Freedom to Play: We Made Our Own Fun

HAPPY MOUNTAINEERS

forming to the changes of season and running the gamut from a decidedly discreet Edwardian bathing suit to winter furs. This page, presented to us regularly by Miss Wishart, afforded countless hours of pleasure while we cut out and tried on the doll’s new clothes. Later on, inspired by Lottie, we began to create our own paper dolls, drawing and hand colouring them and then designing their apparel—probably weird and clumsy creations. Painting of any kind was one of our regular and always available pleasures during the greater part of childhood; most often brush drawings in watercolour of favorite flowers and autumn leaves were the outcome , but there were also occasional excursions into landscapes, some displaying magnificent but improbable sunsets. HAPPY MOUNTAINEERS Maple Leaf Club, Family Herald and Weekly Star November 16, 1904 Anna V.M. Robinson THE MATINEE GIRL (14) Rossland, B.C. Dear Old M.L.C.: It is about time I wrote to you again. We have had lovely weather here until yesterday, when it turned very cold, and last night while the people of Rossland were sleeping, old King Snow and his helper, Jack Frost, were doing their work on a couple of mountains close by here. Mount Roberts especially, from the peak down about half way, is covered with snow, and oh! it looks so cold. On Labour Day, September 1, a couple of my friends and myself went down to the Sheep Creek Falls on the engine. We had a good time with camera and kodak and took some fine views and pictures. How many of the members have ever ridden on an engine? I think it was great fun. Then a week after, we (the same three) went to the top of Red Mountain, a small hill here, being only 5,000 feet. Last November 4th I climbed to the peak of Go Outside and Play 37 Mount Roberts. The mountain is 6,500 feet above sea level, and I can tell you I was a little bit tired when I got home. There were patches of snow here and there, and in it I saw quite a few bear tracks, but did not see the grizzly. The altitude at the top is so high I could hardly breathe. Dad put a flag-pole up there on June 4, 1900, and nearly every holiday he goes up and hoists the flag. We can just barely see it down town when it is flying. The first flag he put up he left flying for a week, and when he went up to bring it down, it was torn to ribbons and the ends were braided tighter than any person could every braid—the wind’s work. I have two pets, a dog Rover, 11 years old and a kitten named Bedelia, after that popular Irish coon song. Will Vade Mecum please write to me when she has time, and also Kathleen from Ireland? With best wishes to the M.L.C. GOOD TIMES AT OAKVILLE Maple Leaf Club, Family Herald and Weekly Star September 14, 1904 Fanny Heeks Oakville, Ont. We play many games at school, but there is a branch of the Grand Trunk Railway near the school, and woods almost all the way around, it is more interesting to be outside the school yard than in. In the winter we slide down banks, in the summer we gather wild flowers, paddle in the creek or have picnics. One year we had a raft, which the boys made from drift-wood. Oh! what times we had on the raft. Many were the accidents and upsets which those near-by trees witnessed, if they could but tell you of them. One boy climbed out on a branch of a willow which hung over the pond. He had his feet over the branch, while he hung on with both hands. The limb was limber and tough, and behold! e’er George knew it, he was sitting on the surface. Another boy fell off the raft, and all that was visible was his head and right shoulder. 38 Freedom to Play ...