In 1919 Roy Goodkey's grandfather Robert James Blackburn purchased the family farm about six miles southeast of Pineview. He first lived in a tent on the property while he worked to build a house and by 1920 the family moved into their new two-storey log home.
His grandparents had a large family of four boys and five girls so there was always a lot of work to go around.
They cleared the land and started the first dairy farm in the Pineview area.
Seven years later, tragedy struck and his grandfather was gored to death by the dairy bull. It would now be up to his grandmother and the rest of the family to manage the farm.
The original Blackburn log house has been moved and restored; they added a basement which is used for child care. The house is now located beside the Blackburn Community Centre as a tribute to early pioneers and is open to the public.
Roy Goodkey was born in Vernon in 1936. His father had a trucking business and decided to move the family to Prince George in 1942. Sadly, his father was killed in a construction site accident just a few weeks after arriving in Prince George leaving his mother a widow with three small children; Roy was seven years old, his sister Arlene was 15 months old and his baby brother Edward was just five months old.
His mother started a successful laundry service out of their home in the east end of the city on Third Avenue. Her clients were several of the local hotels.
It was Roy's job to carry in wood for their only source of heat in the winter.
He grew up and went to school in Prince George and he remembers that at the age of 11 he delivered the Vancouver Sun to approximately 100 subscribers on a regular basis before going off to school. The papers came to Prince George by rail and it was his job to pick them up at 5 a.m. and deliver them the same day. Roy said, "It was a bit tough in the winter but I got the job done and earned $30 a month for my efforts."
Roy was used to hard work and once he graduated he found work with a sawmill supply company; an industry that he worked in until his retirement in 1999.
Sandra Severson was born in Grande Prairie, Alta. in 1942. Her parents eventually moved to B.C.; they lived and worked in a sawmill camp in the Barkerville Road area. They later moved to Wells where her father worked as an oiler in the power house that provided power to the entire area.
When Sandra got older she lived in the dormitory and went to high school in Quesnel. During the summer she worked at the historic Barkerville townsite.
Sandra remembers getting her drivers license at the gold commissioner's office in Barkerville. After graduation in 1959 she attended the Christian leadership training centre in Naramata and then moved to Prince George in 1961.
She worked at Kresge's; first in the stock room and then in other departments as jobs opened up.
In 1965, she left Kresge's to work for the B.C. government in the electrical and gas inspection offices. Sandra said, "Prince George was growing by leaps and bounds and we were always busy. It was an interesting job."
Sandra went with a roommate to Punchaw (about 50 km down the Blackwater Road) to visit friends of the family. It turned out to be a great excursion because it was at that gathering that Sandra met Roy Goodkey.
Sandra explained, "Friends of mine introduced me to Roy who hung out with all the cowboy types. I met my cowboy that day and he turned out to be solid, honest and even tempered.
We were married in 1964 at the St. Savior's Anglican Church in Barkerville."
Sandra said, "Throughout our many visits to the Punchaw Ranch strong friendships formed between Roy's friends and my friends. One after another we got married and our circle of five married couples has remained intact for the past 50 years. Over the years we have celebrated our wedding anniversaries, family events, sadness and many happy occasions together. We have stayed in touch and our friendships have remained strong for all these years. We were more of a family rather than just good friends. Now we are all growing older together and starting to outlive one another.
"We have two children Tal (Val) and Darcy (Angie) and we have one grandchild who will graduate from high school later this year.
"I left my job to be a stay at home mom. When I look back I can say that it was an absolute privilege to be a stay at home mom. I volunteered with things that pertained to our children and when they grew up I volunteered with the Red Cross mobile blood donor clinic for over 30 years as a co-organizer along with Margaret Storey. We had a lot of fun and I met a lot of great people."
Sandra volunteered with the Red Cross in the fire recovery following the 2003 Barrier forest fire that destroyed a sawmill which was the regions biggest employer and 73 homes in Barrier and Louis Creek, north of Kamloops.
"She concluded by saying, "I worked at the Blackburn Community Centre as their administrator for 18 years until I retired in 2006. Those years were a time of getting to know and love my community more and more as the years went by.
"Roy and I are happy here in Prince George, we have a great family and good friends; life is good."
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February birthdays that I know about: Helga Bertram, Judy Jackson, Lloyd Annis, Darlene Meyers, Bob Carrier, Judy Fisher, Amy Vander Ploeg, Ton Vander Ploeg, Sophie Chartrand, Kirsten Redding, Paul Steindl, Iris Frenkel, Verna Wright, Clarence Boudreau, Kathy Iselmoe, Joan McKay, Peter Osis, Aurela Kronebusch, Marlene Johnson, Roman Hildebrandt, Raymond Roch, Helen Dahl, Evelyn Porter, Delores Bircher, Ingrid Maack, Lillian Peter, Edna Stitt, Fred Dettling, Marlys Labonte, Anna Sciara, Rosetta Mauro, Mary Brizan, Betty Pearson, Susan Scott, Barbara Carson, Helen Wlasitz, Wendy Wlasitz, Edith McLaughlin, Rudy Wortman, Jo Nore, Judy Johnson, John Hepwood, Clifford Haiste, Ed Olichny, Luisa Botelho, Bob Dods, Joyce Antonyk, Neil Peterson, Denise Chenail, Anita Laurin, Louis Matte, Gilbert Stolz, Mel Pearson, James Stanyer, Mona Strand, Noreen Stubley, Jack Wagner, Luci Goodfellow, Bill Theeseen, Audrey Kelly, Russel Prouse, Doug Warren, Carol Ventress, Orland Fritz, Wanda Hauff, Corinne Collins, Shirley Fillion, Rene Coburn, Lory Denluck, Brenda Borden and 90 years for Rosa Fornari
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Anniversaries for February: 63 years for Keith and Marg McLachlan, 53 years for Ernie and Diana Myers, 53 years for Wayne and Jan Braaten, 53 years for Earl and Lorraine Turner, 40 years for Jim and Brenda Doucette, 24 years for Joe and Janice (Taylor) Anderson, and 16 years for Lino and me.
