Written by Millie Salway Redford in the book Finding Our Way.
January 1951
Glynn was hired by a Karl Salmon, a mortician who had a cattle ranch outside Raymond, Alberta. Glynn was responsible for overall management of the ranch. Karl had a home for us to live in while working for him.
The town of Raymond and surrounding areas were comprised of Mormons and Buddhists; which was whites and Japanese. There was a large sugar beet factory and surrounding the land was sugar beets or ranch land. So we began our marriage on a ranch 5 miles from Raymond. There were a lot of Japanese families living around us, within two miles, working in the sugar beets.
The road to our home was a dirt one, and so, was full of snow drifts in the winter and dust in the summer. Our house was small with two bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen-living area with a fireplace which was very nice. We had a propane stove to cook on and the house was heated by a huge furnace in the basement. I was not familiar with propane or coal. Glynn had experience with coal stoves. The weather was 30 degrees below zero the day we started housekeeping.
The days were long as we were pretty much shut in with the cold and snow. After Glynn had fed and checked the cattle, we had the day to ourselves. We played cards, wrote letters, and baked bread. We were unable to go into Church most Sundays due to snow and drifting roads. We were isolated and happy.
Occasionally Karl plowed out the road so Glynn could go into Raymond for propane. When we were in town we would visit Glynn’s sister, Leola, and wash our clothes. My first loaf of bread turned out hard as a rock as I baked it 3 hours while we were playing cards. It never looked done. I took it out of the oven, and it was too hot to eat so we took off for town, leaving the doors unlocked. While we were gone, my parents came from Medicine Hat to visit. Mom said when they drove up to the house it looked deserted. They went into the house and dad saw the bread. He being hungry, tried to cut it with a knife. It was so hard he couldn’t even break off a piece. Dad then said, “I know we are at Millie’s as nobody else could make bread like this!” Our first visitors and we weren’t even home.
Raymond, Alberta, Canada
February 1951
We had a little white kitten, which we called Diddley. Diddley enjoyed having a bath and we were very attached to him. Life was good and we were adjusting to each other.
We put all our dirty clothes into a basket and went into Leola’s to wash them and then buy groceries. Glynn had banked the coal furnace, and our little kitten ran down into the basement and we couldn’t find him. So we went into Raymond
After buying our groceries and washing our clothes we headed for home. Driving down our lane dirt road, was covered with blowing snow. We could see for miles as the country was very flat and desolate without the summer crops. We heard a siren and we pulled over to let a fire engine go by us.
Driving on, we could see flames coming from our home. When we arrived, the whole house was on fire. Glynn crawled into the spare bedroom window and crept into our bedroom and got my rings from our dresser and returned through the smoke. The firemen would not let him go back in for anything else. We stood huddled together outside our home, watching the flames leap up and melt our wedding cake as it stood on the fireplace mantle. We watched our wedding gifts burn, and then all we had was each other and our clean laundry. We then missed our little white kitten, Diddley, he didn’t make it out of the house.
The fire burned brightly and the volunteer fireman ran out of water in the truck and so all anyone could do was to watch the house and everything we owned burn.
Karl Salmon took us to his home. He had a wife and 7 children, so we were an imposition. Karl was angry with Glynn, as he had no fire insurance, blamed Glynn for the fire. The Relief Society gave us some bedding, beautiful quilts and some used pots and pans.
A few days later, firemen came and told Karl that the fire started from a birds nest in the chimney. The house had not been lived in for several years and Karl had not thought to clean the chimney. Glynn helped Karl clean and fix up another old home situated across from the burned out one.
This house was one large room and a bedroom. It had a coal stove to cook on and heat the house. The bathroom was in a little house outside. We got water with a pump in the kitchen sink. There was a bucket under the sink to catch the dirty water when the sink was emptied. Glynn had to empty the bucket about three times a day. We then had to learn to bake in a coal stove.
After the fire.
Glynn’s dad came to visit us after the fire. I made him pancakes which were really tough, but he never said a word and ate them. He had sold a pig and brought us $60.00. It was all that he had, but he gave it to us. He was such a good, humble man and I loved him right away.
At the time, I did not realize how much he sacrificed to give us the money and make the trip to Raymond. Lots and lots of snow , we spent our days enjoying horseback riding and playing in the snow.