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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 1980-07-30, Page 37.C.Y.11.:Nr:0$15 • Thia is .Sunday' af- ternoon, one ,during our. . May heat-*aire, and ain ontdoers in the shade; in the feWest possible clothes. In my childheod, trty-present-appearanee weuld have 'been disgraceful for an 8-year. old, let alone a Senior Citizen. , • • :In those days, I would have been at Sunday. school, having walked about a mile to get there. ' Then' .I :cyanid have stayed for the 'Morning Service. Dad (and Marha if there -Were no babies,.imminent or very recent) would haVe driven PrinCe. and *the phaeton to the village' for church and some of us mould have had a ride home, Sunday dinner :at noon all have been , preParedon Saturday so it would , not take long to assemble: After dinner, we were. allowed 'to read 7-the Sunday SchOol papers Playinate and. Onward - our Bible Story books and any !irriproying' books -that we owned or had borrowed. Our 'Minister's. daughter had a complete set of the Elsie • Books which she loaned to her friends. They were very religious and real- tear- jerkerS, and am very sure the children or teenagers of today would not, have the least idea what they meant. Another thing we could do was gefor a nice, quiet walk. The village girls Often walked to the local cernetery. It sounds morbid . but' it - was, a definite destination fora walk.- In Spring; we often went to the bush when the spring flowers, were in , - blooke---anceild-- come home with great bunches of drooping wild tloweri. At that time, we did not know that we 'should not pick Trilliums. Sunday ..pvenine.„ it-was a privilege for the older children to go to church again. I' think I :.,was singing in the Choir when I was fourteen and have been ever since.. We had acetylene lights in the church and they often began to get dimmer and dimmer, and unless someone rushed to the gas plant, we were left in the dark. I do not suppose the young men and their girl-friends objected to that! In the country and small villages, church was the centre of life - Sundays and weekdays. There were no movies anywhere near, and as for all the other en- tertainments of today, they had not even been invented. ThiS is summer .and what did we do with our . lime? There were many., chores for the children to do. We hunted the eggs' and looked for hens that `hid away' and, watched them daily until the chiCkshatched - or didn't. Then we fed the hens and thickens and watched for hawkS. the garden and then weed if: I fotuid thap young: carrots often came tip with the weeds and how good they tasted! We drove either Prince anther. ik.nether good needed to sustain lif a anti or (1,10, • Doll on the place to rd was up in an . Children had taken an hayrake and then poOr apple tree With ripe important . part in that Old Doll had to struggle apples all around. I would production. and :strain 'pulling the. find a level bough and sit FinallY, winter, with fork loads of hay up into and. read and munch snow and cold, was upon _ -the haymow:- used--to, apples-sulreSh they-were us. wish the modern feel sorry for • her. I . almost still groWing: kids could see, our winter, remember the' last day of I used, to like riding, elethes. Some of Our Prince. I did not have a clothing came from the saddle, but a folded horse store (or the catalogues) blanket fastened around, but a lot of it was made at his middle did a little' to home.. We wore long alleviate the discomfort woollen underwear,- long' of. his bony. back: :It was. sleeved and long-legged - almost like' riding - an 'and how it could itch! We animated rail fence, but had woollen stockings, it was fun. Prince was - caps, scarves and mitts. Of her misery. Butbefore said, to have kicked- and We wore heavy woollen her death .she, had killed a man in his earlier coats, overstockings and Presented us with a . days but• he was most rubbers - before the:days- ouuple of colts. • My .reliable when we got him of overshoes: No levely knowledge of the sex-life - ssretimes idiesyncratic wind-and-waterproof of far,m animals was non- but reliable Corning snow suits. But we had existent., -When George home-from LneknoW, he fun.'We' Played in the Irwin, dove in with his liked to go:': through ',the snow and get it up our "Big Rorie' I, was 4ept river and have a drink, • sleeVes, and down .oUr strictly in the house. and he always went dOwn .necki and into Our. Shoes. 