Interviewee: Joseph/Joe Stevenson
Interviewer: Sharon Turner
 
Sharon Turner: My name is Sharon Turner and I am at the home of Joe Stevenson in Raymond and he is being interviewed for the Stirling oral History Program. Why don’t you go ahead and tell us who your parents were and what brought you to Stirling and when and where you were born?

Joe Stevenson: I am Joseph Aziel Stevenson commonly know I guess as Joe, I was born in Raymond Alberta on March the 8^th1932.

Sharon Turner: Were you born at home?

Joe Stevenson: I was born in my grandmother’s home.

Sharon Turner: Midwife attended?

Joe Stevenson: Yes,

Sharon Turner: Who was the midwife, do you know?

Joe Stevenson: Yes, we called her Sister Deardon, I can’t think of her first name know, I know it but I can’t think of it. The thing that brought me to Stirling of course was getting a job as a teacher in the junior high, high school teaching math, chemistry, Physics and other things as needed. Also to be the Vice principal under Principal Doug Christenson, I came to Stirling in 1962, prior to that I had taught for eight years starting in the Peace River country. I taught for two years in a little country school called South Whaply and I taught in a school called Alcome Dale north of Edmonton. I taught in Milk River for two years, taught grade nine in Milk River. Went back to Edmonton where I taught school in Edmonton in the King Edward Park, junior high school and then in the Fort Saskatchewan Junior/Senior high school, while I completed my education at the University. I couldn’t afford to take time off to go to school so I taught and went to night school and summer school. By so doing I completed my Bachelors degree in 1961. Then following that we wanted to return to Sothern Alberta and Stirling offered us a job and so we were delighted to come to Stirling. We would like to have lived in Stirling, that was out intent but in 1962 there was no running water in Stirling and no Sewer system. We were not ready to go back to hauling water and having to deal with a septic tank or an outhouse and so I enquired with the officials in Stirling at the time and they indicated to me at the time that in the foreseeable future that they couldn’t see those things being brought to Stirling. So we decided then that we would build in Raymond, so we built our home in the fall of 1962.

Sharon Turner: Was that this home?

Joe Stevenson: That was this home yes, and we took up residence here in Raymond and I drove back and forth to Stirling and I taught there for twenty six years and during that time I never missed a day because I couldn’t get to school.

Sharon Turner: Is that right.

Joe Stevenson:  Yes.

Sharon Turner: What about in 1967 in the big storm.

Joe Stevenson:No, if I couldn’t get to school, nobody could get to school. There were days when I got up early and I arrived and then we had to cancel school because of the poor weather. I never missed a day because of the weather.

Sharon Turner: Well that is pretty good. That’s amazing, especially with this road going out the back here. I don’t imagine that it was always paved like this was it.

Joe Stevenson: The east and west road was paved but the North and south road to Stirling were Gravel Roads at the time. So I enjoyed my twenty six years in Stirling very much. Surprisingly, two years after we started teaching in Stirling and built our house here, Stirling announced that they were going to get water and sewer and did so. We had already established ourselves here so we decided to stay.

Sharon Turner: It is not that long of a drive to Raymond.

Joe Stevenson: It is ten minutes from my door to the school door.

Sharon Turner: What is the big school that is there now is that they school that you started in or was it the old school.

Joe Stevenson: The real school wasn’t there.

Sharon Turner: The brick one?

Joe Stevenson: Ya, the school that is there now, the main part of it was there and that is where the main offices and classes were but north of that school was a small
country school that had been set up there and as I understand moved in from out in the country and set on a foundation and there were two rooms upstairs and two rooms in the basement. Because of the number of Students and classes, we used that building as extra classroom space. It was like our portable school house.

Sharon Turner: What grades would have been taught in the old one.

Joe Stevenson: Sometimes we had elementary grades over there, grade one, grade two. Sometimes we taught junior high or senior high classes over there. It just depended on what the circumstances were each year. Here it was moved around depending on How many students and how many rooms we needed and what the best situation seemed to be.

Sharon Turner: Who did you have for teachers when you were there?

Joe Stevenson: Lots of people, I am sure that if I start naming I will leave some out. Over twenty six years you cross paths with lots of people but I had a good experience with many people and ill name ones that come to mind. Jack Hicken and I started teaching at Stirling the same year.

