Interviewee: Cleve Adamson
Interviewer: Jon Duncan
 
Jon Duncan: Today is June 17, 1997, my name is Jon Duncan and I am here with Cleve Adamson. Cleve Why don’t you go ahead and introduce yourself.

Cleve Adamson: I am Cleve Adamson

Jon Duncan: When were you born?

Cleve Adamson: July 16, 1946

Jon Duncan: Who were your parents?

Cleve Adamson: Vaughan and Catherine Adamson.

Jon Duncan: Where were you born?

Cleve Adamson: Stirling

Jon Duncan: You were born in Stirling.

Cleve Adamson: Well actually out on the farm just two or three miles east of Stirling but I have always called it Stirling.

Jon Duncan: Is that where you grew up?

Cleve Adamson: No, we moved just on the outskirts of Stirling when I was four years old.

Jon Duncan: Where was that house?

Cleve Adamson: East of Stirling by a half mile.

Jon Duncan: Okay, that was when you were four.

Cleve Adamson: Yes, as far as I can remember.

Jon Duncan: Now why don’t we start with your dad, Vaughan, what kind of a man was he?

Cleve Adamson: He was a great man; he was good with us kids and good provider. He was just a great guy.

Jon Duncan: What do you mean that he was good with the kids?

Cleve Adamson: Played with us, played quite a bit of time with us kids.

Jon Duncan: What types of things would he do with you?

Cleve Adamson: Play trucks and cars with us, in the winter time go and play in snow banks, wresting, I had a lot of fun with dad. Dad and I used to go hunting; I would tag along with him sometimes when he would go hunting.

Jon Duncan: What would you hunt?

Cleve Adamson: Ducks, pheasants, rabbits.

Jon Duncan: Okay so you went hunting with your dad often, what other things did you do with him?
Cleve Adamson: Well I worked with my dad when I got old enough. He was a carpenter and I worked with him. We did quite a lot of carpenter work. That is one thing that I really like doing but I was limited with my eyesight being the way that it is.

Jon Duncan: So did he work for a company?

Cleve Adamson: Ya he worked for Oland Construction for quite a few years doing carpenter work. Later on he worked for a smaller contractor, Less Cunningham in Lethbridge.

Jon Duncan: Did you work for this Oland?

Cleve Adamson: Yes I did.

Jon Duncan: So you helped him there. About how old were you there?

Cleve Adamson: I started with Oland when I was fourteen.

Jon Duncan: Did your dad build any of the houses around Stirling?

Cleve Adamson: Dad worked on the George Kummer’s house which is the one that is just east of the town office now. He worked on Bill and Rosina Mertz’s house. He may have worked on others around town but I remember those two especially that he worked on.

Jon Duncan: So he did do some work around town then.

Cleve Adamson: Yes, carpenter work yes.

Jon Duncan: Well why don’t we talk about your mom for a minute, what was she like.
Cleve Adamson: Mom was a good mom; she was a very good cook. She did almost all the housework and she taught us kids how to clean. Mom was really good, of course she was scotch. She has got quite the temper I guess. She would put you in your place very quick.

Jon Duncan: In what way?

Cleve Adamson: Well if you were out of line she spoke, you would do what she said. We weren’t bad but if we needed a licking we would get it, it didn’t hurt us. It hurt our pride and feelings but.

Jon Duncan: Was it mom who gave you the licking?

Cleve Adamson: Not very often it was more you are going to get it when dad gets home. Dad gave us quite a few lickings. There were things that we did, I can’t remember what but there must have been things that we had done that we deserved to get them.

Jon Duncan: You say that your mom was a pretty good cook. What was her favourite meal to make?

Cleve Adamson: She could do fried chicken, she could do roasts. It is hard to say, anything that she cooked was good all of us kids really liked it.

Jon Duncan: What was a typical breakfast?

Cleve Adamson: Mush, oatmeal or germaid, or sunny boy cereal, you had toasted you had good cow’s crème. You milked a cow and it had that good cow’s cream and that was good stuff. Drank a lot of milk, had all of the milk that we ever wanted.

Jon Duncan: From the milk cows.

Cleve Adamson: Yes

Jon Duncan: What about lunch?

Cleve Adamson: We would have sandwiches or soup or sandwiches and soup. Supper was in the evening and when dad came home, that’s when we would have our big meal at supper.

Jon Duncan: Who did the cleaning?

Cleve Adamson: Of the house, my mom. Well when my sisters got old enough they helped. We had chores that we had to do outside so that was our job. Like I say I milked the cow and bread chickens, bread pigs to feed, Coal to get in, and water to pack. 

Jon Duncan: Where did the water come from?

Cleve Adamson: Our drinking water and that came from our neighbours Lon Nelson who lived south of us about a half a block.

Jon Duncan: Was it a cistern.

Cleve Adamson: Yes it was.

Jon Duncan: So you shared a cistern with Nelsons then.

Cleve Adamson: Ya we would go down there for our drinking water. Washing water for washing hair or washing cloths we had two barrels at the ditch which was just west of the house. I would fill them up and let them settle and that is what we would use to do the washing.

Jon Duncan: How would you fill the barrel?

Cleve Adamson: Well it was like a bucket, just dip it in the ditch and fill the barrels.

Jon Duncan: This was the irrigation ditch going into town?

Cleve Adamson: No this was an irrigation going toward Hogesons which was going north of my moms and dads. We used that to irrigate stuff in our garden a little bit. It was just an irrigation ditch that people who were on it used it to irrigate their grass or whatever.

Jon Duncan: Who took care of the garden?

Cleve Adamson: All of us, mom and dad worked in the garden and us kids when we got old enough. We had to do our share we had to help in it. We would pick potato bugs off of the potatoes. 

Jon Duncan: Who butchered the animals?

Cleve Adamson: My dad, he butchered all pigs, butchered chickens, and a young steer now and then.

Jon Duncan: What time of year did he do the butchering?

Cleve Adamson: Mostly in the spring or the fall. Probably more in the fall because the longer you left it out to cure the better it would be.

Jon Duncan: Now how did your mom preserve all the vegetables in the garden?

Cleve Adamson: We had a root cellar underneath the house and she would can peas, potatoes we would keep down in the root cellar, carrots we would keep down in their. She had done an awful lot of canning of fruit and even chicken, she would bottle chicken. She would make our jam and eggs we would dip them in a water glass and that would preserve them longer. She had done an awful lot of canning, their were a lot of jars down their in the root cellar.

Jon Duncan: This was right under the house.

Cleve Adamson: Yes it was

Jon Duncan: What did she use to make jam.

Cleve Adamson: She would make tomato jam, she would make crab-apple jelly, and if they could find peaches she would make peach jam. Just anything they if they couldn’t afford to buy.

Jon Duncan: Did your family have its own fruit tree.

Cleve Adamson: No, any fruit that they canned, they bought it. They had a lot of fruit peaches, pears, apricots, cherries.

Jon Duncan: How did she preserve the meat?

