Writing in self-isolation: 88-year-old blogs about childhood spent on Alberta farm

[BlueMTexpat]

Last edited Fri Apr 10, 2020, 05:18 AM - Edit history (1)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/senior-first-time-blogger-self-isolation-write-alberta-farm-1.5527940

That link looks long and weird, so I hope that it works. [ETA new link: hope it works better.]

This was posted yesterday by a Canadian FB friend. It is of special interest to me as I was born and grew up on the Montana plains south of Alberta. It gives the backstory for newly-minted blogger Charlie Brumwell, who writes about his lifetime that began during the Great Depression.

Here is the link to his blog, "The Quarantinian: Stories from an 88-Year Old Self-Isolating Senior." https://ccbrumwell.wixsite.com/charlieb

This is great reading and we all have LOTS of time to read right now.

Enjoy!

[riverbendviewgal]

1. Thank you for this great blog to read

I love history and reading about ordinary people and how they lived. I read a few of his posts and will savour his others in the days ahead. I remember some things he writes about that my grandparents housed had.

This is wonderful during time of self isolation. As an 88 years old he writes of what times were like. Times have been changing all the time. Covid-19 has affected us like a war would. He lived through the war and we will live through covid-19.

I shared the blog link with my friends who are all Canadian like me.

[BlueMTexpat]

2. I am so glad that you tried it

and have shared. It's really a gem.

Enjoy!

[NJCher]

3. beautiful layout on that blog

and all the pics make each story all the more interesting to read.

I'm going to have to shoot this blogger an email with a street sign pic. Around here, "Vaux Hall" is a section of a NJ town and there is also a thoroughfare called "Vaux Hall Road." He might find that of interest.

[Ptah]

4. That is a wonderful blog.

I also grew up on the prairie just 60 miles from the Canadian border.

Thank for sharing, BlueMTexpat.

[hunter]

6. Ah. I was interrupted writing my post, came back and completed it...

... and echo!

[BlueMTexpat]

7. The little MT prairie town where I was mostly raised is

just 40 miles from Canada. My first "international" trip was to Lethbridge, Alberta, LOL.

After spending some years abroad, I returned to MT and lived in Missoula for several years. "Tropical MT" in comparison! My young sons used to spend parts of the summers with their grandparents where they literally had the run of my home town. It was a wonderful childhood for them.

When they were little, they couldn't understand why I didn't want to live in my home town. When they got older, they understood. One now lives on the West Coast; the other on the East. But both still LOVE MT, as do my grandchildren, and we all go back to visit friends and family there when we can.

I think that this blog is a real gem. Please share with as many as you can!

[hunter]

5. That's a wonderful blog.

My great grandma hated Montana.

Her son, my grandpa, didn't want to be a miner, rancher, farmer, or shopkeeper so he ran away at age sixteen to the "big city" of Cheyenne, Wyoming. Ha, ha.

Disappointed with city life he joined the Army Air Corp hoping to see the world and impress the ladies.

The Army wisely kept him on the ground. He was brilliant as a mechanic, and later as an aerospace engineer, but he had no natural talent for flying, driving, or even riding a bicycle. (Alas I inherited some of his clumsiness.)

The impact of World War II on rural communities in North America was huge and sometimes perversely positive for those who had suffered through the Great Depression. My wife's uncle was killed in the very last days of the war. Her grandma never got over it. The family was celebrating Victory in Europe and expecting him to come home soon when they were notified of his death.

[BlueMTexpat]

8. Cheyenne IS a big city

in comparison to many in MT, LOL! What an interesting story! How sad about your wife's uncle!

My father served in the Navy in WWII and spent most of his time in the South Pacific. Many Montanans of his generation served in the military and saw the world. That might be one reason why MT was fairly liberal overall until the 80s.

Many of those vets were also able to take advantage of the GI Bill after the war. My father wasn't able to, mostly because he had me to raise and Mom to support, but he loved learning, was intelligent, well-read and taught himself many things so that when the area began to prosper in the 60s, my family was able to succeed quite well, even in that small prairie town.

He and Mom BOTH valued education and encouraged ALL five of their children to study as much as we could. All of us have graduate degrees as a result. They also encouraged and inspired children of others and helped create scholarships for local students who needed financial assistance.

Most of their closest acquaintances were also like that then. I think that we were very fortunate to live where we did and to have so many around who encouraged us to live up to our potential.

HRC was right. It takes a village.

[panader0]

9. My grandma was born in Montana.

At Lodge Grass on the Crow Reservation. A half Crow orphan adopted by
a white family. A beauty.

[hunter]

10. My Wild West ancestors' relationship with Native Americans wasn't without friction...

..both mom and dad's side. My great grandparents bragged how they hadn't actually gone to war with the Indians or actively suppressed or killed them, but they still wondered why Indians wouldn't simply accept their place in White Protestant Christian society, just as their own Catholic, Jewish, and Pagan ancestors had done.

My wife's Native American ancestors were forced out of the U.S.A. by the U.S. Army, just as some others had been forced out of Ireland by the English. (My wife's Irish Catholic grandfather served in the Canadian Air Corp during World War II.) Her other grandparents had returned to the U.S.A. in the 'twenties as "immigrant" farm workers even though their ancestors had been in North America hundreds or thousands of years before that. My wife's Mexican grandma was still a bitter about it. She had a green card, but she never sought citizenship.

To my Montana grandfather's eyes my wife was a "Mexican girl" or an "Indian Girl." Men in his family simply did not marry them. He boycotted our wedding. To his credit, he got over it, but I think it was the same sort of eye-opening experience he had when he joined the Army Air Corp and they sent him off to the East Coast and expected him to work with black people. He got over that too.