Early Childhood
Sister Laura, made this dress (left) for Carrie to wear to a school Christmas party. The material was "pink organdy." It was fringed with blue ostrich feathers.
Carrie lived her childhood on the Sahtlan farm near Duncan. The photo, right, about 1922 shows Les about 3 years and Carrie about 8 years under the watchful eye of elder sister Laura about 18 years. The younger children appear to have been wandering the farm collecting leaves or branches. The buildings in the background are part of the barn and pen complex. This may have been the rented house down at "river bottom" which the family used for a "couple of years" while they built at Sahtlam.
Living Through the DepressionThe picture left was taken about 1937, shortly after the birth of Eleanor Smith to Carrie's brother Gordon and wife Patricia Swanson. Carrie would marrie Richard Foster at the end of the same year. A popular outing for the family was Beacon Hill Park in Victoria. Transportation was usually Bart Creighton the husband of Carrie's eldest sister, Josie. Other cars were owned by Nels Smith and Richard Foster.
Life on the farm was just the same.
The Depression did not have a major affect on the Smith family while they lived on the farm. Vegetables came from their garden and meat was often wild venison or salmon. "Every week my mother would order about a 12 pound roast to be delivered for Sunday dinner," Carrie remembered. "My father often went down to the brook before breakfast and caught a trout or two." Money was in short supply but Pa seemed to find enough working on a road gang. Carrie relates, "I was about 18 when one of the workers on the road asked my father if he could have a date with me. The boy was the son of our doctor. My father told him NO and never to ask again. He did the same to a boy who walked me home one day."
Being a teenager in the 1930s
The photo above was taken May 21, 1933 on the slopes of Mt Tsuhalem. The mountain was a popular excursion for young people in the Duncan area. Notice at least three ladies are wearing Cowichan knitted sweaters, including Carrie who is in the lower right. Josie Creighton nee Smith is on the far right.
About 1936, when Carrie was 21, Bart Creighton used his influence with the King's Printer in Victoria to help Carrie get a job. "They were printing the BC Statutes and needed extra help so he just said come on in. After the job was finished he kept Olive and me on." Carrie took a "room" in a building near Fort and Government which had "a very good cooking space downstairs." She stayed there about six months. "Laura used to bring me my food for a whole week."
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