Cleve Adamson: We had from what I can remember we had a locker in Lethbridge that we kept in their, you would pay so much a month. You would keep you meat in there, and then when they needed meat they would go into town and bring it back. We had a propane fridge and the freezer part; they would bring enough to fill it. Then when I got a little older they would bring more homes.

Jon Duncan: Now I want to talk a minute about the house that you grew up in, the one that you moved into when you were four years old. How big was this house?

Cleve Adamson: It was two rooms, kitchen and a bedroom. I am not sure the exact size of it but it would probably be sixteen by twenty four.

Jon Duncan: How many kids were there at the time?

Cleve Adamson: Four.

Jon Duncan: So what were the sleeping arrangements?

Cleve Adamson: Mom, dad, Floyd, and I would sleep in the bedroom. In the summertime Floyd and I slept up in the attic. Dorthy and Marie slept in the kitchen on a fold away cot.

Jon Duncan: Now how long did this go on.

Cleve Adamson: I am not sure, until Dorthy she got out working on her own. I was still at home when I was twenty one but then dad bought a house in Maybutt; I think that it used to be the store. They bought it in Maybutt and had it moved just across the road from out old house. Remodelled that and that was in fifty seven, that’s when we moved into the house and that is when we had electricity for the first time, was in fifty seven. We moved in there September the 22^ndof 1957.

Jon Duncan: Okay so you lived in this two room house until fifty seven.

Cleve Adamson: Yes we did. Dad, I done know what year it was, Dad built a porch on the east, a fairly good sized porch on the east of the house. That is where we and the fridge and the washing machine out there.

Jon Duncan: What kind of washing machine was this?

Cleve Adamson: Gas motor on it, ringer washer 

Jon Duncan: So in 1957 you moved into this new home. Tell me what it like was to get electricity.

Cleve Adamson: It was great, it was great to just walk into a room and flip a switch and you had light. Haven’t had to walk into a room and light a lantern. A lot of times we would use just a caraceen lamp. We had a battery run radio.

Jon Duncan: So when your parents got the electricity what types of appliances did they buy?

Cleve Adamson: An electric fridge, a stove, radio; I don’t remember too much about the kitchen stuff. What ever they could afford like a TV, I am not sure just what year they bought a TV but they bought a TV. Maybe an electric clock to hang on the wall, whatever they could afford at the time and they wanted, they would save up and that’s what they would buy.

Jon Duncan: How big was this new house?

Cleve Adamson: Twenty two by forty.

Jon Duncan: How many rooms?

Cleve Adamson: Six counting the bedroom. One bedroom which was my sisters was quite small, and then we had to bathroom, then mom and dads, then the front room, the dining room, and the kitchen, very nice. There was a kind of kitchen area and a bedroom downstairs. A coal room, a furnace room, which is where dad built a storage room for the cans that mom had done.

Jon Duncan: So this house was quite a bit bigger.

Cleve Adamson: Yes, a lot bigger.

Jon Duncan: Was it heated by coal?

Cleve Adamson: Ya it was, we had a coal stove down in there. When we bought an oil furnace, we used a furnace run by oil. They didn’t really grow anything that they used to coal for that I can remember is we had a wood kitchen stove down there which mom did all of her canning on.

Jon Duncan: What else did you use coal for in the new house?

Cleve Adamson: As far as I can remember I don’t think that we used it for heating that I can remember. They may have had a coal furnace but I can’t remember it. I should have done because I was twenty one years old but I don’t think that we had a coal furnace.

Jon Duncan: Let’s go back to the radio; you mentioned that you had a battery powered radio in the old house, what kinds of programs did you listen to.

Cleve Adamson: We listened to the Lone Ranger, I remember that one. We listened to a lot of music, Fibber McGee; I remember listening to them that was a lot of years ago.

Jon Duncan: Was their much hockey on?

Cleve Adamson: Not that I remember, not that I remember I don’t think so.

Jon Duncan: How much time did your family spend listening to the radio?

Cleve Adamson: In the evenings we spent a bit listening to it after us kids got our homework done, we had to do our homework. We listened to it in the evenings, mom probably had it one during the day while us kids were at school, I would imagine that she did.

Jon Duncan: Alright tell me about the Bingham’s

Cleve Adamson: They ran the store up here; it is called Canadian groceries now. I am not sure what the name of it was then but they run the store up there. My mother worked up there for a while to. They weren’t of any relation that I know of but I know that all us kids used to say grandma and Bing because they were just like a grandma and grandpa to us. They were great people and I can remember going up there to the store in the evening and dad would take us kids with them, boy did we ever get the bananas.

Jon Duncan: Okay so they sound like they were close friends to the family.

Cleve Adamson: Really close friends, like I said they were just like a grandma and grandpa to us kids, we sure loved them.

Jon Duncan: How often did they come over to the house?

Cleve Adamson: They would come over to the house quite often. They used to come over with mom and dad and they would play bridge. I would sit behind Grandma Bingham and she had real long hair, it went right down the middle of her back. I would sit there for a long time just brushing her hair. She used to have it in a bun, she would take it down and I would sit behind her and brush her hair for a long time. I quite enjoyed that and she did to. They were really good people, treated us kids real good to in fact they spoilt us kids.

Jon Duncan: Did they have children of their own?

Cleve Adamson: They had one boy but he was a lot older then us kids.

Jon Duncan: Okay, tell me about your grandpa.

Cleve Adamson: Grandpa Adamson, I can remember that he used to raise bees and they lived in town here. I remember him coming out to butcher a pig and grandpa would sit there and get ever bit of fat off the innards. You would get lard out of it and I can remember him sitting there for a long time just sitting there scrapping the fat off of there and getting all the fat of he could. We had a boiler hanging up on the side of the house, I remember him laying there in the shade sound asleep. He was really good to us kids. Floyd and I stayed with and I would stay with grandpa when mom and dad would go away for a while. They sure treated us good in there.

Jon Duncan: How did they do that?

Cleve Adamson: Just by taking us outside and show us things, if we wanted to know something they would sit town and explain it to us, they were just great grandparents.

Jon Duncan: Okay now what uncles and aunts did you have around here?

Cleve Adamson: Uncle Glenn was around here which he still is. Uncle Heart and Aunt Mary lived here Uncle Rhudell called him dell, he lived in Stirling. I think that that was the only uncles and aunts that we had.

Jon Duncan: How often did the family get together?

Cleve Adamson: I don’t know how often they got together. Uncle Heart and Aunt Mary were living right next to my grandma and grandpa. Then Uncle Dell was living with Grandma and grandpa. So anytime we went to grandma and grandpas we would just go across the fence and there was uncle Heart and Aunt Mary and their kids. We seen them quite often, I don’t remember how often but we seen them quite often and Uncle Glenn, seen him quite often.

Jon Duncan: I have to ask you, how many years did you go to school?

Cleve Adamson: I went nine years.

Jon Duncan: You finished grade nine then.

Cleve Adamson: Yes I did.

Jon Duncan: Now why did you finish only grade nine?

