Romance, Marriage and a Family Part 2

Floy: After we were married, Clarence went up to Burmis to work for George Atwood, helping to lamb sheep. I went about a week later and did the cooking for the crew. There was Clarence and me, George, Dick Rusk, and Tommy Giesh, then Brandon Smith came at sheering time. 

We stayed there until July 1, 1939. We lived in a nice little cabin in the mountains and really enjoyed our first married life. We worked hard. I cleaned the cabin, washed clothes on a scrub board, baked bread, made cakes, pies, and all. It was springtime in the mountains, and it was beautiful. We were happy. 

In between lambing season and sheering time, we took George’s car and went to B.C. on a holiday. We could say this was our belated honeymoon. We visited Clarence’s two sisters, Mary Kendall and family living at Galloway and Ella Simmons and family at Moyia Lake, B.C. We also visited some other relatives of Clarence’s there: Nephi and Jessie Atwood family, Ross and Edna Ballard, and Vera Simmons’ family. We went to a dance while up there and had a nice time. Before we left on our trip, George leaked some kerosene onto a bag of flour. He thought he would not say anything to the cook about it and I would never know. The day before I left, I baked a big batch of bread and used that flour so that is what they had to eat while I was gone.

After we were married for about thirteen months, Marvelle came along. She was born in the Galt Hospital in Lethbridge. She was supposed to be a boy, just the same as the next three. But we loved her just the same and we both thought she was the cutest little girl in all the world. She arrived May 9th, 1940 and by the time she was two weeks old, we knew we had a live wire in the family. She soon became the busiest little girl in all the neighborhood going around from house to house visiting everyone who adored her. By this time, she was about four. Grandpa Hyde used to say, “No flies on that kid. If there were, she would brush them off. 

On March 28, 1944, Lester Ann came along. Quite different from our first one, she was a sweet doll and pretty important to her older sister who thought she was a doll to play with. Lester Ann was born in Lethbridge in St Michael’s Hospital. 

Mom, Dad, and Marvelle 

Lester Ann