Eleanor ‘Granny’ Smith shares her best memories
By Joan Janzen
Kindersley resident Eleanor Smith shared memories from her life, which began on May 5, 1926, in Aberdeen, Sask. “My older brother and sister were seventeen and eighteen years older than I, and I had a younger sister,” Eleanor explained.
When Eleanor was a pre-schooler, her mother served as a midwife in the community. Eleanor recalls being sent to her aunt’s home when her mom was helping with a delivery.
She and her family lived in Aberdeen, where her dad operated a service station and garage. He was an innovative man responsible for installing electricity in the town. Her dad was the first person in town to own a car, and her mother was the first woman to own an electric washing machine.
Eleanor vividly recalls the years of drought in the 1930s and the dust storms. “You would see a big black cloud behind the elevators, and soon the cloud covered the elevator,” she said. Soon the furniture was covered with dust; even the dishes were filled with dirt. We’d walk barefoot in the powdery, fine dirt. Tumbleweeds would get stuck on the fence, and the dirt would pile on top of them.”
The family lived a block away from the railroad tracks, and often a man would knock on their door and ask for a sandwich. “My mom would always make a sandwich. I can still remember one man saying to her, ‘Hurry up lady; my train is pulling out.’”
Young Eleanor and her younger sister would dress up in their older sister’s clothes and high heels. “We’d tramp up the railway tracks where the hobos were, and they’d laugh at us,” she remembers.
She attended school at Aberdeen. Soon the Dirty 30s came to an end, and Eleanor’s teen years coincided with the Second World War. “We started out with a great ball team and hockey team, but little by little, the teams were broken up as the boys left for war,” she recalled. Tragically, a couple of boys didn’t come home.
The war ended the year Eleanor graduated from Grade 12. Although there wasn’t a graduation ceremony, there was a big celebration in the community hall when the war ended. “The hall was absolutely packed!” Eleanor said. “And the school played a big part in the program.”
After high school, Eleanor attended Normal School in Saskatoon and boarded at the YWCA. A year later, she taught at Blucher, a small village near Saskatoon. She taught grades one to nine and boarded with a family. During the summer, she attended summer school and earned several degrees.
The following year she moved to D’Arcy and taught grades one to six in a two-room school while living in a teacherage. “That’s where I met my husband, Ove,” she said.
Ove’s sister-in-law invited Eleanor to a dance in Netherhill. It was dark outside when a car pulled up to give Eleanor a ride, and it was filled with four guys and two gals. Eleanor squeezed into the car full of strangers, one of whom was her future husband. They had a great time dancing to wartime tunes like the ever-popular Beer Barrel Polka.
Eleanor and Ove were married in 1950 and farmed with his brothers near D’Arcy. They had two sons, Doug and Michael. Doug lives on the farm, and Michael Lives in Toronto where he and his wife have had a dance company for 40 years.
After teaching at D’Arcy, Eleanor taught at Eatonia, Smiley, Brock and finally spent 18 years at Kindersley teaching high school art and Grade 9. “The students would call me Granny,” she said. “I have the best memories. I loved teaching, and I loved my kids.”
She also loves her four grandchildren. “They mean a great deal to me,” she said. And in January of this year, her first great-grandchild was born.
Eleanor has many memories from travelling throughout the world. The couple’s travels took them all over Canada, the US, Asia, Europe, Australia, Soviet Union, Israel, Egypt, Cuba, Mexico, Barbados, Greece, Jamaica, China, Trinidad, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Ecuador, Iceland, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Portugal, Scandinavia, Malta, Japan, New Zealand, Kenya and more.
“Before we would go, we would study about the country and its history,” she said. And like a true teacher, Eleanor has notes to accompany every picture.
Ole and Eleanor enjoyed square dancing for many years. Later, Eleanor volunteered at the museum for five years and was on the arts council. Eleanor’s beloved husband passed away in 2009, and Eleanor now enjoys living at Caleb Village.
She enjoys family visits, and some of her students still come to see her. A slide projector is on her table, and a screen is propped up in the living room as she organizes her slides and studies the history of all the places she has visited.
Soon she will be celebrating her 97th birthday and continues to both live life and love life each and every day.