Cleve Adamson: Because of my eyesight, at that time I think that I had around 10% of eyesight. I had to quit, it was too much memory work. I had to memorize so much that I just couldn’t keep up with it. I remember getting a lot of headaches from trying to remember so much I remember my parents taking me to the doctors because of my eyes and he, from what I remember he said you better not keep going. I couldn’t go through with it, the higher grade you get the harder it is and you have to memorize. From what I remember they said that I quit school. I really didn’t want to because I really liked school. I liked math, memory work, I liked spelling, but when you have to give it up you have to.

Jon Duncan: It was becoming too difficult.

Cleve Adamson: Ya, I remember trying to remember things and that is what it was from, trying to remember things. So I quit that and started work when I was fifteen. I turned fifteen in July the 16^thand I was working for Olands before that.

Jon Duncan: Now when did you start to loose your eyesight?

Cleve Adamson: I was born with bad eyes, and up until later on in the years I say in my forties my eyes would get a little worse but when things really went bad was shortly after my first wife died, Mona. That is when I had to quit work because I was scared of harming myself and endangering my fellow workers, they just kept getting worse from them on. I am at where I am at today, from one to four percent.

Jon Duncan: So your blindness has been progressive.

Cleve Adamson: Yes, years ago well I used to have a drivers licence. I got my drivers licence when I was sixteen; I think that I gave it up when I was twenty three. Had to give it up because they were just getting worse and I was getting to where I was to scared to drive anymore.

Jon Duncan: So who taught you to drive?

Cleve Adamson: My dad when they had a vehicle, he would let us kids drive with us kids sitting there with him.

Jon Duncan: What kind of car was it?

Cleve Adamson: He had a truck it was a Cheve halftone.

Jon Duncan: Was that the only vehicle in the family?

Cleve Adamson: At that time yes and then when he got rid of that thing he got another Ford halftone, after that there was a Ford car. Ya they only had one vehicle at one time, couldn’t afford any others anymore.

Jon Duncan: So you learned to drive in this Cheve truck.

Cleve Adamson: Yes as far as I can remember it was a Cheve truck.

Jon Duncan: What kind of transmission did it have?

Cleve Adamson: Standard, standard transmissions.

Jon Duncan: How many gears?

Cleve Adamson: Three. Three ahead and then reverse.

Jon Duncan: So what was it like compared to the cars today.

Cleve Adamson: Well now you don’t half to shift, you can buy automatics, it was a little bit different but I don’t think that there was that much difference in them.

Jon Duncan: What were roads like?

Cleve Adamson: Gravel, they were gravel roads. Sometimes on good roads sometimes they weren’t that great.

Jon Duncan: What about the highway to Lethbridge?

Cleve Adamson: It was gravel.

Jon Duncan: It was still gravel then

Cleve Adamson: I can’t remember what year it was that they paved that but I can remember going on paved roads to Lethbridge.

Jon Duncan: How long would it take to get there?

Cleve Adamson: Half an hour or better. You don’t travel that fast on gravel roads, not like you do one the highways now days.
 
Tape 1 Side 2
 
Jon Duncan: Alright I just had to turn the tape over there. There is something that I want to ask you now, what do you remember about WWII

Cleve Adamson: Well the only thing that I can remember about it is that I knew that there was a war. I had two uncles that went to war. Uncle Bill Fife and Uncle Ray Adamson, I don’t remember too much about Uncle Bill. But Uncle Ray what I can remember about him, he used to be a boxer I remember him boxing quite a bit and getting a lot of medals. But the thing that I remember about uncle Ray was the day that he was leaving to go over seas he put his cap on me and after and my brother then we held the shotgun with out big overalls on and they took pictures of us, he went down to the truck and caught the train. That is about all I can remember about the war. We were pretty young when he went to war.

Jon Duncan: Do you remember when he was killed?

Cleve Adamson: I don’t remember what year that he was killed no. All I remember is dad and them saying that dad and them sating that Uncle Ray got killed.

Jon Duncan: Alright what about the depression?

Cleve Adamson: What do you mean what about it?

Jon Duncan: You were quite young then, do you remember anything about it.

Cleve Adamson: I remember that things were pretty rough. We didn’t have a lot, my parents didn’t have a lot, and I can remember my dad going out to hunt for jackrabbits or pheasants or ducks. But I can remember that us kids never went hungry. They always had something; they supplied us good by whatever means they had to.

Jon Duncan: So those early years you dad had to go hunting to put some meat on the table.

Cleve Adamson: Yes we did, dad did.

Jon Duncan: When did your parents start to make a little more money?

Cleve Adamson: Dad started making money when he started working for Oland construction in Lethbridge. As a carpenter he started making more money then. He could do more things and buy more stuff.

Jon Duncan: What was a good wage back then?

Cleve Adamson: Now you are asking me something, I really don’t even remember how much I got, I think that I was getting about seventy cents an hour. I started when I was fourteen. I am not sure but in them days it seemed like quite a bit. I don’t remember how much my father was getting.

Jon Duncan: What did your dad do before he started work as a carpenter?

Cleve Adamson: He worked on farms he worked for Joe Brandley on the farm. Between that and carpenter work I don’t remember what else. I know that at one time dad was down in the states at a copper mine he worked there but that was way before my time.

Jon Duncan: Did he have his own farm as well.

Cleve Adamson: No he didn’t, he worked for other people.

Jon Duncan: Where did you keep the livestock?

Cleve Adamson: Right where we lived, we had a barn, a chicken coup, a pig pen and that kind of thing. The cow we used to take and stake out in the ditches.

Jon Duncan: Alright so the only farming that you dad did then was around the house.

Cleve Adamson: Farming, well we didn’t have any farm just animals and a garden is all we had. But the farming we worked for other people on the farms. We didn’t own very much land there. We had a big garden I remember that, I remember having sheep a few. We would get bum land and raise them. Dad would butcher one then sell the rest back to the Lon Nelson that is who we got the lambs from. Raise them up. 

Jon Duncan: That’s something that I want to ask you. Was there much produce that your parents sold?
Cleve Adamson:No anything that we raised out of the garden and that Mom would can it. But she pretty well canned and put stuff away for winter that we raised out of the garden.

Jon Duncan: Alright, the next thing that I want to talk about is your marriage now how did you meet Mona?

Cleve Adamson: I knew Mona, a bunch of us kids used to go to Raymond, I knew Mona because more or less I knew her parents. I knew Mona and then she go married to a guy from Edmonton and was up there for two years. I didn’t work out and they got a divorce and she moved back to Raymond and that is when I started dating her and we ended up getting married, she had two children Shirley and David, they got married and moved her to Stirling. We lived here in Stirling until she died in 1989.

Jon Duncan: Now who were the guys that you went to Raymond with all the time?

Cleve Adamson: My brother Floyd my cousin Marvin, there was Stewart Leopard, Sharon Spackman, Daryl Finley. There were quite a few of us that used to go over there and chase girls.

Jon Duncan: Now how long were you going with Mona before you were married?

Cleve Adamson: I believe about a year.

Jon Duncan: How old were you?