Sharon Turner: Is that right.

Joe Stevenson: Oh, okay so we began there at the same time. Victoria Zaugg was the first grade teacher. Norma Christenson, Merdle Christenson, Ellen Nelson, Kent wood came as a new university graduate, I taught him before he went off to university. Then he came back as the teacher and stayed and then next one staff member.

Sharon Turner: He is the vice principal now.

Joe Stevenson: Yes, I taught with Jim Hillyer, Betty Pitcher, Linda Jugg, Janice Erickson, and Karol Barnson, Inge Pot, Phil Tolstrip, Darryl Nilsson, he has spent many years as a teacher here in Stirling now. In all of my experience he is the best Junior High school teacher that I have ever associated with.

Sharon Turner: My son really enjoys him.

Joe Stevenson: He has the right combination of toughness and sense of humour and skill as a teacher that he can deal with junior high students in a very positive way. In the twenty or so years that I was there with him in that time I never had a single complaint from a parent about him dealing with students in the school. Never once. There were others that I never had any other complaints on and some that I did. He really stood out as a person who really dealt well with junior high kids. In my experience, junior high is the toughest area to be a teacher in school.

Sharon Turner: Just being a mother of junior high students was enough for me. I can’t imagine being in the classroom with them all day.

Joe Stevenson: I have no desire to be negative about junior high kids because I am not at all but when kids are in that age group they are getting mature enough that they
want to be grown up but they aren’t old enough yet to really understand all that goes with being grown up. Taking responsibility and so on, they are always testing and checking and sometimes doing dumb things just because kids do. On the whole we had good young people, really good young people. Who else did I teach with, other names don’t come to me right now, and I probably left out some very significant ones.

Sharon Turner: Now you say that the main part of the school was there at that time, what I have heard, no I don’t know that the stories go that they were actually thinking of closing the school and within the next few years actually had to put additions on to it to accommodate the children that were coming up.

Joe Stevenson: Well the concept of closing the school was a rumour that got circulated; I think that it was primarily fostered by people from the county of Warner. Stirling never felt like they were going to close their school to my knowledge and as a staff we never thought that the school would close. But there was a time after the sugar factory close in 1964 that quite a few families left Stirling and the population dropped. We were down to about a hundred and fifty some odd students at one point. To try and sustain a high school program when you have got about thirty kids in ten, eleven, and twelve is difficult. By sometimes combining grades and keeping things overlapped where we had to and as an administrator I usually taught full time or nearly full time because I felt that it was more important for the students to have the courses then for me to have administration time. So I did the administration before school, at noon and after school. I taught during school and by so doing we were able to keep a full program of classes in the school and we survived that period of low enrolment. As the years went by Stirling gradually started to grow and when I left Stirling we were approximately at 350 students in the school. 

Sharon Turner: I think that is about where it is today.

Joe Stevenson: It got easier and easier to manage the things, even so as the years went I was principal wanting to teach. I enjoyed most of the association in the classroom. With the students and so I taught full time most of the time. 

Sharon Turner: That is a heavy load with administration.

Joe Stevenson:That was alright. The job that I had in Stirling was excellent I couldn’t have asked for a better place to work with better people to work with. It was just an excellent environment in which to work. Some of the school board members, I remember, who really kind of highlight my experience there. Boyd Hirschie was chairman of the school board for many years and was very positive about things in the school. I enjoyed the association with him. His brother Clifford was also on the school board. Glenn Adamson and those men were very dedicated to making the school a great positive experience for teachers and for students. Elodia Christenson was the Secretary and treasurer of the school district for many, many years. Then when she left, Pat McGlenn got the job as secretary treasurer of and served the district very capably. Willie Spinwrath was the first Superintendent that Stirling had designated as Stirling superintendent. Prior to that the superintendent services had been provided by the county of Warner of the Lethbridge regional office. Rudy was designated as our Superintendent and I enjoyed working with him, he made a lot of good things happen. When I started there, the main part of the school consisted of eight classrooms and the gymnasium. While I was there we added the North addition which at that time included the librarian and a couple of classrooms. The southeast addition which was wrapped right around the school gave an excellent number of extra classrooms and a new laboratory for science work. It surely was a great addition to the school. After I left the school, the presidential offices on the North side of the building was after I had left the school.

