Joanne McQuarrie, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter | [email protected]
Alden Bradley is a Jasperite through and through.
He was born in town in 1944 to Alice and Clarence Bradley and has had unique experiences since he was a young lad.
Among them, Bradley encountered movie stars, learned to be at a diver at the age of 14, worked a job as a teenager that led to a decades-long career, and married a woman who caught his eye at the local hospital.
When Bradley was seven he had what he called a highlight of his life at the time.
鈥淭hey were making a movie, The River of No Return with Marilyn Monroe, Rory Calhoun and Robert Mitchum," he recalled.
"They were staying at Becker's Bungalows. One day we rode our bikes out there just to see if we could see them. We saw Rory and his wife. He said, 'I don't think you're here to see me, are you?'"
Calhoun pointed them in the direction of Monroe, who was walking along the highway.
"We rode up to her, started talking to her," Bradley said. "I don't believe how short she was - I was only seven and she wasn't much taller than me.
鈥淪he was just pleasant to talk to. She asked if she could ride my bike. She rode it back to the Bungalows. I just ran alongside her."
About seven years later, Bradley's school buddy, Ron Bell, who was into scuba diving, got him into it.
"There wasn't a lake in this park that we didn't dive in," Bradley said.
Over the years, Bradley and Bell helped the RCMP in searches for missing people in area lakes and waterways. Bradley did that into his early 20s.
Bradley was in high school when he got a job at CN Railway.
"They hired me at the age of 16," he said. "My brother, Terry (who passed away in 2006) was working there too. He was two years older than me."
Bradley's mom wasn't too happy that he signed on with the railway while he was still going to school.
It was a long day. He worked the afternoon shift, 4 p.m. until midnight, five days a week.
But it was a family tradition.
"My dad was a locomotive engineer," Bradley said. "When I was hired on, I was the sixth generation of my family working out of Jasper."
At that time, he was making $72 a week.
Bill Hooper was one of the folks who ran a fish hatchery in the area and for five or six years Bradley and Bell, at Hooper鈥檚 request, helped him out by stocking local lakes with fingerlings.
"They had two big ponds. They had every different species in those ponds. Some fish were 14, 15 pounds," Bradley said. "It was a real tourist attraction."
Bradley worked for CN through high school. He said when he got out of high school he wanted to join the RCMP but already had good seniority with CN so just stayed with the railway.
Bradley and his wife-to-be Betty started dating in 1958 after they met at Jasper hospital where she was a nurse's aide.
They got married on Sept. 15, 1960 and had two children: a daughter, Leanne (Ewald) and son, Grant, and five grandchildren: Ryan, Lorne, Amy, Ty and Gibson.
Betty worked at the hospital for 15 years, then the post office, and then as a clerk at Sherriff's Gift Shop. She also ran a bed and breakfast operation out of their home.
Betty died of cancer in 2006.
"We were married for 40 years," Bradley said. "She was a very well-liked person in town. She always liked to help people. She was just a darling. She was a real little sweetheart."
Bradley said Betty kept their house in meticulous order.
"I miss the heck out of her," he said.
Bradley worked for CN Railway for close to four decades.
"I was dedicated to my job, I liked my job, I liked the fellows I worked with," he said.
There came a time when CN was reducing staff and Bradley had an opportunity to take a retirement package. He refused the first one because he wanted to keep working.
But when he was on duty, staying in Kamloops, he got a call encouraging him to take the package. He phoned Betty to talk about it, she told him to go for it.
When he arrived home in Jasper from Kamloops, on March 1, 1999, there was a huge crowd waiting for him, to congratulate him on a well-spent career with CN.
"Don Anderson piped me off the engine," Bradley said. "It put a tear in my eye, I'll tell you that."
These days, Bradley enjoys life. He spends time with his ladyfriend, Patricia Lake, and is at the golf course regularly.
"I golf too much," he laughed. "I love playing hockey [but] had to give it up because I dislocated my shoulder."
He has watched Jasper change over the years.
"Tourism has really taken off,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ears ago, Parks Canada and CN were the big companies in town. Now, they're still here but tourism has taken over.
鈥淵ears before, you never locked your door. Everybody in town knew everybody."
Get to know some of Jasper鈥檚 beloved community members in our new feature, Jasper Treasures. Nominate a treasure for our next feature! Email聽[email protected].听
