Varge Gilchrist - a few memories shared at 96 years young:) Segment 1.

It's been a bit of a journey for "dad" as I like to call him or Grandpa Varge! I thought I would begin while visiting him in Ottawa, by asking him a few questions about his life. I only asked him one question, which was: "Dad, tell me about your family when you were at home as a child?"

"I was born in Cardston, Alberta. I remember well Grandma Harker. She had 14 babies and  9 of them lived nice long lives. My grandparents lived on a farm or ranch. They had grain, hay and dairy cattle in the spring.  Their farm was 18 miles N.W. of Cardston by the Blood Indian Reservation. They had 320 acres of land.

They had 2 daughters Edna (my mom) and Margaret, plus 7 sons. I'll need to look them up to get all their names:)

They had 4 hounds that would chase foxes.

The foxes would dig holes which were quite dangerous for the cowboys. I remember the names of some of their horses "Black Mare", "Baldy" (which had a white face), "Little Swan" is the one which my sister
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Arline and I had a picture of us on it."

When grandpa was 4 years old we could read so well, he'd read to his sister Arline and his brother Dean. (This reminds me of the stories which he would read even to us adults, particularly "Uncle Remus". He'd not only read it but would have all of these character voices for the animals. Uncle Dan has made a copy for each of his siblings as a memento. A cherished keepsake.)

Varge rode on a horse for 3 miles to get to school in Hill Springs, Alberta. In the picture that's him still riding a horse in 1997. Go grandpa go!! Still riding:)Miss McEwen was his 1st teacher. She married Hugh Caldwell. One year he tied for 1st place with Alice that was about in 1921.
He also attended Cardston Public School where Elder Tanner was his room teacher and principal. There were bad kids and good kids. He respected dad and vice versa. Grandpa also took 2 years of Latin (a foreign language) and had an average above 80%.

His father was Lee Edmund Gilchrist. Lee's parents were grandfather James and grandma Alice Willson. They were from La Porte, Indiana, USA. It's by the Great Lakes.His dad w****+------------------------------------------------------orked as a seasonal steam engineer. He also had a mobile trashing outfit which separated the kernels from the straw or hay. Then it will be hauled into the grainery, then guys would have to level it and make bundles.

His mom and grandma Harker had a cookcar, which would have looked something like this:
     They would be up at 4:00 a.m. to be ready to serve breakfast for the workers. There would be a team of cowboys (10 or 12 guys, the steam engineer, 2 shovelers, treshers and a few others such as the water guy. They also would have a snack ready for them at 10:00 a.m.,  lunch, an afternoon snack around 4:00 p.m. and dinner as well! I'm totally exhausted just thinking of all of this work!! What hard work? and very l-o-n-g days!!

In 1923, the Cardston Temple was ready for the first session.
There were 163 endowment sessions that day way until 1:30 a.m. the work would go on. Edna and Lee Gilchrist (my parents) were the 1st couple to be sealed for all eternity. Lee had worked as the steam engineer at the temple, getting the cold and hot water just right. Edna helped with the laundry of the temple clothing.

His dad worked as a mechanic in Champion, which is on the right side of Fort McLeod. He also worked for the Alberta Liquor Board as an inspector - making sure of the quality and cleanliness of the hotels was adequate. He was always, quite a bit, away because of work!

In 1929, his family moved to Cardston on a farm (1/2 section) which 30 acres of it was under irrigation.

When Varge was between 19 and 21 years old, he was very S-T-R-O-N-G! He would bag the wheat into 2 bushel bags which weighed 120 lbs.


Varge worked in the summertime at the Cardston General and Medicine Store with Elsie Gust. He would be a stock clerk scooping raisins, currants. He did this for 3 years. His pay in the first year was $15.00 a month plus room and board. In the second year, he earned $20.00 a month. In the third year, he was making $25.00 an hour. He then quit and went to Salt Lake City.

 Grandpa Varge also lived in Colorado doing trashing and shoveling for work. He also did some branding in Idaho. He shared room and board with a half breed Indian for a winter. This work he did for about 2 years.

In October of 1936 or 37, he joined the militia. He went to Regina for ground school. He got his wings near Toronto. They had to practice 1/2 hours landing and taking off. He was at the airport in Toronto which was the school to train pilots.

He went with a crew: a pilot or captain, co-pilot - engineer and 3 gunners. They were at Pat Bay, a place close to Yarmouth, across from the Halifax harbour. They were on an RCAF - North Atlantic convoy searching for submarines!

Nana remembers well a time or two when two pilots (grandpa and another pilot) would flip their wings at each other, coming so low to where Nana would be.

Once he had an emergency at the end of Greenland, went on to Iceland stayed overnight and
then to to Goose Bay.  He also was in Saint John, New Brunswick and Gunbay. I believe he served for 17 active months of service. The entire squadron all moved to Vancouver after the war.

The discharge allowance was: either some cultivated land. 1/2 of your pay for the last 5 year of service or education for every month you served. He chose education in 1945 and went for his Masters degree in Agriculture at the Edmonton University.

While hey lived in Edmonton, their house was a small white house with only 2 rooms and no indoor plumbing which meant that they had to go outside rain or shine to the outhouse! Oh my! that is no fun even when you are camping!               They would have to carry water in buckets to cook, or wash clothes. Uncle Dan and aunt Pat were both born in Edmonton as well as Tom. We moved from there to Saskatoon and unto Oregon where I worked on my Doctorate. I had to redo a 63 page dissertation. (Note: I have found grandpa Varge's dissertation online.) Here is the link: http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlui/handle/1957/19761. The title is:

"Projecting capital accumulation for the agricultural firm-household"

Eventually moved to Ottawa where he became a public civil servant for the Department of Agriculture, which sent him to Kenya, Africa.

He has been a patriarch and has given all of our boys and myself our patriarchal blessing. He has been able to perform the marriage and sealing of Marc and Brooke, Jonathan and Jennifer, and Ryan and Tiffany.

His story will continue ............... after our next visit;)