Sharon Turner: I am impressed with how well it was done, the additions, because having just moved to Stirling two years ago going in there and enrolling my son we weren’t aware that all of these additions had taken place and we were amazed at how beautiful it was and how cool it looked. We didn’t realize that it was all piece mail and it was very well done. 

Joe Stevenson: Well the people that were incvilved at the time at the school staff had a lot of input into how it was done and on the two additions that were done while I was there. The superintendent was there for both of those additions and he certainly had lots of wisdom on how those were developed and how they added to the school. It really made it a good quality school building. There was a point that we wished that the gymnasium could have been a little bit bigger. The seating space that is there is often not adequate for the crowds that come.

Sharon Turner: Some of the boys that played basketball, retired men now, were telling me that they always felt like they had a bit of an advantage because they had learned how to shoot in their gym and the outside towns would come in and weren’t quite as familiar with the boundaries. They always felt like they had a bit of an advantage, being able to play at him because it was different.

Joe Stevenson: We had lots of success at basketball and Jack Hicken was the coach for many years and then after he coached Phil Tollstrip coached for several years while I was there. Both of them were very capable athletes themselves, they had been in places where their own experience and training had really prepared them well to teach young people basketball. The quality of their teaching certainly gave Stirling tremendous success over the years. That was very positive

Sharon Turner: Whenever the question comes up about school days, the first thing that every one that I have interviewed has said I had the most wonderful teachers and they will start naming the same teachers. It is just amazing that there are no negative feelings about their school years. There are no regrets, no complaints it was just always a wonderful experience with wonderful teachers and I think that is a real tribute to the school in Stirling and to those who have taught, coached, and administered.

Joe Stevenson: The philosophy that I tried to follow in terms of the school is that they staff members aught to be professional enough to be able to look at the curriculum, look at the students and then make the necessary things happen so that very good things happened for the students. They were successful in their curriculum; they were successful in their extra curricular activities and in their social activities that they put on by a school. As a staff we worked very hard to make sure that good things happened for the students. That was my goal that students came first. And they really tried to make good things happen for them.

Sharon Turner: They sure have appreciated it let me tell ya. What point did the old school come down, when was that decision made?

Joe Stevenson: The real old school

Sharon Turner: The one that had the two classrooms up and the two down.

Joe Stevenson: Oh when we put the first addition on the northeast side of the school, then the old school got removed after we had that extra space.

Sharon Turner: Was it torn down or was it moved?

Joe Stevenson: It was moved off, somebody purchased it and I think that it might have been Marty Hirschie’s dad.

Sharon Turner: Marvin

Joe Stevenson: I think that Marvin Hirschie bought it and moved it out onto his farm; I think that’s where it went. I think that is where it went. Once the school was taken out they took the foundation out and levelled it out.

Sharon Turner: Nice playground there now. Actually since we have moved there the playground has been finished.

Joe Stevenson: It was started when the new additions were put on the school. I think it has gradually been improved and increased in quality.

Sharon Turner: What about the social activities, I have heard a lot about the dances, the old folk’s parties and the activities that were put on by the community, by the church, by the school. Were you involved in a lot of those, living in Raymond or did you find yourself more involved in the Raymond social life.  Did you socialize in Stirling a lot as well?

Joe Stevenson: I didn’t socialize outside of school things very much, in Stirling or in Raymond. I didn’t have time. I was at the school most Friday evenings until late, because of school activities that were taking place either basketball or dances or parties, whatever. I think I pretty well always was there for tournaments and that type of thing but I didn’t get involved in other things, I just didn’t feel like I had time to get involved with things like the lions club or that type of thing. I never felt like I had enough time. By the time that I had done my school thing, family things, and church things my time was all just gone.

Sharon Turner: Others I have interviewed have talked about there being a kind of cross over in their days and this maybe before your time in Stirling, but there being a cross over between the church and the school. I have just been amazed at that and at how smoothly that ran because in a lot of communities that doesn’t go over very well but there was quite a bit of crossover. They would have activities and use different facilities back and forth and it worked out all right.

