Thomas Moise Dickie came to Canada from Scotland in 1909.
He was a fireman on the railroad. Mary Dickie joined him in 1910
and settled in Lethbridge. They moved to Coalhurst in 1911.
They had eight children; five sons and three daughters. Samuel,
born and died in Scotland. Phillip, born in Coalhurst and resided in
Calgary until his death in 1982. John, born in Coalhurst and died
in Coalhurst at the age of three.

The family lived in Diamond City, at the river bottom, for four years
while Tom Sr. pumped the water for the town. One morning Mary
heard water running under the house, and arose to find the house
surrounded with water. She roused the children and collected
everything that they could carry, then watched from the coulee
as the house floated down the river, in the big flood. They
then moved back to Coalhurst where Tom pumped water for the
town for many years, sharing the shifts with his father, Samuel
Dickie.

The family lived again at the river bottom, near the Quarantine
Station. It was a very interesting place to live as they spent
a lot of time watching the doctors work with the cattle,
guinea pigs and white rats. Indians used the ford at the river
by the pumping station, so the children made a number of
good friends from the reserve. These friends often would stop
to warm themselves and have tea at Grandmother Dickie's house.

When the family moved into the town of Coalhurst in order to
be closer to school, the types of entertainment to be found
increased. They attended West Lethbridge School dances,
Newlands and Welshes's Barn dances, and dances at the
Red Trail pavillion in Kipp. When the weather got bad they
attended these functions by horse and sleigh. The first
school the children attended burned down and they held
school in the Catholic Church until a new one was built.
There are also vivid memories of the big fire, when half of
the town was burned (1934), and of the Mine explosion (1935).