By Rochelle Callaway pg 350 More Big Hill Country 2009
Gordon was delivered on October 26, 1922, by his grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Hughes, a midwife. Harold Callaway drove Amy Callaway over 14 miles by buggy from their farm north of Cochrane to the Hughes farm, south of Cochrane, for the delivery.
Gordon grew up and lived most of his life on the farm approximately 5 miles north of Cochrane, and one mile east of the Cochrane lakes. His nickname was “Sunny”, very appropriately as, over the years, whenever he was asked how he was and despite the circumstances, he usually answered, “Twice as good as I ever was”.
When Gordon was a young child, he remembers hauling water from a spring east of the farm. This was before a water well was dug by the farm buildings. Gordon and his sister Mary (Tot) rode a horse and herded the cattle daily to neighbors (O’Neill) to the west of the farm for watering for about a week while a second well was drilled to supplement the first water well as its water supply was not sufficient for the cattle.
Gordon’s constant companion, from a young child and for about 12 years was Curly, a border collie dog. Gordon started school in the brick schoolhouse on front street (First Street) in Cochrane and stayed with his grandmother, Mary Hughes, in Cochrane, paying $7 .00 per month for board and room for the first three grades. Mary had several children that took room and board with her for starting school. Gordon remembers that if they behaved well, their grandmother would give them one candy before they went to bed at night.
From Grade 3 to Grade 8 (he skipped 2 grades), Gordon rode his horse to/from school daily. One day, during a terrible winter blizzard but heeding his father’s advice, Gordon covered his face and hands and tied the horse’s reins to the saddle horn and let the horse take him home. The horse galloped the 5 miles from Cochrane to the farm safely.
Tot and Gordon had many farm chores, including helping their mother clean the barn with a team of horses and a stone boat. On one occasion, while Tot was cleaning the barn, the horses got loose, pulled the stone boat out into the field in a large circle, and returned to stand back at the barn. Gordon remembers that his father got up very early to do the morning chores, worked for neighbours for $1.00 /day for a period of time when they were starting out farming, returning home to do his own farm chores in the late evening. Amy worked hard, looking after the farm and children during the day, planting and looking after a very large garden, picking wild berries including wild raspberries, saskatoons, strawberries and gooseberries, canning meat and vegetables, making jams and jellies, butter and bread, cakes and pastries.
Gordon loved the farm, and left school after the mandatory Grade 8 (at age 13), despite excellent grades and encouragement to remain in school, to stay home and work on the farm. In 1934, his sister Dorothy Jean was born, and in 1937 a brother, Clarence Joseph joined the family. Holidays were scarce, usually a one-day trip a year to Banff for a picnic. Gordon remembers one holiday when he was about 7 years of age when his parents, he and hjs sister, Tot and farm neighbors traveled in a 1928 Nash car, on gravel roads, to Wenatchee, Washington for one week.
Gordon loved cars, adventure, mechanics and radio technology. His first car was a 1928 Dodge, which his father bought for him at age 16 for $100.00. However, he became more interested in radios, and communications, and at about 18, Gordon took a 2-year correspondence course as a radio and communications technician (including telegraph, short wave radio, and building a radio from a kit). Due to the Second World War, Gordon joined the army at age 21 (1943) to fulfill his desire to serve and protect his country.
Gordon served in the army’s signal corps, but due to health problems, he was discharged before going overseas. After his discharge, Gordon worked as a radio technician in Calgary, at Clayton, Stewart and Howell’s, and later for the Electric Shop for about 6 years. Radios were a scarce item, and radio repair and communication equipment repair work was an important and fast-growing career during and after the war. During this time, Gordon stayed in a rooming house with a friend, Jim Fenton. Violet (Dolly) June Kent had moved to Calgary (from Daysland and later Camrose) and was working as a waitress at the Esquire Cafe in Calgary. Dolly stayed in the same rooming house as Gordon. The rooming house was fun, as the residents shared many chores, such as washing clothes in a washtub with a hand scrub board. Everyone helped each other.
Gordon still says today he met the lady of his dreams and after celebrating 59 years of maniage in 2006, says he still wouldn’t trade her for anything. While courting, Gordon and Dolly often took the streetcar to visit Dolly’s sister (Kate Warren and family), in the Bonnybrook area – south Calgary. That was a considerable trip at that time. Dolly and Gordon were married on February 28, 1947 by Reverend Doug Ing. They honeymooned in Edmonton in -40F degree temperatures, and spent most of the weekend trying to start their car to be able to return to work on Monday. Interestingly, Reverend Ing had known Dolly’s parents (Eliza and Fred Kent) in Daysland, Alberta, and as a young man had helped them at harvest time. Reverend Ing had also married Harold and Amy Callaway, Gordon’s parents. He passed away shortly after marrying Gordon and Dolly.