Joe Stevenson: That was kind of a mutual Agreement. There was nothing ever written but it was a mutual agreement between the church and the school and whatever facilities that the church had that the school needed, tables chairs, lightening equipment, sound equipment, if the school had it and the church needed it, the church got it. Similarly if we needed things from the church when we put on a party or graduation or a tournament or something of that type, in terms of the same kind of thing, tables, chairs, lighting equipment, sound equipment, they let us use whatever we needed. It just went back a forth, over they years that I was there, there was never a conflict over it.

Sharon Turner: That is a nice relationship to have but you don’t have that in a lot of different communities. In the bigger centers, I know that Lethbridge wouldn’t go for it. It is nice to have that.

Joe Stevenson: It worked very well, to my knowledge the school never lost anything because it got loaned to the church, I don’t know anything that the church ever lost.

Sharon Turner: It didn’t really create hard feelings between those who weren’t Mormons.

Joe Stevenson: None that I am aware of.

Sharon Turner: That is a real good relationship to have; it is too bad that we can’t have more of that type of thing. As of not living in Stirling and being in the school where there were a lot of LDS children but there were some who weren’t. Was there any conflict between the two or did they seem to just blend fine in the community and not have any conflicts or disagreements.

Joe Stevenson: I don’t recollect any conflicts over religious things; we consciously made an effort to involve all students in school activities. No reference was ever made that I am aware of because of anything religious affiliation.

Sharon Turner: I think that that is the way that it is today as well, kids enjoy it.

Joe Stevenson: Many of the students who weren’t LDS involved themselves in LDS activities because they enjoyed going with the young people and being part of them. Tat was a good thing, some of the highlight students in my experiences, I think back over they years and I had lots of fun and good Students, some that stick in my mind are Grant Nelson, he was in my first class, he was a good man and a good student in the school. Clark Finley, Marie Eves, they were in that first class that I taught. Colleen Hogenson was an outstanding student. Colleen Hardy was also an outstanding student. The Oashi twins Rod and Cam were excellent students. Mike Hicken and David Hardy Cameron Oashi I think brought an honour to the school and to me as a teacher went on one of his diploma examinations from the government, he got a hundred percent. That is a very rare thing that a student gets a hundred percent.

Sharon Turner: What class?

Joe Stevenson: As I recall I think that it was chemistry.

Sharon Turner: Oh my gosh, that is wonderful

Joe Stevenson: Chemistry 30, as I recall he got a hundred percent on it. Sam Bikman, another outstanding student. There were many more. Many Students from Stirling who had gone on and made something of themselves, I have met Bret Hirschie once and a while; he was one of my students. After he finished school he went on and became a Lawyer and practiced law in Edmonton. I had an interesting experience with him one time. People often make negative comments about lawyers and one day he came to the school and I was talking with him and almost a little bit I made a negative comment about lawyers. He looked at me and he said, not you too. That made me thing and realize that it is never wise to focus on the negative. If a person has chosen an occupation and that is their chosen field to them it is a positive thing and we should focus on the positive, not the negative.

Sharon Turner: Maybe we need more good ones out there like him that change the image.

Joe Stevenson: He has remained a good friend for many, many years. I am delighted whenever I get to see him. That is true for many of my students; many of them have gone on to success in many of my fields. In medicine, in law, in dentistry, teaching, business. The have been successful people. Numerous times when students would come back to the school I was always concerned about students growing up having gone through a small school because there are some disadvantages, you don’t get exposed to some of the things that they do in large schools just because you can’t offer everything. I would often ask then, do you feel that your experiences in a small school were a handicap in any way to you when you went to university. I always got very positive responses back from the students. They always said we learned how to work, we learned how to study, and those were the things that paid off and the background that we got and gave us standing that we could go ahead and be successful. It was always positive, I never had one of them say that I wish I had have gone to a big school. That never ever came up. The response was always positive and encouraging.

Sharon Turner: Our son, his marks went up a good ten percent when he came up from Hamilton junior high. I am going to ask you about your associations with some of these people, you say that some of them remain very good friends and I wondered about that, having gone to a one room country school in Ontario for eight years.
 
