Romance, Marriage and a Family Part 1

I knocked around for four more years. I tried logging for a couple of winters and Christmas tree work in B.C. It was about this time I started working for Canadian Sugar each fall for about three months while they were making sugar. Logging was the hardest work I ever did. It really separated the men from the boys, but it was healthy work and I enjoyed it. The measure of a man was how long he could work in the cold, so I learned how to dress to keep warm. I never did like working for the sugar Factory. Maybe it was the smell that kept me there for twenty-five plus years. Anyway, it sure helped keep the wolf away from the door. 

I met Luella Floy Day in Raymond in the fall of 1935. She was just a kid about fourteen or fifteen, but a good-looking kid, and one of the few decent girls I knew. I was in and out of Raymond for three more years and although I was having a lot of fun, I was always looking for a girl and Floy was one of the girls, I was watching. Every time I met her, I always noticed how clean she was. She even refused to ride with me one night when she saw me sway a little when I got out of the car to go into a restaurant. It may sound kind of strange for a man of my character, at that time, but before I asked Floy to marry me, I prayed to the Lord that I might know if she was the girl for me. Marriage was an important thing in my life, and I wanted it to be for keeps. There was another girl who wore my engagement ring for a while when I was seventeen. I found she was having other dates on the side. I warned her and told her there would be no second warning. The second warning never came. She kept on dating and finally married an old man, old enough to be her dad. I cut the engagement ring into pieces and threw them in the river. 

The Lord has never let me down. Floy was all a wife could be and more. We were married on April 10th, 1939 at her mother’s home in Taber with Fay Conrad and George Atwood as witnesses. There were about thirty people present and it was a very plain wedding. Bishop Harold Wood officiated and was about two hours late for the wedding. 

After the wedding was over, we journeyed back to Raymond in a Model A Ford at the high speed of 30 miles per hour. We had a good start in life. I had about nine years’ experience in how to take care of myself with no financial help and Floy had four. I was 24 years old and Floy was 18. I borrowed $50.00 from George to pay for the wedding and travel. So, we started from scratch, but we had a lifetime ahead of us and we were both healthy and strong. 

We both knew how to work, and this is more than a good many people had to start with. I worked at various jobs that summer, taking Floy with me wherever I could. 

Note from Lester Ann: I think it only fair to give Mom’s description of their courtship. Interesting. Dad and Mom had different dates in their minds for when they met. Maybe Dad was watching way earlier than Mom was. 

I met Clarence in the fall of 1937 and went out with him or in a group with him a few times. I liked him the first time I met him. Lloyd McBride introduced me to him in the Raymond Coffee Shop. I remember thinking that night that he seemed to be the kind of guy I would consider for a husband. We went together occasionally but our paths did not cross too often. He had been out on a ranch working or away with sheep or something. We went out in the summer and talked some of getting married. He wrote me a letter and said he didn’t think we should and had better just forget it. This quite upset me. I went out with several other fellows but never especially liked any of them. After the first of the year, 1939, Clarence and I started to go out together again. We were married on the 10th of April 1939. We had a quiet wedding in my mother’s home in Taber. We were married by Bishop Harold Wood of Taber. We had our families, some relatives, and a few close friends. The Bishop married us, we took some pictures, and Mom served a nice lunch. We went back to Raymond that night with George and Eliza. Buelah Harding decorated my wedding cake and I really thought it was nice. They did not have very big weddings in those days. I had two showers, one in Taber and one in Raymond at Clifford and Gladys Gough’s house. I was really thrilled with all the gifts I received.

The cake topper on Mom’s cake was in the family for a long time. Each one of us girls used it on the top of our wedding cakes, and I think, even some of the granddaughters did too. 

THE BONNIE VIEW SCHOOL by Clarence Hyde

 As near as I can remember, The Bonnie View school was built in 1928 and 1929 and the first classes started in 1930. I was in grade eight. George told me they were going to build a school out near the farm he had at the time. He told me to bring my books home and I could help build that school. Then, if I desired, I could go back to school. George got the job hauling the materials out from Raymond, so I was put to work hauling the materials. He had a new Wallace Tractor, so with that and three wagons, I hauled the materials out to build the school. There was cement, lumber, shingles, lath and whatever it took to build the school. 

I well remember one trip. The wagons were heavily loaded and climbing three different coulee hills made me pretty nervous. I climbed those three hills with my hand on the clutch in case the tractor should rear over backwards. At times, one wheel would rise up off the ground a little, but I managed to get up the hills without any problems. I was about 14 years old at the time and the job was rather scary at times. 

The contractors for building the school were J.B. Merril and a Mr. Gilbb. Jimmy Taylor, a carpenter, worked with them too. 

The first teacher at the school was a Mr. Wescott, the next year it was Ruby Wiggle, then Mr. Joe Earl came to teach. I had to take grade eight over and managed to complete grade eight the year after the school was finished. By this time I was getting old enough to be of help on the farm, so in the fall and spring, I would have to stay out of school to help with the work there. In the fall, I got started late in grade nine with Joe Earl as my teacher. Then in the spring, I was taken out again to help put the crop in. I was absent for about three days when one evening, Joe Earl came to the farm. He wanted to know why I was not in school. George said he had to go away to work and somebody had to put the crop in. Mr. Earl just shook his head. Finally, he said, “If he wants to come to school after supper, I believe I could get him through his grade this year.” George, said “If he wants to do that, it is up to him.” Joe looked at me and said, “How about it, Clarence?” So, I said I would try. I took six subjects (Literature 1, Composition 1, History 1, Algebra 1, Geometry 1, and General Science 1) for which I wrote Government exams and I passed them all. This did not happen without a lot of effort and work. I would put in my ten hours on the farm, have some supper and then take off for school. Often it would get pretty boring and hard to stay awake. One time I said to Joe, “I better be going and let you get some sleep.” He promptly quipped, “Don’t you worry about me, I can take it as long as you can.” 

I was very thankful for Mr. Earl. He did a lot for me, a lot beyond the call of duty. I will say, “By the time school was out that year, I was a pretty tired boy. I was also very lucky, the schoolhouse was only a quarter of a mile away, and I could get there without too much trouble.” 

I will give, as near as I can, a list of the students who went to school there when I did. The Harvey Douglas family had about a half a mile to walk but the rest of the student’s had to come on horse-back, horse and buggy, sleigh or whatever. Ray, Lynnsey and Logan traveled to school by horse and buggy. I walked as we lived within a half mile of the school. There was Carl and Walter Eigard, Raymond and Lindsey and Logan Atwood, Helen, Dorothy, and Bob Ellsworth, Roy, and Mike Douglas, Ruby and Bill Coppieters. There was also an Audenart boy, I believe his name was Eddy, and some Vemere children. 

I remember the day Jesse Johnson and Bill Coppeiters started school. They were pretty timid little boys. It was probably about the first day they had ever spent away from their mothers. Besides school, we used to have some fun times at the school. At Christmas time, we always had a Christmas Concert. All the students took part in a program for their parents. There would be a treat from Santa and treats were handed out to everyone. It was a big event for all. Then there were the dances. To a young boy of my age at the time, I really thought they were great. 

I loved dancing then and I still do. The last time I visited the Bonnie View district, I looked for the old school, but it was no longer there. Later, a friend at Cardston told me he had moved the Bonnie View School to Aetna, so I went looking for it and found it there in Aetna. 

Note by Lester Ann: When Dad finished the job of hauling the supplies for building the school, George then went to visit the contractors and collected Dad’s wages. When Dad asked why he didn’t get the money he earned, he was told, “That will pay for the groceries you ate this winter.”