Interview with Olive Allen, Childhood memoir of Edmonton in the early 1900s

Olive Allen reflects on her childhood in Edmonton in the early 1900's.

This is Jim Roberts, and this time we are meeting Mrs. Olive Allen, who has been in Edmonton, how long, Mrs. Allen? Not how long, but when did you come?

I came here in nineteen-six.


In nineteen-six, and where did you come from?

Winnipeg.


Winnipeg would be where you were born?

Well, outside of Winnipeg. Manitoba.


Did the whole family come here in that year?

Yep, uh-huh.


What was the reason for coming to Edmonton?

Because there was a boom on in building, and my Dad was a construction man, and all the people we knew were construction people, so we all come in a flock.


What was your Dad's name?

He was my step-Dad. His name was Bedford.


Bedford?

Yeah, Samuel Bedford.


He would be in the construction business in Edmonton in the early days. I suppose construction has changed a little bit. Did you ever get involved in that area of work?

No not then. But I sure have built a lot of things since. (Laughs)


Things like what?

Oh, toy chests for my grandson; cupboards and chests out of boxes -- tangerine boxes and apple boxes and things -- for my granddaughter; and just things and shelves for me - all kinds of things.


Sounds like nobody's ever held you back. You started women's liberation a long time ago!

(Laughs) Yes, I think so.


What's your present address in the city now?

10626 - 104 Street.


When you first came here from Winnipeg, what method of transportation did you use?

'Shank's ponies'... we walked!


All the way from Winnipeg?

Oh, well no, I mean we came on the CPR.


You came out by train?

Yeah, um-hmm.


But once you were here in the city, wherever you had to go, you went by walking?

Oh yes, we walked.


Do you think this is something we should get back to?

It'd be a good idea...


It'd be a lot healthier, wouldn't it?

Yes, it certainly would.


Cut down pollution, cut down [? unclear]. (Mrs. Allen laughs) Now, yourself, do you remember how you earned a living in your earlier days here in Edmonton?

Well, like I said, my step-dad was in construction, and my sister, who was four years older than I, worked in the little ice cream parlour across from the Alex Taylor School and Alex Taylor apartments. There was a little corner store, there [? unclear] you know, and there was a little ice cream parlour in there, and my sister worked in there.


Do you remember any particular things that happened in Edmonton?

Yes, there was a lift-up near the MacDonald Hotel for horses and wagons that we used to ride on occasionally. And there were twins that went to the Alex Taylor school that used to be on the... what's the name of that thing, that used to be on the, you know, that we played with?


Were the theatres...did a lot of people go to the theatres? Was it a 'happening' thing to do?

Yes, it was, because there wasn't much else to do, you see? The Gem I think was there, The Gem, whichever one was across...


The Bijou was one of the early ones too, wasn't it?

Yeah, yeah, and then there was... where the Troc [Trocadero Ballroom] is, that was a legitimate theatre, with traveling companies there.


You didn't have any problem with censorship [in those days?], did you?

No, no, because, one... a certain group used to come to town, they all slept over at our place [and stayed] for dinner on Sunday, and we used to have quite a gay time even though I was just young, you know.


Do you remember any of the people after whom schools have been named, or streets were named, or buildings?

No, I don't think so.


I know a lot of the places in Edmonton are named after things that happened, or people who lived here in the early days. Do you remember just some of the people who are well-known names in Edmonton's history?

No, but I remember the Johnson Walker, and I remember the Star department store; that's where I believe the Army and Navy is now on the North side.


Oh yes? You attended school in Edmonton, did you?

I went to the Alex Taylor, down on 95 th Street. I don't know whether it was before the tracks or over the tracks. There were two big houses there that they gutted, and made four school rooms out of, and I went there.


Do you remember any of the teachers that really stand out in your mind?

No I don't, and I've been trying to remember what the name of the Principal was at the Alex Taylor, and you know I can't for the life of me remember it (laughs) .


I suppose, you know, you meet an awful lot of people that are important, and it's pretty hard to keep all those names together.

Well, yes, but then, at that time, you see, I was young and so, even though my mother and father might have, why, it wouldn't register with me, no.


Well, what was school like then? How did you get to school, what did you do in school?

381 Oh, we didn't have far to go, we just walked over the... like when we were in the tents, in the tent colony, on the other side of the Alex Taylor school. Well, we just went down over the road and up to the school, you see. I think it's [Milner?] Hill, or whatever.


Were there many kids in each classroom?

There was quite a bunch of kids around...


All mixed grades, that sort of thing?

Oh yeah. Uh-huh.


Were they well behaved compared with what you hear about in school...?

