Story #16 in Harry Forbes series
(Accompanying image: Elizabeth Street School, Medicine Hat, AB)
In 1928 after two good crops, the three Plain brothers sold out and bought farms north of Edmonton near Westlock. Dad bought the Dick Plain place that joined ours on the east and was one mile closer to school, 1/2 mile away. From that time on most of the teachers boarded at our place, unless they were married and had homes of their own. Most of those poor teachers never got away; they went into slavery by marrying local farm boys around the country. Some of them had a bad time living at our place, especially if they were ones we liked to tease.
Betty Russel was a fairly large girl; she had a very bad time at our place. She had her 22nd birthday while there. I told her I was going to give her a birthday licking. She laughed, “You little runt, you can’t give me a licking!” I had just quit school at age 16 and probably weighed 120 or 125 pounds. We had a chair that always sat in the kitchen beside the door that went from the kitchen into the living room so I sat on that chair and waited. As soon as she came back out the door, I grabbed her and had her across my knee before she knew what had happened. I gave her a good one.
At that time if they had a good dress, they would wash it in high test gas (their dry cleaning method) and hang it on the clothesline to dry. Betty had come home from school, washed her dress and hung it on the clothes line. I knew she would be taking her dress in at about 10 o’clock. This was in late fall when the days were short and it would be dark. Bill Moore was staying at our place then. He had a fur coat that had been damaged over a heated radiator. He had it hanging on the far end of the clothes line. Somehow the coat and dress switched places on the line after dark. When Betty went out to get her dress at 10 o’clock, she came tearing back into the house, running straight up to her room with no dress. She wouldn’t speak to me for two or three days.
Another time John Oddan and I locked her in the house. There was a porch or veranda on the house that had a window 2 1/2 or 3 feet above the porch floor. She was going to show us that we were not going to lock her in. We were sure she would be coming out that window. Mother had sheep then and close by there was one of those big wool bags that held maybe four hundred pounds of wool. We grabbed the bag, got below the window, one on each and held the bag wide open. She came out the window feet first, right into our bag. We pulled the bag up and had her tied inside.
Another time when the Oddan family was visiting with us, the poor girl somehow got locked in the garage. It was on a Sunday in summertime while we were playing hide and seek. Betty hid in the garage. John saw her go in there but no one had found her. We got tired of playing and went into the house. After visiting for a while John commented, “I better go and let Betty out. I think someone locked her in the garage.”
About six miles east of our home on the Dawson Dixon ranch, there was a litte dam in the Maple Creek. In early spring when flood waters came down from the Cypress Hills and the creek was high, suckers (fish) came up the creek to spawn. They had a round mouth that would suck your finger when they were still alive. To catch those fish below the dam, we would fashion a fish net out of chicken wire that would let the small fish through. Within an hour you could catch a gunny sack full.
One Sunday when we were going fishing with a team and wagon box, we invited a fellow along who was sweet on Betty to try to help the matchmaking advance. We made sure that they had to sit side by side both going and coming home. I guess we just pushed too hard; they never seemed to get together after that, so our fishing trip didn’t pay off as it was supposed to do. We had caught a gunny sack full of fish anyway.
Betty would get mad at us, but if we left her alone for a few days, she would ask mother if we were angry with her. She must have taught school there for two years and I’m sure she got away sane and in the course, more educated. Later in war time I met her on the street in Montreal one day and had a short visit with her. Shortly after that I heard she got married.
At Christmas time a wire would be strung across one end of the school to hang curtains for the Christmas concert. One of our teachers, Miss Thom, somehow got roped and tied up to that wire. She was a good-natured girl and did not beat us up. Another one, I don’t remember which one, found a dead mouse in her desk. But they (the teachers) all got away alive. Some as I said ended up in slavery. I ended up with one of those teachers myself.
Teachers at the time were getting about $25.00 a month wages for ten months of the year and had to pay $5.00 to $7.00 per month board. In the late thirties wages rose to $40 a month and board to $12 a month.