young.

Garett:
Like bedtime story time there?

Laura:
But living on the acreage was kind of difficult [chuckles] to travel all the way into town and then back out.

Garett:
And everybody, with so many kids, you have so many different bedtimes.

Laura:
Yeah. We had this adopted grandma growing up. Her name was Grandma Moon. And sometimes we'd go over for sleepovers to her house. And she's just an elderly lady. And I remember there was this picture in the basement that always freaked me out, though. So as much as she was a great person, this picture freaked me out and I had a hard time staying at her place because those eyes would follow you no matter which way you went.

All:
[laugh]

Laura:
Like you're in a haunted house. It was kind of weird. But her car was, like it was just an old Studebaker, it was like the best car ever, it was so awesome.

Garett:
Did they live nearby as well?

Laura:
Yeah. They lived here in town in the Swanavon neighborhood. And then growing up, I would do what was called Job's Daughters, which was we would go and learn about Job and his teachings from the Bible. And it was a group of girls, and they're related to the shrines that do good for people in the Shriner's Hospital and to help save my mom from polio and stuff. Yeah. So we would do those type of activities growing up, and I would do piano lessons on Saturdays. I'd walk down the road to the piano teacher's house. And in the Peace area, I remember going and visiting down by the Dunvagan hill out between here and Fairview, and we'd go down and just have picnics down there and we have pictures of us down there and just making memories.

Garett:
Do they have museums and also the wonderful farm food there, too, like they do now?

Laura:
I don't think they have the farm food then, but they did have the museums and stuff. For my mom's 80th birthday, I kind of wanted to redo the picture because my brother and sister were there. But. Yeah. Kind of difficult when my dad wasn't. But growing up, I would do lots of babysitting for friends in the area. And I think that was probably one of my first summer jobs was I would bike from our house here on 102nd street and 110th Ave. And I would bike up to 95th street and 108th Ave every morning and take care of this little kid. That's probably my very first real summer job. And after that, in grade ten, I started working at McDonald's. And I worked there for like seven years between here and then when I moved away to Lethbridge. But in my final year of high school, I also ran for Miss Grande Prairie.

Preston:
I did not know that.

Laura:
Yeah. And I won the Miss Fitness end of it.

Garett:
Oh, nice.

Laura:
It was the year they changed from the bathing suit competition to a fitness competition. So it was a good experience. I remember freezing when it was speech time, and then everybody thought I was done my speech and started clapping, but that kind of snapped me out of my fear zone. And then I was able to finish my speech. And then I got a second applause. I got double the applause.

All:
[chuckle]

Preston:
So being like Miss fitness, did you just do like running or lifting or something. How did they measure that you won?

Laura:
I think it was the effort I put into it because I was in the gym every day, and the sponsor from that saw that. And then they did do measurements of you when you started Miss Grande Prairie and then at the end as well. So determined how much muscle mass you had and how you maintain your weight, gained weight where your muscle was and stuff. So, yeah, it was pretty cool experience on the fitness side of things.

34:33 - Fleeing the Nest

Laura:
Like I said, I worked at McDonald's for many years, worked my way up from an employee into the management end of things. But after I graduated, I did try two years here at the College. I needed to do a little bit of upgrading, which was great, and I think I did well on my courses. But then the government back in '93, '94 were doing a bunch of cutbacks again to the education, and I'm like, well, if I finish my education degree, there won't be any jobs for me anyway. So that's when I decided to make the change and move to Lethbridge and do a year of fashion design and merchandising and get my certificate in that. And then from there, I moved to Calgary and worked at Fabricland and then worked at a seat cover manufacturer.

Garett:
Does that bring you up to '95? '96?

Laura:
Yeah. So I graduated from high school in '91. I did two years at the College here, so it would be '92, '93. The year from '94 to '95 I went to Lethbridge. Yeah. So '95, I worked in Calgary. Yeah, the end of '95 I worked in Calgary. It was only like six months at the fabric store, and then it's probably a good year at the seat cover manufacturer. So lots of experience in the sewing and designing world then.

Garett:
Then did you stay in Calgary after working at the seat manufacturer? You continued to stay in Calgary?

Laura:
No, I married your dad, and I moved back here.

Garett:
Okay. Yeah. I guess that's true.

All:
[laughs]

Garett:
Were you working in seat manufacturing?

Laura:
Yeah, I stayed at the seat cover manufacturer right up until I came back to Grande Prairie. So up until December of '99.

Garett:
Okay.