Tape 1 Side 2
 

Sharon Turner: Well I was just wondering about that relationship between the student and teacher and how it develops into. I look at my teachers as I grow up and to me they are still that authority figure and I am still that student in my mind and the relationship doesn’t gel. I have heard stories of so many people talk about their teachers of the past in Stirling and say that they are my closet friends today, whenever I see them we are just really good friends. Is that just sort of the association that you have had over the years or do the memories that you have had from them?

Joe Stevenson: Well I think that it is both. When you genuinely care about what happens to kids and you really try to make good things happen for them, you don’t quit caring when they grow up and go away. So everything that you see them you are glad to see them and want to find out how they are doing and what is happening in their lives. It is just fun to see them and your new acquaintance. I have very positive feelings toward the school and the students. 

Sharon Turner: What are some of the changes that you saw in Stirling over the years that you were there?

Joe Stevenson: Well the addition of water and sewer really was a positive thing that you could see in the community.

Sharon Turner: Did they fill in the irrigation ditches when they put water in?

Joe Stevenson: They were visible for a long time, I don’t know when or how they got filled in, I was well aware of the conscious effort to do that. The addition of paved roads in front of the school and. To get into the community it was really a positive addition to the community. The building of the library, the town hall, the lion’s center, and those things were all very positive additions in the community. The community gradually changed from a farming, rural community to a bedroom community for many people who worked in Lethbridge. The quality of people who came to Stirling all was excellent, good quality people, people who were strong and family oriented and community oriented. They wanted a good place to live and they wanted a good family, a situation and so they contributed to the community and the school. That made for very positive things. 
Sharon Turner: Elodia Christenson, I have heard so much about her and the productions that she did, did she do those through the school as well as through the church?
Joe Stevenson: She had kind of retired from doing those when I had arrived in Stirling. But I heard a lot about them too. On occasion she would come into the school when we were doing a play and help us with choreography and staging and things like that. She had a natural flaring talent for it. That was excellent exposure for the students to have her come in and help them out in their productions.

Sharon Turner: One thing that I miss at the years of Stirling school is the absence of a music program. Did you have music in the school when you were there?

Joe Stevenson: Is there not a band now.

Sharon Turner: There is no program at all.

Joe Stevenson: We had a band program going in the school for probably the best ten years that I was in the school. Not only band but we also had some choir work.
Those things are hard to maintain. But this school is big enough, if there was someone who really wanted to do them, they could do them.

Sharon Turner: Ya, that is the one thing that we missed, out children aren’t terribly athletic but they are fairly musical and all of that kind of things.

Joe Stevenson: We missed seeing that, we were away on a trip visiting out kids while it was on.

Sharon Turner: That was an important trip.

Joe Stevenson: Ya, we were gone for six weeks. One of the highlights of the school year, every year was graduation program.

Sharon Turner: And still the whole town comes out for grad.

Joe Stevenson: That is the way that it has been all through the years. Very, very positive response from the community, it is a lot of work to prepare the school and program and put on the graduation. But It was always my feeling that honouring students who have completed school and graduated from high school of twelve years and getting an education, that is a very worthwhile thing to do, and to focus on them and that achievement it just brought good feelings to everybody. We always tried to make that a very special occasion for everybody.

Sharon Turner: I think that that is important too. The youth that are involved in it is just on fire, they get so excited about it but they are just so thrilled.

Joe Stevenson: That is the way that it should be. I am of the opinion that when you have lots of positive fun things for kids to do they don’t have time to do the dumb things that some kids get involved in. If you involved your kids on good wholesome activities that give them fun and wear them out so that when they are finished they want to go home and go the bed.

Sharon Turner: Good theory to have. Did any of your children attend at Stirling, did they come in with you or did they attend at Raymond.

Joe Stevenson: I had my youngest boy, Jim; he took his last year in Stirling, going back and forth with me to Stirling. He decided that he would like to do that and between his mother and I we decided that he could so that and so came In and out with me for that last year for high school.  He had a very positive experience in Stirling. He still speaks very positively about his year of high school in Stirling. That is what I hear from everybody, it was just the best place to grow up with the best school with the best teachers. It was just an all-around wonderful experience.

Sharon Turner: Did you have kids coming into school on horseback in the sixties or was it pretty much on bikes by then.