Cleve Adamson: When we got married I was twenty three.

Jon Duncan: What kind of wedding did you have?

Cleve Adamson: We just had a small wedding in a church, in a LDS church in Lethbridge.

Jon Duncan: Who married you?

Cleve Adamson: I can’t even remember that, that is an awful thing to say but I can’t remember who it was that married us.

Jon Duncan: Was there a big reception?

Cleve Adamson: No it was just a small wedding, she had been married before and we felt that it wasn’t proper to have another big wedding and reception and that, just family and close friends.

Jon Duncan: How did you propose to her?

Cleve Adamson: I was over at her place when she lived in Raymond and just sitting there talking and that. I think if I remember right I was playing with Shirley and I turned to Mona and I just said I got a question for you. She said what; I said would you marry me. She said yes, that was it.

Jon Duncan: Did you adopt her children

Cleve Adamson: Yes I did. It wasn’t to long after we got married. I would say two years maybe three that I adopted them. I love both of them and I still do. But a social worker said that I don’t know, well he was back on his payments I guess and I got talking to this lady and she happed to mention that if something should ever happen to Mona that her first husband could come and take Shirley and David away from me and there would be nothing that I could do about it. She was really nice she asked me if I wanted to adopt them and I said you bet I do. She said would it be alright if I did all the work and that. I said that that would be great and she even went to Edmonton and asked Mona’s first husband if he would sign the papers to let me adopt them. He had no trouble what so ever, he signed the papers and I adopted both of them.

Jon Duncan: Now how many children did you have with Mona?

Cleve Adamson: I had two. Two boys of my own, Ricky and Kevin, then like I said I had adopted Shirley and David before.

Jon Duncan: What was it like to be a father?

Cleve Adamson: Great, it was great, I really enjoyed it. I loved my wife my kids and I still do. It was really great.

Jon Duncan: What did you get up to with the kids?

Cleve Adamson: I would do a lot of wrestling with them and play kick the can, run sheepie run, hide and go seek.

Jon Duncan: Did you raise a garden?

Cleve Adamson: Yes we did. When I moved into the house that I am living in now I had a big garden, I would plant from a thousand to twelve hundred hills of potatoes every year. We were big potato eaters. We raised a big garden. I dug a root cellar like my parents did to keep the vegetables in.

Jon Duncan: Who took care of the garden?

Cleve Adamson: My wife and I, Mona and I. She would take care of the smaller stuff and when stuff would get up tall enough I would do it. I have done a lot of work in the garden. We did it together.

Jon Duncan: What kind of work did you have the kids do?

Cleve Adamson: When they were old enough he had them working the garden. They had done house work they cleaned their room. When they were old enough they did dishes, they had chores that they had to do.

Jon Duncan: Let me also ask you, when you got married where did you move to?

Cleve Adamson: We moved to the house where Ron Boar lives, we lived there in 1959 when we got married, and then in the next year we moved to John Gedrasik now lives. We lived there until I bought this place until I bought this place in sixty two I believe that it was, and then we moved here.

Jon Duncan: Alright, these first two houses that you lived in, did you rent them.

Cleve Adamson: Yes, I was just renting.

Jon Duncan: And this one you bought outright.

Cleve Adamson: Yes.

Jon Duncan: Did you have a mortgage?

Cleve Adamson: Well I went to the credit union Joined it and went to it and borrowed the money from the credit union to buy this.

Jon Duncan: How much did this house cost?

Cleve Adamson: Fifteen hundred dollars

Jon Duncan: That was all.

Cleve Adamson: Then Alf Romeril was living next door to the north of me. And he owned a lot that is just south of my house. I bought that from him for a hundred dollars. I didn’t buy if from him but I was working for him and he took it off from wages. I bought that lot next door for a hundred dollars.

Jon Duncan: Alright now what additions have you made to this house?

Cleve Adamson: I built a bathroom on it on the south, I built made the back porch bigger, and I built fourteen by thirty onto the back.

Jon Duncan: Who did all the work?

Cleve Adamson: My wife and I, when my kids were around them would help me. Gordy Oler helped me with that back addition. My wife and I done most of it one the kitchen. The front room I had my cousin Almer Darecot, my brother in law Al, Dorthy, my brother, and that helped me with the front room. I had a lot of help. Leo Seely when I built the back he helped on the back to. Dad helped me with, I don’t remember what year it was but I built a cistern. I would fill it up with water from the ditch that was right inform of my place, had a hand pump in one room.

Jon Duncan: How did you keep the water clean?

Cleve Adamson: When I filled the cistern from the ditch I had to pipe it in from the ditch to the cistern. I would hang a bag over the end of it, tie it on. Then when I did it I put a box of Allan in it and a little bit of bleach in the cistern. It would go through a sweat and then it was just great tasting water.

Jon Duncan: How often did you have to fill it?

Cleve Adamson: In the spring I would clean it out and then fill it then. Just before the water went out of the ditch I would fill it up right to the top. I built a five thousand gallon cistern.

Jon Duncan: So you had lots of water.

Cleve Adamson: Oh yes, in fact I still got it and it is full of water. SO if the water system ever fails for any length of time I can just go out there and bucket some water out if I need it. You can open the lid right now and see right down to the bottom, it is that clear. I pump it out every two years right now and refill it. Just so that it don’t get stagnant.

Jon Duncan: After you married, what kind of appliances did you buy for Mona?

Cleve Adamson: I bought her an electric fridge, we bought a TV. In fact that was the first TV that we ever owned was when we were in the house. I bought her a mix-master (a hand mixer), we bought a radio, and she had a radio before, through the years we bought a microwave and just a few appliances that she felt that she wanted. Toasters…

Jon Duncan: Did you always have a phone in the house?

Cleve Adamson: Yes we did, we have always had a phone back then it was a party phone different then now. Pick up the receiver and somebody was talking you would have to hang it back up wait until they were finished and try again.

Jon Duncan: Did your parents have a phone?

Cleve Adamson: Ya later on they got a phone.

Jon Duncan: When you were growing up though you didn’t have a phone.

Cleve Adamson: Oh no

Jon Duncan: But you always had a phone with Mona?

Cleve Adamson: Yes we always had a phone. 

Jon Duncan: Alright well tell me when you made all of these additions on your home and bought all of these appliances did you ever go into debt?

Cleve Adamson: Yes we did. When we built on to the back I went to the back an borrowed the money, found out how much it was going to cost and borrowed the money and built on. I am quite sure that at that at that time I bought a furnace also. Then when that was paid off we borrowed more money from the bank and did the kitchen. When that was paid off we borrowed more money and fixed the front room. Mona never did see the front room when it was totally finished. She was quite sick at that time; we brought her home just to get her out of the hospital. I think that was when we were painting, but as far as seeing it when it was all finished. She did pick out the chesterfield. She was in the hospital but she did see it after because she picked out the chesterfield and the carpet that she wanted. What she didn’t see was when I put a pay window in the front.

Jon Duncan: So who did the decorating in the house?

