GROWING UP

At almost thirteen years of age, the yard stick recorded my height at almost five foot, eight inches. The nearest high school was 65 miles distant and our parents counted their savings to see if they could find funds to send their children to the city for high school. A pharmacist and his wife in Medicine Hat offered to keep me as a household helper and baby sitter while I attended high school. They were nice people to work for and their toddler, Joyce was a pleasant child. Mother had trained my older sister and I in household cleaning, baking bread, and following instructions. She worked hard to see that her daughters would have an easier life than had been her lot. The depression of 1929 was in full force with World War II looming on the horizon.

Ready to bounce into the big wide world, I asked my mother to tell me about the day I arrived on the scene to clarify what might lay ahead in life. After preliminary details she told me about that hot July day. Farm dinners were served at noon and presumably provided the energies for busy hours ahead with animals to feed, cows to milk, weeding and cultivating, summer fallowing fields, and monitoring the water flow in the dikes.

"You arrived on a Sunday," Mother said. "Church was in the school house in the morning. A United Church divinity student arrived every summer for his practicum, a neighbor played the organ, and other volunteers taught Sunday School behind a curtain at one side of of the one room school. It was good to get home and have the main meal over for the six of us. You would be child No. five. I let the wood stove die down and hoped to get a little rest. Too soon the distant sounds of jingling harness was heard and my sister's wagon with her brood turned in and unloaded her family for a Sunday visit with noisy play. Phones were not available in those days and the cousins looked forward to these get-togethers. Vegetable peelers sprang into action as the fire was stoked up to prepare another Dinner.

Fast food consisted of hurrying to the garden, digging potatoes, gathering lettuce and other vegetables. A jar of meat canned the previous winter would be the protein with boiled eggs in the salad. My aunt rattled on about the community news while Mother hinted about milking the cows and getting the chores done. Around 6 pm her sister finally directed her noisy children back into their wagon and left to do her own chores and Mother finally had a little privacy. I arrived an hour later. Air conditioning consisted of opening all the windows and doors and wishing for a little breeze. Mother had a busy day.