Joe Stevenson: No, there was no horse back when I came to Stirling. That was a thing of the past. When I Started teaching school up in the Peace River we had kids who came to school on horses.

Sharon Turner: Is that right

Joe Stevenson: It was just a one room country school house and there were no school busses. The furthest kids had to come nearly five miles to come to school. So they would ride horses when the weather was such that they could. When it got to cold they would walk, on occasion they would get a ride but most of the time they would walk. Riding a horse was to cold. You didn’t get enough movement to keep you warm and so you would walk.

Sharon Turner: That is unreal.

Joe Stevenson: That didn’t happen in Stirling. We did have school busses. Kim Peterson and Chuck Perrett were the school bus drivers when I came to Stirling. They both operated their routs for many years.

Sharon Turner: They picked up the farm kids.

Joe Stevenson:  Ya, they picked up the farm kids and then when the school dropped off in population to small, the number of farm kids decreased, we couldn’t maintain two bus routs, it wasn’t enough for either one of them to make a living of off so Ken Peterson decided to get out of it. So Chuck Perrett took over the whole business and I don’t know how many busses they operate now, if it is just the one.

Sharon Turner: I think it might be just the one. We do have children that come in from Warner and from Wrentham. It is still quite a large service area. I know that the Anderson kids come in from Warner and them really like that.

Joe Stevenson: They enjoy Stirling

Sharon Turner: They do yes, and they must have to get up early to come in for seminary and for school. And to do farm chores and everything else because they are farmers, they are really dedicated kids. The town you say got sewer and water and such when you were there, what was the community like in your early years there, did you think of it as a poor community or just a farm community. Was it similar to Raymond or was it behind.

Joe Stevenson: It was smaller than Raymond, it was a farming community. The quality of the people was excellent. The people who were there were excellent people. They were concerned about their kids and about good education for their kids. They had done many things to make sure that good education occurred for their kids.

Sharon Turner: It is interesting to hear about the earliest settlers. In 1902 I had the same experience with my ancestors coming from Scotland to Ontario in 1832 and the first two things that they built were a school and a church, just the emphasis that they put on those two things.

Joe Stevenson: One thing that I might mention, it was in the 1950’s, a few years before I came to Stirling, when the county of Warner was formed, it was  assumed at that time that all of the schools in that area were local school districts. Raymond was its own, Stirling was its own, Warner and so on, and they were all local school. When they formed a county all of these would become part of the county school system. The member of the Stirling School board, Boyd Hirschie was the chairman at the time or was on the board and Elodia was the secretary. They went to the county meeting, the organization meeting with the intent that they would become part of the county system but they had met before hand and determined that one of the things that they wanted a commitment from the county was that they would build a new school in Stirling. The old Rick’s school in Stirling was very old and needed to be replaced. When they went down to the meeting they made the presentation before the others that were there that Stirling would get a new school and the others who were there refused to make that commitment. They said you put your name in the hat, the same as everybody else and you will take your chances the same as everybody else. When they couldn’t get a commitment the decided ahead of time that if that wouldn’t come they would withdrawal and not join this county system for school.

Sharon Turner: So you could opt out of the county then.

Joe Stevenson: That’s right. It wasn’t required that each district join at that time and so the Stirling people withdrew and we had talked about it and go home and stay as a independent district and we will make our own application and get our new school. So that is what they did. So9 Stirling remained and independent School District for many, many years, in the discussions that often came up mentioned why people from outside were opted to closing the school. The answer was always that there are three things that would cause the school to close. If we can’t finance (there is not any money), we run out of students, or we can’t get teachers. Any one of those could cause the school to close. None of those ever materialized, none of those ever got to the point where it would force a closure, when we have got 150 some odd students in this school that was getting down to where it was really a threat to the high school because of the small classes.

Sharon Turner: Did you have to lay off teachers at that point?

Joe Stevenson: No, there were a few times that we had to lay off a teacher. That had to happen a few times. Difficult to maintain that budget if you don’t have the students to support it. It was the policy that the last one hired was the first one to go. So that did happen to a few. Then once the school started to grow, it just continued and so none of those things ever materialized so all of the time that I taught there Stirling was an independent school district, it had its own school board. It looked after its own finances, looked after its own teachers. 

