Freedom to Play: We Made Our Own Fun

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dreaming. Or it might be two or three or four of us kids lying on our tummies and just talking or day dreaming or planning what we were going to do when we grew up. But I did not do what I planned to do when I was young because my plans were very small. Sometimes I think I’d like to go back to those days. I liked that pioneer life, no worries and no rent to pay. There were lots of hardships, but I have lots of pleasant memories. Maple Leaf Club. Family Herald and Weekly Star January 13, 1904 A FARMER BOY (14) Dear Editor and Maple Leaves: I enjoy the members’ letters very much, especially those from the “Wild West.” I have an uncle living near Winnipeg (whom I was named after). My father and sister were out to see them a year ago, and last fall my brother went out for a month and a half. I would like to go, but they tell me I am too small. Don’t you think, Mr. Editor, that the baby of the family is always small longer than the older ones? But I am not going to complain at Christmas time. We had an entertainment at our school on the evening of the 22nd, the last day of school. I went around to all the people in the section, and asked them to subscribe something towards getting a present for the teacher, of whom we think very much. I collected nearly three dollars. A neighbour living near, had a little English boy from the Hamilton House and report had it that he abused him dreadfully , and made him sleep in the barn. Consequently his hands and feet were frozen. One night last week he followed me home from school, and was so very hungry, and could scarcely walk that my father could not turn him out. So he wrote to the home, telling the manager what a state the poor little fellow was in, and they came and took him away. Do you think, Mr. Editor, my father did right in writing to the home. He was a little orphan, and I felt sorry for him, so did not send him back, when he said 50 Freedom to Play he was going home with me. The man says I coaxed him home, but I didn’t and he is very cross over it. I was one of four boys that acted as pallbearers for a little girl, five years old, that died of erysipelas last week. She, with her two little brothers, younger than herself, and father and mother came home from Alberta a month or so ago, to spend the winter with her mother’s parents and this little one was called home. Her parents were reconciled, and said “God’s will be done, and it is best.” I think as Apple Blossom does that the most interesting letters are those in which members describe their homes. In my next I will tell you of my home, my brothers and sisters, and my work at home and at school, and last, but not least, my pets, especially the two dogs. I think I have done very well, as far as quantity goes, but how about quality? So will close, wishing all a Happy New year. WE ALWAYS FOUND SOMETHING TO DO When R.B. (Bert) Green was growing up in Newfoundland, amenities were few, services were limited, and life was hard, but children still found time to play. I am 87 years old, and am thinking about my life when I was growing up in a Newfoundland fishing village. We were let out of school at 4 p.m. It was then my job to chop off, or saw off, the wood, as our house was heated completely by wood stoves. I did the chopping or sawing, and my two sisters— a little younger than I—carried the wood into the house until the wood-box by the stove was piled high with it. It was also my task to bring buckets of water from the nearby brook and fill the water barrel in the porch. If there was any time left between then and the evening meal, we’d go, in winter, coasting out on the hill, or skating on the nearby frozen marsh, or, in spring and fall, play outdoor games with neighbouring children, such as “Hide and Go Seek,” or “Rounders” or other...