Tidbits

Last time I wrote about moving to the farm that I grew up on.
We were 1/2 mile from school so we could walk.  But I was kept back a year, I started 1st grade at the age of 7.  My mother thought that she could get more work done if I would stay back and play with Peter and Ben.  Oh yes, Ben was born in 1949.  I also remember watching the boys inside and she would be in the yard and able to watch the window, in case the boys were crying, and I needed her, all I needed to do was wave my arm and she would come in and check on us.
We were all in school till the year John turned 16 and he decided he would quit and help on the farm. He wanted to quit at a younger age but Mom and Dad insisted he go to school till 16 because if he quit younger than that she would loose his child allowance which was about $10.00 a month for him. The government paid about $6.00 for a baby and as a childs age increase so did the money up to $10.00.  After age 16 money was discontinued for that child.  Mom used this money to buy our groceries.
We had a two room school. Grades 1-6 in one room and 7-12 in the other.  Each teacher had 6 grades to teach.  In the year about 1955 Helen would have been in the 11th grade and they had to go to Glenbush school for 11 and 12.  Then by 1958-1959 that was the last year for the Artichoke school.  That year there were 9 students and 8 grades.  Only three families attended that year.  I was in 8th grade and one September day, everyone stayed home to dig potatoes except for me.  It was the most miserable day in school for me that year.  Here I was the only one in school with the male teacher who was in his mid 20's.  After that year we were bused to Glenbush which was a 3 room school.
This was a big adjustment.  I graduated from there in 1962 with 5 of us in the class.
I was 16 when I tranferred to Glenbush.  Here each winter they would pour a skating rink.  I was the size needed for a hockey rink.  We were all required to get skates.  Our teacher told us not to think wearing a skirt would get us exempted from skating.  In school we always had a 15 min break in the am and also a 15 min break in the afternoon with an hour for lunch and exercise, like skating.  So here I was 16 years old and all the other kids could just fly over the ice playing, crack the whip or some other game.   But here I was, a very slow skater and just skating on the edge of the ice all by myself.  Each winter I prayed for a broken bone.  But it just didn't happen.  I never did really enjoy skating nor get very good at it.  After I graduated I never did put those skates on again.
One thing I did enjoy was curling.  I never was good at that either but it was fun and you wore boots on that ice.
Oh yes, I just remembered something about the Artichoke school I went to.  We didn't have running water so each day Dormouths would bring a pail of water to school and pour it into the container that had a spigot and if we didn't have a cup with us we would make a paper cup out a sheet of school paper, similar to a paper boat.  The teacher kept telling us not us use paper for that but what do you do when your thirsty and need a drink.
I also attended another school for grade 6 and 7.  Helen graduated in 1957.  In order to help my parents out financially she applied to be a correspondence teacher.  Well she go the job at a small school 25 miles from home.   There was a teacherage there.  So she wouldn't be by herself Mom and Dad had me go live with her.  It was a one room school and again there were only 3 or 4 families with children there.  I think we had about an attendance of 12 at that school.  She guided us though our lessons and then we sent them into the school office for correcting and so they could see that we were learning what we were required for that year.  She got paid $140.00 a month and gave $100.00 to my parents each month just keeping $40.00 for herself.  This really helped mom and dad out with their bills.  Helen did this for 2 years and then went on to secretary college and later a Medical Librarian.
These two years living in another area was a great experience.   I'll talk about that maybe next time.

Year of 1948

Year of 1948
I talked about the cellar being dug in a previous blog.  Then the footers were poured and next the house was built.   To save cost the barn that was square logs was tore down and that became our house, the demensions 24' x 28'.   The cracks were filled with a mud made with straw.  Then willow sticks were nailed to the walls diagonally on the inside and again mud plaster was made and put on the walls,  Then a white wash was applied.   The house was very cold.  I remember living in it and we kids would run between the studs that were going to be walls once the dry wall was put up.  Till then it was just one big room waiting for walls.  In time linoleum was placed on the floor.  For years each winter to keep the cellar warmer and also the house Dad would put fresh manure around at the foundation.  For a while curtains were our walls.
   So we had a house but now the few cattle and horses needed barn.  Then they tore the old house down and made a barn out of it.  We always had the joke of living in the barn...
   But now we were only 1/2 mile from Artichoke School.  John, Helen and Anne could walk to school.  Till now, the first few years that John and Helen went a teacher picked them up and she took them in her horse drawn sleigh.  As John got to be about 10 years old, he had a horse and the 3 of them went in a sleigh.  I can still hear how worried Mom would get if they didn't some home by a certain time.
   This move also put us 4 miles closer to the church we attended.   Which was in german till I was about 10 and then the Sunday school materals were in English.  In winter we mostly travelled by horse drawn caboose (which was an enclosed sleigh) and when the weather got warmer we rode in a box wagon pulled by horses until we got a tractor, and our first vehicle was a truck which was purchased in 1955.   Dad, Mom, Helen, Peter and Ben sat in the cab and John, Anne and myself sat in the truck bed.   We didn't feel very prim and proper crawling over the side of the truck where all the young dudes could see us doing that with a skirt or dress on.
  Well, I am getting ahead of myself, so I will end now.