After finding out that the old grey mare still remembered all the tricks of a professional cutting horse career, I was better prepared for further riding experiences. I was soon riding her several times a week. Maybe it would be more accurate…
One thing about growing up on a mixed farm in Manitoba, you’re never very far from animals of one kind or another. I have some very fond memories of such connections and some not quite so fond. I do know they created…
Growing up on the farm sometimes seemed to be a boring existence. Farm chores took precedence over everything. Animals needed daily attention since we depended on them for part of our income. The garden took a lot of attention since we depended…
I’m continuing today with another story from my school days. Marilyn’s story yesterday reminded me of another episode that took place at the Silver Stream school in Manitoba, probably in about 1958 or 1959. All of the students at that school lived…
During the 1950s, Charlie’s Barbershop was in the heart of Great Village. It was a two-story building, with the shop on the ground floor and an apartment above it. Charlie’s shop was a single room with large windows facing the road. A…
The Field Trip Our teacher at Silver Stream school, Miss Enns, must have been fairly young at the time. Probably in her early twenties, fresh out of teachers college. I have no idea if it was her first posting but I do…
What is the first thing you think of when you see or hear the word “sponge”? The most common association is a dish sponge, specifically the yellow ones used for washing, cleaning up spills, or absorbing liquid. Some might say it’s a…
Some of you will remember back in the sixties, Art Linkletter had a television show called Kids Say the Darndest things. I wish to expand that to Kids Do the Darndest Things, and I as a four-year-old child, was no exception. In…
The Rolling Classroom: Manitoba’s Iconic Tree Planting Cars To understand why this story is so dear to my heart, you will need to know about my relationship with entertainment. For the first few years of my life, entertainment was self-made. We had…
Mother was admitted to hospital on a Tuesday in June 1960, and a couple of days later, she had surgery. However, she had complications, and her stay would be indefinite. After getting off work, Father would drive over to the hospital, spending…
Even though that first Christmas concert was a bit of a disappointment due to my laughter induced stage fright, the ones that followed were much more enjoyable. That first one had been held in the classroom of our one room school with…
I have some fond memories of Silver Stream School. One of my favorites was Christmas concert time. It would start about a month before the concert, each student who had a part in the play would be given some lines to memorize…
Silver Stream was where my memory kicks in again, and probably some of my most memorable school days were spent there. By this time we had moved to a lovely farm only a mile and a half from the school known as…
Monique was a little 6-year-old French girl who was a bundle of energy and endless curiosity. Her dad was in the military and travelled back and forth to Camp Debert every day. That fall, the family of three had moved into what…
Outdoor lessons came to an end as autumn approached. A brand new baby sister arrived on the second of September. Surprised the heck out of my brother and me. We didn’t even know one had been ordered. And then in November we…
Many people wrongly believe that babies do not notice or remember traumatic events. According to Mother, I never forgot this frightful experience. Mr. Barkley was in his early 70s and had been a farmer all his life—a lifetime of hard work and…
The Springhill Coal Mine Disaster in Nova Scotia was a catastrophic explosion in the No. 4 Colliery on November 1st, 1956. It started when runaway coal cars struck a high-voltage power line, igniting coal dust and causing widespread devastation, the explosion killed…
We often look at our lives through the lens of the everyday—the chores, the shifts, the quiet moments on the porch. We tend to think that because we weren’t world leaders or famous explorers, our stories are just “ordinary.” But if there…
My mother and Muriel Henwood had been best friends since their early school days. Their friendship continued throughout the war years, and even after they were both married. Muriel’s husband, Henry Brine, was a miner who worked underground in the Springhill coal…
What a winter we had back in 1960. So much snow fell in December and January that it made the road behind the barn leading down to the lower field great for tobogganing on. The snow began once again at the beginning…
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