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.
Stan was born in Perdue, Saskatchewan and started working in a grocery store at the age of 12 years-old. "The most exciting thing to happen in Perdue was when a new teacher or bank teller came to town!" he said. However, one day while Stan and a friend were at the ice cream parlour, low and behold there were two new girls working there! And so the story goes, the two guys "flipped" to see who would get which one of the new girls to ask for a date. And as Florence promoted, "tell her what happened!" Stan said, "Well, I lost the toss and got Florence. We were married in 1948!" Stan said they started looking for a small business of their own and "someone in Perdue told us of Hoffman's Store in Creighton being for sale." So, at Easter of 1953, Florence and Stan came to have a look around. They had to come by train. "We checked out the building, it was a three room house with an attic. We figured we had come to the end of the world!" said Stan. "However, we stuck around and saw that the business had lots of customers, so we decided to take a chance." Stan and Florence moved to Creighton in July of 1953 and lived upstairs at the store. See 'Rugged' P.# Con't from P.# "It was pretty rugged up there. In the winter the pipes froze and in the summer we cooked," recalls Stan. The competition in Creighton was Peacosh's Grocery Store and Hoffman's Meat Market. About 90% of the groceries were delivered. In Flin Flon there were several grocery stores such as The Fruit and Produce, Co-op, Central Meat and Grocery, Ostry's, Willowvale, Birchview Grocery, Cash-n-save, Pop Iannone's, and there was a grocery store in Channing as well. "But remember," said Stan, "There were about 13,000 people here then too." In the early '50s Stan played baseball with such guys as Jim Stevenson, Tom Barrow, Jim Stevenson, Vic Garinger, Mike Salamondra, John Blake, Herb Thurston, Sid Lundquist and the umpire was Harold Kennedy. In the beginning of their business the Curtis' did not have a meat department but later got a cooler when they remodeled and Stan became a butcher as well. "However," Stan relates, "Just to show you how co-operative the business people were in those days, I got sick, the summer of 1955, and Florence had to take over the butcher shop. Nyall Hyndman from Green Acres and Don Donaldson from Shamrock Meats showed Florence how to cut meat! You wouldn't see that happening nowadays." The employees then were Marie Jaszan, Grace Salamondra, Doris Kennedy, Iola McCurdy, Mary Lazar, Elsie Colby, Evelyn McCurdy and Delsie Othen, during 1953 to '59. "However, in 1956, the bank manager, Otto Bergman, called me in for a chat," stated Stan. "I had so much on the books (people charging groceries) that I had to look for other work." Stan hired on at HBMS and started in the zinc roasters where he worked for 10 years and then transferred to the research department working with Hal Roberts, Wilf Watt, Morris Smith, Tom Warren, Jimmy Robertson, Eddie Martin, Jake Kirkbridge and Dave Robertson who was in charge. Later, Stan transferred to accounting and worked for Clarence Merrell and with Kjell Hvidsten, Del Byers, Curly Gummerson, Dick Berthiame, John Faktor, Marlene Anderson, Darlene Reid and Darlene Lauterer. Then, after a couple of years, he took over from Johnny Spencer in the power office until the NDP Government took over the running of the power station. Stan then went to work under Jim Connor as wage and salary supervisor. The last years at HBMS were in the Co-operative Wage Study with Stan Liss and Dick Berthiame, with Bev Goodman as secretary. Stan retired in 1986. Florence and Stan have four children, Roger, Barbara, Ken and Mary Anne. All their children went through the Creighton school system and then on to Hapnot. In 1962 Stan served on the Creighton Town Council with Alec Clarke as mayor and councilors Russ Woods, Howard Fox, Barry Aimoe, Pat Patterson and Harold Kennedy. Doug Gibson was the Town Administrator and Therese Wheeler was the Secretary. During those years they managed to get the sewer and water into Creighton as well as set up the fluoridation of the water. The Curtis' bought their summer home at Denare Beach from Glen McCrimmon in 1963 and had as their neighbours in those days, Wilf Burrows, Alex Campbell, Jim Goodman, Don Donaldson and Lorne Ferg and their families. In 1983-84 waterworks came to Denare Beach. At first the waterworks was only going to be set up free for the yearly residents of Denare Beach, however, due to the lobbying that Florence and Stan did on behalf of the summer residents, everyone got the waterworks installed at no cost. Stan has been a member of the Lion's Club since 1962. With him back then were such guys as Ed yauck, Doug Ormiston, Jim Stevenson, Nick Klewchuck, Nick Andreychuck and Lloyd Wright. At that time there were about 57 members in the club. Because of his work with the Lions, Stan has received the President's Award in 1971 and 1972 as well as being named Lion of the Year in 1977-78 and 1982-83. He was also District Governor 1987-88 and received the 100% District Governor Award. He received his life membership with Lions International Association in 1999. In 1987 Stan received the Flin Flon Honourary Citizen Award along with Murray Davidson and Bunny Burke. For three years Stan, along with Rod McDermott and Fred Schwaga chaired Beaver Lake Days. At that time, Beaver Lake Days was a big event because there were over 6,000 people taking in such events as the flour packing, bannock baking, wood chopping, moose calling and jigging contests just to name a few events. Florence and Stan have been married for 56 years and enjoy seven grandchildren. They both love to golf and enjoy their cottage at the lake and visits from the kids and grandkids.
