June 19, 1985
Interview with Alice Maitland
(E) When did you arrive in the Hazelton area?
Well, I was born here a long time ago, actually it was
over 50 years ago so that makes me an Old Timer.
I remember when they had a big party for Dick Sargent
cause he had been here for 50 years. When I was 50 years old
and thought I’d been here as long as Dick Sargent was then. It
was almost 45 years later than when Dick came here.
When I was a little girl I think we lived in Two-Mile before
we lived downtown. I must have been 3 or 4 when we moved downtown. We moved to where the village office is now. But there
was another old buiLding , and it was like, I think it had
been an old jail. We lived upstairs in it too. My dad had his
truck down stairs. Then I think early in the war maybe 1939
they built that new place that is now the Village Office, and we
lived in there.
I think there are lots of changes but in some ways there
aren't any changes. But some of the buildings have changed and
the people have changed.
For a long tome in Hazelton you could sit out on the Village
Office steps where they sit now, and everybody that went by you
knew, but now you don't know anybody. The other thing that always
happened in Hazelton was there was benches everywhere. There
were benches in front of Sargent's Store, benches in front of
Bud Dawson's Store, where my store is now. There was benches in
front of Marshall Brothers and benches in front of Triangle'
Motors, where June’s Place is. There were benches in front of
B.C. cafe, and benches down on the Hotel veranda. People sat on
them all over the place. There were always people sitting there.
Old guys that were prospectors on trappers or guys(I don't know
what they do) but they lived here in Hazelton, and they sat there
So, when I was a little girl I used to play in front of those
benches. If there were a bunch of guys sitting there, I'd play
there and hear all their stories. And I always felt ••• they were
dandy baby sitters, they baby sat every-body, It was a really
neat town cause it was like one big family.
(E) Did you go to school here?
Yes, I've went to school where Rosie Morrison lives, there
was a school there, it had two toilets out behind, and a big
school field. The school yard. was where Rosie lives and where
Sol lives. And across the street by Mae Simpson's there was Joe
Ham's where we could buy chocolates and stuff and just bother
Joee ham all the time.
{E) Who's Joe Ham?
. He was a little Chinese guy that h ad that restaurant. I
think he'd been here forever. It was a log restaurant it was
old when I remember it first. There were a bunch of little houses
along there and some other chineese people lived there. One
called Wing, who used ••• he was only about, he couldn't have
Been 4'8". He carried, he wore an old. gray sweater all the

time,

carried wat.e r f or everybody in town . Because not
many people had runing water, and so he had this big square
5 gallon coal oil cans. He'd hang them on a rope on a stick
and carry it across his shoulders, and he'd go down to the
river and fill those up and he'd carry that to people's
houses. He'd carry, maybe, three trips. They'd pay him something like 2-bits a trip, maybe not even that maybe they only
paid him 2-bits a week. But he'd carry water all day long;
you'd see him with his big buckets bouncing on the ends of his
sticks, trotting along to whoever he was carrying it to. I
remember one time when he was carrying water to Mrs. Newick,
Mrs. Newick lived at the bottom of Smith's Hill, where Orlon
Gisslesan lives. The Myros' lived across the street where
Tribal council has it's Employment Services Of'fi.ce, Myros'
had 5 bad kids that I used to play with. One of the older boys
had a b. b. gun and he shot holes in Wing's water buckets with
the b s b , gun, while he was wal1king down the street. Wing
couldn't figure out where it WAS coming from, finally he
spotted us and he told Mr. Myros. Mrs. Myros came, we saw him
coming, and we went out the window and up on the roof, he
couldn't catch us. He caught us in the end. But we didn't
shoot Wing's water bucket again.
Poor old Wing he was really friendly. He always had
peanuts or candy in his pockets, he'd give it out too.
And he'd always say to all the little girls “I'll take you
back to Hong Kong with me.” He was a neat man.
Daddy ad a, in where Kurt Beeertema's college building is
now, in that place there was an old blacksmith's shop just
sort back right next to the Sunrise Cafe. And there was a
blacksmith's shop and a little house in there that the
blacksmith lived in, his name was Teddy. He was just black
I don't think he ever ever ever changed his clothes. He used
to carry his own water from the river in a bucket and it would
sit in his house. Those guys Like Scotty and Charlie Smith
and my uncle Tom, (who else drove truck?) daddy. They used to
always be around in that yard_fixing, thay had a wood saw and
they'd cut wood in there and they used to park the trucks in
there and work on the trucks in there. One day Scotty was
thirsty and he said to Teddy “I need a drink” Teddy said
“I got a bucket of water in there" so he went in Teddy's
house to get a drink of water. The dipper was, in the bucket
so he took the dipper and drank the water, and he went to put
the dipper back in the water and there were his fa1se teeth
soaking in the bucket of water. So Scotty quit drinking out of
Teddy's bucket. He used to have.. he had a million cats too.
He used to .. there was a thing there like they put those
iron rims on the wooden wagon wheels and so they'd have to heat
them up really hot to put them on a wagon wheel then they'd
have to cool them quick to shrink them. So they had this big
wooden tank there and it had a top on it, sort of out of slat.
So they'd put the wagon on that then they'd pull the pins and
that thing would drop into this tank of water, and cool off
with a few big steams … and it would go, you know it would get
really steamy and it was really exciting.

