Category Archives: Grandpa Stories

For Christmas 1958, Santa brought me an O-Gauge Lionel Train Set. It was Christmas 1958. I was 9 years old. The Sears Christmas Catalogue had arrived months earlier, and there they were, towards the back of the book: The Lionel O Gauge Train Sets. I loved the old-fashioned black steam locomotives, but the new-fangled dieselsContinue reading “The 1958 Train Set”

Exercise. Imagination. Adventure. Today’s families have a playroom, a neighborhood play structure and school gymnasiums … We had a barn!! Having a barn was like having your own personal gymnasium! We jumped from 10-foot high platforms into the haystack. We climbed 20 feet up the slings and then through the open hole into the cupola.Continue reading “The 1916 Barn: Our Prairie Playground”

Kids provided a great deal of the work required on the farm. Life growing up on a farm was a mixture of work and play. Often the two would blur together. As we got older, my sister and I had to take turns helping Mom clean up in the kitchen or helping Dad work inContinue reading “The 1916 Barn: Where We Learned to Work”

This iconic barn is a symbol of “home.” For decades, this barn proudly proclaimed the year that it had been built. This would have been 11 years after Charles J. Boyle filed his homestead in 1905. It was four years after he married Mossie Kitson in 1912. Two years after Graham was born in 1914Continue reading “The 1916 Barn: A History of Home”

Have you heard the one about the two pregnant women walked into a maternity ward? This picture is the last, and perhaps only, picture that I took of Larry and Connie Boyle. It was taken at Larry’s Mom’s 90th Birthday in 2006. Larry’s memorial service was Saturday, February 25, 2017, in Regina. Although I perhapsContinue reading ““Which Mrs Boyle is Admitting Which Mrs Boyle?””

In 1977 we drove to Newfoundland. This is a memorable part of the trip. I truly have few regrets in life … but I do regret that we did not accept the invitation to stay for “The Birthday Party in Newfoundland.” During the summer of 1977 we did a 3-week camping trip to Newfoundland. AmongstContinue reading “Birthday Party in Newfoundland”

My first job after university was as a computer operator on the mainframe computer at SaskTel. In September 1970 I began my career in computers and my career at SaskTel. I had graduated from the U of S, Regina Campus (now known as U of R) the previous May. In the absence of any jobContinue reading “My First (career) Job “

The short answer: Beverly Seafoot and I lived together BEFORE WE MET! 20261028 That happened because we both lived at the Wascana Student Housing Co-op when we went to university. This housing co-op occupied a number of renovated old houses on 15th Ave in Regina. I began living there in the fall of 1967 andContinue reading “How I Met Your (grand)Mother “

Our travel adventure over seventy years ago. 20261022 We spent Christmas 1955 in Uncle Al and Aunt Wilma’s house on Jessie Avenue in Winnipeg. My Grandpa Butters, Mom’s Dad, had passed away the previous March so this was a very significant Christmas for the family. We got to Winnipeg by taking a passenger train travellingContinue reading “Christmas 1955 “

20261014 In the summer of 1968 I hitchhiked from Regina to Windermere, B.C. In the late 1960’s hitchhiking became a popular way to get around, particularly for people that had no money (much like hopping a freight train in the 1930’s). I had done some short trips, from Regina to Weyburn. However, in the summerContinue reading “Hitchin’ a Ride “