Interviewee: Kay Christensen
Interviewer: Jon Duncan
 
Jon Duncan: Alright today is August the 11^th1997 my name is Jon Duncan and I am here with Kay Christensen, Kay why don’t you introduce yourself.

Kay Christensen: I am Katharine Isabelle Christensen, you can call me Kay. My parents were John Lynn McBean and Ruth Isabelle Sim.
I was born in Strathmore Alberta.

Jon Duncan: When were you born?

Kay Christensen: August 12^th1923

Jon Duncan: Let’s start with your parents, your dad. What was his occupation?

Kay Christensen: When they got married in 1921 they farmed until 1927. Then dad took up the grain business and an elevator at
Stobert Alberta. IN 1928 he moved to Welling Alberta for the Alberta wheat pool. We lived in Welling for four years and moved to New
Dayton in the fall of 1932. That was our downfall for the south we lived until Dad retired in 1965.

Jon Duncan: He retired from the wheat pool in 1965?

Kay Christensen: Yes

Jon Duncan: Alright, was he the soul operator of the New Dayton wheat pool?

Kay Christensen: Ya

Jon Duncan: Okay, what about your mom, what was her occupation?

Kay Christensen: She was a house wife. She did gardening, handwork, kept boarders. She boarded teachers and music teachers for a
good number of years. In 1965 the retired and they moved to Lethbridge. Mom still took in boarders but this time it was university or
collage students. 

Jon Duncan: She did that a good portion of her life.

Kay Christensen: A good portion of her life yes.

Jon Duncan: Where was the house in New Dayton?

Kay Christensen: Across from the lumber yard.

Jon Duncan: Was it in the town itself?

Kay Christensen: Yes

Jon Duncan: How close were you to the elevator?

Kay Christensen: About a half mile.

Jon Duncan: So it was some distance. Did you have any brothers or Sisters?

Kay Christensen: I had one sister but she did two days after she was born.

Jon Duncan: Was she older or was she younger?

Kay Christensen: She was younger. She was born in 1926.

Jon Duncan: So you grew up as the only child?

Kay Christensen: I was an only child yes.

Jon Duncan: Where did you take your school?

Kay Christensen: I took School, first two grades in Welling; the rest was in New Dayton. At the fellowship grade level I joined the
Canadian Women’s Army Corp. I was station for training at Vermilion Alberta. Then I came to Edmonton and took a secretarial course.
Then I was station in Calgary and Suffield where I worked in the quarter master stores.

Jon Duncan: This was your military service then.

Kay Christensen: Yes

Jon Duncan: Why did you decide to end your education in grade eleven?

Kay Christensen: I just felt like I couldn’t go on in grade twelve and a lady came, she was a staff sergeant. She came and talked to is
and gage us the pitch that we were needed for service so as far as going on to university, it just was impossible at that time so I went into
the services. That was in 1942.

Jon Duncan: Now lets focus on New Dayton for a few minutes, did your dad do any farming?

Kay Christensen: No, he didn’t farm after he got into the elevator but he did help the odd farmer. He was very conscious of his elevator
work, he was down there at the crack of dawn and he stayed until, if the farmers wanted to combine all night he would be there at the
elevator.

Jon Duncan: So that they could haul their grain in.

Kay Christensen: Yes, very conscientious of his work. 

Jon Duncan: Where did your family get food supplies?

Kay Christensen: Mainly from New Dayton, most of it from the stores in New Dayton. About every Saturday we would come into
Lethbridge for a break. That was our family night.

Jon Duncan: What would you do in Lethbridge?

Kay Christensen: Go to a show or just sit in a car and watch the sights and listen to the Salvation Army band. It was on the street
corners. Go shopping a little bit, which was about it.

Jon Duncan: Did you ever take the train up to Lethbridge?

Kay Christensen: No

Jon Duncan: It was always by car?

Kay Christensen: Yes

Jon Duncan: Did your family have a garden?

Kay Christensen: We raised gardens yes, our yard was very rocky.

Jon Duncan: What did your family raise?

Kay Christensen: We raised all the vegetables that were needed, carrots; we had a few chickens in the back yard. That was about it,
flowers; mother had quite a few flowers.

Jon Duncan: Were there many trees on the lot?

Kay Christensen: Not too many.

Jon Duncan: Did you have any work on the Garden to do?

Kay Christensen: I had to help weed it and hoe.

Jon Duncan: Where did the family get its drinking water?

Kay Christensen: We had a pump in the back yard and we didn’t drink that to much, we hauled our water to the cistern?

Jon Duncan: I have a few questions about the home as well. How big was it?

Kay Christensen: There were two bedrooms, a kitchen, a front room, a front porch, and a back porch. Then for a good number of years
there was no bathroom and finally we built on and put a bathroom on and enlarged the kitchen.

Jon Duncan: Was there electricity?

Kay Christensen: Yes, there was electricity.

Jon Duncan: Growing up you had electrical lights?

Kay Christensen: Until I got married and then we didn’t.

Jon Duncan: How was the house heated?

Kay Christensen: We had a coal stove in the kitchen for a good number of years. Then we went to electricity, I think that we had a
furnace later on too.

Jon Duncan: Who were your friends while you were growing up in New Dayton?

Kay Christensen: Everybody was a friend, the closest was Gardena King a Rita Beaton. 

Jon Duncan: Were most of your friends from the town?

Kay Christensen: Yes

Jon Duncan: What would you do with them?

Kay Christensen: We would play ball, walk around town, and play games.

Jon Duncan: What type of ball?

Kay Christensen: Softball, basketball, when they got the golf course built us would go out and play golf. That’s not golf like they do
today.

Jon Duncan: What do you mean?

