Item T1122:0001 - Harry and Margery Aldred interview

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1965 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Frederick Harry Aldred talks about life in Oyama and Vernon, 1906 to 1919. He and his father shared the same name. He describes how his parents came to the Okanagan in 1906 and he followed in 1907; his father ran a store at Oyama; he offers an anecdote about boats and roads in the area; he discusses Price Ellison; his arrival and first impressions; how his English accent was a problem at school; his impressions of Vernon and its people; trips to Mabel Lake; working on land at Mabel Lake; hard times; memories of Oyama and Mabel Lake; Sailor Jack's cabin and comments about drinking. TRACK 2: Mr. Aldred continues with an anecdote about the arrival of the Aberdeens in Vernon; Vernon people versus Coldstream people; fruit growing; Price Ellison and Cornelius O'Keefe; Chinese people; Vernon's red light district; an anecdote about the mayor. Then Mrs. Aldred [nee Margery K. Dobson] discusses the background of her father, Alan Dobson; living in England and in the Okanagan; impressions of Enderby; feelings on her return to Canada near the end of the First World War; life in Oyama and meeting her husband. Then Mr. Aldred discusses Oyama in 1907; lumbering; church services; ;an inquisitive real estate man; the store at Oyama; and the name Oyama.