Reading the August issues of the St. Albert Gazette for the years between 1961 and 1970 shows a community that was experiencing huge growth at the same time as it was buffeted by dramatic societal changes. Those changes were evident in everything from the way town staff and council were paid to the different opinions about how school children should dress and behaviour.
An editorial headline dated June 17, 1961, stated, “Government isn’t so simple.” At a town council meeting, Mayor Bill Veness was asked to spend more time in the office, to which he replied, “I have to consider a livelihood.” By-Law No: 23/62 was passed to allow a sum of money for each day the mayor and councillors attended meetings. They were allowed $10 per meeting each, provided they did not attend more than 36 meetings per year. Similarly, the mayor would be paid $15 per day for each day spent in the laying out and inspection of works undertaken by the Town of St. Albert, provided that there were not more than 30 days of supervision.
In August 1970, the mayor’s salary, which had not been reviewed since October 1966, was set at $6,000 per annum.
Citizens of the small town struggled with clothing issues and school dress codes throughout much of the ’60s. In 1961, St. Albert’s dress code issues went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada after a seven-year-old boy was sent home from a Protestant school because he wore blue jeans. His father initiated a petition of protest, which led to meetings with the Protestant Board of Education and court action. Supreme Court Justice Milvain’s judgment was printed in its entirety in the Gazette. The judge said that the “infant plaintiff” went to the school dressed in blue jeans with a T-shirt and pullover sweater, which was neat and clean. Nonetheless, he went on to say that the dress was an infringement of the school board regulation and that the School Act provided for the teacher, the school and the school board to have the power to maintain order and to suspend or expel students when required. The bottom line was clearly stated, that the St. Albert Protestant School Board had the power to regulate the dress of its students.
In 1965, the Protestant School Board printed its dress regulations in the Gazette. Elementary-aged girls could wear sweaters, but junior or senior high school girls could not. Black leather jackets were not allowed and the girls were expected to wear gym dresses to the gymnasium. Boys were required to wear slacks — not blue jeans — together with a standard shirt with no more than the top button open. Shirttails were to be tucked inside pants and no “hob-nailed or high boots were permitted.”
No dress regulations could be found in the August 1970 Gazettes, but a back-to-school advertisement showed girls dressed in mini-skirts, cardigans and pullovers and even a black “wet-look” faux-leather jacket. The boys were shown wearing “rawhide flared pants with jean styling and back patch pockets.” The mini-skirts sold for $8.88 each and the pants were priced at $2.99.
In August 1961, 200 boys and girls “had the time of their lives” at Learn-to-Swim classes at the Edmonton YMCA. Sadly, someone stole the battery from the school bus taking them to the city, causing them to be late for class.
In 1963, town council made a decision to purchase the curling rink, which was experiencing financial difficulties, for $106,000. This prompted a petition, which stated, “The Curling Rink has never made money during its operation and indeed has not even been able to pay its taxes. We do not believe that the Town Council should be in the business of running a curling rink.”
In August 1962, the Sisters of Charity (Grey Nuns) sold their farm. The dairy barn had burned in the winter of that year and, in addition, many of the older buildings required vast sums of money to renovate or update them. The town was growing too, with many new homes near the dairy farm. The Sisters auctioned 170 head of registered Holsteins, which had supplied milk for the General Hospital, St. Albert Seminary, St. Albert Mission and 90 local customers. The land had been continuously farmed for 101 years since the founding of the Mission by Father Lacombe.
In 1965, an excavation was made for the new Youville Nursing Home. Planning and fundraising for the new 100-bed Sturgeon Community Hospital began in earnest in 1965 and continued until it was opened Aug. 5, 1970.
In August 1967, the Gazette published a full-page, very hopeful feature article about a new wheat variety, Triticale, produced by the University of Manitoba. The wheat variety was touted as the “most remarkable thing to see at Expo ’67.” It was hoped that the new wheat would bear heavier heads of seeds containing a larger amount of protein, and that it would end world famine.
That same year, by order of town council, Perron Street was officially spelled “Perron” instead of “Piron.” A photo showed Gene Perron, and explained that the street was named for his father Fleuri Perron, but a “spelling error resulted in its being named Piron from the original survey in 1884.”
1968 was the summer that the Medical Officer of Health at the Sturgeon Health Unit raised the subject of “sex education” in the schools.
The town council in 1969 asked Western Bus Lines to conduct a survey to see if regular bus service was required to the University of Alberta and to NAIT. The proposed new buses would leave St. Albert at 8 a.m. and return at 5 p.m. There would be one bus for the university students and one for those attending NAIT.
The community grew and changed but one constant remained: frightening summer storms. One of the most dramatic was a hailstorm with gale force winds in August 1970. A photo showed children standing afterwards in knee-deep water. There was also a story about a local man who tried to walk home through the storm. Unfortunately, he was carrying two-dozen eggs. The storm smashed him into a wall, he was hit by a flying ashcan and scraped his knees, cheeks, ankles and arms, “not to mention he had egg on his face, and just about everywhere else on his person.”