Kay Christensen: Well they made that golf course it was west of town with nine holes. My husband could always make a hole in one. There was golf green with the hole in it; there were gopher holes, badger holes. You could always have a hole in one somewhere.

Jon Duncan: If you hung out with kids in town how you did come to meat Don?

Kay Christensen: Well I met him in grade three, we were good friends right through school and he joined the navy and I joined the
Women’s Corp. We got back out of the services and were picking up our lives we were the last two in the bottom of the barrel so we got
married. All of our friends were married and what not. We have been married fifty years since and its 1998.

Jon Duncan: You knew Don all of your life, when was it that you started dating more seriously?

Kay Christensen: That was about 1945.

Jon Duncan: Just after you were released. So when was it that your relationship started then?

Kay Christensen: Late 1945

Jon Duncan: What was it like to come home?

Kay Christensen: Dull

Jon Duncan: Why?

Kay Christensen: Well we had a bunch of new friends and then we come home and you have to rebuild your friendships with the people
at home. Everybody was married and on their way. I worked for 1946 and 1947 for people on farms, I cleaned homes in town, just general
help you could call it.

Jon Duncan: How much did you get paid for your work back then?

Kay Christensen: One fall I worked I made enough, I think it was sixty five dollars and I got my winter coat. It was good money at that
time. I was so proud that I had made enough money to buy my own winter coat.

Jon Duncan: How old were you?

Kay Christensen: I would be about nineteen, twenty, somewhere in there.

Jon Duncan: When you and Don started dating, what did you do for your first date?

Kay Christensen: I guess it was a boat ride in Waterton.

Jon Duncan: Did he take you up to Waterton?

Kay Christensen: No, both of our families were in Waterton, we decided that we would go for a boat ride.

Jon Duncan: Alright, what did you do together during this time that you dated?

Kay Christensen: We went to dances around town. One evening when he came to visit me my parents were so tickled because he could
play bridge. He just loved bridge and after we got married I told him that I just hated bridge. We went out a few times and got food, it was
jut fun.

Jon Duncan: How long did you go together?

Kay Christensen: About a year and a half, two years.

Jon Duncan: How did he propose?

Kay Christensen: Oh dear, he just asked if I would marry him. There was no special proposal or anything. Just in the car.

Jon Duncan: Alright, now what was your wedding like? 

Kay Christensen: Well at that time in life and years I thought I was pretty nice. We were married in the United Church and all of my
families from the northern part of Alberta came down. We had a reception in the New Dayton stadium for about a hundred and fifty
people.

Jon Duncan: Was it just family?

Kay Christensen: Family and friends.

Jon Duncan: Where did you get your dress?

Kay Christensen: Our of the sears catalogue, I think that it was a twenty one dollar dress. I wore my best friend’s veil and at the
reception there was two family friends Fred Norse and Fred Watts, kidnapped the bride and took her away for about an hour and a half. That was just a get even job. 

Jon Duncan: Why?

Kay Christensen: Well they were best friends and I always picked on him.

Jon Duncan: Alright, so when was it that you were married?

Kay Christensen: We were married June the 16^th1948.

Jon Duncan: Alright, where did you move after the wedding?

Kay Christensen: We had three weeks honeymoon and when we came back we moved to the farm, his parent’s farm and lived there
until now.

Jon Duncan: Was it just you and Don on the farm?

Kay Christensen: Yes

Jon Duncan: What was it like to move out to the farm?

Kay Christensen: Scary, we built the farm up, we planted trees and had gardens all of the time. It was hard work; we used turkeys for
sideline of farming. We had pigs; we were into pigs before we had 400 head most of the time. My family was growing up I just took care of
the house, the yard. I mowed the yard with a hand mower for a good number of years; I would do a little bit each day. My husband calls it
the ten acre plug. I started mowing it by hand. I would keep mowing every day and keep it up. As soon as Don started mowing he bought
a riding tractor. It was worthy it. It turned out to be a pretty good yard.

Jon Duncan: What types of adjustments did you have to make when you moved out to that farmhouse?

Kay Christensen: Well we had a wooden coal stove and it was kind of cold for winter because we kept the stove going at night to keep
the house warm. We would get up in the morning and there was ice in the reservoirs inside of the stove. We had pumps in the house to
pump water from the cistern. We got an old gas washing machine and we had no bathroom we had the bath house. We bathed in a round
tub and we got to the point where they would both bath and I would take the water and mop the kitchen floor. The kids started out with the
same water, we all bathed in the tub and then the floor was mopped afterwards. 

Jon Duncan: Did you feel that farm life then was primitive?

Kay Christensen: Well it was just a way of life for those years; I wouldn’t say that it was primitive. The ancestors before that had it harder
than we did. We had no electricity for about ten years of our married life. We just had gas lamps. 

Jon Duncan: Was that the main difference was just the lamps?

Kay Christensen: We had to haul our water; Don had to haul water before we were even married. We finally got water at the farm it was
such a cheat not to be able to haul water after fifty years of hauling water. We would haul it from New Dayton or Stirling. In his early
childhood for years he hauled it from the coulee.

Jon Duncan: Did you have to haul water while you lived there?

Kay Christensen: Yes, that was just a chore, once a week or twice a week.

Jon Duncan: What about a telephone, did you have a telephone in New Dayton?

Kay Christensen: Yes

Jon Duncan: What about on the farm?

Kay Christensen: I guess that we had one when we first were married. That was one of these great big boxes with the speaker on them
and then it would just ring. If it was one long and one short one of the neighbours answered. None of us pressed any buttons.

Jon Duncan: It was a part line?

