Movie Monday: Family Growing Up (Part 1)

Image: A film still showing two of the Foster children playing outdoors (SPRA 449.01.03, Fonds 449: Foster Family fonds)

Movie Monday highlights videos from the Archives’ film collection. Every week, an archival film will be featured on our YouTube channel and here on our blog. The Movie Monday project is made possible with the generous funding support of Swan City Rotary Club of Grande Prairie.

Today’s film features the children of the Foster family. Raymond Foster married Iva Carrell in 1945 and together they had four children: Janus (1946), Ben (1948), Dwain (1949), and Ruth (1955). The family farmed 24-73-6 W6 and S 25-73-6 W6, the land that Raymond’s parents had originally homesteaded in 1911. Interestingly, this is the land on which the town of Sexsmith now stands.

The Foster family did an excellent job of documenting their daily life and special events through the medium of home movies. In this particular film, we see vignettes of various activities that Janus, Ben, Dwain, and Ruth enjoyed during their early childhood years (1950-1956). These activities included things such as birthday parties, picking flowers, horseback riding, and skating.

Stay tuned and follow along with Movie Monday, as we will be featuring more of the Foster family in the future – including another film entitled Family Growing Up, created in 1957-1965.

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