Preston:
I remember that that's what you were doing as an occupation when I met you as a little kid. Learning who you were, that you made seat covers or something like that. [chuckles]

Laura:
Yeah. It was a big process. Right. And again, I was kind of one of the senior ones around there, and that's when the owner of the seat cover manufacturer, obviously being 8 hours away from Grande Prairie, he kind of took on that parenting role for me. And he lent me the shop car and just helped me out where he could because I was a single mom at the time, and he was able to help me out where he could. Yeah. I've definitely had my party time living in Calgary, which was all good [chuckles] and gave me different experiences.

Laura:
I wanted to ask you about that. How was your experience in Calgary? Because Calgary is definitely a much bigger city than Grande Prairie is. Did you enjoy living in the city? Did you live downtown?

Laura:
I didn't mind it. So when I first moved to Calgary from Lethbridge, I lived with my sister right downtown. But then their lease was up, so I had to find my own place and I just found this little teeny tiny one bedroom apartment, which just suited me fine just a few blocks south of there. When I lived in Calgary, like I said, I worked at the fabric store. And then when that didn't work out, I knew I needed to make some sort of income. So some friends of me suggested that I deliver newspapers early in the morning, which was pretty good money because fuel really didn't cost a lot. So I had a little fire fly car and it was good on fuel and such, and away I went. And then I found this job at the seat cover manufacturer. And the skills I learned down in Lethbridge definitely came into play in regards to pattern making. And I didn't actually do the sewing part, but all the prep before the sewing. I could have sewed, but my expertise was more on the design end of things. So to fit the new models of trucks that were coming up and making sure they fit the trucks how they should and such. So, yeah, definitely learned a lot from that.

Garett:
That's really cool. So how was the move going from Calgary back to Grande Prairie then? I know that it was very different because you married our dad, took on a lot of responsibilities. But how was the move going back in terms of going back to Grande Prairie where you grew up, and a smaller town?

Laura:
It was okay. Grande Prairie had changed a lot. When I left back in '94, there wasn't a Walmart, there was nothing west of the College. Right. So it's definitely expanded a lot. Like the Prairie Mall was the big mall. There wasn't much north of Keddie's. Right. So there was a four mile corner intersection. And yes, there was Claremont. But again, Claremont was just the tiniest little town back then, over even just since '90, I don't know when Walmart and everything got put in, but there just seemed to be a really big boom. You know, '95, '96, '97, '98, right. So things really seem to explode in the city. I guess, I'm not sure what I expected coming back to Grande Prairie other than kind of starting over again a bit. Right. And making different choices. A couple of reasons where my lifestyle was different because I joined the Church at this point, my priorities were different by becoming a mom to not just one, but to seven. Right. [chuckles]

Garett:
[chuckles] That's quite an undertaking. We won't downplay that. That's a huge undertaking.

Preston:
Yes.

Laura:
Yeah. But growing up, I also did some Scottish dancing. Another huge memory that I forgot to mention was I volunteered at the hospital as a candy striper, and that was so huge for me that I got to go and feed the elderly in McKenzie Place. And sometimes I'd go and play with the babies on maternity after they were born and just go play with the kids on Pediatrics. And I'd help deliver the food to the rooms and pick up their empty trays. And it just was a really good service opportunity for me.

Preston:
You said a candy what?

Laura:
A candy striper.

Preston:
Candy striper.

Laura:
Yeah.

Garett:
That's an interesting title. [chuckles]

Laura:
[chuckles]

Preston:
I thought you said candy stripper.

Laura:
Nope, no, nope.

Preston:
Which sounds like a really bad stage name for somebody.

All:
[laugh]

Laura:
Definitely not that it was a candy striper, because our uniforms, we were wearing this little pill box hat like nurses did way back in the day. And we wore these red and white striped pinafores, little dresses.

Garett:
Kind of like a candy cane.

Laura:
Yeah. So we were called candy stripers. [chuckles] But those were good memories I remember of growing up in Grande Prairie. I did grow up in the Anglican Church, and we were always busy with youth activities through there. And the Anglican Church does this big conference every like four years. And I had the opportunity to go to St. John's, Newfoundland, back when I was 16 years old, and I was technically too young to go, but the person that was supposed to go couldn't. So they asked me to at the last minute, and then I got really sick and then I got really homesick because they'd never been away from home for that long and that far away. [chuckles] Yeah. It was definitely another experience of the small town of Grande Prairie that I considered was a small town into a big city of St. John's, Newfoundland. That was a, wow. There's more out there than this little teeny, tiny town in Northern Alberta.

