Hat to the Park Virtual trip

Hi Marty Report 23

I had to check in with my friend in yellow for a while but he gave me a slap on the back and told me to " Carry on mate", so here I am.

Still travelling East as the crow flies, south of Swift Current,Moose Jaw and Regina you feel trapped in a time warp. When Canada was first formed, the yankees to the south saw all this empty land and figured border or no border, all you had to do was point your horse north and ride a a few days and you had all the land you could handle.

Much like the situation we have with our Great north today with Russia, Denmark, and even the U'S'A challenging our claim to all those vast resourses, you can't just put a fence around it. To prevent this intrusion, the government in Ottawa dreamed up a settlement plan called the " Dominion Land Act of 1872" to lure people into going west to settle and occupy the place. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants came from all over Europe, Russia, China, as well as the states and Canada.

For the most part they had no concept of the challenges they faced. Cold winters, unbearable isolation, drought, soul numbing physical labour and separation from country of origin, family loved ones or language barriers often did them in.So what kept others going? For many it was the chance to break out of the european cast system which had impoverished them for generations. Working in sweat shops and unhealthy factories for just enough money for food shelter, they existed as cheap labour, dispensible and replaceable with no vision or hope of a future.

For most it was a chance to change all that was wrong with society plus the opportunity to hold and own land which promised that hope for the future, if not for them at least for their children.
When I first laid eyes on their foot prints in the soil, the thought crossed my mind about what made them do what they did.

When I grasped some small perseption of that I tried to imagine next, how, if they could see us today, and what we are doing with their dream, what must they be thinking....
Humour an old man, I put the thought to verse back in the 60's and I enclose it. This will be the one an only time I inflict personal sentimentality on you but it seemed fitting with the topic

1965 Alberta.

For so long the land lay waiting undisturbed until that day, when their footsteps came a thundering from 4 thousand miles away
Like great giants they felled the forests. onward like a mighty flood. Multitudes of many nations laying rails "cross prairie mud.

As they filtered through the mountains, as they built upon the plain, there burned a vision in their souls that grew like prairie grain
Of a mighty noble nation in the future for their youth who would cherish their traditions and could build and stand for truth

Now today, we stand together, with the youth these people bore, who have questioned all tradition shaking concience to the core
They won't be kept long silent, understand them if you will, they were born to keep a promise and a mission to fulfill

Hush your city, still your throbbing, pause your hand from noisy toil, Hear the sound the soft wind whispers bringing echoes from the soil
Wake up! Wake up, it urges, Deep inside my soul replies. and I feel a strange excitment as their vision fills my eyes..
dtg

Back to the pictures. The church was not just religion, it was the center of all social activies. A man could survive the shear exhaustion of labour and the fear of failure if he could get the reassurance from his neighbours and friends that they were going through the same ordeal and would be there to support and help when the time came.

You could find a new wife if yours was taken in child birth as most were, or hear news of the " Old country" or the price of grain.Picnics and dances, weddings and funerals forged much needed bonds even between those where culturally continents apart.

Humour played a great role also.. The rock with the " Winter" sign for instance would surely have been altered and no doubt instead would say " Weather Forecast Station" like the one I saw in Alberta. The instructions would tell you that if the surface was wet, rain was forcasted. If was hot to the touch, expect periods of good weather. If your tongue stuck to the rock, better cover up your crops against frost. The "WINTER " sign would probably have another sign on the other side saying " SUMMER" with instruction to stand facing the first between November and March and the other during the months of May to September.

Social graces determined the segregation of the sexes for most activities as indicated on the double door " John" but a single door in the case of the John behind the settlers shack was acceptable because every one in a house hold was supposed to be friendly enough to " get along in the John" Still I would hate to get up to slogg out there when it was 40 below and nature called.. The "thunder mug" was invented and kept under the bed for just such occaisions provided you remembered to empty it occaissionaly.

Thats it for now
Cheers

Doug G .

Thanks Doug,
Good to have you back.