I, Evelyn Mueller (nee Knorr), one of nine children, was born in High River, December 17, 1923. The oldest is brother Herman, then Lilian, Robert (Bob), Raymond, and Margaret and me, the youngest ones were Dick, Jack and Nona. We lived in a large house in town, close to the school, and then moved out of town, close to the Highwood River. The school was three and a half miles away but we walked it every morning and sometimes walked home in dust storms.
In the spring, we often had floods and my brothers had to walk on stilts to take care of the pigs and cows. Dad worked at the ranch across the river. On Sundays, Dad took four of us to Sunday School in town in the model-T car. It was when we were living in High River that Nona, the ninth and last child, was born.
A year or two after that, Dad packed us and a few belongings into the old model-T Ford and headed for the homestead, west of Caroline, called Ricinus. About two miles from our destination, the car caught fire and we bailed out fast. Dad threw some sand on the fire to put it out and soon we were on our way again. We stayed overnight with a family who were to be our neighbours.
The next day, we ventured out to find our future place to live, a shack. Mother and Dad went back to High River to work on the ranch and my oldest sister was left to take care of five of us. We had cows and chickens to look after. There was a creek close by, lots of different kinds of mushrooms and berries galore.
When Dad and Mother were finished in High River, Dad built a log house and a barn and a root cellar for the vegetables as later on we grew vegetable marrows and corn in the upper field. As time went on, we had pigs, chickens, geese and horses. We had our meat source and eggs and milk and traded butter for groceries. We walked a mile to school and came home for lunch. In the winter time, if we had lots of snow, Dad would take us to school in the sleigh. We all learned to ride horses; Dick and Jack had their own and left home when they got old enough and started to work on road construction. We also had a lake about a half mile away where we skated in the winter in the moonlight.
When my sister Margaret was sixteen, and I was fourteen, Mother took us to Rocky Mountain House by wagon and team for our confirmation. It was about twenty-seven miles away and we had taken our lessons by correspondence. When we got about half-way home, the wagon started to come apart so we went to a farmer’s place where it was put back together and then we were on our way again, arriving home, very tired, at midnight.
My sister Margaret and I used to walk three and a half miles to house dance. There was no danger walking in the dark those days. I rode a horse every evening after supper to get the mail. We had no doctors close by so when any of us got hurt, Mother always fixed us up. On one occasion, I was sawing wood and cut myself above the knee and Mother taped it up. We had to go ten miles to Caroline to get our shots for smallpox. When we got colds, Mother would rub us with “vapour rub” or put on a mustard plaster.
When I turned eighteen, I went to Red Deer for the summer to babysit for a couple on a farm. The next year, I went to Sunshine to work as a chambermaid for the winter. I came back home in the spring for a while. I met my first husband Joy Fay and was married in 1952 in Rocky Mountain House. After two years, we adopted our daughter, Carol, at the age of two and a half weeks.
We left Rocky Mountain House in 1957 and moved to Canmore on April 7. We lived in cabin by a house where the Frontier Garage now stands. The house was later moved to lot on Railway Avenue. After a month, we moved into one of Bow Valley Cabins which were run by Cross and Thelma Crow. After a week, we found a house behind the school. My husband was working for Banff Park. While we were living here, our daughter, Carol, became very ill with measles. We lived there two years and then moved to a house on 12th Street (in Teepee Town). In February of 1960, my father passed away at the age of seventy-four while he was living in Dovercourt. Two years after that, my husband passed away and my mother came to live with me.
I went to babysit for Walter and Yvonne Henderon’s twin girls and son Paul and sister Eileen. After two years of doing this, I decided I wanted to go elsewhere and meet more people. I, therefore, got a job at the hospital laundry for two years. When the pastry cook left, I took over and it was fun. Welfare only gave just enough to get by on. When not working, I learned how to drive a car. In the meantime, I had to find rides back and forth to work.
Two years later, I met my second husband, Walter Mueller, and we were married May 1, 1965. He was working in the Exshaw Cement Plant. We continued to live on 12th Street for another ten years and I started babysitting for working mothers. Then we sold the house and moved to a bigger house on 1st Avenue where we still reside.
Considering Canmore, there weren’t many houses around here in 1960 on Second Avenue. It was an open space and I learned how to ride a bike. There was still a railway station and the hospital was up on Three Sisters Drive. There were not many churches then. I went to St. Michael’s Anglican Church right away and I started teaching Sunday School. The minister was Reverend Wright and he wore the black robe. It has changed now. There was an old hall out back but it has been torn down and a larger one has taken its place. The mine closed in 1979 and houses have now been built on the site.
There was an I.O.O.F. hall standing on the corner across from the I.D.A. store. We used to have bingo games there and numerous other functions. Many old houses on 8th Avenue were torn down and a big store, a bank, and an optometrist office were built.
Along Highway IA, which is now called Bow Valley Trail, there was a dairy which was run by Val Burgie and Emyr Jones and there were a few houses of friends who have moved away or passed on.
Georgetown Restaurant and the BiLo garage have taken their places. In Canmore, there have Been numerous townhouses and apartments built. The best of all is they cannot move the mountains!
Nona Mueller 1946
Canmore Seniors at the Summit, ed. Canmore Seniors Association, 2000, p. 209-210