Kay Christensen: Yes

Jon Duncan: Okay, let’s talk about the home that you lived in for so many years after you were married. How many rooms were in that
home?

Kay Christensen: There were two bedrooms upstairs and one bedroom down and a front room and a kitchen. We had a back door to
the back of the house.

Jon Duncan: Who slept where?

Kay Christensen: We all slept downstairs until the kids go big enough to put them upstairs. We had the main bedroom downstairs it was
just a small lean too. We heated the house with an oil heater. We had the coal stove in the kitchen for a good number of years.

Jon Duncan: Let’s talk about the kitchen. What appliances did you have?

Kay Christensen: We started out with an ice box and then we got a propane fridge.

Jon Duncan: Did you have a sink?

Kay Christensen: Not for a good number of years, we just had a dish pan and there was no sink, just had a wash bowl.

Jon Duncan: When did you put in a sink?

Kay Christensen: I don’t know when it was. 

Jon Duncan: Was there one in the first house?

Kay Christensen: Did we have one in the first house?

Donald Christensen: No, 1954 somewhere in there.

Kay Christensen: I guess it would have been about 1954.

Jon Duncan: Did you ever have a dishwasher?

Kay Christensen: Not until I moved to Lethbridge.

Jon Duncan: What about a toaster?

Kay Christensen: For a long time we just did it on the stove. I guess that would be about it for a good number of years.

Jon Duncan: Any types of mixers?

Kay Christensen: Not in the first few years?

Jon Duncan: How was the living room furnished?

Kay Christensen: We had an old Chesterfield that we recovered. A chair, then we had some end tables and a couple of old chairs.  

Jon Duncan: What types of floors did you have?

Kay Christensen: They were covered with linoleum, all of the rooms.

Jon Duncan: No carpet?

Kay Christensen: No carpet, not until we built the new house I guess.

Jon Duncan: When was that?

Kay Christensen: We lost the old house in 1972 by fire. That was in November and by Easter of the next year we had a new house built.

Jon Duncan: What types of improvements did you have in the new house?

Kay Christensen: We had really nice cupboards in the kitchen; we had our electric stove and our gas stove and electric fridge, a few
more appliances. We put carpets in the front room but we put linoleum all through the rest of the house to start out with.

Jon Duncan: Alright

Tape 1 Side 2

Jon Duncan: Alright we were talking about your house when the tape ran out; let’s continue there, did you have a bathroom?

Kay Christensen: Yes we did

Jon Duncan: What about the old one?

Kay Christensen: In the old home we had a pretty big addition onto it in about 1954 or 1955. We put a big front room on it and turned
the kitchen and front room around and then we had the front room and dining room across the front. Then we had a bathroom and a
bedroom onto the main floor. The bathroom served as a bedroom for our third child and then we got the fixtures in about 1960
somewhere in there. She was old enough then to put upstairs with the boys.

Jon Duncan: Alright, so it was quite a while before you had an indoor bathroom.

Kay Christensen: Yes

Jon Duncan: Let’s talk about your children now. How many children did you have?

Kay Christensen: We had three adopted children.

Jon Duncan: What process did you have to go through for the adoption?

Kay Christensen: Took quite a while but first one we waited for about a year and a half. That was John Harold, we got him in 1952. Ron
Williams was our second one and we got him in 1954. Four years later we got a little redheaded girl in 1958.

Jon Duncan: What was it like to get them?

Kay Christensen: It was a joy for us. They were special children; they were raised with the information that they were adopted, right as
soon as they could understand, still three special children.

Jon Duncan: How old were they when you got them?

Kay Christensen: John was about three weeks old. Ron was about six weeks old. Donna was about five days old when we got her.

Jon Duncan: How did you make the decision to adopt?

Kay Christensen: Well it was one of those; we were married for four or five years. We wanted the family and there were no prospects of
the family. The doctor’s advice was that if we wanted a family we had better adopt one. He says a lot of times that will help but in this case
it didn’t so we wanted the family, we wanted three or four children because I was raised alone. Don was raised with just one other in his
family. We wanted three or four. So we ended up with three.

Jon Duncan: Alright, where did you have to go to get them?

Kay Christensen: John and Ron were from Edmonton and Donna was from Calgary.

Jon Duncan: How did you select these children?

Kay Christensen: Very hard, we were shown two or three and we wanted to take out John and it was very hard to leave the other two
behind. Ron we just saw one baby and same with Donna.

Jon Duncan: What was it like becoming a mother?

Kay Christensen: Thrilling, It was real exciting. It was extra work but I enjoyed every moment of it.

Jon Duncan: What types of activities would you do with your children?

Kay Christensen: Well we took them to school things, we started parent school. We both belonged to that. We had them in Scouts,
Cubs, and Brownies. When they played ball we were right there, we would drive them there and bring them home. There weren’t many
things that they didn’t do that we weren’t right beside them.

Jon Duncan: Were there games that you played with them as they were growing up?

Kay Christensen: We read to them, we played games. We would do chores together, were milking when they were teenagers. They
boys and I would go our and milk the cows. We would sing songs while we were milking. We would tease the cats that were at the barn
waiting for the milk.

Jon Duncan: How would you tease the cats?

Kay Christensen: They would sit up on their haunches and we would try to squirt the milk into their mouths and we had fun with that.

Jon Duncan: So you milk with your boys then.

Kay Christensen: Yes, in harvest time I helped with the chores. Donna didn’t milk, we got rid of the cows before she got too big for
milking, we maybe had one cow to milk and she was small. We also had chickens and I guess we had some turkeys then too, not as many
as we had earlier.

Jon Duncan: The kids helped with that?

Kay Christensen: Yes

Jon Duncan: How many chickens are we talking about?