Cleve Adamson: When she was able to she did the painting, I had done what I could but she did mostly all of the painting. In the front room she picked out the colors that she wanted and that’s when my brother, sister, brother in law came up and helped paint. Just the family and my kids helped in the front room to.

Jon Duncan: Thought the years Mona has done most of the decorating in the house?

Cleve Adamson: Yes because I couldn’t seem to paint good. If it was starting the paint job I could seem to do it but to get the second coat I could tell where I had been. Ya through the years she had done most of the decorating.

Jon Duncan: I want to ask you this before I forget, you say that you went into debt to make your additions and so forth. What about your parents, what was their attitude towards debt?

Cleve Adamson: They didn’t like going into debt. The only thing that I can remember that my parents went into debt on was a piano and the truck. That is the only thing. To work on the house they thought that it was a great idea because it is better to own your own place then to pay rent, because at least in time you will own it. The first couple of times they had to co-sign for me but any time other than that they had to. But we would never borrow that much we would always make sure that once we borrowed we would pay it off before we thought of borrowing more. Because I didn’t want to go into debt and neither did Mona.

Jon Duncan: Okay now I want to move on. Over the years you have worked for many different people. Who were some of the first people that you worked for when you were married?

Cleve Adamson: Less Cunningham, he was a contractor. I worked for Leo Seely on the farm. I started for the village in 1965. We put in the sewer from 1965-1966; I worked for the village from then until eighty nine. I haven’t worked since eighty nine because my eyes have got so bad that. I worked for the village for twenty five years and I started for the fire department volunteer fire department in 1958 and I am still on it. Next year it will be forty years that I have been on the fore department. I belong to the Stirling lions club. I belong to the Stirling neighbourhood watch. I was a special constable in town here for I believe 22 years; maybe even more I am not sure.

Jon Duncan: Let’s talk about some of these things you started to work for the village in 1965, before that time you worked for farmers mostly.

Cleve Adamson: Yes

Jon Duncan: What type of work would you do?

Cleve Adamson: Driving tractor, some ploughing, I hauled grain from combine to put it into the granary, just anything that the farmers had to do. 

Jon Duncan: Did you do much work with sugar beets?

Cleve Adamson: Ya I worked for two years in sugar beets. Pull them, bang them together and then topping. I worked for the sugar factory in Raymond for two or three campaigns.

Jon Duncan: What was your job during the campaign?

Cleve Adamson: Worked on what they called the batteries, it is where they chop the beets up and they call them noodles. You put the lid on them and they are cooked and that is where I worked there.

Jon Duncan: What was the smell like at the sugar factory?

Cleve Adamson: Not bad it was, at first it wasn’t that good but afterward you got so you wouldn’t notice it, you got used to it.

Jon Duncan: What were the working conditions like?

Cleve Adamson: They were pretty good. Other than the fact that they had a big fan at the window and it was blowing right on us. Them batteries you would just get ringing wet and then they would open a window when you got that big fan on and just about freeze to death and then cook coming down the other side. It wasn’t too good doing that because you got sick.

Jon Duncan: Was there a Union

Cleve Adamson: No, no there wasn’t

Jon Duncan: It was basically farmers coming together to do the campaign

Cleve Adamson: Ya there were a lot of people from Raymond that worked in there and there was a lot of people who worked from town here.

Jon Duncan: Okay, so you mentioned before that you worked for Alf Romeril. What did you do for him?

Cleve Adamson: Hauling hay and Moving irrigation pipes. He raised beets. Most I did for him was moving irrigation pipes so that he could irrigate the beets. He had a small farm out south of town.

Jon Duncan: So it sounds like you worked for several farmers.

Cleve Adamson: Yes I did

Jon Duncan: What about Cal Brandley?

Cleve Adamson: I worked for him doing sloshing and he had quite a few pure bread Angus and I would go out and take care of them. In summer fall I would put up hay and straw.

Jon Duncan: How many years did you work for…?
 
Tape 2 Side 1
 
Jon Duncan: Alright let me ask you again. You worked several years for Will Spackman, How long did you stay with him?

Cleve Adamson: I don’t remember, two or three years. When ever they needed help they would come and ask and I would come and help. I help to haul a lot of grain, shovelling grain for them, just anything that they had that they needed help with. If they asked me to go and help them I would go and do it. There are a lot of people, even in town here that I help because it just gives me such a good feeling to help people. I love to help people and I didn’t care what it was, if they needed the help. It just gives you a great feeling to help others.

Jon Duncan: So you were willing to help out when people asked?

Cleve Adamson: Yes, if I wasn’t doing anything you bet.

Jon Duncan: Well lets move on a little bit. As you had said 1965 you joined the village, who was the Forman at the time?

Cleve Adamson: Boyd Hirschie

Jon Duncan: What was he like?

Cleve Adamson: He was a great guy. You couldn’t ask for a better guy, well that is my opinion, him and I got along really great. They were good to work for, we never had an argument him and I. What really was good to was we worked together is that we would work together, and if you can get along with somebody that is half the battle. Him and I did, we got along great and shared the work.

Jon Duncan: Now a few years later you joined they put in the water system. How did that take place?

Cleve Adamson: It took quite a bit of convincing to some of the people that we should get the water a sewer into town that I remember. There were some that were dead against it because they said that it was going to cost to much and it was going to put us into debt, for two long. My own opinion is that that was one of the best things that this village ever done, was put the water and sewer in.

Jon Duncan: What difference did it make?

Cleve Adamson: At first not a lot but when the water and sewer was going in there was a lot of houses that the people just put up for sale because they felt that it just wasn’t the right thing to do. But after we got it in it didn’t take long before the houses were filled up and to me about the only thing that was determent or what ever you want to call it is by taking out the irrigation ditches we lost a lot of trees. This town did used to have an awful lot of trees. But for having the water in you home and the sewer and that in you home to me it was just worth it. It is a lot better than using you cistern and I remember using the outhouses and this is just a lot better.

Jon Duncan: When did you put a bathroom in your home?

Cleve Adamson: In 1966.

Jon Duncan: Just before the water system came in.

Cleve Adamson: No we put the water and sewer system in sixty five and sixty six.

Jon Duncan: Okay so when I came in you put in your water and sewer.

Cleve Adamson: I worked for a plumber in Raymond. Instead of taking money I helped him and he was supposed to put my bathroom in, which he did. It worked out good for me that way because I didn’t have to out any tax to have my bathroom put in.

Jon Duncan: Okay now where did they put the water system?

Cleve Adamson: The reservoir was on Fifth Street, between fourth and Fifth Avenue. To the right south of Harry Barton’s House.

Jon Duncan: How did the water come into the reservoir?

Cleve Adamson: It comes in from the irrigation ditch from out of town. We would go out to that canal and turn the water down and run it into the reservoir until it was full. We had a pump and to get it right up to where we put water into it, then we pumped the rest of it in to fill it up.

Jon Duncan: Okay, where exactly did they put the pipes?

