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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1980-07-31, Page 29Page 9 40 This is. Sunday af- ternoon, one during; our May heat -wave,. and 1 am outdoors in the shade, in thefewest possible clothes. In my childhood,. my present -appearance would 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 would have stayed for the. Morning Service. Dad (and Mama if there were no babies imminent or ver, 1d have driven Prince and the Phaeton to the village for church and some of us would have had a ride home. Sunday dinner - at noon - would all have been prepared- on Saturday so it would not take long to assemble. After dinner., we were allowed to read the Sunday School papers Playmate and Onward - our Bible Story books •and any 'improving', 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- jerke s,. and I am very \ sure 'th.e children or teena ers of today would not h ve the least idea what they meant;_ Another thing we could do was go for a nice, quiet walk. The village girls often walked to the local cemetery. It sounds, morbid but it was a definite destination for a walk. In Spring, we often went to the bush when the spring flowers were in bloom and would come home with great bunches -1 of drooping wild flowers. At that time, we did not know that we should not pick Trilliums. ' Sunday evening, 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 gasplant, we were left in the dark. I do not suppose the young men and their girl -friends objected to i` hat! 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 time? 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 chicks hatched - or didn't. Then we fed the hens and chickens and.watched for __hawks. We helped plant We drove either Prince or ' Old. Doll on the hayrake and • then poor Old Doll had, to struggle and strain. pulling the fork loads of hay up into the hayrnow. I used to feel sorry for her,. I remember the last day of Doll's life. There was a thunder storm the night before and we have always thought: that she was struck by lightning because all day she just sort of shuffled around in circles. That night my Grandfather put. her out of her misery. But before y recent) wdu her death she a bad' presented �'us with a couple _of colts. My knowledge ofthe sex -life of farm animals was non- existent. When George Irwin drove in with his `Big Horse' I was kept °strictly in the house. But su-comer was not all work. We had lots of home=made fun too. With our -large family and the neighbouring kids, we could have quite good ball games until dark. We had a little field near the road which was not used for crops and ;it was very level. We often did not have balls and bats from the store so we made our own. Many an old sock I have ravelled out and wound the yarn tightly around a cork and then stitched it through and through with yarn in a long,. • thick darning needle. The boys made bats out of a piece of board. Arguments often arose during the games and rules were made on the spot to suit the oc- casion._... Some of the kids had bikes - not 10 speeds or anything wonderful like that. Just good plain bikes that would take one or two persons from here to there. And girls did not ride boys' bikes - at least not in our family. Frequently a bike would lack a,handgrip - or even 2 - but as long 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, but 'a few years later, I ' used to drive Prince to another part of the river (just below Crozier's) and meet a High School friend there and we would while away an hour or two justlying lazily in the river and letting the water wash over us. No swimming pools and swimming lessons for any of us. The village boys used to go down' to the mill and swim in the hill pond. The dam made a fine place from which to dive. I was always a great reader and in summer and fall when I could find some spare time, I would me (lithe garwden•and then weed it. I found' that young carrots often came up with the weeds - and how good they tasted! :• 1 quiet spot. One was in the haymow where I could have some peace to read Gene Stratton Porter or some other favourite . • • • • author. Another good place to read was up in an apple tree with ripe apples, all around. I would find a level bough and sit and read and munch apples so fresh they were. almost still growing. . I used to like riding Prince. I did not have a saddle, but a folded horse blanket .fastened. around, his middle did a little to alleviate the discomfort of his bony back. It was almost like riding an . animated rail fence, but it was fun. Prince was said to have kicked and " killed a man in his earlier days but he was. most 'reliable when we got him - sometimes idiosyncratic but reliable. Coming home from Lucknow, he liked to go through the_ river and have a drink, and he always went down a hill at an angle - but he was reliable. He took nearly twice as long to..go to town as to come home but he always got.us there and back. Now where was I? In late summer or . early autumn there . was threshing day and what a busy time that was! The whistle of the steam engine coming down the road was much more exciting than the roar of a combine. The boys vied with, each other for the privilege of running the blower, and there was always work- for this older daughter - minding the younger children if .nothing else. Later there were the vegetables and fruit to harvest for immediate use or to can or preserve or store for the winter. Those tiny seeds we had planted in the spring had developed into all sorts of delicious vegetables:. I remember many times we would put the wash boiler on the woodstove with a few inches of water init and then go to the back garden for corn - with a big clothes basket to carry it home. Our supper would probably be corn' • with butter • (homemade) dripping off, fresh juicy tomatoes, home -cured ham, and everything else home prodiu' 'd, Potatoes -were often . ken up when the c.hildrewere home from school 1 r the Teachers' Convent' in. We had not heard of_-_PD..rlay-s then.� Dad wou, i go along the row with he plough, just deeply enc ugh to uncover the potato' s. We children did a lot of .he `taking up', probably b :cause we had not so far to stoop. Carrots, bets, etc. were just,pulled up and put in bags to be stored in the cellar. No freezers! Except sometimes in .the winter when Nature would freeze a quarter of beef. By the end of autumn the cellar would be bulging with bins of potatoes, beets, carrots, and apples, and the shelves full of canned, reserved • ickled and jellied food. We did not depend on the super- market for our daily bread. We had helped produce nearly- all we needed to sustain life and childre% had taken an' important part in that production, Finally, winter, with snow and cold, was. upon ,• wish the modern kids could see QW winter -clothes. Some of our clothing came from the st9re jor the catalogues) but a lot of it was made at home, We woke long woollen underwear - long' - sleeved and long-legged.= and how it could itch!We had woollen stockings, caps, 'scarvesand mitts. We wore heavy woollen coats, overstockings and rubbers - before the days of overshoes. No lovely wind -and -waterproof snow suits. But we .had fun, We played in- the snow and got it up our sleeves and down our necks and into our shoes. We built snow forts and had glorious fights. We went sleighriding on the gangway or in the hilly field. If we had all af- ternoon we would go to Glenn's Hill where there were steep,, bumpy hills which were "thrilling but probably gave up bruised posteriors or stomachs - depending on the modeof travel. We would hitch our sleighs behind a sleigh or cutter n .the road and ride for miles until we met a other coming back. It was •,.simple fun but we,. were breathing pure, un- polluted air. On stormy days we often walked the beams in the barn and jumped off into the soft straw or hay. No hard. bales then! - We tried to learn to skate at home.There was usually ice on the pond behind the barn. We did not have beautiful skates and high skating boots. We just had spring skates which we attached to our shoes with a spring af- fair. There were no outstanding results - frequently not even standing, results - but again. it . was fun. The village kids often skated at the river and in my teens there was a small outdoor rink in the village, lighted ,by lan- terns, and flooded and cleaned by the •young people. Turn to page 12 Happy Birthday Dungannon Congratulations Dungannon on your 125th Birthdoy' from Cedarhill Farm & Garden Centre and The Super Scoop Lucknow CONGRATULATIONS TO DUNGANNON w ON YOUR 1 25th ANNIVERSARY Thank you for your patronage CHISHOLM FUELS GODERICH - LUCKNOW 524-7411 52!7524