Thanksgiving Break days one and two (or 985 miles)

Josie and I decided to drive to Canada for the Thanksgiving break. We have not gone to Canada during the winter for about eight years—but this year, we just felt like we needed to go. Originally, it was about getting Piper to her first orthodontist appointment, but then with Nola’s illness, I just felt the need to see her if I could.  But since I did not have an extra driver, I was not sure I could do it. Driving alone in good weather is one thing; in bad weather it is another. But one day, my cousin Mary called me and asked if I was going to Canada, could she come with me. So I said YES and told her my plan, and so we went.

The weather was actually really good. There was blowing snow at Monida Pass, and poor visibility, but it was not white-knuckle icy. I have driven it like that, and this was easier—especially for me, since Mary was driving! There was also some snow in the Missouri River area—Mary was driving again! I lucked out on the way up there.

While driving, we had the idea to take Mary directly to Lethbridge to stay overnight with our cousin Helen Garrett instead of having her come to John and Ellen’s house with Josie and I. We decided this in Idaho, which was a good thing because by the time we were in Montana, NONE of our phones was working. Zip. Our new plan took more driving time, since we had to drive from the border to Lethbridge and then to Taber. But it was a good choice. When I got to Taber, Lavon had messaged me to say “Please make sure that Mary sees Helen,” and I could tell her that Mary was already with Helen at that time. Helen has been rather unhealthy herself lately, so having hours of time with Mary was helpful to her. Here is a photo of the three of us:

Helen, Myrna, Mary

Josie and I went to Abra’s house for about a half hour, and then met John and Ellen at Tim Horton’s so we could follow them to their farm. I have been there before, but not for many years, and I was not the driver, either.  We got to stay in their luxury guest room that is like a second master bedroom. (It was Ellen’s mother’s room when they built the house 15 years ago.) Josie and I had a good visit with John and Ellen, and they made us a lovely breakfast of John's homemade bread and home-canned pears.

In the morning we drove from John’s house into Taber and picked up Abra and Piper to go to Lethbridge to see the orthodontist. But first we had to unload the van—we had brought a ten-speed bike that we no longer use to them. We sure hope that it will make their lives a bit easier. 

Piper needs not only braces but an expander for her upper jaw. That is not going to be fun, but if it was not done now while she is young, the only help for it would be surgery. 

Then we went to Helen’s to pick up Mary, and had a short visit with Helen before we left. The next stop was at the home of Mary’s aunt, our Uncle George’s sister Charlotte Bagozzi, who is 89 or 90 years old. (She says 90; Mary’s math skills tell her 89.) Anyways, she is no Spring Chicken, but she has lovely, lovely skin. It seems younger than it is! (Her skin does.)

Aunt Charlotte and her niece Mary

Then back to Taber to drop off Abra and Piper at home, and take a picture or two...

Sisters, sisters...

then on the road again, this time to Raymond. We decided to stop at Kerry’s because she was the one who had tickets for us to attend the Raymond High School Show Choir Concert. Kerry’s two daughters, Mattie and Olivia were in it, as was Rita’s son Joseph, her grandson Brandon, and her granddaughter Meagan Rasmussen. Kerry invited us to have chili for supper with them, which we did.

When we were about to leave for the old Chocolate Church, now turned into a theatre, Kerry was getting out the tickets to give her husband his. And she noticed she had six tickets, not the five she thought she had purchased. That was weird! We went, and met Rita in the lobby. She goes to every show. When we compared tickets, Rita’s and Kerry’s were side by side! Which was odd, because they did not buy their tickets together. Stranger still, when we got to our seats, Lynette Martin and her daughter Nicole had the seats on the other side of ours! When Kerry called Priscilla to come and use her extra ticket, we were set. All the cousins sitting together watching the show! That was fun. And our Hancock descendants all did a great job. It was a good show.

Lynette, Kerry, Priscilla, me, Rita and Mary after the show

Afterwards, we made a quick stop at Lynette’s, then a quick stop at Priscilla’s to sign in a book she is sending to her missionary son. Josie got in a nice visit with her second cousins, Megan and Carrie Lynn Proctor. They just returned from two months of touring in China, Singapore, Australia, and I am not sure where else. So the three of them talked about travel.