Kay Christensen: There probably about a hundred, to hundred and fifty. Then we would butcher them.

Jon Duncan: So kids took turns?

Kay Christensen: Kids took turns and I would go out and gather the eggs and feed them at night.

Jon Duncan: Did the kids have chores around the house?

Kay Christensen: Yes

Jon Duncan: What would you have them do?

Kay Christensen: They would help do dishes and make their beds, pick up toys and what not before they go to bed. Get the coal and
wood ready for morning. They all learned to cook. I remember when John made his first pie. He made a nice chocolate pie and we put it in
the fridge until dad got home. We sat down for supper and he opened the fridge door and the pie came out upside down. He was broken
hearted because dad didn’t get a piece of chocolate pie.

Jon Duncan: Alright, I have one question about the toys that you mentioned. What types of toys would you get your children?

Kay Christensen: They had wagons, the boys had wagons. They had little tractors and little tricycles, trucks, blocks, a sand pile by the
yard. They had a backhoe and filled the truck up with sand and take it around the sound box and dump it in a pile.

Jon Duncan: So you had a sand box for the kids.

Kay Christensen: Ya

Jon Duncan: What about Donna?

Kay Christensen: She played with dolls she was a great girl for horses when she grew up a bit, we had a pony for her. The boys loved
horse’s part time. When we bought our TV we watched that. John just loved to play ball. He would take a ball and bat and go out in the
barn yard and he would play ball.

Jon Duncan: What type of ball?

Kay Christensen: Hard ball, Softball, and he would throw it against the bin and then the ball would come up and he would bat it. He
would run to the bases around, one man game. When he was a little boy he got a hold of the ball and he was bouncing it and it bounced
out the kitchen window. Don put in a new window before nightfall and before he turned around and was taking the tools out the ball went
through the window again so he had to put a board up for the night. Ron he was more machinery minded and he played ball but he was
more machinery minded. He wanted to know why this didn’t work or why it worked and things like that. Donna was for horses. We all
learned to fish, we went fishing as a family.

Jon Duncan: Where would you go?

Kay Christensen: We would go to chin lake and ridge reservoir, it wasn’t called ridge at that time though. Then we would go up to the
mountains and he had three or four camping trips that we took. That is a general idea.

Jon Duncan: How would you discipline your children?

Kay Christensen: Well the got what they needed at that time. It was talking to them, once and a while if they needed a little spank then
they got it. If they were deprived of doing something they had to do extra work or something like that.

Jon Duncan: Who did the disciplining?

Kay Christensen: Either one of us.

Jon Duncan: It didn’t matter.

Kay Christensen: One thing is that they kids never did see don and I arguing, we did argue and that was very seldom. If we had to argue
something out or talk something over they never saw us do it. That was done in our private time or kids remarked on that, they said mom
and dad we never saw them argue or fight.  

Jon Duncan: Alright, how well did the kids get along together?

Kay Christensen: As children they got along really good. As they grew up and got their own friends and that they kind of drifted apart
some. I think that if a crisis or something came to one of them they would all be right there.

Jon Duncan: Did they spend a lot of time on the farm?

Kay Christensen: Until their teen years.

Jon Duncan: Where did they spend their teen years?

Kay Christensen: Driving a car, the boys played ball in Lethbridge a couple of years. They had friends that lived six miles away; they
had friends that lived two miles away.

Jon Duncan: How many cars did you have?

Kay Christensen: We had one

Donald Christensen: When they were eighteen we got them one.

Jon Duncan: So they were always using the family car.

Kay Christensen: Well they got a small motorcycle at that time. They would ride that their friends down in the coulee. I guess out to New
Dayton a few times.

Jon Duncan: Who was the friend down in the coulee?

Kay Christensen: Arthur Slingsbe.

Jon Duncan: Was it just the boys on the motorcycle or did Donna have that too?

Kay Christensen: No, he would ride it around the yard with the boys but she didn’t drive it.
Jon Duncan: Now you say that the kids helped with the housework. Was there a particular day of the week that you cleaned the house?

Kay Christensen: Well I don’t know that as a family you had to clean the house every day. You would pick it up so that it was tidy when
you get up in the morning. Saturday was usually cleaning for Sunday.

Jon Duncan: Were there general assignments given?

Kay Christensen: Yes, they all had to do their own rooms and they helped with dishes and chores, things like that.

Jon Duncan: Who kept the kitchen clean?

Kay Christensen: I think that I did most of the time. They did dishes and things like that.

Jon Duncan: Alright, was there a laundry day?

Kay Christensen: Monday’s was laundry day.

Jon Duncan: What would you have to do for laundry day?

Kay Christensen: Haul water, heat it, haul it to the washer, have Don and Ron to start the gas engine. Then when we got it through we
hung it on the clothes lines, there was no dryers in those days. You would hang them on the clothes line bring them in take them down.
You stored your wash water by pale. Winter time was real rough when you would put clothes out and bring them in they were stiff as
boards. At night you would have clothes hanging all over the house trying to dry them. I didn’t have a drier until about 1974 in that area. 

Jon Duncan: After you got your new house.

Kay Christensen: Yes

Jon Duncan: Alright, how long would it take you to do the laundry?

Kay Christensen: Sometimes three hours

Jon Duncan: Where would you get the soap?

Kay Christensen: I made my own soap for a few years and then I started buying it at the stores. When I did make soap I would make
three or four batches so that I would have soap for almost a whole year.

Jon Duncan: How did you make your soap?

Kay Christensen: We always saved up our grease and what not.

Jon Duncan: You saved your grease from cooking?

Kay Christensen: Ya

Jon Duncan: Did you do much sewing?

