It was Mother’s Day Sunday, what a great day it is too. Sun is shining and the little birds are at my feeder, a great day to be alive. It could be a bit warmer but we can’t have every thing can we?
Mother’s Day is a great day to remember our mothers… our family always had Mother’s Day as a special for as long as I can remember. Now our younger generation have taken it over. In our growing up years there was no such thing as Mother’s Day but now it’s such a special day to remember our mothers.
Our mother was a very special lady to us as she was the centre of our home. She was a good homemaker, she helped on the farm, milked cows, drove horses, was a good rider, there was nothing she could not do. A good pianist, played the organ at the church for years. The great depression almost took her from us but she came back again thanks to our great friend doctor Elliot and his kind wife. Mother left her home in England, her mother and family to come to Canada. Left a modern home with house maids.
Mother was an accountant stenographer for one of the biggest factories in England, she left it all to be a wife to man with one leg. A more or less shack in the Eyehill valley, no neighbours. Mom arrived in Evesham station in 1921 and married our dad the next week. I came along on August 24, 1922 and was trouble from day one. A very sick kid almost a dwarf until I was three years old. I was the smallest kid in school for a long time. Then brother Peter came along, the end of the kids, just the two of us.
He was a great brother for me and he is living in Oliver, B.C. Because of our mom we got into music for our whole lives thanks to her. Although I loved the prairie too and our lifestyle, moving to B.C. was the best move we ever made. This gave us as a family a new start.
Our parents are gone now but what a wonderful loving mother and dad they were. Francois Lake has been our home for over 70 years. Now our family has taken it over and made their homes there as we did.
Model T
In the early 20s the cranky, temperamental Model ‘T’ Ford started to come into being on the prairie. We had some friends and they had a Model ‘T’ and they left the hind wheel up while the family got ready for church as they were church people. The car had gone and they could see the back end going down the field, It had fallen off the jack. They had a saddle horse handy and the son caught the car before it hit the wire fence. The car had four cylinders, four coils, gravity gas feed and a crank that broke a few arms as it would back fire if the spark was out of time. Wooden spoke wheels, 44x21 tires and had feed gas and spark. Things improved the next year. It would be interesting to compare the price of a Model ‘T’ Ford in those old days to the cost of one today.
When I was a kid we had an old cowboy working for us he came in from the lower states many years ago. He was known as the guy who brought some big work mules to farm with. He ended up selling most of them locally. His name was Samuel B. Horton but he was called Posy. I asked him why did he get that name and he said it was because he was so good looking, but he was far from that. He chewed Big Ben plug tobacco all his waking hours. He worked for us for years.
He never married. I asked him that one day and he said he didn’t want to spoil two homes. One day Posy gave me a dollar bill to buy seven plugs of bin chewing so after school I went to the store for his seven plugs, the price had gone up so
I only got him six plugs. He was mad at me he thought I was cheating so the next time I got a note from the store keeper, Amy Smith, to prove I was right. Posy had terrible arthritis, his hands were like clubs almost.
We were milking a string of milk cows (hand milking) and Posy told me that hand milking, with the milk it relieved the pain in his hands. When we left the Eyehill ranch we left about 60 or so lambs and Posy stayed in our home. After the lambs sold Dad had made a deal with a guy that owned a cabin for Posy to spend his last years in comfort. The old friend saw us off on our train trip to B.C. and there were lots of tears.
Posy really liked our mother, he treated her like a daughter if he had one. We sure missed him and his wonderful stories he used to tell us boys. He loved horses and some day I will tell you the story of how I brought one of his horses back from his homestead about 15 miles all alone. What a trip. I still remember it, I was scared of the dark and so was Baldy, the horse, so imagine our trip. I wonder if anyone in Evesham will remember Posy moving into their village.
Bears are out
Last week son Richard saw a mother bear with three cubs. I was told that sometimes when there is lots of good food this can happen. It seems somebody else saw a mother bear with three cubs. It seems to me we are going to get too many bears and then they can become dangerous. Years ago now but he had a big black bear make his home at Richard and Margaret Neave’s chicken yard. It had a nice nest and lots to eat. Their chickens were within ten feet of the trail we were using. This had to stop so grandson Seth Hunter took care of it for them.
A lady gave me a little verse the other so will pass it on. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery but today is a gift because it is the present. How true.
What a special time of the year, spring is here. A time of new birth and once a new start. One of my special memories I have of growing up is the lambing time. We always had lots of calves but of all the new births were the lambs. Could watch them play for hours. The colts were special too.
Thanks to the Decker Lake church choir for such a lovely hymn sing at the Tweedsmuir House. We love you for it.
Take care now always remember God loves you and so do I.