Albert “AB” Massey married Dorothy Fisher Prytherch in 1941. They came to Lumby with their 2 sons Allen “Bob” and James Massey on March 15, 1960. Together with his boys, Ab built a barn from logs harvested on the Mabel Lake Road property. Eventually, Ab would milk 14 dairy cows twice a day – with the exception of “Big Lucy” who could only be milked by hand.
Each day, Ab’s son Bob would haul six cans of milk to the end of the driveway to be shipped to NOCA Dairy. It was also Bob’s job to haul the empty cans back to the barn. Every two weeks, one of the empty milk cans would contain a cheque from NOCA Dairy and Dorothy and her sons headed to town for groceries.
Ab supplemented the family income by driving the Trinity Valley School Bus route from 1961 to 1966. Monday to Friday he left the home farm at 7:00 am to deliver children to Lumby schools. Ab and Dorothy sold the farm in 1965 and Ab went to work for Cougar Equipment until his retirement in 1971.
Ab passed away in 1980 at the age of 63 and rests in the Lumby Cemetery.
