Little Sister's and Cousin's Birthdays

Today is Darlene's birthday and in two days it is our cousin Evelyn's birthday. The story is that since all their grandchildren were boys our grandfather offered $10 for the first granddaughter. After this Darlene was the first granddaughter born just 2 days before Evelyn. They have continued as close as sisters all their lives. In the upper picture they were pretty cute in their matching outfits likely under 2 years old. Then in the lower picture they are about 7 years old.

Happy birthday little sister and cousin!

RCMP Tour

This afternoon Elaine and I were at the RCMP Heritage Centre. The upper picture is in the main exhibit hall. We were there with Mike and Nicole and her family to see the location since this is where their wedding will be in July. The photographers were there and they planned and tried out various indoor and outdoor settings for the wedding photos.

It is a huge facility and really a beautiful place. In the lower picture you can see some of the horses on the grounds there. These are horses that were retired from the RCMP musical ride and are at the heritage centre for the visitors to see. You can see one of the buildings of the RCMP training centre in the background.

That Was Cold

This is part 3 of the stories about my Mother teaching at Speedwell in 1942/43. I remember her telling about the temperature being -60 F. My Mother said that she had to be at the school early to make a fire to try to warm up the school. I assume they had a small wood stove in the school. Those that came to school when it was that cold stayed close to the stove to try to get some warmth from it. But I am sure that in a log and plaster school with the outside temperature -60 F, it would still be mighty cold in there.

I looked in the records of Environment Canada and saw the coldest temperature that winter in northwest Saskatchewan was January 20, 1943 ranging from -50 C to -53 C. A temperature of -60 F would be equivalent to -51 C. The school register shows that 6 of the 31 students came to school on January 20. Many of the younger students were away for several days around that time with the reason shown as "C" which I assume was for "cold".

In the picture above the small building to the right of the school was the teacherage. My Mother would not stay there, so a family at a nearby farm let her stay with them. She would have walked to the school from there.

The school also had an outhouse (not shown in picture) which would have been a very cold experience at -60 F. Another story my Mother told about going out from the school to the outhouse one winter day and the students were lined up with snowballs ready to throw. She just walked straight along with a smile and thought "They wouldn't dare throw a snowball at me." As she went past a boy hit her in the back of the head with a snowball. Then all the others turned their snowballs at him. She said "We all had a good laugh."

While I am telling "cold" stories, my Mother used to tell a story from her own childhood about going to school in the cold. On a very cold winter day her Father picked them up from school with a horse and wagon to take them home to the farm. But her Father had been in town to get coal, so the children were riding on top of a full wagon load of frozen coal. My Mother remembered they were so cold that their Father took off his coat and put it over them. Then he ran along beside the horse to keep from freezing on the way home. In later years when my Mother was riding with us in our van if she said it was cold I would reminder her "It is a lot warmer than riding on a load of frozen coal."

The Mouse Chewed History

I posted last week about my Mother teaching at Speedwell in northwest Saskatchewan in 1942/43. One of the stories of her teaching there is about the mouse chewing the school register.

Rudy Wiebe in his book "Of this Earth" started a chapter with this story, "Over sixty years ago the Speedwell mice found our school register in Miss Hingston's desk drawer sweet chewing. They gnawed away the bottom of it, I recognized now, into a pattern like the west-central Arctic Ocean coastline of Canada. ..."

The school superintendent would not accept the mouse chewed register to send to the department of education in Regina. My Mother had to recopy the whole register, and then kept the new one in a tin box to keep it safe from the mice. The new one was given to the superintendent when she left. That is why we still have the mouse chewed register.

The front page of the school register shows my Mother's annual salary as $800. There were 30 students in grades 1 to 8, with their attendance shown in the register for each day. Rudy Wiebe was in Grade 2 that year.

Rudy Wiebe has won many awards for his books including two Governor General awards. Because of this there are archives of all his writing and papers. He asked if we would donate the Speedwell school register to the archive. We are contacting him again to see how we arrange to send it. I have taken pictures of the pages of the register for us to keep after we donate the original to the archive.

I Then Shall Live ...

I really enjoyed this song. The words are a wonderful prayer and statement of faith.



I then shall live as one who's been forgiven;
I'll walk with joy to know my debts are paid.
I know my name is clear before my Father;
I am His child, and I am not afraid.
So greatly pardoned, I'll forgive my brother;
The law of love I gladly will obey.

I then shall live as one who's learned compassion;
I've been so loved that I'll risk loving, too.
I know how fear builds walls instead of bridges;
I dare to see another's point of view.
And when relationships demand commitment,
Then I'll be there to care and follow through.