Megan, Josie and Carrie Lynn

We were going to drop Kerry off at her house and head for Taber, but Kerry mentioned that Ron Hancock only lives four doors up the street from her. So, though it was 10:15, we stopped and knocked on our cousin’s door and started to Christmas Carol for him, and he and Deanne were happy to see us and invited us in even at that late hour.

Mary, Ron, me, Deanne and Kerry

Total miles driven on Wednesday and Thursday: Provo to Lethbridge= 794.5 miles; Lethbridge to Taber 33 miles plus 7 to John’s farm = 40 miles. Then back to Lethbridge 40 + 33 to Taber = 73. Taber to Raymond = 33, and back again = 66 + 7 to John’s farm = 73.  980.5 miles, not counting driving to the far north side of Lethbridge. So let’s say probably 985 for the two days, with the around Lethbridge and Raymond miles added in.

Conrad Views

Excerpts from “Conrad Views”- a questionnaire about memories of Grandpa and Grandma Conrad from the Conrad Reunion at Colleen and LeRon’s farm during the mid-1990s. 

How long did the Conrad family live at the farm west of Taber?

Answer:  They lived at the farm for 26 years, from 1934 until Grandpa Art died in 1960.  They moved there from Dogtown.  Art bought an old machine shop from the coal mine and moved it on to the farm.  They did not get a chance to work on it much before winter came.  Ethel and Elaine remember being able to see the stars through the roof at night.  And in the morning, they sometimes brushed snow off their blankets before getting up.  The following year they were able to turn it into a small but cozy home.  

Ethel and Elaine "Bringing in the Sheaves" on the farm

What was Grandpa Arthur’s favourite card game?

Answer:  Everyone agreed that Crib was his favourite card game.  In fact, most thought that Grandpa felt Crib was the one and only card game!

What was the highest number of gophers killed with one shot and one arrow?  Who did it?

Answer:  Arnold once killed three gophers with only one arrow, in the same shot.  He made his own bows and arrows, as well. 

Name some hobbies of:

Arnold:  archery, photography, genealogy, grafting, gardening.

Arthur:  crib, horses (“the faster and the meaner, the better!” quoted by Ethel), “loved pulling his kids’ teeth” (quoted by Elaine).

Clyde:  growing gladiolas, radios, magic squares, bees, inventing “everything” (agreed on by all present).

Elaine:  growing plants, water colours, “antagonizing anyone” (quoted by Ethel), “Elmer” (quoted by Elaine), camping.

Ethel:  reading, painting, golf, sewing, “beating up kids” (quoted by Ethel, her description of teaching!), “ironing Roz’ clothes” (Ethel’s pastime on visits to Fort McMurray!)

Ethel and Elaine, 1933

Ida:  growing geraniums, feeding us, playing the card game “Hearts” (she was a “sneaky” player, according to Gerry Eichhorn), milking cows, reading.

Ken:  making and flying kites, entertaining “everyone”.  

Arnold, Gerry and Ken in 1946

 Name one of Arthur Conrad’s horses: 

Answer:  Slim was his favourite horse that he brought with him on the train from Provo.  When he had to shoot him due to old age, it was the only time Ethel ever saw him cry (except when she got her toes cut off in the beet seeder).  He also loved his horse Whitey, who survived the fall into the mine shaft during plowing.  Two other horses died because of that accident.  Arnold and Elaine also remembered horses named Benny and Maude. 

Who broke Clyde’s nose sliding off the straw stack?

Answer:  Arnold

How did Clyde get even? (according to Arnold!): 

Answer:  Clyde “accidentally” hit Arnold on the head with a home-made golf club.  Arnold showed us the “divot” that it left in his head!  

Arnold and Clyde at the Oldman River Bridge in 1940

 Who had a dog that would get a stick to help chase cows home from the pasture? 

Answer:  Ida had a dog, Teddy, that ran to get a stick everyday to give to her when she drove the cows home.  Ida and Art called all their dogs Teddy.  They always looked for a dog with a black roof to its mouth, as they felt this was an attribute of a good cattle dog. 

What did Grandpa Arthur say to do with a rifle to be considered a reasonable good shot?

Answer:  John Conrad claimed that Grandpa said a good shot should be able to “pound a nail” at 25 yards. 

When and how did electricity come to the Conrad farm? 

