My Memoirs

By Idell Robb

My life has been so very interesting and mostly joyful. I would like to share it with my family. My birthday is May 7/33.

As I start to write this I am 72 years young, and have had a very good life. I feel like my cup is full and overflowing. Sometimes I feel like I am drinking from the saucer, I would be very happy to keep sipping for some time yet. A person is very, very lucky to be able to say this.

Now I shall go back in time and tell my life story as I remember, hoping you will enjoy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 30, 2013
• ISBN: 9781479779109

Book preview

MY

Memoirs

Idell Robb

Copyright © 2013 by Idell Robb. 127961-ROBB

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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CONTENTS

Grandparents And Parents

Gerbig Family

Crocuses On The Gully Hills

High School Days

Pictures Of Pupils In Maidstone High School Then

Met This Guy When I Was In Grade 11!!

Teaching

Wedding Bells!!

Life In Our New, Old Home

The Sixties

Family And Farm Growing

Seventies, Eighties, And Nineties

Our Holiday Times!!

Life Changes

Some Other Changes

Our Pride And Joy

Fifth Generation Family Pictures

Other Family Pictures

Our Farm Is A Century Farm In 2008

Feelings

My God Is Real

Dedication

My memoirs are dedicated to my wonderful family, and my loving husband Lloyd, who has instilled in me his motto; Where there  is a will, there is a way. A special Thank you to Reg for getting it published, and any others who helped.

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IDELL ROBB (LEACHMAN)

Born May 7, 1933

GRANDPARENTS AND PARENTS

My life has been so very interesting and mostly joyful. I would like to share it with my family. My birthday is May 7/33.

As I start to write this I am 72 years young, and have had a very good life. I feel like my cup is full and overflowing. Sometimes I feel like I am drinking from the saucer, I would be very happy to keep sipping for some time yet. A person is very, very lucky to be able to say this.

Now I shall go back in time and tell my life story as I remember, hoping you will enjoy.

Country life is the best, in fact that is where I’ve always wanted to live. The clean fresh air is invigorating; The aroma of fresh mowed grass; the smell of freshly tilled soil; the fragrance of roses; and the smells of harvest and springtime are so meaningful.

When I think of my childhood, common spoken words were: Dirty Thirties, or Dust Bowl. These were common expressions, said by my parents. They often told us the soil blew so much when it was so dry, it would make it dusty and dirty. To me it must have meant the difficult times.

I shall start by saying my dad was born in Guelph, Ontario. Then the family moved to Manitoba, and a short while later to Maidstone, Saskatchewan.

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Bob{dad}, Joel, Charlie, Libby, Bill, Janie

They took up a homestead north of Maidstone or like we say, North of the Gully. Later to be called the McLaren District. My parents always told me that my Grandmother was the third white woman to live north of the gully at that time. The youngest girl called Ella died at an early age, and is buried in the Maidstone cemetery. Grandma and Grandpa lived in a sod house at first. Stories were told that they had to put my uncle Joel in his basket under the table to keep him dry when it rained. A new house was built by fall.

Winters were cold and lots of wood had to be cut, hauled, and sawed by manpower.

Grandfather broke some land with oxen on a single sheared plow. My dad said he walked along with a whip to help keep the oxen going, however when the flies got to bothering, off they would go and stand in a slough. Prairie grass was everywhere, so fires were prevalent. My father attended Dee Valley school, mostly in the summers, as it was six miles away. Finally McLaren school was built.

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My Grandmother, Mary Ann Easterbrook, holding my father, in Guelph Ont.

My Grandmother, also passed away at the age of forty seven, which is a young age for our standards. She had her appendices out and got infection and died. A beautiful heart shaped monument placed in the Maidstone cemetery, straight east of my parents and Lloyd’s parents graves, remembers her to us.

My grandfather, Joseph Robert Leachman, died when I was quite small. I can remember him giving us store bought bread and strawberry jam. It was so good, as we always had homemade bread. I am really thinking this was the reason I remember the bread he

gave us.

Our grandchildren to-day, and great grandchildren have so many grandparents they have to give them special names like: Farm Grandma, Farm Papa, Grandma Idell, Grandpa Lloyd, Big Gran, Little Gran, and many more. We weren’t that fortunate, and can only remember a little about our Grandparents. Guess they had much harder lives to live, and less medicines to keep them healthy.

Grandpa apparently ran a threshing machine, it was a small Stanley Jones machine mounted on a wagon. This engine was also used for sawing the wood and chopping the grain. Later on they used steam engines for doing the threshing. This information I found interesting, so added it.

Following is a picture of Grandfather Leachman with my brother Lloyd and I on his knee. You can see the buildings look like early day ones. Plain boards with no paint, but they were no longer made of sod. His homestead was at the top of the Gully on the north side, first road going west, and a short way north. The gully creek forms a horse shoe shape, just down from where he lived, which has always been a beautiful scene for me.

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My Grandfather Joel Leachman me on the left & brother Lloyd on the right

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Standing is Mother with her friend, Idell

This is where my name originated.

My mother was born in Staceyville, Iowa, she had three sisters and two brothers. She was eight years old when the family moved to Shaunaven, Saskatchewan, later the family came to the Maidstone area. My mother’s family were musical. Mom chorded on the piano and her brother, Harry, played the violin. They had fun entertaining and played for school house dances. Mother’s maiden name was Gerbig, and she had