1

About four months old
1 May 1915
Near Thedford, Ontario, Canada

2

Blanche Coultis as a toddler
5 August 1916
Thedford, Ontario, Canada

3

Coultis homestead
7 June 1932
Steveville, Alberta, Canada

4

Confirmation picture
7 March 1932
Brooks, Alberta, Canada

5

Confirmation record
1932
Brooks, Alberta, Canada

6

Graduation picture, Calgary Normal School.
28 June 1934
Calgary, Alberta, Canada

7

I began teaching in country schools in 1934, after graduating from Calgary Normal school in 1933 during what is commonly referred to as the "depths of depression". My first one room school fifteen miles west of Pollockville has been torn down as have many of the schools pictured in this exhibit. I batched in drafty teacherages, did janitor work and enjoyed hospitality of parents in those isolated communities.

8

I was born January 9, 1915 on the Steveville homestead where I lived until age six. I remember doll cradles made by my Father in those years of drought. In 1919, in a topless Model T Ford, with mother driving and grandmother and children riding, we went to chase the horses out of the crop. In a bumpy ride, we young ones were bounced out and left behind. Unhurt. Memories of sand in our mouths are still with us.

We were living in the "black house" at Steveville when I started grade one at Berry Creek one-roomed school about three miles north-west of the hamlet. I rode in the Eide buggy driven by Violet Eide and broke my new thermos bottle the very first day.