Coming Home From Far and Wide...

Our small farming community gathered again at the elementary school last weekend.  It opened in 1956 and due to a centralization policy it closed and bussed the students to a nearby town in 1966.  

The community club took an active role in keeping the empty building alive and this many years later there is an active club, a senior's centre, a bowling alley and a large gymnasium available for rent.  Although I'm a fairly recent addition to the community, I enjoyed helping on the organizing committee of the 2012 Homecoming and seeing all the smiles of people as they greeted old friends and neighbours and reminisced about the good old days.  

I helped a retired teacher who is just above the left shoulder of the teacher in this 1942 class picture.  She was able to recite each student's name and was a terrific help in organizing all the clippings and photos that fell into our hands by very accurate dates. The displays told the story of a little Hamlet that is now 100 years old. The railway station was a busy place in 1913 and in the 20's it brought carloads of settler's belongings as there were many American families that made the trek north to establish homesteads. It was thriving by 1930,  had over a hundred residents and boasted a bank, a car dealership, two general stores, a post office, pool hall, lumberyard, hardware store, a hotel, restaurants, and eventually five churches and three grain elevators.  Today the population of the hamlet is about 3oo and all but the hotel, post office, the general store and one recently built church are gone.   

Now, every five years old friends travel hundreds of miles to share that neighbourly feeling once again and the "over eighty" seniors are given special recognition.  A talented band of men in their mid sixties played dance music with such enthusiasm that many seniors happily two-stepped around the hall.  Although the dinner and dance were open only to adults a breakfast held on Sunday morning drew families and children of all ages.  Proud grandparents showed off grandchildren to their old friends.  

I have a feeling that most who attended are already looking forward to the August long weekend in 2017.  I know we fall into that category. Here are just a few of the smiling faces I saw last weekend.

I want to appologize for not visiting your blogs lately; two sets of company, a barbecue invitation, looking after two darling kittens while our son is on holidays and packing for a wedding in the city tomorrow has kept me very busy.  I do hope to find out what you have been blogging about before too long.  Have a great weekend wherever you are!

Homecoming

 This weekend will be the biggest of our summer in that our little hamlet is having a "Homecoming".   This year will mark the 100th Celebration.  The farmer and I helped organize the event which happens every five years and about 175 people will be gathering in the local community centre for a 3 day renewal of friendships and recounting of memories. The farmer's brother will be arriving tonight and other friends and family members will arrive on Friday, so today I'll be baking and preparing some meals. I still have to finish up the historical display which is comprised of 32 feet of "table paper" filled with newspaper clippings and pictures from the last 100 years.  I had the privilege of working with an 85 year old retired teacher who has all the names and dates from the mid 30's onward still in her head. We will be setting up the display and helping with decorating and cleanup.  It will be a busy fun weekend and I'll tell you all about it next week but in the meantime I'd like to share some of my summer flowers with you.  Sunshine Always - Sheila

Note Cards - Summer at the Lake

 What a magnificent view my husband's uncle had of Island Lake!  Though he was in his nineties, he loved living at the lake year round and at least once or twice each summer we packed up a picnic to share with Uncle Archie.  We enjoyed visiting and watching what was going on around the lake from such a beautiful vantage point.  Sadly he passed away last summer and his property has been sold to a family whose view includes their parent's house across the lake.  I'm sure they're enjoying being just a  boat ride or swim away from each other.  Please consider a visit to Vee's to see what summer themes have been chosen for this month's Note Card Party. Enjoy your summer days!

Thank You!

I want to send a special message of thanks to Vee who suggested very nicely I might like to turn off my comment verification.  "But I don't have it..." I thought to myself... I investigated and found out she was right so I turned it off asap.  I agree with Vee that it is very tricky sometimes to interpret what is written in the verification box. I don't like to comment on those bogs because it takes so long.  So please accept my apologies for putting you through the trouble I have.  I value the comments people write and so from now on you won't have to go through that silly exercise.  Many thanks for your visits and your kind comments.  

Yesterday was our daughter's birthday and she had invited her friends to a picnic in a beautiful park in the river valley but an International Triathlon was taking place there so all access to vehicular traffic was blocked.  Instead we returned to the university grounds and spent all afternoon greeting and visiting with her friends. Everyone arrived at different times due to the detours but that made it more interesting. It was a great way to spend the hottest day of the year so far.  Hope you had a good week wherever you are. Sunshine Always - Sheila