In my teen years my Dad always encouraged me to become a professional: a doctor or a layer. When I went to university I decided to try to become a medical doctor. At the University of Alberta it was required that a student take two years of “pre-med”. At the end of this time students with the highest marks were admitted into the Faculty of Medicine.
I came from a small town and had not developed good study habits. I really struggled to get good marks. At the end of my two years my marks were not high enough. (However, after two years I felt my study habits were starting to improve considerably*. I decided to switch my goal and go into education.
*I have to admit – maybe I was not bright enough to go into medicine. Those who made it were brighter than me.
This was an easy switch. I was well established at university. Also, scholarship money was available to go into the Faculty of Education. (The provided needed more teachers.) Thus, my third year finished up my science degree and my fourth year pursued education courses. At the end of that fourth year I was qualified to become a teacher and to make a salary*.
After my third year at university I spent the summer at home in Vulcan. My Dad had purchased a beautiful house but the kitchen was small. We decided to enlarge it by extending the walls out about 7 or 8 feet. I did most of the work. It wasn’t a case of my helping my Dad; it was a case of my Dad helping me.
My first year of teaching was in the town of High River at the high school. I taught Biology and Chemistry. That first year I worked very hard. I prepared lessons as well as developed assignments quizzes and tests. I felt I did a thorough job because later years the notes (lessons) were already prepared. I just had to refine them. So in my second year I actually started building a house directly across from the high school.
+[Explain why you have been drawn to construction]
I taught school in High River for 5 years. Some of the interviewing summers I took education courses in Edmonton. One summer I built 12 student desks. These were “double-desks” with a bank of drawers in the middle.
Almost every summer (summer holidays for school teachers) I got involved in construction. In 1979 I headed up 3 other teachers doing a lot of construction. In 1979 and 1980 I was the “building superintendent” and we built a new church.
When we moved to Canada in 1981 the family spent almost every summer at the Kootenay Lake and I was always busy with building projects. The point is that up to the time I retired from teaching in 1997 I had two parallel careers.
When I retired I felt exhilarated as I could now pursue my true passion of construction.+ Between 1997 and 2000 I took on all kinds of jobs (including tile work) in Calgary. In 2000 we moved and we started construction on our Dream Home on the Kootenay Lake. I’ve been building on it and around it ever since. I don’t think I with ever be done.