Garett:
Yeah.

Preston:
Was the Anglican Church, was it the old building that they've been restoring that you attended to? When did that one go out of service is really my question?

Laura:
That year? I don't know for sure, but I do have pictures of my baptism day and my sister's baptism day in that Church when it was on the corner of 99th and 102nd.

Preston:
Yeah. Right by the 21,. just off the 214 Place, right?

Laura:
Yeah. Just south of the 214, when it was on that corner.

Preston:
Yeah.

Laura:
It wasn't just the Church building, though, growing up. There was another building right beside it. Not right beside it. There was, I don't know, probably fifty feet in between the two buildings. But it was the hall where you would have your Sunday school and other fun activities.

Garett:
Okay. So you have the main service in the Church and then you would go across the gap to Sunday school.

Laura:
Yes.

Garett:
Even in the cold of winter? Would you have to go outside to it? [chuckles]

Laura:
Yup. Yup, we would. And then beside that was the Rectory is where the priest would live. So there used to be a house there as well. Yeah. And then, like I say, I don't remember what year. I'm guessing before I was twelve is when the other Church on the south side of Grande Prairie opened up.

Preston:
I just remember right after I graduated high school and when I got into construction, the company I was working for had moved that Anglican Church. One of the first projects was across the street or just like a block of two way to another location because the owner of the company I worked for was married in that building, so it had value to him. And so he was helping out with the group who was trying to restore it and get it heritage status, or whatever they were working on. So I got work on that project a little bit when I was like 18.

Laura:
And the Turners, they're Anglican, too. I remember that name growing up.

Preston:
I don't know what stage it said now, but we didn't finish getting it up to date. [chuckles]

Laura:
I want to say it's being used by somebody, but I'm not sure who, so I think it's done.

Garett:
That's an impressive step forward. Yeah. If they can use it.

Preston:
If someone's using it other than the pigeons, it's probably pretty good.

Laura:
Yeah.

45:38 - Adulting

Garett:
I wanted to ask, Mum, what your experience was like going from living at home to not living at home. So you said that you spent some time going to college in Grande Prairie. I assume that you probably were still living at home then?

Laura:
Yeah, I was living at home because I needed to still pay for school, but I also worked, like full time hours. So again, I didn't probably put 100% in working full time at McDonald's and going to school full time. Right?

Garett:
Yeah. That's a lot of work.

Laura:
So it was a lot and yeah, I was in the party scene, I guess. [chuckles]

Preston:
Was there only one McDonald's at that time?

Laura:
There was only one McDonald's at that time, yeah. Because there was nothing literally west of the College. Right. So that would have been the second location, yeah, on the west side.

Garett:
So it was that McDonald's, what would be north of the old bypass?

Preston:
Yeah. Across from Ernie's, just right there by the bypass.

Garett:
Yes. Close to the Prairie Mall?

Preston:
Right there, just north of the bypass on 100th St.

Laura:
Yes.

Garett:
And then you said you moved down to Lethbridge and lived with your sister?

Laura:
So she lived in Calgary. But after I left Grande Prairie, I moved to Lethbridge, which was probably about the same size. Actually, no. Because they had a University. So I think Lethbridge was a size up and gave me kind of some, and I was a little bit older then, like I wasn't straight out of high school either. So I graduated just before I turned 19, high school, and then two years, so I was like 21 when I left home, like Grande Prairie home to go. So it wasn't like it was straight out of high school either. But then going from tiny Grande Prairie to a little bit bigger center, having my own car, trying to spread my wings a little bit. But I lived just outside of LethBridge at a friend's place in, Coledale, not Coledale, Cole Hearst.

Preston:
Yeah.

Laura:
And I just drive back and forth from Coal Hearst to the College. And I also got a job down there at the McDonald's, obviously, to help pay some of the bills and such. And did my year there. I really enjoyed it. Lethbridge only had the one year certificate program at the time, which was fine for me. Had they offered the two year, maybe I would have taken it. I don't know. Yes. From then I went to Calgary and then I lived with my sister.

Garett:
Oh, okay.

Laura:
In Calgary, just for a short period of time. And then it was time to move out on my own and figure things out and how to do it on my own. Right.

Garett:
So at that point, you had a lot of experience on living, not with your parents and living with other people. So, like, by the time you were living alone, like you were saying in that small one bedroom, you had a lot of sort of experience on taking care of yourself.