After they were married, Gordon and Dolly bought a home in the Killamey area of Calgary in 1948 for $2600.00. They lived there until Harold and Amy had to retire from the farm north of Cochrane due to poor health 1947-48. Gordon and Dolly lived on the Callaway farm for a year, but lost their crops due to a terrible hailstorm, and freezing temperature, so they had to return to Calgary. Gordon went back to work as a radio technician for a short time and then returned to the farm. Their first child, Rochelle, was born June 9, 1949. While Dolly was in the hospital with Rochelle, Gordon broke his ankle and both ended up in hospital for several days. As there was no one to help look after the farm, Dolly’s brother Douglas Kent left his job in Grande Prairie (building a bridge), to help out on the farm for several months. Gordon and Dolly had to return to Calgary for work, and moved to the Hillhurst area for about a year. They then returned to the farm and remained there until they moved to Cochrane due to health issues in 1997.
The Callaway farming development included many trials and errors, starting with pigs and chickens, selling cream and milk, farming and working 800 acres of grain and hay land, and eventually going into the dairy business. From the time Gordon was a child, the winters were severe, with many days throughout the years when the roads were impassable due to heavy snowfalls and deep snow drifts. The only means of transportation during those times was by sleigh pulled by a team of horses across the fields to neighbours. The Holstein dairy became their successful family business for about 31 years. It was long hours and hard work, cleaning the barn by hand daily, planting and harvesting hay and grain, raising calves, shipping milk by train to Golden, B .C., for the first few months until they became milk shippers to Alpha Dairies in Calgary/Red Deer.
Three more children were born over the next 7 years: David Gordon on November 23, 1952, Elizabeth Jane on July 10, 1956 and William Harold on March 3, 1960. Farming life was hard and often neighbors were called on, in emergencies. Harvesting and threshing were often done with many neighbours working together, or with hired help, including natives from the Stoney Indian (sic) Band, who arrived with their families and lived in teepees during the harvesting. As years progressed, with hired help, the family working together and the purchase of tractors and other farming equipment (which Gordon maintained and serviced himself), the farm grew and prospered despite the challenges of weather and changing economic times. After retiring from dairying, Gordon and Dolly semi-retired and moved to a new home on the north half-section of their farmland. Gordon was interested in cars and mechanics, and was known as an excellent driver, having taught all four of his children to drive, and he drove a school bus from 1980-85. About the same time, Dolly worked part-time as a cook at the Big Hill Lodge in Cochrane.
Gordon and Dolly retired to Cochrane due to health problems, after 22 years living in the new home on the north half-section of the farm. Gordon and Dolly have been active in St. Andrews United Church in Cochrane since the mid-1950’s. Gordon was a leader and was active with the Bearspaw Dairy 4-H Club (with all 4 children) for many years. After the first 19 years of farming, without a holiday, the family began many enjoyable holidays, camping (frequently to Osoyoos, BC), and traveling Canada, the US, and the British Isles.
Gordon has also been a member of the Royal Canadian Legion for over 30 years (2004). Many enjoyable times were had on the farm including the almost daily enjoyment of the beautiful view of the majestic Rocky Mountains to the west, listening to the majestic Rocky Mountains to the west, listening to the life-giving rains, lots of music, singing, dancing and laughter, and the raising and togetherness of family, relatives, friends and neighbors.
Rochelle married (Tony Van Essen) on October 1968 and they had two children, Janine and Mark. Janine married Gerald Giroux in 2003 (Penticton), and Dolly and Gordon’s first great-grandchild, Alexander, was born September 21, 2006. Rochelle pursued a career in business management, and moved to Regina, Red Deer, Vancouver and Toronto, returning to Calgary in 2005. David achieved his degree in Agriculture, married (Jane Wells) and returned to the farm to take over the dairy in about 1978. They have 3 children, Jeffrey, Jennifer and Daniel, and dairy farmed for about 18 years. Elizabeth graduated, and after taking a business course at Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, moved to Calgary, married, and has worked in Calgary to the current date. William (Bill) completed his heavy-duty and auto mechanics training at Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, and moved to Red Deer where he met and married Loma Christie in 1982. He worked in mechanics for several years, and then returned to Red Deer College to achieve his Certified General Accountant designation. Bill and Loma have four children Meaghan, Ryan, Kirsten and Jordan.
Rochelle Callaway retired, and with partner Al McLellan now lives in Calgary. David remarried in 1998 to Giselle, and currently farms near Vermillion. Elizabeth Callaway (retired) and partner Mark Thomsen continue to live in Calgary. William (Bill), Loma and family later returned to live on part of the home farm. Bill currently works as a Certified General Accountant, Lorna continues part-time nursing, and they continue farming part-time.