Answer:  In the early 1930s, Clyde created and installed a wind propeller to charge batteries.  It powered 6 watt bulbs.  Since he didn’t have a voltage regulator, he had to run outside and turn off the wind mill if the wind blew too hard in order not to ruin his batteries.  Having free electricity on the farm during the Depression was quite a luxury.  Arnold, Elaine, and Ethel all remember being able to listen to the entertaining radio shows of the 1930s because of their independent electrical system.  

Conrad kids swimming back in the day. Photo from Ethel's collection.

Question 24: What foods do you like and dislike?

The old "what is your favorite food" question--only with the "like or dislike" twist. Which is so much better, because who has just ONE favorite food? Well, there is probably somebody, but for me, that is such a terrible question. It is a question that I never like to see as a password retrieval question, because the answer would depend on the day and mood!

Well, let's start with the foods I disliked as a child, because just today I posted this comment on Nancy's blog:
I hated cantelope when I was a kid...because I thought that CANTELOPE and ANTELOPE were the SAME THING. I was not about to eat those cute little animals, bounding across the prairie. I cannot explain how my brain could make that round, ball-like fruit seem the same as those long-legged critters...but does the skin not look kind of like SKIN? I submit that it does. (Turtle skin? Lizard skin?)
Twins! Am I right?

I also disliked most candies and chocolates. At Christmas, we often dipped chocolates, and I strongly disliked the fondant that went inside the chocolates. When my Dad would buy us children a treat, mine had to be Smarties. That was the only candy I liked.

I hated milk. I thought it was the grossest substance ever. However, I liked cream.  I loved to pour cream into my all-bran cereal, and then smoosh it into a ball and eat the ball. I generally disliked breakfast cereal, except for shreddies, and shredded wheat moistened with hot water and then eaten just like that. No ruining it with milk!
Look at that! A vintage box of Shreddies from 1959, still with the Nabisco brand. Now they belong to Post. (Someone was selling this on e-bay. An unopened box of cereal that is almost fifty sixty years old. Yum!)

I also hated popcorn. And pop. I only occasionally drank a tiny bit of root beer or orange pop, but then I would be burping it up into my nose most uncomfortably. Gross.

I was always very picky about eating meat, especially if it was a chicken identified by color, or a cow or calf that I had personally known. This abhorrence was made worse by a Grade Seven field trip to Canada Packers, and watching the terror of the cattle as they knew that their jig was up and they were next to meet their doom. I did not eat meat after that for about six or seven years.

What did I love to eat? Burned things. Burned potatoes. When I did eat meat, upon rare occasion, never rare meat, but burned. When my mother made cookies, she would purposely let the last batch burn, because I loved burned cookies and did not much like the unburned variety.

I loved summer, when we could pull baby carrots, brush them off, and eat them fresh from the garden. Also stalks of rhubarb. And of course that champion of delicious foods, the tomato. And crab apples were the best. My dad grew many varieties of crab apples, and since grafting was a hobby of his, mixes of varieties on the same tree. I preferred my fruit under-ripe, so sour crab apples were the best.

I hated scalloped potatoes, that cousin to funeral potatoes. Which I now love, but hated then. I hated rice, which I now at least enjoy. The skin of the baked potato was my favorite part. I loved onions. I still love onions.

My favorite meal was the full Thanksgiving/Christmas turkey dinner. Since Thanksgiving was in October, and Christmas in December, that worked.  For school lunches, turkey sandwiches were elementary school favorites (before I quit meat for those many years) and also tomato sandwiches. I did not mind if the bread was soggy.

Probably because my favorite after school snack was to take a piece of white bread, remove and eat the crust, then ball the whole remaining bread up into a ball of "dough" and then eat that. However, I was also known to eat monosodium glutamate sandwiches (brand name: Accent) which absolutely horrified my mother when she found out that I used to do that.

I also loved to snack on salt. Just a teaspoon of salt in my hand, and then I would lick it and savour the lovely salty flavour until all the salt was gone. And then do it again. I was jealous of the cows because they got to have salt licks. I wanted one of my own! (I even asked for a salt lick for Christmas one year, but Santa Claus did not take that request seriously.)

Question 23: Was religion an important for you and your family? [sic]

The rest of the question: If so, explain what religion your family practiced and what it meant to you. Explain if it is or is not an important part of your life today.

First of all, do you see the flaw in the question? I copied and pasted it from the list, so you can't blame me for whatever is missing. So I put [sic] after it.