No! Well, maybe they were, but I wasn't. (Interviewer laughs) You see, I had been in the hospital for a ruptured appendix, for eight weeks, and I come out, and I was out about three weeks and I took typhoid fever. And the result of the... well in the hospital they had a sticky fry pan stuck on the top of the bed, and it fell down in my hair, so of course they had to cut some off and [pull?] the other out. But when I finished with the typhoid fever, I was bald. So I went to school after recuperating, you know, and I had to wear a bonnet of course, because I was like a billiard ball. And the Principal went around and told the kids that they were not to molest me in any way, that I had been a very sick little girl. Well, now you can believe I done everything I could, outside of law, to, uh... (laughs)


You took advantage of the situation!

I took advantage, you have no idea. Yep! (laughs)


Well, a person has to enjoy life somehow.

Yeah, still am.


Nowadays, of course, we talk of sports, we think of our hockey clubs, our Edmonton Eskimos. What were some of the sports activities in your region?

Soccer, which is the only game in the world! I don't like football.


Soccer has always been a big game in [the new country?] hasn't it?

Well, you see, the men that boarded in our house were from Leeds and they were all great soccer fans, so that soccer was our game too, because we all come out here together, and when my mother got a big enough house, why they all went to live there, you know, so soccer was the game. Of course we played, we played... we played hockey. I delivered papers here in nineteen-six for The Journal ...


You had your paper route.

Yeah.


What was the... was The Bulletin the...

Yes, it was.


Were the two papers, and you delivered papers for The Journal?

We had a dog and a sleigh...


Well, were there many young ladies who were... who had paper routes?

Oh, no, I was just a... different. (laughs)


You were a little different.

Yeah. [? unclear] (laughs) I wasn't bald forever! (laughs)


That kind of added something to your life, didn't it, in a way?

Oh yes, because I took advantage of everybody and their brother. (laughs)


It gave you a chance to sort of, break out, and get away with a lot more...

I should be ashamed when I think of it, but really I'm not. It's just too far away. (laughs)


Well you, it sounds to me, that you have enjoyed life all the time you have been in Edmonton, are still enjoying it...

No, I have had a few knocks that were pretty bad. But I've always climbed out, you know, over the edge, and ...


Well, there's more good things, more happiness than sadness...

Oh yes, definitely there is. Certainly.


Do you think that's one of the problems today, that we tend to get too wrapped up in misery?

Yes, I think so, just like these people out here that are here today. They couldn't... most of them, maybe some of them could, maybe they're like me, a jumping grandmother. I don't know, or a swinging grandmother, but... a lot of them didn't listen and didn't hear the words and didn't know the message that those clean-cut kids were giving us. They just heard a big loud noise and that was that, and that's terrible because...


You're talking about the [singers] [? unclear]

Yes. That was tremendous! I think so, anyway.


They're a nice bunch of kids.

Oh, I think they're just absolutely tremendous. And, like I say, they were teaching us a lesson. They were telling us what... not teaching us a lesson, but they were telling us. That's all I can say, they were telling us, but the people didn't listen to the words. All they heard was a loud noise, which was too bad, because it was really something...


Of course nowadays we have radio, we have television, we have telephones, all the conveniences. Do you remember these conveniences as they were first... well radio, of course, you must remember something about when it first...

Yes... I went back to Winnipeg, and we had a radio, one of the first big ones, I guess, and when Jack Dempsey was going to fight somebody all my neighbours come into my house and crowded around, and he was knocked out in the first three seconds. That was fun. (laughs)


This is what, you had a speaker, or it was earphones?

No, no. This was just a radio, the first ones that had come out that the cabinet fit, you know...


That was a real highlight, I guess, listening to the radio [? unlcear].

Yes. (laughs)


Do we enjoy our conveniences today as much as you did [? unclear]?

I think we have too many. I really do.


We don't appreciate them.

Well, I appreciate my television, because I don't go out very much ...


Are there any other stories or any other happenings that you can recall from Edmonton's earlier days? Some of the outstanding things in your life? Maybe there's one thing that really stands out in your recollection of the past in Edmonton: might've had something to do with school, or anything along those lines? Some of the names, perhaps of people who... Wop May for instance, or [? unclear] like that...

No, no. I didn't know Wop, but I knew Floyd [Brinkman?] who was with the flying club. In fact he was my boyfriend...


He was your boyfriend?

Yeah. (laughs) I knew him, and no I didn't really get around with that. My son went... finished University here in the Army, and he's still in the Army, he's a Lieutenant-Colonel now. But of course I never see him, he's here, there and everywhere you know...


Well, are there members of your immediate family still in Edmonton then?

My granddaughter and my grandson are here. My mother got fed up with the cold weather; she went to Victoria. (laughs)


Ah, that can happen, can't it? (laughs)

Yep. But all my family are, well most of them are, well all of them except my immediate family is in the States.


Well Mrs. Allen, it's been a real pleasure sort of looking back and recalling some happy moments with you. It's been a real pleasure.

Well, I'm sorry I didn't think up more, you know. But you think about it, then when you get face to face with it, it just flows. You know...


Well there's too many things to enjoy [today?]...

Well, yeah. (laughs)


Mrs. Olive Allen, thank you very much.

You're welcome.