Sharon Turner: This is right up to 1988

Joe Stevenson: Yes, and past 1988, I didn’t realize that. Then the provincial government made it requirement that all of the independents in small districts amalgamate to become and that is when Stirling went into the Westwind School Division.

Sharon Turner: Well they did pretty well didn’t they?

Joe Stevenson: Yes, they managed pretty well through the years but they never in my knowledge ran a debt their budget. They were always able to finance efficiently. The salaries that they paid the teachers were always in reasonable comparison with the others here in Sothern Alberta. We never had to be short changed because we lived in Stirling. We also had some excellent policies that our board passed that nobody else had.

Sharon Turner: Oh really what were some of those?

Joe Stevenson: Well one of them was benefit to teachers; you could accumulate personal eave days based on the number of sick days that you didn’t use. According to provincial law you could be sick twenty days and miss school twenty days. The board passed a policy that for each seven days you didn’t use; you could have one personal leave day. And so if a person didn’t use any of those days in the year they would accumulate two personal leave days. They could build that up over the years to accumulate a number of personal leave days. Most of the teachers would build it up and some got up to ten or twelve built up and then they might use it for something special that they wanted to do. So that was a real positive thing that you could do, nobody else had that kind of a policy that Stirling had. That was a very positive thing for the staff members. It was an encouragement for teachers never to accumulate the sick leave policy. You didn’t stay home unless you had to, unless you were so sick that you couldn’t. There were a few occasions when I felt like teachers came when they should have stayed home. They were dedicated, they wanted to be there doing their job.

Sharon Turner: Ellen Nelson, she must have retired when you were there.

Joe Stevenson: She did

Sharon Turner: Someone has told me that she always used to take Ryan to school with her. He is such a good friend of ours. Was he still going to school when you were there?

Joe Stevenson: Yes, she stayed at the school as long as he stayed at the school. When he was finished that was pretty well when she was finished.

Sharon Turner: He sure loves basketball. He used to be right involved.

Joe Stevenson: Ellen was quite a character; she was a good teacher and a hard working teacher. One day I had to go and get her role book for something out of her desk drawer and I pulled this role book out of her desk drawer and here sitting in the desk drawer was half a dozen pay checks, un-cashed. Whenever she got her pay check she tossed it in the desk and never cashed them.

Sharon Turner: Wasn’t doing it for the money.

Joe Stevenson: I never did ask her if she eventually did cash them.

Sharon Turner: Oh my, gosh she is a good person. Our bishop said that she was just an angel living on earth.

Joe Stevenson: I agree with that. She was that way as a teacher. She loved the kids and really made the kids do well in school. There are lots of other details that could be mentioned.

Sharon Turner: Well go ahead, that is what we are here for.

Joe Stevenson: One of the highlights I remember was when Stirling won the provincial basketball championship in Stirling Ward Hicken, Brad Steeg, Darcie Erickson and that group of kids were on the basketball team, it was a challenge to win it but it was a big experience for them to win it.

Sharon Turner: That is quite the big thing for a village that size to win it, to go to the big time. Good for them

Joe Stevenson: The highlight trip was when our team went up to Fairview participated in the provincial playoffs and there were a number of students who waned to go. So I talked to the school board about it and got their permission to take them, I had a van at the time so I took a van load of students to Fairview which is about a thirteen hour drive to watch the kids participate in the playoffs. The school accommodated us with the space on the floor. The kids all took sleeping bags and so we slept on the floor in the school and they had a ball. It was fun; we didn’t win the championship that year. The kids did well and represented the community very well.

Sharon Turner: Good for them.

Joe Stevenson: That was a highlight, I enjoyed the time with the kids, not only the time with the kids but the travel but the team and the staff that were there. I have already mentioned a little bit about graduations. There have been a few highlight things that have happened at Graduation.

Sharon Turner: I think they are worth mentioning.