Now that we have cleared that up...

Yes. Religion was important for me and my family. Religion was important for pretty much every family back then, or at least most families in my little town. So that question kind of made me sad, because it connotes that religion being important is not a given anymore. And in my childhood, it was a given.

My friends and neighbors were all church goers. United Church of Canada. Japanese United. Buddhist. Dutch Reformed. Evangelical. Anglican. Mennonite. Catholic. Jehovah's Witness. Mormon (LDS). We all were something. Like, we all identified as religious among my classmates at school and on the bus.

Our family were Mormon (LDS). We went to church on Sunday--Sunday School in the morning, Sacrament meeting in the evening. Primary, Mutual and Relief Society were during the week, but the men had an extra meeting (Priesthood) on Sunday since they were working and didn't have a weekday meeting.

Sometimes it was awkward to me, belonging to "the only true church," because I knew that my friends felt that way about their churches. My friends still do! Like, when we were in Colorado in March, (was it?) Janice and I went to the Mennonite Church with Anita, and she was SO HAPPY we were there, and said, "There is still hope for you!"

Well, I think there is hope for everyone. I firmly believe the 11th Article of Faith: "We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege: let them worship how, where or what they may." There are many paths that lead to God. The path I am on works for me, and I like this path; in fact, I like it so much, that I hope everyone wants to be on the same path as me...but I realize that everyone doesn't WANT to be on the same path as me. And that is okay with me.

Having said that, sometimes I get irritated with my own church. Because it is different than it was when I was growing up and honestly, I liked the way it was better than the way it is. It just sometimes feels so constricting, and it didn't used to feel like that. I remember someone giving a talk once and saying that to some people, living the gospel feels constrictive because "thou shalt not do this" and "thou shalt not do that." And he held up a picture that looked kind of like this:
You are going along living the gospel, and then it starts to feel like it is getting narrower, but then you realize that keeping commandments actually gives you more freedom, so once you get past the constricted part, you feel even more free. The other picture was diamond-shaped...it looks like it is getting really free, but then it constricts down to something that is very narrow. And I think that is true: like if you steal, you can go to jail. Stealing feels "free" but jail is definitely more restrictive than just normal life. So, by not stealing, you guarantee yourself some additional freedom. And I think that is true of commandments, generally. They are just good to obey.

Where I start feeling constricted, now, though, has nothing to do with commandments, but with cultural things dressed up and interpreted as if they were commandments. And that really bothers me.

Plus, church was just more fun back then. And I realize that is partly because the culture the church is in has changed. Like, in Primary when I was young, we sang a lot of fun songs that were not in the primary song book. Like Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree. And songs about Halloween. And Valentine's Day songs. But back then, there were not people just lying in wait to sue the church, and today, there are. So we are careful to sing only songs that we have the right to sing.

We had lots of activities that centred around churches, our own and others. Like, the Relief Society put on a bazaar every year. My parents gave us money to go Christmas shopping at the bazaar, and there were the coolest, most unique gifts there. Like, if you bought someone a pair of slippers, they were home made and seriously one of a kind. And all the people from other churches came to our bazaar, and then we went to theirs!

And the charity in town, the place for second hand clothes, was the Catholic Women's Charity, but the Mormon women worked there one day a week, and the United Church women worked there one day a week...and there was just cooperation. Even though everyone was a bit uneasy about each other's doctrine, there was cooperation in daily living.

Religion is still important to me. I love going to church and mixing with people who I wouldn't otherwise know. I love visiting teaching, and the opportunity it gives me to make friends with women who I might not get to know on my own. I love the church organization that makes service possible because there is a way to know that someone needs help, and also what they need. Without a church structure, that does not always happen. I still love primary and primary music, and I can't think of a better way to spend a few hours of my time each week. I love children and singing and music, so I am happy to be there.

I love attending the temple, which may do some good for the people I do work for, but mostly I am the one who is better for doing temple service. I think of the beautiful blessings and promises, and they buoy me up. There is peace in that place, and I need to have some quiet peace in my life, and I find it there.

I have a simple testimony that I like to express best in the song of my friend Janice Kapp Perry:
I know God lives, I know he loves me. I know he hears me and he answers when I pray.
I know his son is my redeemer and that he died for me that I might live eternally one day.