Last Sunday, you learned that the First World War was hard on my grandfather and grandmother. This Sunday...?
After WWI, many soldiers returned to Canada to farm or to teach school or to... My grandfather... And what about my grandmother? Did they remain in Manitoba...in Eriksdale?
Rural Manitoba Memories
Aunty Kay: Daddy returned in the spring of 1919.
Dad: I was born in Eriksdale in 1920 and as there was no hospital here I decided the easiest and simplest course was for me to be born at home, which I was—home being the house where we still live at the junction of highway 6 and 68.
Aunty Kay: In 1922, I arrived to complete the family.
Grandma: Home from the war, Jim decided to open a Tea Shop. We reasoned the farmers’ horses need a rest—the farmer also needs a spot of refreshment, like a cup of tea and buns—so in 1920, opened the shop. Jim couldn’t do it alone, so we added rooms on the back of the shop and moved in. Jimmie was 2 years old, Kay six months.
Dad: Eriksdale was an exciting, interesting place for a boy to grow up.
We lived downtown, where all the action was; farmers driving their horses to do their shopping and other business. Passenger trains and freight trains passed through town. Almost every night we would have a rock train thunder down the track.
We had four general stores, a butcher shop, two hotels, one of which was three stories high, there were a couple of blacksmith shops, a grain elevator, a creamery, and two garages.
Ward’s Garage was nearby. It was a favourite hang-out of mine until I began using colourful language that I’d picked up there. My mother was not impressed; decided if I was able to learn those words I could learn better things. So at the age of five, I was off to school.
My teachers were all dedicated people who worked very hard to give me an education.
Equipment and teaching aids were not readily available at the time so improvisation and inspiration were the tools they used.
Grandma: We were ten years in the restaurant business, gradually taking in a stock of groceries. As cars came in, the tea shop business declined and at last was dropped.
OTHER PEOPLE'S MEMORIES
One of my summer jobs during High School was as a tour guide at the Eriksdale Museum. I enjoyed losing myself in other people's memories.
Maybe locals came in but I don't remember them. Tourists were the ones who stood out. They wanted to learn about us and the museum was their introduction. Most traveled from other parts of Manitoba or Canada or even from the United States. A man came from England. He impressed me by using four place names in his address. And I remember a woman. I'll always remember her.
I greeted her with a smile. "Hello, I'm Leanne Willetts."
And she said, "Willetts? Your grandfather, Mr. J.H. Willetts, owned a Red and White store. He sold groceries, dry goods, and cattle feed.
"The depression was hard on farmers like my dad. He needed feed for our cows, but he didn't have any money. Those cows were the only things keeping the wolf from our door. So, he swallowed his pride and asked your grandfather to loan him the feed.
"Mr. Willetts was a businessman. He needed to make money--his family needed to eat. But you know what your grandfather did?" Her eyes were wet with tears as she told me, "He gave my dad the feed--gave it to him."
Yes, I'll always remember her.
Aunty Kay: When they closed the lunch room [tea shop], we moved back to the house on the corner of what is now Highway 6 and 68.
Uncle Jim: Jim and I began our friendship in our early teens. Jim spent almost as much time at our house as he did at home. To begin with, everyone called him Jimmie the Kid, but that was soon shortened to just Kid.
We played hardball on the senior team, only because they needed all the bodies they could get. Jim played right field for a time. Jim also played goal for our hockey team.
If the other team got the first goal Jim would grit his teeth and they had to work hard to get any more! He played goal for Lundar too when our team thought they had a better goalie. He showed us a thing or two then!
Later on when I started driving truck, I would go and pick up Jim to go with me. Sometimes at night I would go and tap on his window to wake him up—NOT on his sister’s window! [Uncle Jim married Aunty Kay in the spring of 1946—and they lived happily ever after.] I was always afraid that their super-hound Snip would take a piece out of me! One year Jim drove for Pop, we went to all the country dances we could afford and got so we could do the Shottishe and all that.
Dad: All good things come to an end and school ended.
Leanne: My dad was sixteen when he attained the highest level of education available in Eriksdale, at the time—grade eleven. However, he continued to self-educate throughout his life. He especially enjoyed reading both religious and scientific books.
I'm blessed to come from a family of writers. People who wrote for fun and to build community. Their writing built this memoir.
The memories continue...
Read the next installment of
Rural Manitoba Memories
on April 28 at approximately 4:40 P.M.
