By GREG NIKKEL, of the Weyburn Review
When Roland and Lois Olson moved to North Weyburn in 1969, it was only going to be for one year. Almost three decades later, the couple still reside in the hamlet, now living across the road from where the apartment building used to be when they first moved here.
Their t-shaped home has been christened Arandel, and has a long history of use at the airport and hamlet, going back to the Second World War when the airport was built up by the military for use as a pilot-training centre. The name was found during a trip the Olsons took to Norway one year, and pronounced phonetically, it is the same as the couple's first initials (R and L).
Besides the history of the building itself, the Olsons have incorporated bits and pieces of history into their home as reminders of the Western Christian College where Roland worked for nine years.
The t-shaped building was first constructed by the military for use as a supply depot, when the war-time flight training school was located at the airport. From the mid-50s until 1977, SaskPower used the building as part of their training centre, before their school was moved to the Souris Valley grounds. It was then used for two years as the Weyburn Community Workshop (later Wor-Kin Shop), after their school facility burned down.
Western Christian College took possession in 1980, and until 1989 this building was where Roland taught art and industrial arts, where the students worked on pottery, silkscreening, painting, drawing, woodworking and photography. There was a pair of small darkrooms at one end of the T, which has since been converted to a pair of spare bedrooms by the Olsons, with the wall moved out to give more room.
The 90-foot long workshop part of the building is now used by the Olsons as their painting, pottery and woodworking shop and studio, giving a lot of room to the many art and craft projects Roland and Lois are working on. Wooden lockers used by the military, and which the students used to store their projects when the college was here, are still in place and used for storage space by the Olsons.
"We lived for 20 years in one of H-buildings across the road. In 1989 we moved into the workshop and lived in there while we built the front part of the house. The kids wondered why we bothered to do that when it was nice in there, but I think now they're glad that we did," said Lois.
The connection to the college was strong and remains strong today, with various parts salvaged from it forming a part of the home the Olsons now live in.
The home itself is one connection to those bygone days, but there are smaller reminders around the house as well; one is in a side veranda, which features a series of large windows all around and beautiful shiny wooden floor. Roland explained that the wide wood boards were bought from Don Vogel, as they had been the floor joists for the gymnasium of Western Christian College. Vogel had torn down the gymnasium, and still has the maple hardwood floor of the gym itself, which the Olsons are also interested in at some future point.
A section at the end of the veranda is a sun roof, made with plexiglass which had been used in the Saskatchewan Pavilion at Expo 86. Track lighting from the pavilion is also used in the Olsons' dining room, which also serves as a sort of gallery for Lois' paintings, hung all the way around the room. The dining room, along with the kitchen and sitting room across the hallway, were formerly used as classrooms. The Olsons said they enjoy the high 10-foot ceilings in both of these rooms, giving them a feeling of open space.
Another piece of the college is in the hearth of the wood-burning stove in the sitting room. Roland related how someone was trying to salvage one of the large, heavy slate blackboards from a classroom, but in lifting it had lost control of the board and it fell, shattering all over the floor. Roland was able to salvage enough good-sized pieces that he could cut into square tiles, and these now form the hearth of the stove.
The garage beside their home was also constructed of materials recycled from the college, and on the walls are the former cedar shingles from the house, turned inside out. The Olsons replaced the cedar shingles with pine shingles, which took a total of 17 tons worth of bundled shingles to complete. Despite all of the extensive renovation work on the inside of the home, Lois felt this was the single largest project they undertook.
As one of the few remaining buildings which formed part of the college, the Olsons have had visits from former students, who are sad at what's happened to the campus but are amazed at what they've done with the former industrial arts lab.
"Lots of memories," adds Lois wistfully. "These buildings have been good for us."
(For photos check out the January 13 issue of the Weyburn Review).
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