Betty Seidel shares fond memories

By Joan Janzen

Betty Seidel has called Caleb Village her home for the past two and a half years. She has enjoyed a long life since her birth date on May 14, 1928. Growing up on a farm south of Glidden, along with three brothers and three sisters, she and her siblings attended Goldeye School five miles north of the Saskatchewan River, where she completed Grade 8.

“I wanted to go to high school so badly at Rosetown, but there wasn’t any money, so you just didn’t do it,” she explained. Consequently, by the time Betty was 17 years old, she was in the workforce.

It wasn’t long before she met Walter Seidel, a war veteran who had just returned from the war. “We fell in love the first time we saw each other,” she said, and the couple were wed in 1947.

At that time, Veterans Affairs sold land to veterans at a reduced cost, so the couple eventually settled on a farm in Eston. Betty and Walter had four boys and two girls and continued farming until 1961 when they moved to Kindersley.

While living in their home in Kindersley, Betty was actively involved in the Catholic Church, which was located just across the street. “I had six kids and four boarders most of the time,” she added. “Everything we ate was homemade because food was too expensive to buy. I had a big garden on the farm, and we had cows and pigs. I made bread and cinnamon buns; I worked hard, but I didn’t mind.”

Betty and Walter enjoyed travelling throughout the US and Canada in their motor home. “When your six kids live in all directions, you visit them,” she said.

Her husband passed away some thirty years ago, but she happily reports that all her children and their partners are alive and well. “I haven’t lost one,” she said.

Now Betty treasures fond memories from the past, an era when life was much different than the present. Her love of music is evident by the CD player and stacks of CDs beside an easy chair.

“We were a singing family before we had a radio,” she recalls. “It was a long time before my parents had a radio. We didn’t have power. On winter evenings, us six kids would sing for an hour or two every night. Finally, we did get a guitar and an accordion, but that was later. My aunt came one year and taught us how to harmonize; there was no stopping us after that.” Four of the siblings shared one guitar. None of them could read notes; all played by ear.

“Families and neighbours visited a lot during those days,” Betty said. This community spirit continued to thrive while Betty and Walter raised their children. “My sister and her husband lived a mile and a half away, so we exchanged looking after kids and cows when we went on holidays,” she recalls. “It was a very active community. There were always school dances or films and lots of gatherings where everybody brought lunch.”

Although Betty now lives a quiet life at Caleb, she enjoys visiting and having meals together with her neighbours at Caleb Village.