Stuck in the Ditch!

After my recent trip to Alberta, I started going through old photos, sharing some with the Kingman School museum. 

I've come across some even older photos as well.

Before she was married, my mother taught school in northern Alberta in the late 1930's to early 1940's.

She usually travelled north from Edmonton by train in the fall, returning to her parents' home again in early July.

But in July, 1941, she and some friends must have had the opportunity to return to Edmonton from Grande Prairie by car.  

Were the roads muddy... or just unclearly marked? In any event, a third of the way through their trip, the car ended up in the ditch! It must have been a frightening experience as the car looks almost on its side.

I don't know who was driving - but hopefully not my mother, as she had no driver's license at the time.

The ditch they got stuck in was near a native community called Driftpile. All these details are written on the back of the photos.

Fortunately, some locals helped them, pulling the car out with a team of horses! 

This is not an adventure my mother ever talked about!

But a few years later, I was in the car when she was learning to drive on country roads near Hay Lakes. The muddy roads were very slippery and I remember the car sliding into a ditch.

A local farmer eventually pulled us out. 

My mother never spoke of that incident afterwards either!