Cleve Adamson: The water pipes are on one side of the street and the sewer pipes are on the other. Except on Main Street, the water and sewer pipes are on the same side of the street but they are twelve feet apart from one another. They are not all the same; some water pipes are on the west sides of the streets and the sewer on the east. I don’t think that that is through the whole town because. A lot of work went into putting that in. If you had seen the roads before this sewer was put in. In spring and that you could hardly drive down them. You have got sewer and water pipes running pretty well down each block, around each block really.

Jon Duncan: What do you mean that the sewer took the surface water away?

Cleve Adamson: With the pipe that was put in it would seep through it and just take it away. Where you put your pipes together it would seep through there. It just took the surface water right down. We started down at the north end of town, well on Second Avenue, we started there and dug a hole it started with a line going straight south and had a pump down at that hole. We started putting the sewer pipe in and there was water running out of that pipe, surface water going down there. I would say that it had to be four or five inches. Better then the end of a pop bottle was running there twenty hours a day, just draining the surface water out of this town.

Jon Duncan: So the sewer really dried Stirling up

Cleve Adamson: Oh yes, that is why we lost a lot of our trees a lot of them just didn’t get enough water Because there were the irrigation ditches that were feeding the trees.

Jon Duncan: The pipes then, they were on both sides of the street.

Cleve Adamson: Yes

Jon Duncan: How did people get around when the roads were all dug up?

Cleve Adamson: They had to pick streets that it wasn’t. We tried to do so much and finish it off and all that. I remember when Elodia Christenson the roads were so bad that they would take a wheel barrow down two blocks east to pick up the mail and bring it down here to the post office because the streets were so bad. They couldn’t drive on them. In certain times of the year you would drop right out of sight in here. You have got your eight inch clay pipe and then you have got your AC pipe, some four inch and others six inches.

Jon Duncan: I have been told that you are the one that they come to when they want to find the pipe around here. 

Cleve Adamson: Yes, I can take a bar or I can take two wires and I can find the water pipe, I can find the sewer pipe, I can find telephone lines, gas line. I just hold them in my hands and make an L shape out of them and hold it in your hands. When I walk across one of the lines these two wires will just cross and when I will step over it they will open up again.

Jon Duncan: Does it work every time.

Cleve Adamson: Yes, it has for me. Your not to far away, it has been accurate. I have had Alfred Zaugg come and get me and take me out to his farm, he had somebody which a well out there at one time and he says I am going to walk you around. He walked me around to this well. So I took a bar out there and pretty soon the bar went down. I was four inches away from where this other guy had witched a well for him out there

Jon Duncan: One of your many duties in Stirling over the years has been bylaw enforcement. How did you become the town constable?

Cleve Adamson: I had to swear allegiance to the queen through Alfred Zaugg, he was the justice of the peace then. That had to be in early sixties.

Jon Duncan: Who was the mayor at the time?

Cleve Adamson: I am pretty sure that Joe Spackman was the mayor. It would be in the early sixties. I am sure that Joe Spackman was the mayor at the time

Jon Duncan: What were your duties?

Cleve Adamson: Just enforcing animal bylaws and if people were tearing around at night, catch them, what ever I could do. I spent a lot of night just walking around, if a person drove around they would see you coming. Just little vandalisms going on, it is surprising what you can catch when you are walking around at night. I enjoyed it. Same as I enjoyed working for the village same as I enjoy being on the fire department.

Jon Duncan: Okay so how often did you catch kids vandalizing?

Cleve Adamson: I would say three or four times a month. Sometimes they were good, sometimes you would never catch anybody.

Jon Duncan: What would the kids get up to?

Cleve Adamson: They would go raiding gardens, especially there were great for steeling gas. Borrowing gas or whatever because at that time the farmers had their gas tanks right here in town, they would siphon it out of cars. There wasn’t too much of that. I knew of two or three episodes. The majority of things going on you would say should I go and talk to your parents or are you going to tell them what you have done. It would never happen again. The kids were good you know if you would sit there and talk to them you could reason with them.

Jon Duncan: Were you also the dog catcher.

Cleve Adamson: I was the dog catcher for a long time yes. I run the pound then and I still do. But ya I was the dog catcher for a long time, I gave that up because I could get into enough trouble just running the pound without being dog catcher to. Some people seem to take preference of their dogs over their kids because they would say don’t you touch my dogs.

Jon Duncan: Okay no let me ask you this. A lot of people have pet dogs and cats now; when you were growing up did you have a pet dog.

Cleve Adamson: Yes we did, we had a pet dog and then we had cats. Quite a few cats out there because they would catch mice. Like I said before we had Bum Lambs.

Jon Duncan: Lots of pets around the house.

Cleve Adamson: Yes

Jon Duncan: Did any of them come in the house?

Cleve Adamson: Yes the cats and the dogs stayed in the house because it was just a little dog. I don’t remember what kind it was now but I know that it was just a ball of fur. White fur

Jon Duncan: What was its name?

Cleve Adamson: Mickey, I am not sure. That has been a lot of years ago. Had one for eighteen years when I moved in here, called that one Chickeo.

Jon Duncan: That was the kids pet.

Cleve Adamson: Yes it was

Jon Duncan: Alright so you were retired from work in 1989?

Cleve Adamson: Yes I did

Jon Duncan: And that was for medical reasons.

Cleve Adamson: Ya it was, my eyes got worse.

Jon Duncan: Tell me what is your attitude towards work?

Cleve Adamson: I love work, I always did. If I could see to do it I would. I love work. A lot of jobs I couldn’t see to do it and it made me kind of mad but there is nothing that you can do about it because if you can’t see to do it, you just can’t. Like right now there are a lot of things that I would like to do around my place but I can’t see to do it. I have my brother come up and he mows my lawn for me.

Jon Duncan: Were you ever unemployed?

Cleve Adamson: Oh yes, when I worked for the village I was unemployed in the winter time. Then started up in the winter again, they would call me any time, even in the winter.

Jon Duncan: How did you manage money when you were unemployed?

Cleve Adamson: Be on unemployment, I was getting blind pension.

Jon Duncan: So you did have money.

Cleve Adamson: Yes, not much but we managed.

Jon Duncan: Alright Cleve, I want to talk a little about your years on the fire department. When did you first join the fire department?

Cleve Adamson: I joined the fire department in 1958, I am pretty sure that it was January of fifty eight.

Jon Duncan: What were you duties over the years?

Cleve Adamson: For the first quite a few years I was a depute fire chief but I would go out on the pumper and run the pump, run the hose. Whatever they needed, whatever it took.

Jon Duncan: What are your duties now?

Cleve Adamson: I am dispatch. I don’t go out on the truck or the ambulance, I used to but I don’t anymore. I just man the radio and the phone on dispatch.

Jon Duncan: How good are you at dispatching?

Cleve Adamson: They won’t let me quit the fire department; they say that I am the best one on there. I guess that I must be good at it.

Jon Duncan: What are the most common types of fires that you have had to fight in Stirling?

