As I sit and gaze out Laura Lodder’s front window, I am taken by the serenity of the surrounding countryside that is really a potato field under snow.
As I ask questions about her life and family, Lodder’s sparkling blue eyes begin to twinkle as she walks me down memory lane, and starts to tell me about Grand Forks when she was a child growing up here, steeped with her family’s history.
The oldest daughter of parents who emigrated from Italy, Lodder was born in Trail, to Andrea and Marianna D’Andrea.
The family was part of the large Italian community that had flourished, and they spent the early part of her childhood there until relocating to Grand Forks to farm.
Andrea D’Andrea, Laura’s father, had worked in the Trail smelter, and decided to stop working at the smelter for health reasons and relocated his family to Grand Forks in the hopes of a healthier and more prosperous life.
The way to get from Trail to Grand Forks at that time was by driving over the Santa Rosa Summit or by train.
Her family purchased the old Wiley A. Glover property in 1944 up North Fork Road, and had milk cows, which they used to make cheese and butter. Later, milk was shipped by train to Trail to United Dairies.
There was so much hard, physical work to get a farm to a productive state and Lodder says the farm became as pretty as a storybook with her father’s patient attention until his passing.
Lodder comes from a long line of farmers and has much to share about our city and the way things were way back when.
Over the years, Lodder’s family has earned many accolades and awards, but one is still prominently displayed in the family kitchen where she and husband Tony (a long-time Regional District of Kootenay Boundary Area D director) raised their four children.
It is an award to Lodder’s husband for Grand Forks’ Best Farm in 1955.
Lodder’s son and her daughter-in-law continue to farm on Laura and Tony’s farm on Lodder Road.
She reminisces about the fall fair and the way the community helped each other to be successful and prosperous.
There was no community hall then, and events were often held at facilities like the schools, legion, and the Christina Lake Hall.
I ask her what she remembers about her early school days and she grins. Lodder can remember all her teachers’ names, and relates about life up the North Fork and the small one-room school (Grades 1 to 8) the children of the North Fork attended.
The school is now a community hall but the area prompts many memories.
There was no running water, electricity or phones, but life was good and people were self-sufficient.
She tells me about the dances that were held at the Brown Creek School and how young and old alike would gather.
Admission was a donation of some baked goods, food or a “cover charge” of 75 cents for men, 50 cents for women.
Girls were allowed time from school to make the sandwiches that were to be served and much of the town would show up for an evening of fun, with the ladies often bringing a cake or such for admission adding to the feast.
The older crowd even journeyed to Christina Lake and other nearby communities to dance and socialize.
There were Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve dances that were held at the high school.
We are fortunate as a community to have our town “pioneers” as living resources that are willing to share their stories and wisdom and remind us of harder, yet simpler times.
We can get all the documents, statistics and such in the lower level of city hall, where our community archives are held in care of the Boundary Museum Society, or from our government pertaining to events and properties, but it is in the telling of the stories from the actual people that will be what future generations look for when wanting to know what it was like to “live back then.”
The spirit of community lives on today because of the examples set in earlier times and the drive to continue on with such things as our annual fall fair and theatre events have continued onto the next generation.
If you are fortunate enough to know or meet someone who is a pioneer, I encourage you to set awhile, ask some questions, and pay close attention to the stories.
Not only will you be grateful for modern conveniences but also you will have a small treasure of knowledge given to you by someone who actually lived it and I guarantee, you’ll learn something you didn’t know before.