Rural Routes, Blog Version

War and Remembrance

Earlier this year, I was asked to judge a writing competition on the theme of “Lest we Forget”.

Now as we approach November 11, I think about those stories, each different, each from a personal point of view, each heartbreaking in its own way.

One story in particular has stuck with me. Since the entries were anonymous, I do not know the author, although I do know that the family written about lived in western Manitoba. Two sons and one daughter enlisted, the daughter as a member of the South African Military Nursing Service dealing with casualties from the Western Desert.

In a letter home, she wrote about the teenage soldiers she treated.

“God, it’s a crime when they lie about their ages. Heaven knows 18 is no old man, but these 15 and 16 year olds will be in institutions sooner or later, I’ll swear it.”

Fall back

I have no strong opinions on the value of Daylight Savings Time, but it is responsible for one of my favourite days of the year – the day we get one extra hour to do with as we wish.

I never turn my clock back before I go to bed on the Saturday night before the November time change. I prefer to wake in the morning, look at the clock and then think, “No that’s not right. It’s really an hour earlier than that”.

Conversely, I always set the clock ahead before I go to bed the night before the time changes in the spring.

I prefer my surprises to be pleasant ones.

Wish book

The end of Sears Canada reminds me that my children were probably the last generation to experience the wonder that was the Sears Wish Book.

It used to arrive in the mail in late August or early September and I would hide it. Otherwise the catalogue would have been in tatters long before Christmas.

Eventually, the company quit mailing out the catalogues and you had to pick them up at a Sears outlet. In recent years, I had stopped getting one. Partly it was because my children are grown now and the magic has lessened. Another, probably more significant reason is that I have become an online shopper although I still enjoy thumbing through catalogues.

Young Co-operators

“Lily in the Loft”, by Carol L MacKay, illustrated by Val Moker, Your Nickel’s Worth Publishing, 2017

Like many other prairie youngsters, I was a member of the Young Co-operator’s Club, sponsored by the weekly agricultural publication “The Western Producer”. The club ran from 1927 to 1994.

Members sent in their stories and poems for possible publication in the pages devoted to the club each week. I remember the excitement of being published and the disappointment when something I had written did not make the cut.

“Lily in the Loft” tells the story of Frances, a young girl whose favourite times are spent writing stories and poems in the barn loft. Her aunt persuades her to join the Young Co-operator’s Club and submit her work to the paper.

And then begins the wait. Will they print it? Or not?

I was charmed by this book, taken back to a time when I, too, waited and wondered. The illustrations complement the story line and give hazy colour to the setting. Looking back in time through the mists of memory.

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