Cleve Adamson: There have been a lot of grass fires that we have had in Stirling. There have been houses and that. We even cover a certain part of the county; we cover quite a bit of the county in fact. We go to New Dayton, part way to Raymond; we go to the North boundary. In fact we may go into Lethbridge, we go south. East we go as far as we need be. Wrentham now has a fire department. But anyplace that we are called we do go.

Jon Duncan: What is the one that you remember the most over the years?

Cleve Adamson: I think that the biggest one was when Don Christenson’s house burnt down. That was just east of new rock port colony; we were called out to that. The biggest story was not one in town here it was when we go called to foremost when the grain elevator was burning. That was the biggest fire that I have ever been to.

Jon Duncan: Tell me about the time that the train derailed out here.

Cleve Adamson: The time that the train derailed out here us. The phone rang and I picked it up and at that time I had a lot to do with the RCMP. I had a lot of friends in there and he phoned me and said there has been a trail derailment and he says that you have got to evacuate the town until you do it. I said you bet I can. He said how are you going to do it. I said that I was going to go and ring the siren. We will get the fireman out and evacuate the town and if I am not mistaken it was either half an hour or three quarters of an hour that we had the entire town evacuated. We assembled and put so many to each corner of the town and if they didn’t have a vehicle we hauled them to Raymond, wherever. They came back and they told us that the CPI wanted to take our fire truck and we said no we will stay. I don’t remember how many of us but there were quite a few of us that stayed in town. It was quite an episode because the explosive expert gave us a briefing in the fire haul. One of them asked how long, if it ever blew. If I remember right it was butane that was leaking. And they asked how long we would have if we were at the fire haul and that blew how long would we have. He said from the time that you heard the bang you would have twelve seconds. He said that it will flatten everything within a two mile radius. We never found out until after, nobody told us, CPR didn’t or the explosive expert that just two or three cars from that were of Anti-sumonia, we didn’t even know that. So if that butane went that would have went to and that would have been a lot worse

Jon Duncan: So it was a fairly dangerous circumstance.

Cleve Adamson: Yes it was. It defiantly was. It could have been. The power was shut off, the natural gas was shut off, and they didn’t want any sparks in case. We were lucky because that night it was raining and the wind was going west so it blew everything right away from Stirling. They had to detour the vehicles around Stirling from Wilson or whatever direction. They wouldn’t even let them on the highway.

Jon Duncan: Were there many hay stacks or straw stacks that were on fire around Stirling?

Cleve Adamson: Yes there have been quite a few of them. I remember many of them, Cal Brandley’s. I remember going out to haystacks and that out at highway fifty two. Then had a great big pile of wood chips that they used for bedding that caught of fire. That was quite a fire to. We went to an awful lot of accidents. Being this close to the number four highway there are a lot.

Jon Duncan: So the fire department has been kept busy.

Cleve Adamson: Yes there are times that it is slow and that but we have got a good fire department now. We have got two fire trucks, a big tanker, a rescue van, and an ambulance. I think that we have got right around twenty members of volunteers.

Jon Duncan: Alright the next thing that I want to talk about with you is the influence of the church in Stirling. Now you are LDS yourself.

Cleve Adamson: Yes I am

Jon Duncan: There have been many other religious groups living in and around Stirling. How livent are you?

Cleve Adamson: As far as I am concerned they haven’t been treated any different than the rest. There many be the odd few but I think that if they are like me, I feel that everybody is equal. Religion I don’t think makes me any better of a man. I believe in my religion and they believe in theirs. As far as I am concerned there are good people in all walks of life.

Jon Duncan: How do you get along with the hutterites?

Cleve Adamson: Very good, exceptionally good. I can go out there and tell them that I want vegetables or chickens or ducks. If I tell the them I aint’ got the money to pay for them they will say well pay me when you can. They are super people you know you treat them decent and they are good people. One thing about them is that they are really self sufficient.

Jon Duncan: How often did they come into town?

Cleve Adamson: They used to come into town a lot more years ago but they come into town, into my own home at least twice a month.

Jon Duncan: Just for a visit.

Cleve Adamson: Just for a visit, they will come into town from Lethbridge and they will stop in. and visit with me. I get in there through the years and go in their home and visit with them. They are good people, that is where I but all my eggs and all my vegetables from them. They don’t harm anybody. They used to come into school here years ago.

Jon Duncan: The Japanese came here after WWII, how did you feel towards them?

Cleve Adamson: I didn’t think that there was nothing wrong with them. There are Japanese that lived east of us, on the Brandley home. I don’t hate them because of their skin color; I take people for themselves and always have. The Japanese owned the store in town, they are good people.

Jon Duncan: Immigrants would come into Stirling, did any of them speak English

Cleve Adamson: There haven’t been that many that didn’t speak English. I have known two that I can think of that would never speak English. But that is his choice; you know you can’t force him. His kids spoke good English but their father just wouldn’t speak it.

Jon Duncan: So most people could actually speak clearly.

Cleve Adamson: Yes.

Jon Duncan: One thing that you have been involved in quite a bit is the old folk’s party.
 
Tape 2 Side 2 
 
Jon Duncan: Alright I was just asking you a question about the old folk’s party when the tape ran out. You and Mona were involved in that, how long did you own the old folks party.

Cleve Adamson: I am not sure, I believe for three years maybe four, I don’t know but that was a lot of fun. We had a lot of fun doing it.

Jon Duncan: How did you get that responsibility?

Cleve Adamson: I believe that my parents used to work on it and other parents. It just got turned over to; I think Ann Hirschie and Marvin. They run it for a few years; we would help them along with our other friends. It just got so that Ann said that I think it is your turn to take charge. So Mona and I did. It was really gratifying to do. You would go up and you would decorate, have a big supper for the old folks and it really made you feels good to see the old folks come back and visit with one another. It was really nice to see the old folks visiting and having fun. They were just super they don’t ever stop. I don’t know why it stopped but I wish it was still going.

Jon Duncan: Who was the bishop then?

Cleve Adamson: When Mona and I took over it was Bishop Bill Hogenson. He was the bishop then and he went out and his son Marvin took over. He was bishop when Mona and I got through.

Jon Duncan: What was it like to work with them?

Cleve Adamson: We didn’t want to spend that much money on it and he didn’t. We had done the best that we could. When Marvin, his son, took over as bishop my wife Mona and I was talking. I seen him pulling up to church and I said well it is getting to the time that we should be thinking about. I said I am going to go up and talk to the bishop and tell him what we want. He had a bunch of things that he discussed with Mona and I, I went up to him and said that we need so many dollars possibly for decorating. He said fine, I forget all of the things that I asked for. One thing that I do remember asking for is that we want a live band, a live orchestra. Bill, his dad said we had to have plates for records. I said that the old folks really like to sit and watch and listen to people play. He said fine. I was all ready to say if he said no I was ready to go home and bring the books and bring them to you. So everything that I asked him he went right along with it. Like I said it was really good to see the fun that people were having, they did have a lot of fun

Jon Duncan: So you did that for about three years.

Cleve Adamson: I think that it was about three years that Mona and I were in charge of it.

