A Long Time Ago

-To be honest, I was seriously considering not writing any
more blogs simply because I feel that I have written about everything that I
could possibly write about. But the thought came to me, "Write about
yourself". I have already shared more about myself than I really wanted to.
So my thought was, "Now what?".  I felt to share about my childhood. So I
will.

I was born in Medicine Hat, eons ago, the youngest of four girls. My only
brother passed away before I was born. However, I grew up on a small ranch
fifty miles south of Medicine Hat, not too far from the US border. Although
no bigger than a farm, I call it a ranch because our primary source of
income was cattle. It is too dry there for Dad to grow crops, except a
little oats for the horses and wheat for the chickens.

It was not an easy life, that is for sure. My father was always busy doing
what ranchers have to do. Look after cattle, mend fences, haying, etc. We
girls had to work too. My two oldest sisters had to things like to help
round up cattle or to help to stack bales of hay. My one sister and I were
too young to do things like that but we had our chores as well. I sometimes
think how hard my mother must have worked. We didn't have electricity so she
made all our meals on a woodstove. Plus she baked our bread and churned our
butter. Plus she did a lot of canning. Plus she looked after a good-sized
garden. Plus she, by hand, milked our milk cow and fed the chickens. But,
despite being so busy, she still found time to make treats for us girls.
Many times, I remember coming home from school to find the table covered
with molasses cookies or homemade doughnuts. We seldom got bought candy but
Mom made fudge for us-both chocolate and brown sugar.

I believe my love of hockey developed way back then. Not having electricity,
we couldn't watch it on tv but we did have a radio. Every Saturday night, we
as a family would gather around the radio and listen to Hockey Night in
Canada.

One of the the things that I remember was the sense of community. When it
was time to brand calves or thresh grain, the men all got together and went
from place to place until the job was done for everybody. Even recreation
was community. There were dances at the school and everybody, from the
oldest to the youngest went. That sense of community was even in the school.

I remember a picture of me standing beside my sister on a big, white horse.
When I was about 5, I was scared of horses. But I had to get over that fast
as I had to ride horseback to a one room, later two room, school. Most of
the kids did ride on the bus but we lived so far from where the bus stopped
that it was faster to take the horses and cut through the fields to school.
The sense of community in the school was that,  because there were so few
kids in each grade, we did everything together. If we played softball, we
all played. Of course, we young ones were picked last!

God was not a big part of our lives but there were always Bibles in the
house and Mom used to play gospel music on the organ. I do know that my
mother had been to Bible school. It was too far to go to church in Medicine
Hat but the Alliance church in Medicine Hat used to have Sunday school at
Elkwater Lake which is not far from where we used to live. My parents took
us girls every Sunday. At least, I grew up knowing there is a God, not like
a lot of kids these days.

I admit that I had fun writing this. It brought back a lot of memories. But,
when I was 11, my life changed drastically. I will deal with that another
time.