The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Margaret McLean came to Flin Flon in 1930 at the age of six years. The family of Lachlan and Kate McLean and their eight children immigrated from Scotland in 1927, going first to Spalding, Saskatchewan, where they lived on a farm in a little farm house with only two rooms. Motto (who was well known in the hockey world) was the youngest. The older brothers and sister went out to work making more room for the younger ones. In 1929, Lachlan and his son Donald came to Flin Flon to find work. In 1930, the rest of the family (that was down to four children: Marg, Chrissie, Daisy and Motto) came to Flin Flon by train, arriving at a box car (set up by about where the freight yard at HBMS is now) that was the train station then. They walked into town. Main Street in those days as Marg recalls was knee deep in mud. The sidewalks were just planks and one of the first purchases that her parents made was rubber boots at the Blue and White store. Marg remembers stepping onto Main Street and when she went to take another step her rubber boot had disappeared in the mud. If a person were to dig up Main Street there would probably be many rubber boots that came off when the children, especially, were trying to walk. See 'Phantom' P.# Con't from P.# Marg recalls the first store to open belonged to Jack Hone where the staff house is now. She remembers that Elanders had a dairy farm in Creighton and they supplied the town with milk. School was not boring because the kids moved from one building to another as the population grew. The children who were old enough to go to school walked, past the Company, across the tracks and past the train station which by that time had moved to where the 'Red Square' (Barrow Provincial Building) is now. The CNR bought all the property in that area, moved the houses that were there, and built the train station. There was a school behind the old Community Hall as well as at the old United Church which was where the Labour Temple is now. There was also a school at the Pioneer Store that was on Hapnot Street (teachers were Miss Inkster and Miss Parker) across from where the Legion is now. There was also school held in a little room in the staff house basement where Gwen Gowenlock taught. Most schools in those days didn't even have proper desks, just benches. The "little red school house" was built where the hospital parking lot is now with Doris Holmes (then Forster) as the first teacher. The Hapnot annex was where Ruth Betts School is now and went from grades 1 through to 6. (Ruth Betts was one of the first teachers. She was engaged to Phil Foster, who has the park named after him. He had a plumbing store on North Lane about where The Reminder office is now. Phil was killed during the war). Main School was the junior high at that time with grades 1-6 and then 7, 8 and 9. There was a little room in the basement that was the high school because there were only about five or six kids going at that time. "Most kids never went to high school, they went out to work," stated Marg. The Jubilee Hall originally was the HBMS cafeteria. Once the cafeteria was built up on the hill where Logistics is now, the Jubilee became a library in one part and a dance hall in the other. There were dances held three times a week. On Tuesday nights they were at the Legion, on Friday nights at the Elks and on Saturday nights at the Jubilee. Marg's brother John played trumpet in the first Elks' band. Marg's other brother Donald left Flin Flon in 1932 after he had worked in the open pit for a while. Her sister Mackie (Minnie) worked for Ma Bell on Church Street in her boarding house. Mackie also worked for the MacGilvrays and the Flocks for a while. She left Flin Flon in the early '30s looking for "greener pastures" as Marg put it. In the early '30s Main Street was a bustling place. Just from about where the Royal Hotel is now, down to the parking lot at the Saan, in those days there were: the Brunswick Caf, Swicks' and Coppels' grocery store, Mrs. Cyr (Tubby's mom) had a candy store and Dr. Biggs had his office upstairs of that. There was the Corona Hotel, Jack Rosen's Grocery and Meats, P&G Bakery and the Blue and White. The post office was originally on Hapnot Street across from the train station. Hendy Henderson was the postmaster and he was very active in the community starting up a boys club called the 'Regular Fellas' similar to the Boy Scouts, and he was also responsible for getting the dog sled races started. Marg remembers, "The old Community Hall was always open until 9 p.m., but the kids could go and play there anytime. The janitor would give them a basketball and we'd spend hours passing time there. Lorne Algate was the first manager of the Community Hall." Marg also recalls how popular Phantom Lake was and that before the Company took it over there was a little shack at the dock where they could change into bathing suits, and Pat Folbert owned it. He would also sell confectionery items like chocolate bars and drinks to the kids. Once the Company took over the running of Phantom Lake and a new concession was built, Jenny Woods would run the concession in the summer, and also the concession at the hockey rink in the winter. The Company under Sir Maurice Roche built the bandstand at Phantom Lake and he also got the golf course going out there. HBMS was responsible for having the first "medicare" program maybe even in Canada. Marg recalls many hours as a kid sliding down the rocks by the 100 stairs on chunks of cardboard. "Nobody ever got hurt, or if they did, they never said anything!" she laughs. Cliff Campbell had a concession at the bottom of those 100 stairs for awhile where the kids got chips and penny candy. See 'Ice' P.# Con't from P.# Marg recalls as a kid running after the ice truck to get chips of ice when the blocks were being delivered for the ice boxes in the homes. There were no refrigerators in those days. Marg and Hugh still had a wooden icebox at their cabin at Beaver Lake. Marg says that her brother Motto (whose real name is Emanuel Hall Roberts) learned all about hockey in Flin Flon where he started on open rinks and at Hapnot Lake. She recalls a Mr. Toots Thompson (brother to Orville and Elmer) driving poles into the ice at Hapnot Lake for lighting for the kids to skate and he also built a slide on the rocks with a "hairpin" turn in it for the kids to slide. Marg laughs, "Although he did charge us to use the slide, we didn't have any money so we'd sneak there at night and go past the barricades he had put up and use it anyway!" Marg started curling in 1940 in school. She curled with Agnes Raven and Ruth McConnell. She also remembers going into a bonspiel with Nell Cutt and they curled 21 games in a week around the clock. Kay Smith and Neva Lockhart were instrumental in having that changed. Marg won her share of 'hardware' through the years. Marg met Hugh McBratney on a sleigh ride out to Phantom Lake with the Young People's Group of the United Church. They were married on September 12, 1944. Marg laughs, "If you notice everyone got married around the 12th or the 28th because that was when Company payday was!" Marg also remembers that she and Hugh "stood in line for ages to see the show 'Gone with the Wind'. It cost $1.50 each, which was expensive at that time because most shows were 50 cents. But 'Gone with the Wind' was a four hour show, they even had an intermission, so we could go out for a smoke!" Marg and Hugh wintered in Tuscan, Arizona for 15 years, but now they spend their summers at their cottage at Beaver Lake and their winters in town. They have four sons: Bill, Pat, Greg and Howard, all born and raised in Flin Flon. They have seven grandchildren and two great grandsons. They have no intention of leaving here. Marg says she gets really upset when she hears people running Flin Flon down, especially when they have worked here all their lives and had a good living. Thanks so much for the memories Marg! This will make a great read!