Laura:
Yeah.

Garett:
That sounds like a nice transition through, too. Sometimes it can be really hard if you go straight from high school and like living at home and not living with parents anymore.

Laura:
Yeah.

Preston:
Yeah. Do you think that you would've ever moved back to Grande Prairie, or the Peace Country, if you hadn't met Ronald Brown?

Laura:
I don't know where that would have taken me.

Garett:
That's a deep hypothetical question.

Laura:
Very deep hypothetical question.

All:
[chuckle]

Laura:
My parents were still here, and I'm grateful that I'm here now for them. But would I have moved home just for them? Probably not. Like I had a job. I had a career in Calgary. I just joined the Church in April of '99. Right? So I was still trying to figure all that out, too. So had your dad not come and swept me off my feet, maybe somebody else would have?

Preston:
Yup. That's all it takes. It's just hypothetical.

Laura:
All hypothetical. I definitely had some learning curves in Calgary of how to spend my money properly and how not to spend my money properly and who to hang out with and who not to hang out with. So I did have my beautiful Meagan in Calgary, and I'm so very grateful to have had her.

Garett:
Yes, we're grateful to Meagan is pretty awesome.

Preston:
Pretty awesome sister.

Laura:
[chuckles] She is pretty awesome. And she just fit right in with everybody. And obviously some difficult times through that, though, of making the decision to not be with her father anymore, but knowing that I could provide a better life for her and move forward from there. Right. To give her the best life I felt I could. But in the meantime, I'm not proud of having to claim bankruptcy. But the debt that was caused from many trials in life had to be resolved somehow so I could get back on my feet. Stay financially wise people!

Garett:
Yeah, that's excellent advice. Mum, as we come to a conclusion here today, if that's all right?

Laura:
Yeah, that's fine. Hopefully I was able to give some insight on the north, of growing up, and our travels across the country and experience I've had.

Garett:
Yeah. And lots of things that I didn't know about, which is great. And we definitely want to have you back again with dad so that you can tell us more together. It's always important to have both sides of the story.

Laura:
[chuckles]

Preston:
That way we'll have the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey would say.

Garett:
Yeah. But in closing today, do you feel like you have any feelings that you want to share about the Peace Country or anything else?

Laura:
It is a beautiful country up here in the north. The long, not sure what I think about the long nights. The nights that the sun doesn't go down. I know you guys have been further northward really doesn't go down, but in the summer, when you're working to the daylight isn't always good for you. [chuckles] That oh, I should have been in bed a couple of hours ago [chuckles] and it's still daylight. But no, the north is beautiful, and it is just another spot on the Earth where we get to have experiences and grow and learn and enjoy the beautiful Northern lights. Another thing you probably wouldn't get anywhere else. Right? So the north definitely has its beauty, and I'm grateful for the time that I've had in the north. But one day that, too will change. [chuckles] Who knows when.

Garett:
Yeah. I haven't really spent much time in the north since I started University, and I definitely miss the long summer days. But I don't miss the cold winters. [laughs]

Laura:
True.

Garett:
But the long winter nights are excellent for astronomy.

Laura:
One of the questions you'd ask me, Garett, was any life lessons. Something I guess I've learned from a life lesson in the north is appreciate what you have. Appreciate that you have a roof over your head. Appreciate that in the cold, we do have the warmth.

Garett:
Yeah. Thanks for sharing.

Laura:
Yeah.

Preston:
Thanks so much for joining us today, Mum, and having you participate with our show. Hope other people enjoy your stories.

Laura:
Thank you for having me.

Garett:
Yeah. We're really grateful for everyone who listens to the show, and we're really grateful for those who make the Peace Country such a great place. If you'd like to help us out and subscribe or follow to the show, that would be really nice. Help it grow a little bit, help more people hear about the beauty of the north. Or if you'd like to email us feedback, you can tell us that lifenorthofthe54th@gmail.com. It'd be great to hear from you. Let us know you're listening because lots of people have stories to share and we want to make sure people can hear them. Thanks again for coming with us and taking us on a journey through your memories. We can't thank you enough. Memories are really precious and we're really grateful that you're willing to share them with us today.

Laura:
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share them, and share what the little spot on the Earth can bring peace and joy and happiness to everybody in they're life.

Preston:
We look forward to having you on again.

Laura:
Thank you.

Garett:
Take care.

Laura:
Take care. Bye.

Ending Theme Music:
[bass guitar riff with drumbeat]