Jon Duncan: Okay, one of the last things that I want to ask you is about politics. What are your attitudes toward town council?

Cleve Adamson: I have always got along with the town council. Myself I have had no problem with them. There have been a few who came up to me when I was working for the village and said what a great job that I am doing for the village and as a council they really appreciate it. That makes you feel good. There may be the off thing that they may have done that you don’t really care for but there is no point in dwelling on it, you just accept it and go along with it. They made the decision and that is what we elected them for, to run the village so we have pretty we got to take what they decide.

Jon Duncan: Did you always vote for town council?

Cleve Adamson: You bet I did, never missed one, voted for who I would like to see in.

Jon Duncan: How do you feel about voting?

Cleve Adamson: Well I feel that if you don’t vote, whether it is for town council men, or federal people. If you don’t vote you should not have the right to voice your opinion. If you vote, I feel that you have got the right to say what is on your mind.

Jon Duncan: Well how do you feel about the federal government?

Cleve Adamson: Well there was one in particular that I didn’t care for. That is the wrong thing to say but it was Tudou. Joe Clark, I wish they had let him be in longer to see what he would have done, I think that he would be alright. I have always voted for one party and that is one that I will continue to vote for, there is no point in changing now.

Jon Duncan: Who is that?

Cleve Adamson: The progressive conservatives

Jon Duncan: What about provincially?

Cleve Adamson: The PC’s

Jon Duncan: You’re conservative provincially as well.

Cleve Adamson: Ya

Jon Duncan: What was it about Pierre Trudou that you didn’t like?

Cleve Adamson: His attitude, it was just my way or the highway. I didn’t like the way that he talked to people and I feel that he put the country in debt. Maybe I am wrong but you asked my feelings and there they are. I don’t think much of him.

Jon Duncan: How did you feel when they patriotic the constitution?

Cleve Adamson: I just never give in much thought. To be honest I am not that much inclined over politics. Maybe of I could read more about it I would be more inclined to voice an opinion. I feel that I shouldn’t be saying much about things I don’t know anything about.

Jon Duncan: What was it like a little earlier when the changed the Canadian flag?

Cleve Adamson: I didn’t mind them changing it, I had nothing against that. Change is good.

Jon Duncan: Now one issue that has bothered some people today is the issue of Quebec and national unity. What do you think about that issue?

Cleve Adamson: I feel that if they separate, let them separate. See if they would make it on their own. I would love to see Canada stay as a whole but how much of that argument can you take. Eventually maybe they will go on their own, I don’t know, I hope not. But if they do there is nothing that we can do about it.

Jon Duncan: Do you see yourself more as a Canadian or as an Albertan?

Cleve Adamson: I don’t know, I have lived in Alberta all of my life and yet I am a Canadian. I wouldn’t want to be in any other country. I am glad that I am an Albertan. I would rather live right here than I would in any other province. I think I am an Albertan more than a Canadian.

Jon Duncan: Someone that I haven’t brought up yet is Chuck Perrett. What influence did he have in your life?

Cleve Adamson: Chuck Perrett has had a lot of influence in my life. He and I were great friends. He was just a good man.

Jon Duncan: You say that he was a good friend of yours, in what way?

Cleve Adamson: He would sit and talk and I had done his chores for him when he had cows and that. Milked his cows, he was just good to me. We got along really good him. He would always talk to you no matter where you were at. He was a good man and he was good in the community. He worked in the village for a while and then he drove the school bus for a lot of years to.

Jon Duncan: What about Joe Spackman?

Cleve Adamson: He was a good man. Joe and I always did get along. I always did like Joe him and his wife, she is a good lady. They come down and I see them every once and a while There are times that I see him in Lethbridge and we stop and visit.

Jon Duncan: He was a friend of yours growing up?

Cleve Adamson: Not as young and that because he is older than I am. But through the years and that I got to help his dad and that, and then Joe was on council and that. I just got to know him real well. There was Mona and I and Marvin and Anne Hirschie. Eric and Jane we would play cards and just had a lot of fun.

Jon Duncan: What kinds of cards?

Cleve Adamson: I can’t remember the name of it now but we used to have a whole lot of fun playing it.

Jon Duncan: This was a time for friends to get together.

Cleve Adamson: Yes and we would meet at one families place one month and another next. You would put on quite a big lunch and that.

Jon Duncan: What day of the week was this?

Cleve Adamson: On the weekends, probably Friday night or Saturday night because then you didn’t have to get up and work the next day.

Jon Duncan: Alright now my last question is this. You have lived in Stirling through the years, what changes have you seen.

Cleve Adamson: Well I have seen all of the houses being built in, the water and sewer, the new school, new church, new town office, new fire hall, there have been a lot of changes. 

Jon Duncan: How has Christmas changed?

Cleve Adamson: It is too commercialized. I feel that too many people are trying to outdo one another by buying stuff for them and their kids. I can remember as a kid making decorations, coloring, and making it. That to me was Christmas, which was a good time.

Jon Duncan: This was at home.

Cleve Adamson: Yes this was at home. With our own family, Mona and I couldn’t afford to buy a whole bunch of stuff. We bought the kids stuff and they appreciated it. You had your goodies that Mona would make and she would make a lot and she was good at it. I think that nowadays that Christmas is too commercialized. I think that people speaking for myself would cherish a gift more if my kids made it and gave it to me than what you would if they went and bought something.

Jon Duncan: How many presents did you get as a boy?

Cleve Adamson: We usually got one large present and maybe one or two little things. From Santa Clause we would get a great big thing and then maybe one of the things that we ask for maybe just one or two little things from my brother or my sister. We were always happy.

Jon Duncan: Were these homemade gifts?

Cleve Adamson: Some were, I remember a wagon and it wasn’t homemade, that was for all of us kids. We just had a ball with it. Mom was a good sewer and she would make us shirts it was good. When I got my first watch I thought that was just super.

Jon Duncan: This was as a boy?

Cleve Adamson: Yes this was as a boy.

Jon Duncan: So even though you didn’t get a lot of gifts Christmas was a special time.

Cleve Adamson: You bet it was. We looked forward to Christmas. We had no lights to hang on your tree, we had no power. You had pretty balls and ornaments. It was special.

Jon Duncan: Was there a Christmas dance back then?

Cleve Adamson: Yes there was. I always did love dancing, I used to square dance an awful lot in fact Mona and I taught dancing in the church here for two years.

Jon Duncan: Really?

Cleve Adamson: Ya

Jon Duncan: So dancing was a big part of your life?

Cleve Adamson: Yes, and still is, I still love dancing.

Jon Duncan: Well Cleve I think that we are finished; we have had a good visit.

Cleve Adamson: Yes we have.

Jon Duncan: We have talked about a lot of things. I want to thank you for doing this.
Cleve Adamson: My pleasure, I am just glad that I can remember some of the things. A lot of the things that I have done in my life I am happy to have done them.

Jon Duncan: Alright well I think that it is time to shut this off.

Cleve Adamson: Thank you

Transcribed By Clinton Dovell