Then when that thing wasn't in ••• when they wern't using it
then they'd put the pins ir but the water was always tnere. e
used to play on that and one of the kids would pull the pin and
we'd all fall in that tank of water. It was full of polywogs
and all sorts of ugly things. My mot~er used to beat us soundly every time we did it.
We had ••• Toby had a b.b.gun, his dad bought him a b.b.·.~glfn,
and we shot every window out of the blacksmith's shoo and we •
shot all the cats away. And so ~eddy complained after we'd got
all the windows cleaned out. I don't know how corne my uncle
Tommy never noticed that we took all the windows out of the
~lacksmith's shop. I guess he thought they were just cle~n •.
Teddy went and told him and so then he took t.e b.b. gun away
frGm us so we couldn't do that anymore. Really sad. Poor
old Teddy he lived an ~wful life.
There were lots of those ole. guys around. :::;ourdough,.
Sourdough McKay I think they called him, I think he was from
the gold rush in the Yukon. He used to be one of those guys
who sat around. He came fro'Tl Dauffin, Manitoba, because I've
known about Vauffin, Manitoba since I was a little girl and I
th .rik I heard those guys talking a 'out it. lot of them came
from out there. 1 think they came here realJy ear~y, like the
Bensol~'8. Pop Benson, Gloria benson's grandpa, he came here
really early in the century, before the first world war, I
thi~k; oh easily before.
I think he always had a taxi because Jack Robinson used to
drive t.e taxi. That w~ before 1 was born. They'd meet the ••
it was just after the train came.
I remember Mrs. agen telling me about when she came here.
Her husband had come here first, and got a farm way up in
Ki~spiox,;' He sent r'or- her to come over and marry him. She
come over on the boat to Montreal and all the way across Ganada
by train. All by herself, couldn't speak english, got off and
she thought North America was full of wild Indians. She was
just terrified, she got off the t.r-u i,n and Louie wasn't there,
her husband to be. :::;he didn't know what to do but Jack Robinson wa9 the taxi driver, he was Harry Webster's uncle. He was
he said Louie sent me to pick you up and he'll be in town, that
-N'la's .sa t Southtown. There was a bridge across tde ri var- so they
just drove down. S~ she came with, ~nd she was afr~id he was
going to abduct her, .'R.nd steal her aWl- y. So they got down town
and .sur e enough after awhile he took her to the hotel. 1<'inally
Louie got into town cause he lived away up above Marty Allen's
up about where Roisu'll's live now, but across the river. There
was no really road, they had to come across the river ~n the ~
boat. :::;0 e got into town and said to her I'll take the horses
And Jack Robinson's going out past Kispiox with the car so you
can, ride with him. And she was so scared of Jack Robinson
because she t:10ught he'd take her somewhere else, she didn't
know there was only one road in the world and you couldn't get
anywhere else. But she went anyway and thEY got married in
town. Then they went out t.her-e and they had to camp by •• just
pas Kispiox. Because t~at wad only as far as you could get in
one day. It took them about 3 days to get out to where she
lived and they lived out t~ere over t~e winter. She said the
only people who lived out there were Eric Janze's uncles. -=There was Louie, uncle Louie,and uncle Ernest Janze. They lived
near them across the river Sort of thing, and thLY used to visit

