With a cold spell, the Christmas season suddenly arrived at the Basswood School. I was in Grade 2 in 1967 in that Manitoba hamlet. Like most of my peers, we talked about it, but really didn’t know what to do. However, our resourceful teacher came to the rescue. Ms. Mandzuk had to handle both the
‘Twas the season: a Christmas story
Ms. Mandzuk taught Grade 2 kids important Christmas skills like tracing, colouring, cutting and gluing
Git along little dogie: Wayward steer makes the TV news
The local news crew captured the event for posterity, but they weren’t much help
This rodeo event never made it into the big-time scene. The action never attracted much of a crowd. The participants never scored a windfall of prize money. However, it did make the Brandon TV news that evening long ago. When we four farm boys got home on the school bus that day in November 1976,
It’s fun and games ’til the Klik runs out
Growing up in the ’70s, a school field trip was a fun way to escape for a small-town kid
My childhood school field trips were a welcome relief from routine and a chance to see and experience the wider world. An escape! I had many. In 1967 — Canada’s 100th birthday — my Grade 1 class visited the ‘Centennial Train’ in Neepawa. In Grade 3, we visited Oak River for a day of sports
School was in for summer
MEMOIR | During the carefree summer of ’77 life classes were still in session
Who could have guessed that classes were still in session during the summer of ’77. Grade 11 had ended, yes, but life classes began in earnest. As one of four Manitoba farm boys, Mom said I could get a summer job. Maybe I could make a few dollars, have adventure, and discover the rewards of
Neighbourhood labour: ready cash, plus work lessons as the bonus
There were good, not-so-good and great employers in the rural district of my youth
Hey, a shiny modern tractor to drive. A new voice to give me orders, instead of Dad’s. A different lunch table come noontime. And ready cash at the end of the workday. Why wouldn’t I go and help the neighbours? Life’s lessons are often learned slowly, and occasionally they have to be learned over and
Old house razing entertains, educates Basswood brothers
For these four lads it was a chance to wreck something for praise, not retribution
The Mennonite brethren may be known for their barn raising, but in the summer of 1975, four Manitoba brothers gained notoriety for an old farmhouse razing. The farmhouse, along the main entrance to Basswood, and just off the Yellowhead Hwy., was a perfect spot for villagers to witness the destruction. In fact, we could have
Auction sale action thrills farm boys
There was nothing like an auction sale to create memories
Name a farm boy who doesn’t like an auction sale. There were different machines to climb on, a neighbourhood buddy to meet, a barn cat to befriend (maybe her kittens too), and a haul of treasures to take home. Plus, if we behaved, Dad might treat us with homemade pie. My older brother David and
A pile of memories
Bulldozed snow mountain creates Tower of Babel for Basswood schoolchildren
I cannot imagine a better winter “toy” for Grade 3 farm boys than a bulldozed 14-foot-high mountain of snow in March. It literally was a pile of fun. Plus it may have had a few aspects in common with the ancient biblical “Tower of Babel.” Early March 1969, delivered a sudden blizzard and with it,
Family history found
Interlake’s ‘Havakeen Lunch’ lives on in film
Have you ever had the chance to reach behind and grab on to the past? No, I am not talking about fumbling into the back seat to find an old Manitoba Co-operator. I do mean finding unexpected history, and enjoying it. Several years ago, younger brother Tim mused about an old National Film Board movie,
Making hay — and memories
A youthful summer sojourn still stirs memories for the author
It was another of those teenage decisions I never got to make — ugh. Mom called me over to her on an August Sunday afternoon. “You’re going to help Grandpa and Uncle Willie with their haying,” she announced. She’d just got off the phone with her brother 90 miles away near Russell. “They’ve fallen behind.
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