Kay Christensen: Over the years I did quite a bit of sewing.

Jon Duncan: Did you have a machine?

Kay Christensen: Ya, an old treadle machine, until I got my machine I would go to my mothers and use hers.

Jon Duncan: Did you make many of your children’s clothes?

Kay Christensen: For the boys I made shirts. Donna I made dresses and then a winter coat. Maybe a summer jacket as she was small. I
would always dress her up in frills and all that and it turned out to be jeans and t-shirts.

Jon Duncan: That was the style for her.

Kay Christensen: That was the style for her; she didn’t like her frilly dresses or anything like that.

Jon Duncan: Did the children buy most of their clothes? 

Kay Christensen: I guess in their late teens they did. When we were growing up a pair of jeans would last a long time because the style
would come in and it would be brand name jeans but as soon as they got a hole in them then you had the patch them up with color or you
had to patch them hobo style or anything. They would get more wear out of a pair of jeans than new days.

Jon Duncan: Because of the patching.

Kay Christensen: Because of the patches.

Jon Duncan: Alright, how many pairs of shoes did you have?

Kay Christensen: We would have one pair and then when they would wear out they would. They never had more than a pair at a time.

Jon Duncan: What about yourself, how many pairs of shoes did you have?

Kay Christensen: Starting out I maybe had three or four pair, like sandals or runners and one dress pair. Right now I have got more
shoes than I have ever had.

Jon Duncan: How many would that be?

Kay Christensen: I remember getting a pair of shoes on one of the first dances that I could go to and mother took me to Raymond and
there was a nice pair with heals that I liked, about two inches. I insisted that I had to have them, even if they were to short. I paid for that
ever since for getting shoes that were to short.

Jon Duncan: Alright, did you make your own clothes? 

Kay Christensen: I made all of my work clothes all but jeans and slacks. In fact I tried to make them quite a few times but I had made
dresses, skirts, blouses.

Jon Duncan: Alright, you said that the kids helped you with the cooking. What was a typical breakfast in your home?

Kay Christensen: We would have oatmeal, toast, pancakes, French toast, in the summer we would have bacon and eggs, cereal,
sometimes just plain toast. Being on the farm it was usually a big breakfast.

Jon Duncan: Was there breakfast to go?

Kay Christensen: Pretty well, except Saturdays and Sundays we didn’t have to much breakfast together. Through the school days and
that if they didn’t get up they just grabbed a bowl of cereal in order to catch the bus.

Jon Duncan: Alright, what about the afternoon meal, lunch?

Kay Christensen: Lunch when harvest and spring were there we had three good meals a day. When the kids were going to school we
would just have a lunch at noon and then have our dinners when the kids got off the bus. That would be around five o’clock that we would
have our big dinner and then we would have a snack before we would go to bed at night.

Jon Duncan: What types of things would you cook for the evening meal?

Kay Christensen: Sometimes it would be stew sometimes it would be roast beef, sometimes it would be chicken, and we had our own
meat. We would kill chickens, spaghetti, and macaroni.

Jon Duncan: So there was a variety of meals.

Kay Christensen: Soups and stews, whatever I could make, that is what I had at the time.

Jon Duncan: Did your family eat a lot of fruit?

Kay Christensen: Yes, we did, we always say that there was a good variety of vegetables.

Jon Duncan: How did you preserve the food?

Kay Christensen: I canned both fruit and vegetables, pickles. When we got our freezers I would freeze them.

Jon Duncan: Did your family have a garden? 

Kay Christensen: Yes

Jon Duncan: Who took care of it?

Kay Christensen: All of us

Jon Duncan: What types of vegetables?

Kay Christensen: You name it, we had the vegetables. We even tried watermelon, cantaloupe, potatoes, corn, carrots, spinach, beats,
peas, lettuce, acorn squash, squash, and zucchini.

Tape 2 Side 1
 
Jon Duncan: Alright we were just talking about the garden when the tape ran out; we were listing some of the vegetables. It sounds like you grew quite a variety

Kay Christensen: Well we had a big garden and at the end we had strawberries, raspberries, and asparagus.

Jon Duncan: Did you plant trees as well?

Kay Christensen: We planted some Saskatoon bushes and chokecherry bushes but the birds enjoyed them. But we had bundles of
raspberries and strawberries.

Jon Duncan: Was this the summer or was this something that you grew for the whole year.

Kay Christensen: We grew it for the whole year because it was the potatoes and carrots and the rest I can freeze I always had enough
to go in for the next year with, until the garden was ready again.

Jon Duncan: Did you spend much money on groceries then? 

Kay Christensen: Some things, like your flower, sugar, then there were the necessary toiletries and things like that you had to buy. As
far as vegetables and meat we had that on the farm.

Jon Duncan: Very self sufficient then.

Kay Christensen: Yes

Jon Duncan: Did you make your own bread?

Kay Christensen: Made my own bread for a good number of years, pies, cakes, cookies.

Jon Duncan: How often did you have a desert with a meal?

Kay Christensen: You pretty well had to have dessert three four times a day, with desert kid over here.

Jon Duncan: That was Don

Kay Christensen: Ya, he is today too.

Jon Duncan: Another question that I have, who did the family budget?

Kay Christensen: Donald did

Jon Duncan: Kay, now some other questions that I have about your family, more general questions I guess. Do you have a family
doctor?

Kay Christensen: Yes

Jon Duncan: Who was the doctor?

Kay Christensen: For years it was doctor Falner here in Lethbridge. Then he passed away and we went to Doctor Gregory and he
retired and now we are Covanus and doctor Salt. Now you may have your family doctor but they will send you to a specialist now.

Jon Duncan: Alright, how often did you take your children to see a doctor?