Your kingdom come around and through and in me,
Your power and glory, let them shine through me.
Your Hallowed Name O may I bear with honor,
And may Your living Kingdom come in me.
The Bread of Life, O may I share with honor,
And may You feed a hungry world through me.
Amen

Words by Gloria Gaither
Music Jean Sebelius's Finlandia

My Mother the Teacher

My Mother was a teacher. She taught in schools for a relatively few years, and then she dedicated her life to teaching her own children. For Mother's Day I would like to tell some stories of her first teaching job in 1942 at Speedwell School in northwest Saskatchewan. She was asked to go out teaching after barely starting teacher's college because of the teacher shortage during WW2.

When my Mother was first at Speedwell she was told that the oldest boy in the school was a trouble maker, and would likely just end up in jail someday. On the first day of school my Mother talked to this boy and said "You are the oldest student here so I am going to need your help. Some people say you can not succeed but I do not believe that. I believe you will do well." And he did. My Mother always had a heart for people that others looked down upon, and believed in emphasizing the positive in people.

Speedwell was in a relatively poor area and the children felt inferior to the better nearby Jack Pine school. In the book "Of This Earth" Rudy Wiebe writes: " I remember grade two very well because of Miss Hingston: she very much wanted us Speedwellers with our weathered log-and-plaster school -- Jack Pine four miles away now had beautiful board siding painted creamy yellow with brown trim around the door and windows -- to be proud of ourselves. So she took individual pictures of every class and when we told her we had never won a softball game against Jack Pine she drilled us every noon and after school ... and we won both games first on our diamond and then on theirs."

Of course this is a story that I know well from my Mother, teaching her students to believe they could win the ball games even if they had never won before. This was her nature to cheer for the "underdogs" whether in sports or everyday life. She taught her students the basic subjects, but more than that she taught them to believe they will succeed.

Musical Season Finale

Last night I was at a performance of the symphony including the philharmonic chorus. This was the last classical music performance of the symphony's 100th season. It was also the last choir performance for this season, so Elaine has a break now until fall.

The performance started with a short piece by Tchaikovsky. Then there was concerto for viola and orchestra which was the premiere performance of this work composed by the principal viola of the symphony. He performed the viola solo, in three movements, accompanied by the symphony. This was excellent and very impressive to hear something of this calibre by a local composer. The composer/soloist received a well deserved standing ovation.

The second part of the program was Beethoven's Ninth Symphony along with the choir and soloists. The first three movements were the symphony alone, but the highlight was the finale movement with the soloists and choir. This part includes the familiar melody known as the "Ode to Joy." The four soloists they brought in for this performance were some of the best I have seen at these performances. The tenor had performed in an opera with Pavarotti, and all the soloists had impressive resumes in operas and other classical concerts. They may have gone to greater lengths with this performance in recognition of the 100th season.

The singing was all in German, and was very powerful. The soloists were tremendous. The tenor and baritone each had some individual parts as well as quartets along with the soprano and mezzo-soprano. The philharmonic chorus was supplemented by a youth choir and extra singers for this performance so there were about 120 singers. The singing had great volume and it included some very high parts, as well as parts that were very fast. The powerful singing along with the full volume of the symphony in the finale was amazing. If I had any hair it would have been standing on end! The night ended with a long standing ovation by the audience.

Comedy of Errors

We had supper last night at Alfredo's for our anniversary. Some of our kids said make sure you don't go to Humpty's for your anniversary, where we have gone a few times recently. Alfredo's is a better restaurant but still a fairly relaxed atmosphere.

So when we ordered our meals there Elaine asked for some kind of mexican meal with chicken and I asked for chicken parmesan. After a while the waitress comes carrying our meals, but she is looking at the plates as she walks to the table. She said she had to check the orders and went straight back to the kitchen with the plates. Then she came out and explained that she had put in an order for veal parmesan instead of chicken parmesan and they were making me a new meal with the chicken. I said that's OK we are not in a hurry. After a wait we got our meals and they were pretty good.

Then when the waitress brought our bill I was looking at it and it had some liquor and three meals including a child. We had the bill for a family at the next table so we traded bills with them. Now when I looked at our bill it had the charge for Elaine's meal, but I was charged twice for the veal and for the chicken. After some further confusion the waitress came up with the corrected bill and we paid. She was very apologetic for all the mixups but we told her we still enjoyed the evening.

Now I have a day off today. No I am not celebrating May Day. I have some vacation days left from last year I have not taken yet and I have not taken a vacation day at home for a while.