'Bet summer was not all, a till at an angle - but be We built snow fOrts -and work. We had 'lots of was reliable. He took had glorious fightS—W.e__ home-rlia-de fun too. With, nearly twice, as long to go went sleighriding on the our, large faMily and the, to town as. to come home gaegway or in the hilly. neighbouring kids, we but he always got us there field. If we had all af. wild have quite good ball and back. ternoon we would gO to games until dark. We had . New where was I? In 'Glenn's 1-1111"where there a little field near thp road late summer , or early were steep;( bumpy hills which was not used for autumn: there' was which were-thrilling but crops and it was very' threshing day and what a probably gave up bruised level. We often did not busy time that was! The posteriors or stomachs - have balls and bats from whistle Of the steam depending on the mode of the store'so we rnade"our engine coming dawn the travel. We -would_ hitch own. Many an old sock ;I road was much more our sleighs behind a have ravelled out and exciting than the roar of a sleigh or cutter on the 'wound the yarn tightly -r combine, .The boys vied road, and ride for Miles around a cork and then with each other for...the until "'we- met another stitched it through and privilege of running the coming back. It was through: with ,yarn, in a blower, and -there was simple fun but we were long, thick darning always work for this breathing pure, um-. needle:. The boys made older daughter - minding polluted , air. On stormy bats out of a piece of the younger children if days we efteri walked the : board. nothing.else. ' beams in the barn and Arguments ofteri-arese Later their., were the jumped off into the soft-. during the games and vegetables and fruit to straw or hay. No hard rules were made on the harvest for immediate bales then! spot to suit the oc- use or to can or -preserve We tried to learn to casion- Some of the or store for the winter, skate at home. There was kids had . bikes - not 10 Those tiny seeds we had usually ice on the pond wonderful like-that. Just developed into all sorts of not have beautiful skates good plain hikes that delicious vegetables-1_____and high skating --boots. would take one or two - -remember ,.many times' We justhad spring skates.' persons from, here to we would put the wash which we attached tccour there. And girls did not boiler on the woodstove shoes with a spring af- with a few inches of water fair. There were no in it and then. go to the outstanding results back garden for corn - • frequently not even with a big clothes basket to carry it home. Our supper would probably be Doll's 'life, There was a thunder.storm the night before • and ' we have alwaYs thoughe-that she was 'struck by lightning because, all day she just sort of shuffled around in circles, That night my Grandfather put her out -speeds ---planted-in--tlie-s-pri-n-g--had—hehind the-barn. We did- corn with butter (horriemacle) dripping off, fresh juicy tomatoes, home-cured ham, and everything else home prodeeed. Potatoes were often , :ken up when the childre, were home from school I r the‘TeacherS' Conventi in. We' had not heard -of PD' days then, : Dad wou; go along the row with • he -plough, just deeply eni ugh to uncover the potato' s. We children did a lot of he 'taking up', probably Ii cause we had not so far to stoop. Carrots, b Bets, ete, were over us. No Swimming just pulled up and put in pools and Swimming bags to be stored in the lessons' for any of us. The cellar. NO freezers! village boys used- to go Except' sometimes in the down to' the mil and winter when Nature swim in the mill pond. Would freeze a quarter of The darn made a fine beef. By the end of place from which to dive, autumn the cellar would I was always a great be bulging with bins' of . reader and in summer Potal9eSt beets, carrots, and fall when I could find and apples, and the Some spare time, I would shelves full of canned, -go off With abet-ate-Some preserved, Picklecrand quiet spot. One was in the . jellied food. We did not haymow -Where I could depend on the`super- have some peace to read market . for our daily Gene Stratton Porter or bread. We had helped some other . favourite produce nearly all we ride boys' bikes - at least not 'in --our family. Frequently a. bike would lack a handgrip - or eve' 2 . but as lorig as the tires held up it was still usable. Another thing the boys did was `go to the river'. The Nine Mile River was about a mile from our place, across the' fields and -a swim - bare pelt - was a great rejuvenator- on a day like today. never went to the river there, Nit a few years later, I used to drive Prince to another part of the. river '(just below Crozier's)Crozier's) and meeta High School, friend there and we would while away an hour or two just lying lazily in the river and letting the water wash standing results, but again. it WAS fun, The village kids often, skated at the river and in, my tfiliS there was •a small outdoor'. rink in the village-, lighted by' Ian— terns, and flooded and cleaned by the young people. • 0-Page-12