Lögberg-Heimskringla - 17.04.1992, Side 5

Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 17. apríl 1992 • 5
by Lenore Didycbuck
It was just fíne, my childhood home
We had no car or telephone.
The light was shed from coal oil lamps
We never heard of watts or amps.
An old wood bumer gave us heat
Our home was small but very neat.
It had a heap of life and cheer
AII us children loved it there.
Electric blankets were unknown
And Mother's quilts were all hand sewn
We had no washer dryer fine
We rubbed and hung out on the line.
We never saw a T.V. show
There was no such thing as radio.
Our luxuries were few indeed
Yet somehow we fílied every need.
Lenore wrote
this poem before
1930 while still
living in Hecla
Island.
Submitted by
Solvelg
DeLaronde alao
a former
resldent of the
Island.
don’t forget,” she said.
“I have beautiful memories. Many
sad ones too. I was there when some-
body was dying as well.”
But she simply shmgs.
“That’s life.”
Two sisters out of a family of 20
made it to the island for a July 1990
reunion. Freda Johnson was bom on
the island in 1904. Rosa Johnson, the
thirteenth of the family, was born in
1912. Their parents were the early set-
tiers of the island. For them it was a life
of difficulty, of farm work.
And of watching tugs on the lake.
Names
Names include the Lady of the Lake,
the Amisk, the Montgomery, the
Luborg, the Tempest, the Luanna
(which collided with the Newton, which
itself split in half and sank), and the
infamous Sasanez, which sank with its
crew aboard.
Only one, the Goldfield, remains to
ply Lake Winnipeg’s waters.
“It used to be nice to see the lights at
night coming this way and coming that
way,” Freda’s son, Mundi Johnson said.
Their home is another which the
province tore down.
“It was supposed to be kept as a
heritage site, ” Goodman said. “But they
bulldozed it down.”
The old stories are still told of the
govemment getting the wrong house,
and demolishing one tagged as a herit-
age home, while leaving the newer one
standing.
Mundi recalls some of the energy of
the Hecla residents. Manitoba Hydro
refused to build a line to the island,
saying the poles would never stand. So
the islanders put in the cribs them-
selves. They sat for two years before
Hydro was convinced the cribs would
last.
That was in the late 1940’s.
“They wouldn’thave come,” Johnson
recalls. “We had to prove it.”
That might have been a hint of the
fíght in store for the residents facing
expropriation. Yet the province won
handily, with new and tougher expro-
priation laws not coming into effect
until after Hecla residents were gone.
The newer laws allowed for an inde-
pendent review of the expropriation.
An inquiry for the govemment even-
tually concluded the islanders weren’t
given a fair deal. The report was com-
piled by Jack S. Walker, a Winnipeg
lawyer.
Concluded Walker: “The islanders
stayed on the sideline, forgotten in the
msh of activities. They became the last
matter of concern in the park develop-
ment program ... Littie consideration
had been given as to how these people,
if expropriated, would eam their liveli-
hoods and to what extent they would be
allowed to fish from the island ... I
cannot say that it is reasonably neces-
sary that the Parks Branch own that
land which is presently being used for
the homes of the people.”
Asta Jonasson as a nurse at Hecla.
Littíe Change
The report did littie to change mat-
ters. The plan went ahead; homes were
expropriated; the causeway was built.
Unfortunately, in 1974, the lake level
rose, flooding four miles of it and delay-
ing its official opening for a year as the
low stretch of road was rebuilt.
Christine Long (nee Amundson)
spent 35 years on the island. She left
when the fishing went bad.
The lake was fished out, she ex-
plained. Part of the fault is the fisher-
men themselves.
“The men always used smaller mesh.
The inspector was always after them,”
she said. “The lake was just fished out.
That was the reason.”
Long remembers the “good life” on
the island. Most of all she remembers
the May 24 picnics.
“It was the first ice cream of the year
if the boat got through the ice,” she
remembered. “Sometimes thatwas nip
and tuck.”
“It was a big day, let me tell you. It
was a big day.”
Long said the family would have
kept the home as a summer cottage if
theprovince hadn’tmovedin. “Butyou
forgive and forget,” she said.
Life was tough, battiing mosquitoes
and her father working a whole sum-
mer fishing to have $4.50 after the sea-
son.
“But you didn’t mind,” she said. “I
think we were happier then than now
Fishing boats along Hecla Island waterfront. Town in background.
with all the money.”
The Great Depression even seemed
to pass Hecla by without harm, Long
added.
“In the Dirty Thirties we were so
much better off than people in other
places. We had our fish in the lake, the
game in the bush, our garden and our
beef and milk. We just had no money,”
she said.
Even so, Long said life on Hecla was
the best.
“My thoughts were always in Hecla.
There’s no land better than Hecla,” she
said.
The Winnipeg Tribune article
summed up the final chapter of life on
Hecla in its coverage of the opening
ceremonies of Hecla Provincial Park.
The ffont page of the July 26 1975
issue of the Tribime reads, “The com-
munity of Hecla Island died today.”
It continues, “The special opening
ceremonies for Hecla Provincial Park
sounded the final death knell for the
Lake Winnipeg island community.”
Ironically, the province is only now
beginning to breathe life back into the
community. After 20 years of deteriora-
tion, the first stages of a $1 million
renovation project started this year.
The school house, boarding house,
guest house, and community hall will
be stabilized under a federal-provincial
tourism agreement.
And also ironically, the province
hopes to get people back onto the is-
land to return life to the park.
Planned are commercial opportuni-
ties and people on staff to demonstrate
fumishings and some of the history and
stories of the island.
Though the Hecla village will be
only a living museum, the residents said
the memories of the real Hecla village
will never be replaced.
“ITl never forget my life on Hecla,”
Asta Jonasson said.
“The most beautiful part of my life
was there.”
Courtesy of The Interlake Spectator
(July 25,1990)
A happier home you’d never find
But now a thought just crossed my mind.
How did we manage to exist
Think of the handouts that we missed.
We had no food stamps, yet we ate
There never was an empty plate.
No welfare cheques were then doled out
We paid our way or did without.
And lived as happily as could be
In what is now called poverty.
We were content you may be sure
And we never knew that we were poor.
SCHOLARSHIP OFFERED
The Ministry of Education in lceland
The Ministry of Education in Iceland invites students of
Icelandic descent to apply for a 400.000 krónur scholarship to study
Icelandic language and literature at the University of Iceland during
the 1992-1993 school year.
The chosen candidate must arrive in Reykjavík, Iceland, no
later than lst of September, 1992.
Deadline for applications is May 5th, 1992.
For further information, and to apply, please write to:
The lcelandic National League,
699 Carter Avenue, Winnipeg, MB Canada R3M 2C3
Telephone: 204 - 284-5686
The Life and Death of
Little lceland, contínued