baak and fortIl. Those two old guys spoke her langue_e, well
they spoke just about t.hs salle Language and she couL,- understand! They told her all these terrible stories about how
the Indians co e through t_e bush and murder people and all
t is sort of thing. Anu sht was terrified, and ••• but she
never said anything to Louie. Louie had to go into town to
get provisions, but she ••• it was to hard a tripcs~e didn't
want to go to town. She said "well I'll just stAY here, I'LL
be alright." So he came into town, like it took more than
3 days, for him it took 4 days if you hurriee ••• for him_to
get into to n. So she was there all by herself, and while,-'
she was there all by herself, she was chopping wood and this
Indian man came out of the bush wit~ a pack on his back. She
stood there and looked at him he knew she wes scared. She
knew he was going to .ik i.Ll her. And he came and he took the
axe away from her and she thought this is it, her ~e[-rt was
was just heatin~ And she was just so scared. 'Nhat he did was
chop up a whole bunch of wood and stayed all dAY and chopped
up wood for h~~. So then she thought, well he's not goin~ to
kill me now, maybe if I f'e e. d him he won't.. So s he fed h i-n an
he talked to her. He could only speak english and she could
understand a little oit. Like, he said he was a friend of
Louie's, but she didn't want to believe him because everybody
was Louie's friend. She was sure he W8S poiu~ to kill her.
He understood her, that s~e was frightened of 'him but she fed
him anyway. He s t aye c t ae ni zh t in the c ab i.n that Louie had
there. S e stAyed up all nip-lilt 'rl5tCilinF him. But she saie
then he stayed Around there till ~ouie cane back and made sure
she w£'.s alright. Afttr that s: e wasn't so afraid of h in ariy-«
'!lore.
She w~s really an innocent little lady, without being
able to spenk english she had very little to reed, cause
there weren't too mar:y books aLd stuff cominp' out of Norway.
So she learned to speak english by r-e ad i.ng cookbooks. by the
she was t ere~a year, she could speak very food english. jut
in that year, the spring that year, she sai~ she got so sick
she thought she was gainp to die. She was sick eve::'yday, land
she thought she was go i n> to die. liut ahe was scared to tell
Louie cause she didn't want to worry him. Finally she said to
him, I think you have to take 11e into the doctor. So they ,
got ••• she said she got so t+ri n , she was ae scared she was _'
going to die. So they came across the river in the boat and
they got the norses r-o unde c up in the wagon and they came
into town to Dr. Wrinch. She went and she was cr/in~ and she
said I think 1'1 going to die and I want to go home. Dr.
Wrinch examined her and he said, "well you're going to have a
baby." and she didr:'t have a clue. She was 4 months pregnant
she sisn't know what in the world w~s wrong with her. So she
hurried out of t.l e doc t.o r-e office anc: she told Louie, "we're
going to have a baby. he said, "I knew that." "Wh,j didn't ...
you tell me before, here I t.ho ugh t I was dying." They had
th baby. He was a big red headpd bo~.
~he told me 6nce beforL, wnan she still had an accent
"He was yos like a slab of' bacon.s " He was so fat.
But she lived up there all by herself for, oh probably
ten years. In the bush there with those kids. She only
ca~e in to have babies. Poor old lady_
II

(E) What was it like here when the war broke out?

