memories Archives

Seeing home was like being transported back in time

By Kay Parley – Regina, Sask. We moved to Regina in 1938 and I entered Grade 10. As a newcomer, my mother advised me to look for someone who seemed to be alone and talk to [more…]

The entire family piled into dad’s pickup truck

By Mickey Death – Lethbridge, Alta. My dad, Joe Graw, met the spirited Calgary city girl, Eleanor Barry, at his sister’s and her brother’s wedding. It was love at first sight and they were married after [more…]

To grandma’s house they went

By Helen Atkinson – Leduc, Alta. As little children, my sister and I sat low in the backseat of the car on our way to our grandma’s farm. Our heads were just high enough to [more…]

She was mistaken for one of her students

By Greta (Andersen) Huot – Spruce Grove, Alta. In May, 1951, our high school principle in Calmar, Alta., informed our senior class of eight students there was a shortage of teachers in the Clover Bar [more…]

School project was fun with dad

By Leonard Wenninger – Drayton Valley, Alta. Our teacher informed us one day that we’d be doing a paper maché project the following week. We were going to be making animals and he wanted us [more…]

Hobby farm was ‘happiest 15 years’ of her life

By Virginia (Ginny) Neish – Abbotsford, B.C. Bob and I moved to an eight-acre hobby farm in Raymore, Sask., back in 1980. We spent the first few months living in a small trailer while we completely [more…]

“Remembering her, I think of her hands”

By Ethel (Huber) Orthner – Kelowna, B.C. My mother was born in 1902 and died in 1994. Although she’s been gone for some time now, remembering her, I think of her hands. All she ever wore [more…]

Fascinated and amused by lovely decor

By Sylvia Williams – Summerland, B.C. There were many homesteaders from Europe living in eastern Alberta. When they left their homes in the old country, they probably didn’t realize that living in a rural area in [more…]

The piano sailed up and into the loft

By Elva Paton – Moose Jaw, Sask. The 1910s and early ‘20s had good crop conditions. Dad thought he was in good enough financial shape to build some new buildings. He’d always said that a [more…]

Green butterfly flitted around the Christmas tree

By Kay Smart – Wetaskiwin, Alta. In early December 1966, I found a 1964 issue of Family Circle magazine that showed two pages of patterns for Christmas Tree ornaments. They were made from felt and [more…]

Heavenly smell fill the air at Christmas

By Gladys Ridley – Edmonton, Alta. With Christmas just around the corner, I think back to my childhood and the Christmases spent growing up on a farm near Dunstable, Alta. My loving parents made Christmas [more…]

Christmas memories of a school long gone

By P. Gail Harrod – Ottawa, Ont. In the late 1940s, Wetmore School in Regina was a large, well-built school spread over an entire city block on Wallace Street. I was in Grade 4 the year [more…]

Did Santa not get their change of address?

By Mary (Thompson) Savage – Terrace, B.C. Our family moved from Northern Ontario to Orillia during the summertime. My older brother, Bill, was in Grade 4 at Westward School. My younger two brothers, David and George, [more…]

Life stages measured in Christmas trees

By Russ Stewart – Victoria, B.C. William Shakespeare wrote about the seven stages (acts) of man. As far as my wife and I are concerned, the stages of our lives can be measured in Christmas [more…]

Catalogue toy pages were a dream world for kids

By Menno Fast – Winkler, Man. My best Christmas was in 1942 when I was 10 years old. We had a wonderful program in the two-room Passchendale School I attended for eight years, near Hague, [more…]

Grandma’s handy-dandy aprons

By Doreen Chalmers – Fairview, Alta. When I was just a kid in the 1930s, my grandma made aprons from the sacks that flour, sugar, and seeds came in. After many washings, the sacks became [more…]

Santa was right there in the bedroom!

By Willard Boschman – Saskatoon, Sask. On Dec. 24, 1946, my brother Arnold was 11 years old, Marvin was 10, I was eight, my sister Lola was four, and James was two. We lived at [more…]

Reflection: My beautiful back yard

By Ruby Smith – Victoria, B.C. I sit in my back yard and enjoy all the things around me. All the beautiful flowers, the fruit trees, the apples and blueberries. How Elmer loved those trees. It’s [more…]

Team’s nostrils and muzzles were whiskered in white

By Gerald Richards – Brandon, Man. After Christmas at Grandma’s, or the Christmas concert at the village hall, or one of the many house or card parties we attended – after we had said our [more…]

Many people collected bones for the war effort

By Phil Leidl – Kelowna, B.C. I was seven years old, growing up in Leipzig, Sask., when the military put out a call for animal bones. It was WWII and the bones were being collected [more…]