Bill Stephenson has had a life well lived
By Joan Janzen
Bill Stephenson is looking forward to his upcoming 96th birthday on March 18th. He and his wife Joan enjoy living at Caleb Village in Kindersley. However, his wife is presently recuperating after breaking her hip.
He recalled growing up on a farm near Stranraer, Sask, and attending Noble View Country School, which was one mile from their farm. His dad homesteaded the farm in 1905, and the family spent summers on the farm and winters in Stranraer. They moved a barn into town, and every winter, they took their two cows to town. For four years, it was Bill’s job to milk the cows.
Bill vividly recalled life during the Dirty 30s era. “I remember my dad coming home and saying the bank account is done,” he said. His dad had accumulated quite a bit of land and had managed to keep farming throughout this challenging time. However, things turned around for the family in 1938 when they had a good crop.
Bill Stephenson is pictured in his apartment at Caleb Village. The photo on the wall displays the 1940 Chevrolet car that his dad had purchased after crops improved following the Dirty 30s. Photo by Joan Janzen
“That’s when he bought a house in town for $800,” Bill recalled. “It had been taken back by the town for taxes.” His dad also bought a new car in 1939, and Bill had a story to tell about the 1940 Chevrolet which his dad had purchased so many years ago.
About a month ago, he received a phone call from a fellow who had spotted the old 1940 Chevrolet car, took a photo of it and asked how much Bill wanted for it.
“I told him all I want is a friend,” Bill chuckled. His daughter framed the photo, which is now hanging on his living room wall.
In the background of the photo sits the remains of an old school bus, and Bill has a story to tell about that as well. He had bought an old school bus for $900 and converted it into what he called “a good water truck.”
After the Dirty 30s, Bill recalled the war years. “When I was about 17, the governments of Saskatchewan and Ontario made a deal to help farmers,” he explained. “A lot of people were away at the war, so they needed farm help. I spent the summer haying in Ontario and got paid $40 a month.”
After the farm work was done, Bill had time to visit his uncle in Ontario and see some of the province’s sites. “I was in Ontario when the war was over, and the streets were filled with people hugging each other,” he recalled.
“After graduating from Stranraer School, my dad rented me a half section of land, and I went into farming,” he said. Bill and Joan were married in 1950 at a church manse with only a few family members attending. They bought a small two-storey house on the farm, where they lived during the summer and stayed in town during the winter.
Now, the couple has two daughters, five grandchildren, five great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.
Throughout the years, Bill said he and his wife did a whole pile of curling. “I liked hockey, but when I got hit four or five times in the mouth with a stick, I changed to curling,” he explained.
A highlight for Bill was attending the 1957 Brier in Moncton, New Brunswick. “They were short a player, so they pointed at me and asked me to sweep. We won the game,” he said. “However, after that, they changed the rules and had five players in case someone couldn’t make it. So I think I was part of the reason the rules were changed.”
Bill spent 45 years of his life farming, but when he decided to rent out the land, the couple began travelling and enjoying recreation. They bought a cabin at the lake and towed their trailer all the way to Alaska for a five-week holiday. They also had a vacation in Hawaii and enjoyed bus trips to the Maritimes and Branson, Missouri.
“Another big one was when a friend phoned and asked us to come visit them in Arizona. We stayed with them for two weeks, and that was the start of 45 winters spent in Arizona,” he said.
Now, Bill and Joan are enjoying their life in Caleb, where they have lived since 2020. Thanks, Bill, for sharing your memories with us.