Freedom to Play: We Made Our Own Fun

JOTTINGS FOR MY FAMILY

JOTTINGS FOR MY FAMILY Laurena Saunders shares her memories of life on a farm near Gregg, Manitoba. My sisters, six and seven years older than I, were off at school, so I spent a lot of time on my own. I didn’t care much about dolls, but I loved the cats and dog. I had a special cat, “Snooky” that allowed me to dress him and I would put him in the blue wicker doll buggy. I even had a bottle with a nipple for him. I was very sad when Snooky disappeared one spring. I suppose a wild animal—wolf or such—may have got him. I also had a chinchilla rabbit named “Nipper.” The farm animals were an important part of my life. We had small calves in our barn. One was resting quietly in the straw, so I decided it would be a nice place to sit so I sat square on the animal ’s back. It soon jumped up and I fell face down in the gutter. Yuk!! I went howling to the house. Mother couldn’t stop laughing , but in short order soap and water were administered and I was as good as new. So much for that experience. It was in the barn loft that I would find mother cat tenderly caring for her newborn kittens. She would purr loudly as she licked the babies. It was also in the barn that Mother and Dad 176 Freedom to Play Janet and Beth Emslie with Tamas, c. 1940. allowed me another life experience—that of seeing a calf born. I think I was six or seven at the time. It all seemed very natural and normal and the scrawny wet calf was soon standing on its own feet. I guess my parents wondered what my response would be, but when they asked me, I recall saying, “It just came out,” whereupon they sort of shook their heads. I guess, to me, it was just part of the way things were supposed to be. The horses, cows, and sometimes the pigs, were sheltered in the barn. I spent a lot of happy time watching them. I would pat the cows as I could go along the alley in front of them, but I couldn’t do that with the horses. I held them in awe; they were so big. They were work horses—one team was Jessie and Jeff, the other was Doll and Bill. We had a colt we named Prince. His mother was Maud. We never named the cows except for their colours—Reddy, Blacky, Roany, etc. As I grew older, watching my Mom and others milk cows fascinated me. The barn cats eagerly watched too, as there was always a big dish of warm milk for them. Sometimes they would even sit on their hind legs while a stream of milk was squirted at them right from the source. Finally, I was allowed to try my hand at milking. The gentlest cow was chosen, and she was patient with me. But it wasn’t as easy as it looked. We had a gramophone and I would sit by it and play records. I remember one [record] about a train wreck, and also one about a fellow finding a rip in his pants when he was at a party. There were also nice marches and hymns, and the song “I Love Little Pussy.” I had a bag of pennies and I remember listening to the music and counting my money. I also liked to visit Aunt Janey’s house, because there was a homemade Noah’s Ark complete with standup wooden animals. Some of my happiest memories have to do with mud pies. I would set up my “kitchen” out by the wood pile—lots of blocks of wood were used to invent tables, chairs, stoves, etc. Mud would be mixed for cakes and ashes would be mixed for the icing, and all the while I could sing as loud as I wanted. It was the rule at our place—no shouting or yelling indoors. My years at Dempsey (rural) School were happy ones. We were like a big happy family and we had a good time at recess. Animals: Friend, Foe, or Food 177 Football was the game of winter, and we played softball in the summer. In June the school field day was held in Carberry. There, along with...