I can remember war broke out just when I was starting
school. It was like, we heard it on the radio that war had
been declared and nobody knew what war was. None of my
friends, like we were all only six years old. I can remember
it was like, being really scared. You know, what does war
mean? And even our parents d-i dn' t really know whar war ment __
The teacher ••• I can remember the teacher ringing the school
bell and we all lined up to go into the school. We always
had to line up and go in, in an orderly fashion. Which nobody
does anymore. We all said to her "Miss Smith, what's war?"
And she told us what war was and we were all so scared.
They started in right then telling us ••• like teaching us
to do things like having buckets of sand because they had
insendary bombs that they had would start fires and when they
hit and so even in here we were trained to use; all have
buckets of sand and what they were for and had air raid practises where you covered your windows so lights couldn't show
out and things like that. There were always posters around
that ••• saying thBt t~e Germans were listening and you know so
you couldn't talk about ••• you weren't supposed to tell any _ .
war secrets. The whole thing just sort of ••• you really knew
who the enemy was and everybody was aware of the German ..•
being our enemies.
I grew up with that, th~t war lasted from the time I was
six until I was twelve, a little over twelve. 'he guys start
-ed comina back I remember ••• one of the things I remember •••
one of the things I remember most, the guys going. They left
on the only way to get out of here at that time. We'd go •••
we always went to the train, my dad had the truck that met
the train with the mail. So we went to every train. It
seemed like for awhile everybody was going away to the army.
They'd go away for awhile and come back in their uniforms.
I remember Neil going, ,Art Sterritt, Jeff Wilson. They were
all so young, they were just our boys. A whole bunch of guys
from this town.
They was the policeman's son, Donald Grant, there were I
thin~ three ~rasewell b?ys; Jack Brasewell, ay Brasewell, and
onnle ~rasewell. Ronnl~ wasn't old enough at the beginning
but as soon as he got old enough he went to the war. I think
two of the ~rasewell boys were killed. Donald Grant was
killed, he was the only boy they had.
I remember ••• I can't remember his name, it was a guy
ca+!ed ~hoconate. I remember when he went, he looked so nice
in his uniform. He was really dark he had really dark skin.
(Charlie Smith would know his right'name.) There was a guy
called bramblewale, he went.

_

I can remember all those guys and I can remember them
leavirig"o~ the t~ain. They'd go ••• sometimes,sometimes they'd
go 2 or 3 at a tlme. Most of the ti~e just one guy at a ti~e.
They'd enlist then they' d go aVlay.· Most of those guys
went overseas. At first they we"e stationed near at hand,
then they got farther and farther and farther away.
Like, ~harlie Smith spent the war in Halifax. That's a
long ways from home when you're a Hazelton boy.
Neil, went to, Neil was in England and Holland, all during
the war~ He had little kids) lik~ he had 3 little kids and
he was gone home from~the time Jamie was a baby till he was
almost_ 4 years old ~heq he" got home again.
It was just really, I think looking back at how disruptive
and how sad it must have beenJfor so many people. Especially
for those people that lost their kids. It was~jAst gross!
It was sad then. I remember my parents being really,
really sad when they'd hear tnis one was killed in action. But
I don't think it meant 8S much to me now that ••• as it does now
when I t.link about what it would be like if my own kids went
to war and I got that terrible message. Terrible.
One of my ••• so~etime during the war, ~y aunt married a
friend of Tarry Webster's. (Harry was in the war) He was sent
overseas and he was killed almost as soon as he got to England.
It see~ed really unreal then. But J think it got to be real
when the other guys started coming back and those kids didn't
come" back.
I can remember waiting for them all. It WRS just amazing
to see them, how they'd changed.
Jeff Wilson went, h wns just a little boy practically.
He came back and he looked Italian. He was all grown up. It
changed their lives so much.
~mokey Morrison, I think the first time Smokey was wounded
he fell down in a parade becuuse he was hungover and somebody
walked over lim and broke his leg. But when he got overseas
he was a hero.
Sol Jack was a hero too.
brave beyond the call of duty.
well.

