The theme of this story is recalling life in Twin Bridges for the family of father, John Thurbron Cawthorn and mother, Violet May Cawthorn (Cross) and their six children. The children are Wilda, Roy, Ben, John, Rhoda and Joe.

Overview

Personal memories of moving to Twin Bridges in the winter of 1942/43 until our father’s death in Oct 1944. Then an auction sale in Jan 1945 to sell off the farm animals and equipment and move back to our old home in Rosscarrock.

World War || was still raging on when we moved, father had medical issues and was not enlisted in the military. Roy was just under enlistment age and may have been exempt because of the farm work. Farm produce was essential due to a shortage of everyday food items that were rationed during the war. Our farm only dealt in milk cows and poultry and not in any crops.

At the time of moving to Twin Bridges Joe would have just turned one year, Rhoda 4 yrs, John 6 yrs, Ben 11 yrs, Roy 16 and Wilda 17 yrs so Mom Violet would have her hands full, caring for a large family and farm chores. Ben, Roy and Wilda helped with mary farm chores besides Roy and Wilda having jobs. As it was in those days teens quit school to help out on the farms. Roy worked for farmers in the area for wages and Wilda landed a job at the Model Dairies and both gave Mom a part of their wages to support the whole family. Dad never ever had an automobile or truck that I can remember. All travel was done with a team of horses and wagon. 

I (John) had just started school in Rosscarrock district turning 6 years old when the family decided to move to a rental farm at Twin Bridges. I am assuming my parents' reason would be a better life on a larger farm compared to our 5 acres in Rosscarrock. I have limited memories of life at Twin Bridge due to my young age but there are always memories of events that come to mind even at a young age, some pleasant and others traumatic. 

Location

Looking at the Google Earth image (posted here) and trying to remember the terrain around the farm seems to make the location more clear. The house was less than a couple of hundred feet from the road with a driveway running past the house to the back yard and barn. There was a barbed wire fence on the north side of the two story  house and driveway. I'm assuming that was the property line running east/west that is still showing today in the image. The yard was made up of a few buildings including a chicken coop west of the house and a medium sized barn further to the west. I’m guessing the barn had about 16 to 20 stalls for milking and a room sectioned off to process the milk taken every morning and evening. The raw milk was then put into 10 gallon galvanised milk cans and left out at the roadway regularly to be picked up by a neighbour (Percy Watts) who delivered milk from other farms in this area to the Model Dairies (now,Model Milk, 17 Ave 3rd St SW). Percy would return the empties from a previous delivery. Of course the other building in the yard was the most important, the Outhouse. Maybe not so important for the boys as on a farm as out behind any building would suffice. The house was 2 story with the kitchen entrance away from the road and the front veranda facing the road. The main floor contained a kitchen, living room, two bedrooms and a bannister stairway to bedrooms upstairs. I slid the bannister many times when Mom wasn’t watching. I don’t remember a basement and Rhoda remembers an oil fed heater which warmed the whole house (and a kitchen stove) using gravity to heat the upstairs bedroom through grates installed in the upper floors.

The Farm

The layout of the farm had an uneven terrain with some grazing area to the SW going through a low area runoff creek bed then rising again to the edges of a steep cliff (see image) down to the north branch of the Elbow River that split up stream. Hence the name Twin Bridges. This grazing area had lots of grass, low bush and willow areas which provided a play area plus berry picking in the fall. Everyone pitched in picking berries for Mom to process and store for future use. Other memories of the grazing area were collecting and blowing out Magpie eggs for our collection in the spring. Did I put my lips on an egg fresh from a nest and blow out the yoke and white, you bet I did. I even had a young Magpie pet that sat on a stick as I walked all the way home. Kept it cages and fed and tried to teach it to talk. Just as well it didn’t because it may have swore at me. Anyway the bird escaped and later we had a Magpie that hung out around the house, I don’t know if it was the same bird. Jumping off the cliff into a steep silty clay soil was a blast but getting back up was a struggle.