Kay Christensen: We had a yearly check-up every year. Then if something came up in-between they were there. As they were growing
up they were checked near every two months at least. Then it got so it was every year everything needed in between the year I would
take them in.

Jon Duncan: Were they fairly healthy?

Kay Christensen: I think so

Jon Duncan: What about dental care?

Kay Christensen: We went to the dentist in Raymond, the Raymond doctor Eaves.

Jon Duncan: Did your kids have braces?

Kay Christensen: No,

Jon Duncan: It was just standard dental care then?

Kay Christensen: Ya, in those days they didn’t have braces when they were growing up.

Jon Duncan: Alright, what would your children do in school?

Kay Christensen: They started school in New Dayton and went to grade, the boys were in grade eight and ready for nine. The school
district decided to close New Dayton and we would all go to Warner. We said no we will take ours to Stirling, if they had gone to Warner it
would have been about an eighty mile ride on the bus every day so we took them to Stirling until we could get the bus to come out that
way. We would drive them in and take them home until Charles Parrett could come out and get them.

Jon Duncan: Alright, something I was going to ask you before. When did you learn to drive?

Kay Christensen: I learned to drive when I was sixteen.

Jon Duncan: Who taught you?

Kay Christensen: My dad

Jon Duncan: Was this in the family car?

Kay Christensen: Yes

Jon Duncan: You said that you had a car on the farm. How often did you use the car to get to town or visit friends?

Kay Christensen: I think I had it any day that I wanted it.

Jon Duncan: Did you travel much?

Kay Christensen: I would go into my mothers quite often and help her. Do sewing together and what not. I had family that I would go and
visit. We had a music teacher three miles away, I did house work. Donna had about three years of piano. I would drive them over; he
worked with the teacher while the kids were having their lessons.

Jon Duncan: Did you get to Lethbridge much?

Kay Christensen: Not at first when we were married. We would go in maybe once every two weeks or something like that. As things
advanced we would be going on for repairs or we would be going in for different things.

Jon Duncan: Did you ever drive tractor for Don?

Kay Christensen: Ya, the only time that I got to do that was when he was having troubles with another machine or the car or truck. Until
after the kids were grown up and had left home then I worked in the fields with Don. I drove the combine I drive the grain truck, I guess I
did some with the tractor too. I would haul the grain or I would combine while he unloaded the grain which I would rather do. I didn’t like
backing up to the loader. So we worked together.

Jon Duncan: Alright, did you help at all with the pigs?

Kay Christensen: Yes I swill pigs just as good as the men could.

Jon Duncan: So you were very involved at the farm then. How often would people come out to visit on the farm?

Kay Christensen: Quite a lot

Jon Duncan: Was this family or friends?

Kay Christensen: Both the folks on both sides of the family would help with the garden or help when we were butchering chickens. Dad
would come out if we combined in Saturday afternoon.

Jon Duncan: So you had quite a bit of interaction. Were there activities that you would do with them such as cards?

Kay Christensen: We played cards games, picnics, fishing, camping, we had birthdays, and we were always together, for anniversaries
and birthdays.

Jon Duncan: That was a family time. Alright, what were some of your hobbies during these years?

Kay Christensen: I knit, I crochet, I did crafts, played golf, gardening, and flowers, played the piano a little bit.

Jon Duncan: Did you have piano in the home?

Kay Christensen: We had one on the farm.

Jon Duncan: How did you learn to play?

Kay Christensen: From a music teacher boarded with my mother.

Jon Duncan: Okay, how many flower gardens did you have?

Kay Christensen:  I had flowers all over the garden.

Jon Duncan: What types?

Kay Christensen: I had tiger lilies, pansies; I would get petunias and things like that. There is the yard right there. 

Jon Duncan: The picture on the wall.

Kay Christensen: Ya, I would bake, a little bit of everything.

Jon Duncan: Tell me this, when would you usually get up in the morning?

Kay Christensen: Spring work and harvest it was five thirty to six. In the winter it would be in time for the kids to get up and ready for
school.

Jon Duncan: What time in the evening would you retire?

Kay Christensen: Ten o’clock, sometimes we would sit up for the news and then go to bed.

Jon Duncan: Did you have a T.V. in the home?

Kay Christensen: We got a TV in 1953.

Jon Duncan: How many channels?

Kay Christensen: Two

Jon Duncan: Alright, what types of programs would you watch?

Kay Christensen: At first I think that we watched everything, and then we started picking and choosing.

Jon Duncan: Did you have a radio as well?

Kay Christensen: Yes

Jon Duncan: Did you spend more time with the radio or the TV?

Kay Christensen: Radio was our highlight, for entertainment, for amusement.

Jon Duncan: You preferred the radio then.

Kay Christensen: Up until we got used to the TV then it kind of took over. I had the radio on most of the day. You could work better with
music around.

Jon Duncan: Alright, there is something that I wanted to talk to you about, you were involved with several groups and clubs and so forth,
what were the golden green girls?

Kay Christensen: The golden green girls were a junior branch of the Alberta women’s institute club. It was for teenaged girls. It taught us
how to work together and to put on things like dances. How to arrange things like the lunch and be in charge of it all to see how things
were done, the one institute numbers would be our leaders. If someone was sickly then we would take things to them. It taught us how to
raise money and home making. We would serve lunches, just general what any club does.

Jon Duncan: You were involved with thins as a teenager?

Kay Christensen:  Yes, then when we got eighteen we could join the women’s institute if we wanted and go further in that. They would
have a convention each year; we would enter handwork or crafts. This would take the whole Sothern Alberta area. They would have this
convention and a fair; everything was judged for the first, second, and third prizes for canning, baking, handwork, sewing lessons or
whatever. Maybe you wanted to sew a coat or jacket or something like that there would be a space for it in this square.

