Write On!

              17 seemed that the barn cats we played with gave us worms. A tablespoon of sugar soaked in turpentine cleared that up. I wonder that we did not suffer permanent harm to our digestive systems from the turpentine. While helping with chores in the bitterly cold winters, we got frostbite. Our noses, cheeks and ears were rubbed with snow to take out the frost. The chilblains in our feet were the worst. For that, we alternated soaking our feet in very hot and very cold water - ten seconds in each - until we had some relief. Secondary school was a big problem. One room elementary schools dotted the prairie and children walked, rode horseback or used horse-drawn buggies to get there. After grade eight (later, grade nine) the only high schools were in the city. Compulsory school was to grade eight, or age fifteen. A large percentage of students had to complete their education at that level. Some were fortunate enough to have relatives in the city who kept them so they could get a profession. Because our parents had little money we were expected to work for room and board. It taught us responsibility and an appreciation of education. While we were home, we were the hired help for our parents - haying, chopping wood, branding cattle, etc., we did it. Our pay was usually a cow or calf. I remember my sister selling a yearling calf for $14.95. She thought she was a millionaire. Of course, that money had to be spent on necessities. Prices for livestock and cereal grains were at an all time low. Unemployment was rampant. Trans-Canada trains were packed, in the boxcars and on the roofs, with unemployed men in search for elusive jobs. Many jumped off in the small towns and, in exchange for favors such as chopping wood, were given sandwiches and coffee by the homeowners. The weather fit in with the trying times. Extreme cold and blizzards treated us in the winter and hot, dry days with continual wind caused much havoc in the summer. Excessive soil drifting with high winds ruined crops and grass. Sometimes there was so much dust in the air that visibility was almost zero - day was turned into night. This was probably the most remembered decade of our hundred years in Alberta. Nobody who lived through it forgets the survival tactics. The strange thing about this era was how happy we were as a family. We had neighbours with whom we played cards, had picnics, dinners, etc. At home, in the evening by the coal oil lamp, we played games. read books, and knew that tomorrow would be better. And it finally was. IJ