They nad decorations for being
Like, really really showing up

nother person that went and didn't come back was Marie
anze's brotner, her younger brother: Philip. He was killed in
Italy.
Marie went she was in England for most of t e war.
It just seemed like our town went. All the young men
were gone, there were very, very few young people left of that
age grQup

Ihe P.~. was done so wel~ for that war. Like, t~ey sold
the war to the people. Kids would just lie to get into the
forces. They wauld ••• it seemed like the young kids as soon as
t.hey got a age they ':~ join the army and be wisked away. ;0
the whole town was bereft of that group of' young men. It was
just .•• it was really a strange time, that war time.
It was part of your life being at war. Everything you didd
People knit socks for the soldiers, you rolled bandages. In
school you e v en , in school we had b'riday af't.e rnoor., which was
Junior ed ~ross, and you always raised fioney to Aend for the
war ef'r'o r t ,
You'd buy war bonds, you'd SAve money to buy war bonds,
so they could buy more weapons to kill more German's. It was
really gross. '\:je were well brought up. .We were always rolling
bandages and hemming hankies for the soldiers. I never could
be 'fiuch of B hemmer. My hankies Lways out black and the
thread was not in t~e right places.
It was ••• it really ~otivated us and we were total enem~es~
Like the Japanese people you can understand better now
why. they ••• why they felt so picked on. Because to us they
were Jap~ and they were dangerous. They dre' pictures of
rats and things like that. ~e were real~~ brought up with
some srong racism.
rhose people ••• we were taught those people were the
enemies. The German's and the apse I don't think it was a
very healthy way to bring us up. a wonder sO many of llS are
rednecks.
(E) What types of entertainment were there?
'I'n e r'e were lots of things to so in Haz e I ton. There were
always hockey t.ea-as , in the winter ti-ne.
In ~he winter time we had badminton, there was a badminton
club. There were always ••• there were alot of dances. The
peopLe were always putting on dances.
oy Wilson's orchestra always played he had the Wild Wood
something or other. The Wild Wood Orchestra. They were
excellent as long as they lasted.
(E) here aid they take place?
There were two places. You know where the theater is now,
tha twas tre Communi, ty -la L'l , That was ••• I think t.ha t hadn't
been J~il~ too long, when I was a little girl. It was a fairly
new bu'i Ld i n-r then. ou t they had dances there and that's where
we played badminton too.
We always had things like concerts, spring concerts, and
Ghristmas con~erts, ard all sorts of peocle did tilings. They
had choirs and there was always something oing on.

lhen I wes a little girl, Mrs. ~happel told about what thEY
used to do for entertainmLnt way be~ore I was born. She cant
up on a riverboat so she VbS ,ere before t~e railroad.
-Ie r- husb nd worked for Dic l( Sa r ge rrt in t'18 old store. Ln
the old store t ere was an~ u~stairs. Like the store ~aR down
8tairs tnen it was built wi ~ a pointed roof so upstairs there
was quite a lot of room, it was quite a Dig place up there.

rhey used to have dances up there all weekend. They would.~~
she told me s'1e would play tht.p~ano and t.e;\ would cance and
part, all weekend. 0 Just terrible things, like t~row stuff
out the upstairs window on ~eople who were cominp in" the door.
~ in~s ~ike that. I think it was kind o~ a wild to~n.
It wasn't that bad ~hen I ~as a little girl. here WfS
always the beer Parlor hich was very excitlng for the peOple
who went to t~e ~eer Parlor.
here ~as like I Raid, ouite a lot of dances. Always a
ball team, Hazelton had en excellent ball team.
r~y mo t he r told me that t e ... year ~he.'T were mar-r i e d my
dad
was ln the ball team. They got marrled one day, and the ne~t
day he took off for the week to Prirce Georpe to play ball with
the ball team.
They would take a big tent, and the ball teem Hnu they
took ~peed (I don't know what Speed's really name W8S) but he
was a Chinese fellow who always cooked at the logging ca~ps.
But in the summer time he travelled with the ball team and
cooked for the~ when they camped. They'd take him along and he
wJuld cook for them.
~harlie Smith told me they used to walk from here to Fort
baDine over the trail through Two- ile, and play ball. They'd
just run, they'd just jog to 13abine, play ball and jog back.
(E) In one day?
No they'd stay over night. They'd jog up there on one da~
and they didn't ••• it didn't setm to matter then. They had lots
of time.
One t.h i.nrz about Hazel ton, was t '.8t i t a Lw: ys had lots of
time. You know like people would walk most places. There
weren't many cars and so people walked, and it took a long time
to get places.
They so thinps like have ••• I can remember going to Kispiox
for a box social. You had to ••• it took a long ti~e to get to
Kispiox. It ~ould take all day to get out there.
There used to be parties like whole weekends out at Love's
A lot of the time people would go out there and just stay the
weekend, and eat and dance. Everybody played music, everybody
canced all the time. I think Hazelton was a really fun place
at that ti'TI.e.