Jon Duncan: Was this something that you would enter?
Kay Christensen: Yes

Jon Duncan: What were you famous for?

Kay Christensen: I got prizes on my knitting; I got prizes on my baking, prizes on canning, garden, crochet, and things like that.

Jon Duncan: Sounds like you did quite well at these.

Kay Christensen: I don’t know that I did really well but I did manage to get a few of them.

Jon Duncan: Alright, how long were you involved with this women’s institute?

Kay Christensen: Must have been ten to twelve years, until they closed it up. I joined it when I was twelve years old and went on until I
joined the army. I went into the women’s institute after we got married. They find there weren’t enough ladies in it to keep going the years.
I can’t remember when they closed it off.

Jon Duncan: A nother thing that you have been involved in was scouting?

Kay Christensen: I was cub leader for a number of years.

Jon Duncan: How did you get the assignment of cub leader?

Kay Christensen: Well they had the kids going and they couldn’t find a cub leader so I volunteered to go in. I must have been in there
three or four years. I was assistant girl for a while then I was the cub leader. Between Don and me there was twenty years of scouting.

Jon Duncan: What would you do with the cubs?

Kay Christensen: They had crafts; they had tests that they had to do to earn their badges. I would take them to; they had three or four
camps when I was in with Milk River, Coutts, Warner, Wrentham, and New Dayton. They would have a three day Camp out at Riding on
Stone or Chin Lake. We had mothers that did the cooking; we had game leaders and what not. They were tested for keeping their tents
clean and keeping their clothes folded. Then they had games that they were in competition with, we really had some good camps.

Jon Duncan: Alright, were you ever involved in the home in school association?

Kay Christensen: For a few years but not to long.

Jon Duncan: When did you become involved with the Lions?

Kay Christensen: 1976, when the Lionesses started I joined that. Then we had lions in our homes in 1948.

Jon Duncan: So when you joined the Lioness club, was that in Stirling?

Kay Christensen: Yes

Jon Duncan: What have you been involved in with the Lioness club?

Kay Christensen: A lot of community work and we put on dances and suppers to raise money for charity. We served at funerals, I was
president twice, and I was secretary once. I was on the board of directors.

Jon Duncan: You were quite active in the club then.

Kay Christensen: Ya

Jon Duncan: Alright, who were your close friends when you lived on the farm?

Kay Christensen: Leonard Halfs family, Beaton Family, Roasac Family, that was the closest neighbours anyway.

Jon Duncan: Alright, what about in the Lionesses club?

Kay Christensen: A lot of the members were close; Marry Halfs and I drove in together until they moved to Stirling. They were all real
close.

Jon Duncan: Alright, how often would the women get together?

Kay Christensen: There was one general meeting and then there was one meeting that was the directors meeting. That would be twice
a month and then the activities that we had.

Jon Duncan: Alright, Kay now I want to take a different direction now. I want to ask you, what was Christmas like in the Christensen
home?

Kay Christensen: It was a very happy time. We had all of our family together, most mothers and dads. We celebrated Christmas
together every year after we got the children we had Christmas every year at the farm. Both parents came out and the kids would open
their gifts and would play with their toys until I got dinner ready. The turkey was in the oven before the folks got out. Then we had our
family dinner and had games and whatnot with the kids, story telling. Then when the cameras come out and videos in later years this
tradition just kept going, we still have it.

Jon Duncan: Was there a tree?

Kay Christensen: Oh yes, a big tree.

Jon Duncan: Who decorated?

Kay Christensen: All of us, if one of the children were out of place at the time they sat and watched, they didn’t get to help. We had a big
tree; we would decorate the outside of the house, we decorated in the yard. We made our own decorations, Santa clause, and candy
canes.

Jon Duncan: Did you make your own candies?

Kay Christensen: I didn’t make chocolates, I wasn’t a chocolate fan. Sometimes we had a candy pole in earlier years that was about it for
candy.

Jon Duncan: How many gifts would you give each other?

Kay Christensen: They would get one big one from Santa Clause and they would get one from mom and dad.

Jon Duncan: How did your kids figure out that there wasn’t a Santa Clause?

Kay Christensen: I think kids at school were the ones that broke the news, but yet they wouldn’t give in that there wasn’t a Santa Clause.
They knew but they believed in Santa Clause right up to twelve to thirteen years old. The idea was that if you don’t believe in him then
there won’t be one from Santa Clause. To this day there is a little gift from Santa.

Jon Duncan: Alright, what would happen at Easter time?

Kay Christensen: At Easter time we would decorate a bunch of eggs, hide them around the yard and then they would find the eggs and
when they older they would find the eggs and after dinner they would take the eggs and roll them down the coulee hills and that. But we
always had the family together on all of these special things. The fathers and god parents and that would all be there.

Jon Duncan: Okay

Tape 2 Side 2
 
Jon Duncan: Alright, we were just talking about Easter when the tape ran out. One other occasion that I am curious about was there much of a Halloween?

Kay Christensen: Well at the farm some came down with their children but we would take our treats and go to the grandparents in New
Dayton or Stirling and hand out treats in town. The first Halloween when we went into New Dayton to my folks, the two boys would go out
for a little while, we would only let them go for so long and then they were to come back to the house. The first Halloween John didn’t
come back, we couldn’t figure out why. He went out and found John and his friend sitting under a lamp post eating their goodies, they
forgot time. They had more fun at grandmas and grandpas for Halloween, they would go out for a little while and then they would come
back and help grandpa at the door.

