Page 310 More Big Hill Country 2009
By Sandra M. Pickup (nee Brodie)
Born to a family where money was scarce, a young lad found himself traveling the country as his beloved uncle searched for work. The boy was James (Jim) Bertram Brodie born in January 17, 1926 to Clive and Mabel McDiarmid of Carievale, Saskatchewan. The family later moved to Manning, Alberta where Jim attended several years of school before leaving home for Ontario with his uncle, Bert. Here Jim attended several more years of school while his Uncle Bert worked at various occupations, mostly farm related. Jim and his uncle found work at a grain farm six miles west of Three Hills, Alberta where Bert went to work for Amos Brodie and Jim attended Curlew, a small one roomed school in the district. Jim later took his high school at the Prairie Bible Institute. While at the Brodies, Mrs. May Brodie took a shine to the young lad, Jim, adopted him and became his mother when he was about ten years old. Bert worked for the Brodies every summer until Amos sold the farm because he was going blind.
In Calgary, Alberta the Brodie family made their new home. Here Jim went to work delivering gas bills for Canadian Western Natural Gas, and was later employed by Anderson’s Plumbing as a tin smith. While he enjoyed his work, Jim longed to fulfill his dream of operating his own farm. As best man at his friend’s wedding, Jim met Miss Beryl Halladay.
On a cold day December 3, 1929 Beryl Georgina Halladay was born within minutes of her twin sister Bernice. Lac Vert, Saskatchewan was now home to twin baby girls, delivered by their father as there were no doctors for miles around. Little Bernice weighed four pounds while her baby sister Beryl weighed only three pounds. The twins were the eighth and ninth children of James Wilson and Jessie Amelia Halladay . The children grew up going to school, playing games in the seasons and doing the necessary chores that were needed to sustain a farm family and keep kids out of trouble. The house was a modest dwelling; the home was a sanctuary of love and warmth. Then disaster stuck! In September 1940 the family’s father and husband, James Halladay, was killed when a team of horses he was working with bolted, pulling a grain bin over him, crushing him to death. Devastated, the family soldiered on, but life had suddenly changed. Without Mr. Halladay to earn a living the older children had to help support their mother.
The new-found faith in Christ of Mrs. Halliday and her late husband would now sustain the family as they faced this crisis and others that would follow. Beryl and her sisters were needed to help their mother a home. When the girls were about fourteen it became necessary to terminate their formal school education to work on neighboring farms in neighboring homes performing housekeeping tasks and household chores where labor was arduous and payment was often modest. In 1946 Beryl, her twin sister Bernice and their mother moved to Three Hills, Alberta where work was more plentiful and the two girls, now sixteen years old could find employment in neighboring farm homes. By coincidence, in 1948, while attending a wedding as Bridesmaid for her twin sister Bernice, Beryl Halliday met Jim Brodie who was at the same wedding standing up as Best Man for his good friend Gerry Hazel. After a courtship of about a year Beryl Halliday became Mrs. Jim Brodie in a marriage ceremony in October 21, 1950 at the home of some friends near Three Hills.
Jim and Beryl moved in with his parents in Calgary until some suitable land and a house could be purchased, a period of about a year. Within that year I, Sandra May, was born on October 8, 1951. Around this time Brodies bought land in Cochrane on the north side of the Bow River, west of River Avenue. We bought the quarter section along the river which is now residential housing and a golf course. At the same time Amos Brodie bought the 60 acres north of ours that was later sold to Henderson’s who later sold it to Spray Lake Sawmills. Both our quarter and Grandpa’s land was purchased for $20 an acre.
April of 1952 saw Brodies move to their new home in Cochrane. For the present time the cookhouse formally used by the crew that had built the Cochrane Bridge would have to serve as the dwelling for the new residents to Cochrane. This cookhouse built around 1925 had been hauled up from the river front so it would not flood. Dad dug the twenty-six foot deep well by hand. Dad and Mom built the rest of the buildings, fences, and corrals needed for a farming operation. Mom looked after the household and tended the Iivestock while Dad worked for off- farm income. He worked for Lambert Brothers as a carpenter in construction but was mostly employed at the Shell Jumping Pound Gas Plant at various labour tasks (often using the skills he had acquired as a tin smith). A baby boy, Paul James was welcomed into the Brodie household on June 23, 1953.
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During the first nine years, we had no hydroelectric power, natural gas or running water (unless you count running to the well with a bucket) in our home. I can still recall the flickering coal-oil lamps that illuminated the gloomy rooms when the sun had gone down. We had several cows, chickens, turkeys, and at one time two pigs! Dad’s Uncle Bert, who had previously lived with my grandpa and grandma (Amos and May Brodie), moved from Calgary to live with us in the spring. Uncle Bert planted and tended a big garden for our family. It was also my Uncle Bert who took care of my little brother and me while my folks were tending to all those tasks that are so much a part of farming, planting, haying, harvesting etc. As other folks who grew up on farms will attest, farm life can at times be hard, other times quite rewarding. Some winters Dad had to chop a channel through the thick bank of ice to the frozen river, to allow the cows to drink. Paul and I had our chores to do but also we had plenty of time to play. One friend Paul often played with was our neighbor’s son, Georgie Bunny. I used to ride my bike out to where the First Nations People had in times past left rocks placed in circles for their encampments. With my vivid imagination I would pretend there were relatives in these circles (pretend houses) and talk with them. (Should’ve got a life huh ?) I also remember the deep ruts cut in the ground by stagecoaches left long ago. Good neighbors we had were Norman and Bessie Elliot and George and Donna Bunny who lived across the river, George and Molly Clarke to the north and Clarence and Rose McGonigle who lived across the field.