Every spring th~re were sports CDsS, up until this year I
guess. Each place has alwayH hFld its weekerd. There were the
Hazelton sports days.
Bverybody closed down. The storLS would just stay open in
case the peo~le that. ad the boo hs at the soorts day needed
somet ing.
It was just ••• when Kispi)x sports was on it would last two
days and they'd have a rodeo. We'd just ••• daddy would load up
t e truck full of people. We~d drive out t ere. I'd bet there
would be 50 or to people on that truck. All standing up on the
back singing, evrybody went to t' e Kispiox sports.
It was just tons of fun and thty'd stay fOr the dances,
then they'd come back in, go back the next day. 1 Ie went early
and stayed late. We skipped school. It was just sports days,
we did that all \1ay. Because there was Hazel ton and Kispiox
and Moricetown and there was the first of July in Smithers.
Daddy used to go th re with the trucks too, take the ball
team and all the girls and . all tthe guys that wanted to go were
on that truck. You'd be coming home ••• you'd leave Smithers
about midnight because everybody wanted to go to t, e dance.
'I'heri we'd come home on the back of that truck. Dusty, dirty
or raining, whatever. It was fun.
We used to go all the way to Telkwa for the barbeque.
Whole truck of us again. They were big trucks, wi th side bo-ards
on it. So most of the way people just stood up and hung on, to
the side boards. All the way to Telkwa.
I can r member goine to Terrace one day. Like back when
th y were ••• when they fIrst built that road to rerrace, it was
about 1948, I guess.
We took a ball team. There must have been
dumb truck, it took 4 hours to get to 'l'errace.
road was so bad and it was so long. M.y dad wa s
driver. We had to stop and eat lunch •. We left
dawn, we got there. Things like that we~e fun

30 of us on that
Just cause the
such a slow
at the crack of

We'd take a whole bunch of people and go up the
mountain
picking berries, and stay for two or three days. People would
pick berries, they would gO ••• like Mary McKenzie, a~d her whole
family and Jessie Sterri t t. 'l'hat 's just how they d i.d things
they'd take all her fEmily and they'd get a truc to drive them
up and they'd go out to wherever the berries were. It would
eitner be blueberries or huckleberries. It was huckleberries
they'd go up the mountain,--.if it was blueberr~es they'd j~st go
out maybe by campbell's, wner Ted campbell llves. Sometlmes
up Nine Mile Mountain or out that way.
They'd camp there and they'd stay::-:for ? weelt,anc. they'<;l
pick all the berries. There were.blueberrl~s a~a raspberr~es.
~ostly blueberries and huckleberrle~~ f~hleYthd plck g~~~tb~iB
they were 5 gallon.~quare cans,they Q 1 1 os up
them_inJ"' 'i'hey must have dries them and canned them and ~tuf
like t.lat. but t e b er-ry trips were ore 'un than anyt a ng ,
They'd .iav e fun doing th:t ill too.

