Timothy Allan Johnston
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The ATA Magazine - Editor’s Notebook

Volume 66, Nov/Dec 1985

                                                      Traveling the Border Country


Last spring, district representatives and staff officers traveled the province attending member information meetings. Executive Assistant Bill Casanova and I were sent to southern Alberta where we teamed up with District Representative Joyce Trebble. For eight days, we attended meetings in communities across the south. Joyce returned to her school each day, and Bill made it back to the Calgary office after many of the evening meetings. I thought a daily Edmonton-Lethbridge commute would be a bit much so I stayed put. That is, I stayed in the south and between meetings traveled around the border country of our province. The resulting photo story, beginning on page 21, reflects a little of the character of the area. It’s a beautiful and changing country.

My travels took me to four schools, plus brief stops in a few other schoolyards. I photographed Ron Wollersheim, principal of the Coutts School, standing in the south corner of the playground. I was across the border in Montana. Shagging foul balls on the ball diamond could require customs clearance.

I spent a morning at Waterton Park School with Mararet Russell and Inez Brennan. Between them, in their two-room school, they serve the educational needs of fifteen children in Grades 1 to 7. It was such a beautiful setting I had difficulty leaving. On the way back to Lethbridge, I stopped for a few minutes at Mountain View School where George Toone’s Grade 6 ball players posed for me.

Visiting the Manyberries School provided a stark contrast to Waterton Park. Southeastern Alberta is flat country where distances take on new meaning. Jason Dradovill, a Grade 5 student, travels over 70 miles every day to attend this school from his home in southwest Saskatchewan. Half of the teachers live in Medicine Hat, so they spend more than two hours a day on the road. Dennis Bohnet, principal of the Kindergarten to Grade 12 school, told me that the isolated environment results in a feeling of interdependence and responsibility for each other among the staff and kids.

My last stop was Del Bonita, a tiny community two miles north of the border and roughly half way between Coutts and Cardston. I reached it by traveling west from Milk River along the Milk River ridge. I stopped often for pictures—abandoned farm vehicles, a pair of spray planes chasing each other over crests in a field, and changing perspectives of Old Chief Mountain, a familiar landmark in the south.

By the time I reached Del Bonita, school was just getting out. I waited to photograph a school bus passing by a road sign that read, “Two miles to the US border.” Lloyd Evers met me in the front hall and rounded up the remaining three-quarters of his staff for a picture. Betty Matkin drives over from Cardston. Brian and Wanda Markham live in a teacherage; they are first-year teachers fresh out from Toronto. The picture of the bus and the road sign took on added significance when Lloyd told me that six of his 59 students go home to Montana each afternoon.

It really was a grand tour. I spent time with a lot of people—teachers, students, parents and others. The Canadian Customs officer at Coutts gave me a big smile and “welcome home” after my 15-minute tour of Sweetgrass, Montana. Margaret Henry sold me a Coke at the Del Bonita general store and told me a little about the country. I talked to farmers, innkeepers and waitresses, as well as teachers and students, and found out about eight-wheeled tractors, where to find World War II bomber parts and how to keep Rocky Mountain sheep off the lawn. I imposed on school staffs and students and was invariably treated the same way—made to feel at home and welcome. I stumbled onto one major event, the grand opening of the rebuilt Coutts School, and was given three student guides, a hot dog lunch and the run of the place.

It was a lot of fun completing this story, and I’m glad to share it with our members. To all you folk in the border country, it was nice seeing you.