Joe Stevenson: The year that Betty Picture was the guest speaker. She did an outstanding job. The year that Doug Christenson was the guest speaker, he did an outstanding job. Many others did as well but those stand out in my mind as real highlights. Working with Dough Christenson as the principal, he was the principal for the first eight years that I worked there. That was when I was the vice principal. I really learned a lot from him. When he left Stirling he went to Medicine Hat as the Superintendent of county Schools. Anyway he was superintendent down there and stayed there until he retired. And did an excellent job but Doug had unhanded insight into situations and people and he made so many good things happen for the community and there was need to work with him. I really enjoyed that experience working with him. After I became the principal Jack Hicken became my Vice Principal and for the last eight years he and I worked together as principal and vice principal. My work and association with him was excellent. Over the years we never had a major disagreement on anything. He was very supportive of me and I was very supportive of him. So that was a good experience, working with him and administrating the school with him.

Sharon Turner: It is fun to see him at the games now. Still has a very keen interest in what goes on at the school, as a matter of fact my son has said that he has subbed a few times in his class when the teacher has been away and he just loves him.

Joe Stevenson: He was a good man to work with.

Sharon Turner: He was good with the kids, the kids really like him. It is funny, I have heard that from so main students, they will comment about their teachers and they will say so and so was a fantastic teacher, he was strict but you knew that he loved ya and you always learned from him. You never away not knew what he was teaching. It is funny how they appreciated when they were strict and yet knew that that teacher loved them and knew that they cared and knew that they weren’t going to fail in their classroom.

Joe Stevenson: I am going to tell one thing about Jack Hicken and he might not like me telling this but I am going to tell it anyways. When he was coaching the basketball teams he took those ball players and cheerleaders around. It was quite a coming practice for them after they had finished their evening’s activities and stops in at a café or drive in for treats. He was always sensitive to the kids who might not have sufficient funds and numerous times he took money out of his own pocket and gave it to kids. So that they could have a treat along with the rest of the kids

Sharon Turner: Good for him.

Joe Stevenson: Ya, he did that numerous times. He was very sensitive to kids feeling good about them and feeling included in part of the group. So Mr. Hicken if you ever listen to this you will have to forgive me, you may not have wanted me to let anybody know that that had happened.

Sharon Turner: I think that a lot of people know that he is that type of person that’s for sure.

Joe Stevenson: Yes, I appreciated him too, working with Jack that was a good experience.

Sharon Turner: So all in all you have good feelings about Stirling that it was a good community

Joe Stevenson: Very good feelings about where I worked and the people that I worked with and the community that I worked in.

Sharon Turner: It is a wonderful place, it still is today. We were amazed when we moved up from Lethbridge after having seventeen years in Lethbridge. Thinking that we were living in Sothern Alberta and then two years ago we moved to Stirling and my husband has said, now we are living in Sothern Alberta. This is what it is all about. We didn’t even know that this world out here existed until we moved out here. It is a whole new world. Today in 1998 it is a whole new world. To live out here in the small towns of Sothern Alberta then it is to live in the city

Joe Stevenson: It is a neat world.

Sharon Turner: It is wonderful, we live it, there is clam camaraderie among the people and it is family, in town you just don’t feel that, you can live in a large city and feel lonely. Well I really appreciate you letting me come and do this, this has been really good, I think it is so important to have this part of the history recorded and your perspective of it

Joe Stevenson: Well I am glad that you came and gave me a chance to talk about the school and about my experiences in Stirling and my working years, twenty seven of them in Stirling.

Sharon Turner: This is going to be good for your posterity too and it is part of your history, it is not just Stirling that we are talking about, this is you and that is what all of this is about, that all of these interviews gathered together are the fabric of the community. That is what made Stirling what it was is the people. One little thing that I like to do before I sign off the tape and that is, I don’t know if people were doing it before when people were doing the interviews but I always do this and that is ask you if there is something, words of wisdom or something about you particularly that you want your posterity to hear about you, because they are most likely the people who are going to listen to the tapes.

Joe Stevenson: One bit of advice that I could give each one of you, important and worthwhile. Each one of you is a worthwhile individual so pay attention to the kinds of things that you do that will build your representation and make sure that the things that you do will cause those you associate with to have positive feelings about you and positive memories about your background because that is the kind of things that will bring happiness and joy into your life is building your life on good principals, on wholesome things. Study hard and work hard and play hard. And make your life a very worthwhile thing.

Sharon Turner: Thank you, I really appreciate this.

Transcribed By Clinton Dovell