What Does "Normal" Mean, Grandpa?

 What Does "Normal" Mean, Grandpa?

"It usually means what you are accustomed to; what you are used to."

His question made me think about how "normal" has changed for me over the past 80 years.

As a small child, my parents farmed 160 acres about 10 km west of Breton, Alberta. The town had a Delco power plant that provided electricity for part of the day, but out on the farm we had no electricity. We lived like farm families a century or two ago.

We had no power equipment so we got a lot of exercise. The house was heated by burning wood in a wood stove. Water was drawn by hand from a dug well and drinking water was accessible by using the dipper in the water pail on the wash stand. Any visitors used the same dipper. The wash basin on the wash stand was for washing your hands and face, and the dirty water was poured into the slop pail. Baths took place in a metal tub measuring maybe a meter in diameter. Meals were cooked on the wood-burning stove. At night we used kerosene lamps in the bedrooms and a Coleman mantle (gasoline pressure) lamp provided brighter light in the main area of the house. There was no refrigerator or indoor plumbing. 

The Moose Hill school closed before I started school in Grade 1, so I rode to school in Breton in Mr. Prentice's army jeep. It was a 3 km walk to where he picked me up. He was hired by the school district to take the Moose Hill students to Breton. Back then, Jeeps were the only 4-wheel drive vehicles and when it was really muddy the Jeep struggled to reach its destination. When I was in Grade 2, Reg started school so we walked the 3 km together. In 1951 we moved a half mile closer to Breton and the new school van picked us up at our driveway. We loved the new version of normal.

Most Saturdays we travelled to Breton to do the weekly shopping. It was about a 2-hour trip each way by horse and wagon. This was normal at the time. In town we could play with our cousins and friends while our parents did the shopping, and we could enjoy dinner with Grandpa and Grandma Ing before our journey back to the farm.

During the winter, Dad usually worked in the logging camps during the week. About 1952 he was hired as a pipe-fitter's helper in the Camrose oil field by Canadian Construction. He had a 1928 Model A Ford car to come home on weekends. This was later replaced by a 1938 Ford V-8. In 1953 we moved to Camrose and lived in a skid shack in a trailer park. School in Camrose was hard and neighborhood bullies made life even harder. I was glad when our parents decided to move back to the farm.

But re-starting the farm was hard. (I think they had sold all the livestock.) Then they had a small miracle. Dad received a telegram from Edgewater, British Columbia, offering him a job in the planing mill for Edgewater Sawmills. Soon we were on our way to Edgewater, a wonderful place in the valley of the Columbia river. We had electricity and running water. Suddenly I felt that we were really in the 20th century. And we were only 3 blocks from school. 

Normal had become much, much better. 

[Lloyd, 

I would welcome any corrections you can make. You started school in 1951, didn't you?
Some of this describes life in the log house on the McNeil place. But life on the Broughten place was basically the same, just a newer house with the same amenities. - Bill]