Schools

Ben attended Springbank School which was quite a ways to the NW of the farm, he must have rode with neighbours or maybe a school bus. Rhoda just started school in 1944 and I moved into grade 2 at the Elbow Valley School, about 1 ½ miles away, if we couldn’t catch a ride, we walked north to Lower Springbank Rd then NW to the school, walking with the Watts children Shirley, Ron and maybe Bob the youngest. Elbow Valley School was a one room school with elementary grades only. It had a nice large play yard and a teacherage where the female teacher lived.

Some memories

Some tidbits of memories: I learned to ride a bicycle on the farm. No training wheels or learner bikes or smooth roads then, just the big brother's bike with 28” wheels and a high seat so it meant riding the bar with feet far from the ground. A launch off the front step and hitting the pedals many times before crashing to the ground. Finally managing to ride around and around afraid to stop and fall down.

Playing in and around the cattle barn was always fun especially when the neighbour kids come over to play. I can’t remember very many visits to the Watts place to play over there. Going down to the river with my big brothers and some time with cousins when they visited. Playing on the first steel bridge and watching trout swimming up the river. We swam in some backwater area that was safer than the river where the older ones swam. Where the Elbow River rejoined east of the Twin Bridges caused a huge whirlpool especially in spring melt. When the river settled down the older ones would go into the joining river because it was deep water for underwater swimming but alway cautious of the whirlpool. Twin Bridges was always a goto place for city slickers (as we called them) to use Twin Bridges for day and overnight camping, fishing etc. There wasn’t very many trailer units then, I would guess 90% tents. I really don’t know if we had the legal right to collect camping fees. If my memory is correct the owner gave us permission to do that. So on the weekend the older family members or Dad would go around the campsite and collect fees for day use and overnight. Rhoda thinks the fee was about 25 cents.

Military  

In the final stages of World War !!, The Army from Mewata Armoury in Calgary would take over the area and public use was prohibited while they went about their military training. Watching the army equipment going past our house was better than a parade, tanks, jeeps, army trucks, big guns on wheels and lots of soldiers. Their training area was on the north side of the river upstream of the bridges. In the next days we could hear lots of gun shelling and continual army traffic past our house. We had visits from friendly soldiers with some generous offers for farm products. After the exercise was over and they had left we rushed down to the area to see what they left behind, it was lots of junk stuff which was fun to look through and take home for a collection like spent brass shell casings. One thing Mom appreciated was sturdy wooden ammunition boxes which she used and kept for years after.

A Miracle

I’m assuming in the summer of 1944 Joe would have been 3 ½ yrs old. We had someone come for a visit. While driving south approaching our property he noticed a small person's head only, disappearing from view on the road going down the hill towards the river. He kept driving past our driveway and came across Joe walking toward the river by himself. Needless to say, one can only guess what may have happened if that visitor hadn’t arrived at that moment.

The day that changed our lives forever   

On a sunny October day Rhoda and I headed off to school. Due to the war the crops were more important than education, school opening was delayed so families could harvest their crops. At school things were very busy with registration. Our teacher was out of the room and we started to play tag around the rows of desks. I, John was running fast and slipped, my head hit the corner of a desktop around my ear area. Blood, pain and panic, I was bandaged up and a local farmer was called to take me to a Calgary Clinic. On the way the driver picked up Mom and we headed to Calgary. Our driver wasn’t able to hang around and left to go back to Twin Bridges. After medical treatment which included stitches we looked for a ride back home. It was getting late and I believe Uncle Ron took Mom and I back to Grandma Cross’s home where they decided we could stay overnight and continue home the next day.

After settling in there was a knock on the door. Our neighbour Percy Watts from Twin Bridges had some bad news, our father John Thurbron had died of a heart attack. To make the situation worse, brother Ben being only 12 years old was home alone with Rhoda and Joe. Mom and I were quickly whisked back to the farm. It was so dramatic I really don’t remember that night and how things unfolded. I still have compassion thinking of my brother going through that just before his 13th birthday.