Alvin “Al” Mills was born to Alvin “Casey” and Jenny Mills in Flin Flon in 1941. His first home was on Hammell Street, where his neighbours were the Tickles and Johnson (Bernice, later Gourlay) families.
Later, after the war, the Mills family moved to Church Street, which was a big deal because, unlike most of Flin Flon, Church Street had running water. This meant that the Mills family now had flush toilets and water right out of the tap for bathing, washing dishes and clothes. They no longer had the “honey man” going through their house emptying the sewer pail, usually right at mealtime, and they had hot water out of the tap as opposed to having their water delivered by the water man and having to ration how much was used.
In the early years, Mr. Mills worked hauling ore from Monarch Mine at Beaver Lake, along with Scotty Parker who lived on Mainwaring Street. Mr. Mills also worked for Ryder Brothers driving CAT trains up to Reindeer Lake. Mr. Mills and Ray Kinsley hauled freight with the use of horses, and on one of their trips they took the Caterpillar tractor up to Brochet. Al says
First Nations people who had never seen or heard such a vehicle lined up along the lake to watch them come in.
Mr. Mills started work at HBM&S Co. in the late ’30s and early ’40s, till he signed up with the 12th Manitoba Dragoons during the war, where he did reconnaissance.
“I never really knew my dad till he came back from the war,” Al says. When the war was finally over, “Me and my Mom went to meet the train,” says Al. “But when he got home all my dad did was sleep, and I suggested that we go back to the train station and get a new dad!”
Because Mr. Mills had quit the company before joining up, he got a job working for the Town of Flin Flon for awhile. He was hired back on at HBM&S Co. in 1948, where he worked on surface and transportation as a roustabout, bull gang labourer, and taking freight up to Island Falls on Linn Tractors.
“It was not uncommon for at least one tractor to go through the ice every winter,” Al says.
Al said his dad worked with Arnold Mansell, Lloyd Lofgren, Wes Donaldson, Leo Cooper, Jack Trach and their
superintendent was Ben Grimmalt. “Ben was known to be very set in his ways!” Al smiles.
Al started school at age six at Main School, where the general hospital is now, and had teachers including Miss Kuntz, Bertha Baldwin, Mrs. Ross, Dorothy Ash, Lois Johnson and Steve Klym. Main School had its name changed to McIsaac when Al was in grade four.
When Al went into Grade 7, he went to Hapnot. In Grade 8 he had his classes in the music room, then the library, “sitting around big round tables which made working easier, as we helped each other,” he laughs. Then they were moved into a divided gym till Hudson School was finished, and after Christmas they moved into the new school.
Al spent Grade 8 at Hudson, and then went to Hapnot for high school.
At that time all the schools, Hudson, Terrace and Hapnot, were on the same property.
At Hapnot, “We had Wally Pindera as our homeroom teacher, and he was a great teacher,” says Al. “Also in our class was Allan Marshall, who had been in the Navy, and every time Mr. Pinderas asked him a question, Marshall would always answer with ‘sir.’ By the end of that term we were all calling Mr. Pinderas ‘sir.’”
Al played basketball with the Kopper Kings for four years and played in Winnipeg once a year. Most of the games were intersquad, as only one school in the area had men’s basketball.
Al graduated from high school in 1959 with classmates such as Dave Eryou. He attended Sir Maurice Roche School to pick up three credits before going to Montana School of Mines in Butte, Montana, in the early ’60s. Halfway through his second year,
he quit, as he found this wasn’t for him.
Al came back to Flin Flon looking for work at HBM&S Co. However,
he didn’t get on, so he went to work at Midwest Diamond Drilling, working the hoops for two years along with geologist Gerry Lee. Al worked with a Turam instrument along with Bert Putz, Dale Weller and John Parsons.
Al had two adopted brothers, Jimmy and Clayton Bell. “They both excelled in sports, particularly basketball,” Al says, adding they played with Frank Schneider and Don Prier.
Al’s first car was a 1953 Chev he bought from Ernie Prokop.
When asked what he did socially, Al says “too much drinking, for a start. We had to be 21 to get in the bar and I remember using Marv Dowhan’s ID one time to get in the Royal Hotel.
“We played a lot of basketball in high school, but later it all depended on the day of the week whether it was curling, basketball or girls.”
Al curled with Joe Howatt, Hugh Howatt and a Robertson two nights a week at the Uptown Curling Club, but he blew out his knee dancing in Creighton, so that put paid on curling for awhile.
In 1963 Al meet Agnes Jonasson at a party at Chummy Plummer’s place at Bakers Narrows. They were married in Selkirk in 1966, the same year that
Al finished teacher’s college.
The couple came back to Flin Flon and Al started teaching in 1967. His first school was the old McIsaac, that was the old Hapnot beside Hudson School. He taught grades 7, 8 and 9. His students included the Creaser boys, Kilby Howatt, Helen Wilson, Dallas Mymko and Ron Dobson.
Other teachers that Al worked with included Vi Anderson, Glen Smith, Peter Merry and Karin Hanson. Al worked at that school for about 10 years, till it was torn down.
Al became vice-principal at Ruth Betts (the name Hudson was dropped) when the school opened in 1978 with 604 students.
Ten years later Al moved to become vice-principal at Hapnot Collegiate, now located on Green Street. The principal was Glen Smith and teachers included Dave Paton, Harland Garinger, Al Garinger, Sandra Garinger, Erv Kelbert, Stu Russell, Tom Cameron, Darlene Myden, Gary Myden, Gerry Clark, Heather Lytwyn. Office staff included Clara Quinn, Yvonne Fawcett, Kathy Leel and Betty Nisbet.
Al retired from teaching in 1996. He said that things had changed so much in relation to the teacher-student interaction that it made it very hard to feel like there was even a connection with them at times. For example, he said, “If some little kid was obviously in need of a hug, you didn’t dare touch them. And discipline had gone out the window. From the time I started teaching there was probably a strap in every teacher’s desk. Now I doubt you’d find a strap in any school in the division. And the kids are allowed cell phones in school as they are considered a teaching device.”
Al’s wife Agnes retired from teaching in 1997.
They have two children, Hilary, born in 1971, and Jason, born in 1973.
Hilary has her nursing degree and works for the Northern Health Region. She has three daughters, Casey, Eve and Lily.
Jason lives in Winnipeg and works as a furniture salesman.
The Mills winter in Mercedes, Texas, for four-and-a-half months, and during the rest of the year they have a home at Bakers Narrows. They are enjoying good health and can be seen enjoying the coffee shops in the area visiting with their many friends. Al also enjoys a game of golf.
Thanks for the memories of your school days both in the desk and standing at the front of the classroom.
