The following story was
written by Doris Bailey. She was born in Brock, Saskatchewan and came to
Courtenay in 1956. The whole family came along. Doris was married in 1961. Her
daughter was born in 1967 and she has a boy and a girl. The most delightful
thing was when her daughter had her children. Doris came to the Adult Learning
Centre in 1994 because she felt she needed more help with her
vocabulary.
Play an audio version of this story
Life on the Prairies
I began life on the prairies when I was born on July 6, 1942 in Brock Saskatchewan. There were nine children, five girls and four boys. I went to school in a one room schoolhouse. To get to school, I went by horse and wagon in spring and horse drawn van in winter. In winter we had a stove in the van. Our nearest city was Saskatoon which was about 100 miles away. I can only remember going there once. While I was growing up I had to do chores both in the house and out side. For fun my sister and brothers and I drowned gophers in summer and in winter we slid down the granary because we had no hills. When I was fourteen we left Saskatchewan going first to Gull Lake, Sask., then to Macleod, Alberta. From there we went to Fernie, BC and then to Spokane, USA, and finally arriving in Courtenay.