I remember Mrs. Clif':-ord and Mary McKenzie and all those
people.
(E) What can you tell me about the Gitanmaax Hall?
It was al~ays there when I was a little girl. It was just
built on posts and you could crawl underneath it. It had a
front porch on it ana that's where everything happens. They
held dances, and feasts and potlaches, everything was held
there.
£here were totem poles up th~re. I think that must have
been a fairly import nt area before the white people came to
Hazelton.
I think Jessie Sterritt lived up there, her dad's house or
something was there. Sh~ lived there when I was a little girl,
she also lived down by the river. ~ut when I first knew her
she lives up there in a big white house by a totem pole.
Tne Kitanmaax Hall, it wasn't really big, as you count halls
but it held a lot of people.
hey had a ••• one year sometime in the 30's an artist came
here and painted. He did chalk murals, he did one for the
Salvation Army, there was one in there. - In the Kitanmaax Hall
there was a big chalk drawing of a moon(I think) it was really
pretty. It was up on the stage in the back wall.
(E) What's a chalk drawing?
It filled up the whole wall, it was like a mural, a big,
big picture. There was one in the old hall on the Triangle
Motors property, there was a big building t~ere and they had a
big dance hall at the top; there was a painting of a Vienecian
icene( like-Vienna with gondola's and all that kind of stuff)
So those chalk pictures were fairly representative of the art
in Hazelton.
The Kitanmaax all was ••• we used to go up tnere and play
on the porch. It was a nice place to be.
Allen Benson fixed a ski hill where it came down off the
graveyard. So that was good place to play up there.
(E) What churches were involved with the community?
We had the Anglican Chur-ch I that little church down on the
corner when I was a little girl) and United ~hurch which was
where the Penticostal ~hurch is now, ane the Salvation A~my.
Then there was the church Army Hall up on the hill by Simon
Muldoe's house. Theat's what we did, we went to church all day
Sunday. We'd go to the Anglican Sunday school and we'd go to
the Anglican vhurch. And in between we'd go to the Salvation
Army. That's how we spent Sunday. We all went, the Martin
kids were Anglican, and the Walker kids were United. My mom
always went to the Salvation rmy. nd we'd go to each others
churches and that's how we spent, how we kept from being bored
on Sunday. «e sang in the choir at the Anglican enur-e and '
some of us ••• we went to all three Sunday schools, tie had them
staggered so you coul go to unday school all day if you wahte~ 10.

The Church Army must have been c onne c t ed to t he Anglican
Church because they used to march all the time. like the"y" d
always have their church parade and stuff like that.
(E) What were the events surrounding a wedding?
I don't remember too many weddings in our family. ~ut I
remember the weddings like Louise Wale's ( the mo~hek of all ~
the Robinson kids), when they got ~arried. Imost every wedding
was like that. The bride would be all dressed up in her beaut
-iful gown and the br-i d smaids. It wouldn't matter if it was
the midcle of winter and forty below they'd all march to the
church. All the ••• the bride i'irst., the band would go first
playing songs, then the bride would march and all the guests
behind. They'd go to the church:~nd have the wedding. Then
they'd go, usually to Kitanmaax Hall for a party.
But I remember other weddings like Gus Gregory, he married
~~ank Pipe's sister, when they ~ad a~wedding it lasted allwinter as far as 1 can remember. They had shiveree's, they
used to after the bride and groom, nobody ever went awa~ on a
honeymoon cause I guess it was too hard to travel. But when
they moved into wherever they were moving into, people would
go in the middle of the night and wake them up. They'd do
terrible things tp their houses like they'do now, short sheet
the beds, mess everything all up, put rice in the bed. Then
they'd go and ring the bells and get them out of bed in the
middle of the night and have a bug party. I think sometimes
they partied for a couple of days. I never got to gO to one.
I can remember ~cotty and those guys talking about it. They
were pretty exciting events.
(E) Did people get married younger or older?
I don't really know I suppose that they must have been
awfully your:g, some of them. I think some of. them wQ're older
too. ~ecause in this community if there were, you know like,
nurses and people would get married here and wer~ fairly old
when t-~y got here. Single ~en were old caus~ they'd been up
you know, out in the bush on their owr. for awhile. Some of .them must have been pushing thirty.
(E) When was ,azelton incorporated?
In 1956. Polly ~argent wes the first mayor. lt was a lot
of work and she did it all herself she just, worked really hard l
You had to get legal descriptions of every piece of property "
in the town, she had to have signatures of every person that
owned the property, before she could get that incorporated.
She just knew that it would be better for t.e town to be incor
-porated. ~he sold it to people and really workec hard on it,
got it c.one ,
She was the mayor for 15 years. That's a pretty long time
and then my uncle Perry was themayor then me.
(E) There have only been 3 mayors?
We've been incorporated now for §ilimost 30 ~ears.