Citizen of the Year

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Clifford Calliou, 75, is the 2001 Citizen of the Year at the Kikino Metis Settlement. The honor was awarded in conjunction with the Aug. 12 annual Kikino Celebration Days and Silver Birch Rodeo.

Calliou said the award came as a total surprise. He was at the rodeo grounds on Saturday morning, Aug. 11, when was told he had won the award and was needed at the hamlet to lead the parade.

He was born in St. Paul, Alberta in 1926, the sixth child of 13 (nine boys and four girls) in the family of Fred and Victoria Calliou. When he was 11 years old, his father bought a farm in the Cork area, 20 miles west of St. Paul. The family lived there for a couple of years, and then moved to Kikino in the spring of 1939, when the Kikino area was designated a Metis colony by the Alberta government.

Calliou recalls they were one of the first families to move there; it was then called the Goodfish Lake Metis Colony, and later named Beaver River Metis Colony No. 7.

There were no close neighbors. "Families started moving in from Lac La Biche later in the summer," he said.

Times were hard in the early years, and everyone had to pitch in.

"I started working when I was 14," Calliou said. "I got put out of school - they had to make room for other kids."

He worked on the family farm in the spring and fall, and then leave to work wherever he could find it.

"I worked for a dollar a day picking roots and rocks," he said.

In the mid-1940s that stretched a long way. He recalls paying eight cents for a package of tobacco and papers, $8 for a good milk cow, and $5 for a range cow. "You could go to town with $10 in your pocket and you wouldn't carry all the groceries out (of the store) in one trip," he said. "Now it would cost you $200."

Travel was by horse and wagon, and the 45-kilometre trip to town was an all-day undertaking.

Calliou bought his first horse when he was 14 years old, for $4, "broke to ride." He was also breaking horses and he rode bucking horses in his first rodeo at age 15.

"I wasn't scared of nothing," he said. "If it had hair on it I'd try to ride it."

He rode saddle bronc and bareback in rodeos at Meadow Lake, Bruce and Viking. "I quit before I got married," he said. "She said I'll marry you if you quit riding."

Calliou met Helen Thompson, when he was 14. "We chummed around together, then we went together, and then we got married," he said. They were married in 1948; it was a marriage that lasted until she passed away in 1995.

Together they raised a son and three daughters. When their family was grown and on their own, they adopted and raised three grandchildren, and later brought another four children from the extended family into their home.

Through all these years Calliou was working away from the home most of the time, as a carpenter, heavy equipment operator, truck driver, and other occupations, mostly out of camps. "All I knew was work," he said. "Mom (Helen) stayed home and looked after the kids."

His working life came to an end in 1973 when he injured his back while working on a paving crew.

"We had some rough times, but we made it go all the time," he said. "If people now had to go through the hungry '30s they'd learn a thing or two."

The community spirit and co-operation found in the "hard times" made for a better quality of life, Calliou feels. He recalls neighbors working together to build the first Catholic church in Kikino. Each family logged a share of what was needed.

"The logs were sawed and planed here," he said. "We even made the (wood) shingles."

He also has fond memories of community events.

"My wife and I and Joe Donald ran the sports around here for many years," he said. That meant organizing baseball tournaments for adults and an annual sports day for the kids. The sports day was simple, with a variety of races and pick-up ball games.

"All the kids got prizes," he said. "They got a hot dog and a pop - and that was enough. The parents were happy to have a day out with their families." It ws a simpler time.

"Life was better," he said. "Kids got along better, they listened."

"There's been a lot of changes, but years ago we were better off here than today," he said. "People helped each other. Today they're jealous of each other."

"If they knew what we went through, there'd be a big change in this place," he said. "The hard times was a lot better go."