Jon Duncan: Okay, now something that I also want to talk about, you and Don have done some traveling over the years. What places
have you gone to?

Kay Christensen: Well we never had holidays for years and then we finally started going to Utah to see my sister grace we tried to make
that a yearly event because she has a family of seven children with twenty six grandchildren. If you don’t see him every year you loose
track of them. One year we decided, we left just about this time of year, and we went to Salt Lake for a wedding with the family and visit for
three or four days and then we took off and went to California to visit my relatives down there. We had flown down a few years before this
and I said the night strip has to be by a car. So we took off in Salt Lake and went to California and we visited there for about ten days.
One of my cousins loaded up his motor home and traveled with us back to Utah. They came up so far with us we took the long way
around and went through Arizona. They departed at this one town in Utah and they went back to New Mexico through Colorado. We come
on home. This was the first part of September and we got to the farm and the combine was just pulling into the yard and harvest was
completed. Don was so shocked that combining was done and we weren’t there. 

Jon Duncan: Who did it for him?

Kay Christensen: Bob Edwards was renting the land. They were all done and he couldn’t believe that they did it without him. That was
our first year of retirement.

Jon Duncan: So you have done most of your traveling after retirement?

Kay Christensen: After Retirement, we never had time to long holidays on the farm. We would go for a weekend or something like that
but that was it.

Jon Duncan: It sounds like most of your travels were to Utah

Kay Christensen: Well we have gone up North in Northern Alberta and down through B.C. Visited relatives and friends, we have a
school friend that we visited and relatives in Swan Hills and Prince George that we visited.

Jon Duncan: So there were several throughout Alberta as well.

Kay Christensen: Yes, I met my cousins in Yellowstone Park one year, the ones from California.

Jon Duncan: Okay, the last thing that I want to talk about, what church did you belong to when you were growing up?

Kay Christensen: I belonged to the United Church in New Dayton.

Jon Duncan: How often did your family attend?

Kay Christensen: We attended every Sunday unless we were away on a holiday or at my grandmothers.

Jon Duncan: Quite active in the church. What types of activities would you do in the United Church?

Kay Christensen: We had CGIT. We had young peoples group. I worked in the Sunday school and played the piano at times as the
pianist wasn’t there. The boys had Trail Rangers. Another belonged to the ladies aid, a missionary society for a few years. We had
church suppers and I think that’s about it.

Jon Duncan: Did you associate much with Mormons?

Kay Christensen: Ya, in welling there was Mormon families around us. New Dayton there wasn’t too many there until I married Don and
that was the beginning of it.

Jon Duncan: What was it like to marry Don of him being another faith?

Kay Christensen: We got along good

Jon Duncan: Did you raise your kids in a particular faith?

Kay Christensen: Don would see that they got to Sunday school in Stirling. To me, at the time when they were little as long as they went
to one or the other was the main thing. They went to church with me once and a while and we would Dons way. We worked it out between
ourselves. It was something that I could have joined but I didn’t want to cause hard feelings in the families and we worked it out between
ourselves.

Jon Duncan: So it was important for your children.

Kay Christensen:He was the head of the house and I accept things and went right along with him. He said I was a Mormon right from the
beginning.

Jon Duncan: So it was important for your children to be in a religious setting?

Kay Christensen: We tried to get them to.

Jon Duncan: Now one of the years you joi9ned the LDS church, how did that come about?

Kay Christensen: Well it just gradually grew to that, the time came and I said well I guess I am ready to join if you want me to. I just
announced that I guess that I was ready.

Jon Duncan: Did you take missionary discussions?

Kay Christensen: Yes, we had missionaries. I had missionaries about four or five times and I never turned them away from the home or
anything like that, they were always welcome.

Jon Duncan: When were you baptised at the LDS church?

Kay Christensen: In October 4^thI think it was that I was baptised.

Jon Duncan: What year?

Kay Christensen: 1990

Jon Duncan: Alright, what callings have you had in the LDS church since that time?

Kay Christensen: I just was one in the relief society that plotted lunches and things like that.

Jon Duncan: Okay, you have also been involved in family history?

Kay Christensen: Yes, family history library.

Jon Duncan: Which library?

Kay Christensen: I worked in Raymond for three years. Then we moved to Lethbridge and they followed us here about three weeks after
we moved to Lethbridge.

Jon Duncan: Another group that you have had interaction with over the years is the Hutterite’s. What has your relationship been like with
them? 

Kay Christensen: They have been good neighbours, I can’t kick on that.

Jon Duncan: Which colony was it?

Kay Christensen: New Rock Port Colony, just a half mile across the road from us. They were good neighbours. They would come down
and look over our garden and if something was wrong they would tell us. When we had our fire they were the first ones down, canning,
anything like that they would come down with a truckload of stuff, towels. There were two quarts of peaches and pears and they
exchanged vegetables with us.

Jon Duncan: Did you have any friends on the colony?

Kay Christensen: Not close friends, they were all friends. There was no one close.

Jon Duncan: Alright, Kay the last thing that I want to ask, how was it that you and Don decided to leave the farm?

Kay Christensen: Well health reasons more than anything. Don had arthritis, I have cancer, he was told four years before he quit that
he should retire because he has got spurs up the back of his neck. We were told by the family doctor that we should be retiring. So we
finally made the step, it was a hard one to make but we decided that it was the right one.

Jon Duncan: What year was that?

Kay Christensen: 1996

Jon Duncan: You have been in Lethbridge ever since?

Kay Christensen: Yes

Jon Duncan: Well Kay I would like to thank you for your time today.

Kay Christensen: Thank you

Jon Duncan: I think we will shut it off now.

Transcribed by Clinton Dovell