As teenagers, Norman and his brothers Ollie and Wilbert joined Sykes Robinson and other boys of the district to develop their rodeo skills on the neighbour’s steers, horses or even milk cows. The furious owners occasionally caught them snubbing-up an otherwise tame wheel horse.

At the time Calgary was a city of less than 200,000 people, and its western boundary was 14 Street N. W. Calgarians were attracted to the unique location, a landmark log building sitting some 700 feet above the city with an unparalleled view of Rocky mountain sunsets

To Cochrane “Old Timers”, Charlie was a master axe man, they still talk of the way he could dovetail the corners of a log cabin. For a time he worked for the C.P.R. at Banff building the Mount Assiniboia cabins,

It was during this relatively quiet time that Marion founded the Calgary Natural History Society and frequently displayed her botanical specimens at the Public Library in Central Park

The old house was in excellent shape structurally, but was in need of renovations to make it the retirement home Dolly and Allister wanted. These renovations became the first of Allister’s many retirement projects.

My first impression of Cochrane was from the cab of a Canadian Pacific Railway engine. My uncle was an engineer was on the run from Calgary to Banff and had a stopover at Cochrane for the brickyard