In 1958, Uncle Bert left our home to marry his childhood sweet-heart in Ontario. Mom then took over management of the big garden. As Paul and I grew older, after school and on weekends we helped with more of the farm work. Working with hay, green feed, farm dusts and pollens was difficult for Paul as he suffered horribly from the severe affects of asthma.
A highlight of our family was the completion of the new house my Grandpa and Grandma Brodie built for us in 1960. Such luxury! We now had a beautiful home with running water, hydro- electric power, and natural gas. We each had our own room too! This well-built house was eventually purchased and moved to the property of Laurie Spicer who lived north of Cochrane. Christmas was always very special for Paul and I as it meant Uncle Jerry and Aunty Bernice would be visiting with their family and we always looked forward to playing with our cousins from Three Hills. So many memories I have of my younger years on the farm. An incident I remember took place when Paul and I were still kids. A man asked my Dad for permission to fly his glider on our land. After a few days of flying he asked Dad to accompany him. My Father, who was deathly afraid of flying never the less, agreed to go with him. A few minutes later the pilot, Dad, and the plane crashed in the barnyard. Luckily no one was injured; but poor Dad was as white as if he had seen a ghost!
As children we played in a playhouse Dad converted for us out of the abandoned icehouse. Another fond childhood memory is hiking back to the cabin Dad built along the river at the back of our property, to feast on the wonderful suppers Mom packed. Paul and I started school in what then was the Cochrane Elementary School. This later became Andrew Sibbald and most recently Holy Spirit School. Junior high school we took at the old two-story brick school that was later tom down to add on to the Andrew Sibbald School. Paul and I were among the first students to attend the new Cochrane High School on the hill.
On August 15, 1970, I, Sandra Brodie (Sandy) became Mrs. Lynn Pickup in a marriage ceremony in St. Andrew’s United Church in Cochrane. Lynn and I spent the first year working and living in Banff, as there was no work in Cochrane. However we had never changed our address since our goal was to return to Cochrane to live. Our prayers were answered in August 1971 when, at the Jumping Pound Gas Plant where he worked, Dad secured a Janitor position for Lynn and we moved back to Cochrane.
In 1971, Paul, my brother, graduated from Cochrane High School then went on to S.A.I.T. (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology) where the first year he took Architectural Technology. He then served his apprenticeship in carpentry and received his journeyman’s certification. Paul placed 2nd in a 1st -year competition between S.A.I.T. and N.A.I.T. and went on to a career building houses and other construction. A house southwest of Cochrane that Paul was assisting to build was struck by lightning. Paul was briefly hospitalized, but apart from some memory loss, he suffered no lasting effects from the lightning strike. Paul is now a Certified Government Building Inspector.
Dad loved to fish and kept the Bow River stirred up with his fly rod. He used to go out after supper in the summer and was frequently able to catch his limit of trout and grayling within the short walk along the river between the garden and the house. Dad retired from the Jumping Pound Gas Plant in 1973. Dad and Mom began to make plans to sell the farm and purchase land in the Sundre area.
In 1973, Lynn and I moved to the original quarter section where Lynn’s parents had first begun their farming operation. There we situated the mobile home we had purchased. We took two children into foster care in our home. These were brothers Grant Phillips, age eight and Mark Phillips age six. The children were in our care for approximately seven years. In the years we lived on the farm I helped Lynn’s folks with farm work while Lynn commuted daily to his work at the Jumping Pound Gas Plant.
In 1975 Dad and Mom sold the farm in Cochrane and moved to another farm they purchased that was north of Westward Ho, northeast of Sundre. Paul married Linda Young from Ontario in 1977. They had two daughters, Alaina born February 18, 1979 and Tara born February 4, 1982. Paul lived in Cochrane where over a period of time he built for his family two houses. He also renovated several more and sold them. Before moving to a farm west of Bowden, Paul did the face-lift on McKay’s ice cream store on Cochrane’s main street.
In 2006 Paul married Jan Thompson, a widow from High River. They are presently building a new house on the farm. Alaina is a missionary with New Tribe Mission based in the Philippines. After University where she studied Business Administration Tara trained for property management at a firrn where she was employed. Recently she has become interested in interior decorating.
In 1989 Lynn and I bought a house in the Glenbow area and moved back to Cochrane where we now reside. At the time of this writing I have my own business where I clean people’s homes. Lynn is beginning his 37th year of service at the Jumping Pound Gas Plant. Our dear mother developed Alzheimer’s disease in the latter years of her life and is presently a resident in full care at the Bethany Care facility in Cochrane. My days are kept busy with my job and attending Mom. I also enjoy volunteering my services to help the nurses and residents in a non-medical way. Many of these residents and nurses have become dear friends as the dreaded Alzheimer’s disease forces us to share a common bond. My father moved in with us when we had to put Mom in the Bethany Care facility. Things have changed a Jot since we first came to Cochrane in the early fifties. The town, once around five hundred people, is now home to about fourteen thousand people. The town is robust and growing. It’s getting a little more crowded around here but we still love it and are pleased and proud to call Cochrane our home.
