Boyhood Dreams
When I was just a boy of ten I walked to school each day A mile the path but hundreds then That led me far astray There was a bridge that crossed a stream Where underneath I had A castle built of golden bricks Where I reigned as a lad Twas in this […]
Farm Etiquette
Farmyard rules never bending Barnyard work never ending Do the chores ever tending Chickens and sheep, ever mending Fences to keep the goats From ending up in the mire Pure manure Beyond the wire Smells to endure Rules that made you fret and chafe Rules that always kept you safe Never stand behind a […]
Inner Core
At age of four you learned the way how not to stray When you were two you did what your Mother said or else you went straight off to bed Your Mother taught you heaven’s ways To make your way through a sinful maize […]
Rice and Curry
My favourite recipe is Rice and Curry. I learned how to make it from my mother. She learned how to make it from missionaries on furlough. When I was young and growing up on the farm near Winkler, we went to the Mennonite Brethren Church in town. That church sponsored missionaries to foreign lands who […]
Farm Memories
The last big health scare happened 100 years ago. It was the Spanish flu of 1918, the year my parents got married. Dad was very sick with flu the day of their wedding. They moved onto land seven miles southeast of Winkler, cleared the bush for a farmyard, planted a vegetable garden and built a […]
Electric Fence
The farm where I grew up near Winkler was often a place of mystery, but things I did not understand as a boy sometimes became my playthings. Take, for example the arrival of electricity. It was after World War II when I was about 10 years old. All the news was about electrification of rural […]
Poplar Tree
There was a significant 100-year-old poplar tree on our farmland at Winkler, Manitoba that had grown into a cluster of seven or eight trees, all of them old, tall and leafless in summer by the middle of the 20th century. That tree was a landmark for the young people of Winkler who came to visit […]
First Day at School
School starts again this week. Labour Day has passed and the time has come for my grandchildren to pick uo their knapsacks and go. I never made it to school my first day back in 1944. It was Tuesday, September 5, the day after Labour Day. I was six years old, enrolled in Grade One. […]
Baseball
I never was much good at sports. Give me pen and paper and I’ll write a story. Give me a sheet of staff paper and I’ll compose a song. Give me a brush and canvas, and I’ll paint a scene. But baseball? Or hockey? Not fun to watch because the ball and puck are too […]