Join us
Please keep Saturday afternoon July 27 from 1 to 2, because you will listen to some top of the line music and singing. My niece Renay and her signing group, The June Bugs, will be entertaining at the Tweedsmuir House.
They come from Calgary and entertain in all the big centres. You must not miss them as you will love them all. While here Renay and The June Bugs will be staying in the old home at the lake, this will no doubt bring back old memories for Renay as we had so many good times.
I have at hand the last Lakes District News and on the front page there was something that no doubt will rattle a few cages and I quote “Closure of post office rumoured,” let’s hope it is a rumour. It seems folks are not using the mail like they used to. Email is being used more all the time.
This is more or less a wakeup call as it could happen. Many years ago now when the rural mail service came into the district there was a motion to close the Francois Lake post office as they were at that time closing all the small ones on the Southside. The Francois Lake and the Tchesinkut Lake folk got together and cut this off big time. Folks wanted the Francois Lake office to stay open and it did.
I am going to jump back to the old days and the old time post offices. Every district had an office and a little grocery store and gas pump. The Southside had its share as well as the west Francois Lake.
These little places were centres to shop and visit, get the local news, and do their dealings.
When we owned the big store and the post office with it there was always something going on.
The mail came in three times a week and they were busy times Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We had a big drum heater in the store and as folks waiting for the mail to be sorted would sit around and visit and tell stories.
Lots of good tales told, lots of jokes too, an interesting morning. At this time I had a big frame on the wall as
I was making up a display of old pictures, most of them are in the hall now. There were always a bunch of men watching me get these old pictures hung up and get locations and names on the board.
There was a little guy called Earnie and every time he would look over the pictures and find something wrong, he had what you would call a short fuse and he was always on my case. So one day I got tired of this so I had at the house a photo of a big buffalo bull from the park so I cut it out, put it on the board and wrote buffalo bull taken at Francois Lake April 1921.
Earnie looked at it for about 15 minutes, then he came unglued. He told me what I could do with the buffalo. He called me a few names and then he never visited the store again. I had not meant to upset him over such a little thing. He should have known I was only fooling.
One day a stranger stopped in and joined the crowd and when every one had left he said what an interesting place, I do believe there are more logs cut, more horses broke, more fish caught and more women loved than ever happened on the real job and I had to agree with him.
Nice weather
Having some nice summer days so the farmers can get on with the haying. I heard that Vanderhoof farmers are almost finished. They seem to be a little earlier than we are.
It seems a good year for haying with just lots of it. A week or so ago they had a bad hail back on the prairie close to our old home place. The hail stones covering the ground. These storms sure can cause lots of damage.
How well I remember one hail storm as a kid. Dad had a nice crop of wheat and oats and after the storm there was nothing left. Our mom had a bunch of little geese and they were all killed. It broke out all the windows on the south side of our house.
Our family had just come back home from berry picking and we had two water pails full of saskatoons berries. We were one of the few families to have saskatoons that year. Dad spent the next week replacing the broken windows. A farmer friend of ours had left his team of horses out during the hail store. He went out to bring them home so he jumped on one and it piled him. He just couldn’t figure out why as it was a nice quiet horse so he checked his back and it was full of big lumps left by the storm. He was very sorry he had left them out during the storm with no shelter.
I keep digging through old boxes and old trunks more or less just for interest and it’s fun too. I would be called a history nut.
Last week I picked up a book called Burns Lake Retrospect and it’s very interesting. On the front it has history of Burns Lake by Barney Mulvaney.
Also in this book it has stories of lots of the old timers, now long gone. It’s so well put together. One thing took my fancy and it’s on one of the back pages and I will quote it as it’s written. In 1931 a new hospital was built and it served until our present hospital which was opened in August of 1960.
The hospital is very modern and is equipped with an operating table. The time of lamps and dining room tables has fast faded. Unquote. I guess lots of us hope our new hospital will be equipped with a modern operating room and no doubt it will.
Burns Lake is the centre of a huge area and it needs an operating room and there is no doubt with lots of pressure we will get one. It’s a life and death situation.
A few words of wisdom from Uncle Hugh; Live a good and honourable life then when you get older you will think back and enjoy it a second time. And always remember the best sermons are lived not preached.
Have a safe week, slow down and enjoy the summer. Always remember that God loves you a great deal and so do I.
P.S. Don’t forget the Grassy Plains Blue Grass, it’s going to be good