Lögberg-Heimskringla - 16.12.1994, Side 12

12 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 16. desember 1994
EINAR’S ANECDOTES
Christmas as át was
ow that the Christmas
Season is upon us, it is
time to reflect back on the
days in the Interlake
Country during our child-
hood and youth.
Recollections reflect back to child-
hood when our parents were pulling a
hand sleigh west on Sargent Avenue
here in Winnipeg loaded with toys and
gifts. Our father was a clergyman in the
Unitarian Church at Sargent and
Sherbrook where it still stands with an
added boxlike structure on the front
end facing Sherbrook. Instead of its
original Greek architectural beauty it
now presents an architectural conun-
drum, dating back to many years ago.
This had apparently been the
Christmas church concert. Recoll-
ections tell us our father was pulling a
sleigh full of toys along the street rail-
way tracks as the heavy snowfall pré-
vented us from traversing the sidewalks
on account of deep snow.
A year in one’s early life does make
a difference, for the following year we
were out in the country living with
friends on a farm. This was a different
Christmas and nothing that one can
remember in the way of toys. There
was however a wonderful Christmas
concert in the Morning Star school
house which served this district of
Icelanders with a major portion of the
population being of Swedish origin.
The play the kids put on was based
on the story, “There was an old lady
who lived in a shoe.” Her children
were getting her down and she shooed
them out one by one. To the pre-
schoolers in the audience, there
seemed to be no end to the kids com-
ing out of the shoe as they walked
from behind the stage screen but
appeared to be coming out of the toe
cap. It was a wonderful Christmas
concert for a five year old.
It was a Christmas barren of toys,
for there was no congregation to sup-
ply the clergyman’s children with gifts.
There was however hot chocolate with
whipped cream and home made
candy.
Mothers have traditionally pres-
sured the school teacher to include
their little darlings in the Christmas
program put on by the school chil-
dren, no matter how awkward or
dumb they might be. This became a
problem for our teacher when she was
faced with this dilemma in regards to
the writer of this article. He had
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grown too rapidly and his feet tripped
over obstacles whether they were there
or just imaginary. But there was no
way out of it, so she solved her' prob-
lem by improvising. She concocted a
short play, With a dialogue and placed
a saw horse covered with a horse blan-
ket on the stage. The brighter children
discussed this stage monstrosity and
decided it was a horse covered with a
blanket. The actor, whose mother had
to be pleased, went over and looked
under the horse blanket and
exclaimed, “It is not a horse it is a saw
horse!” These were the only words he
had to utter. Mother was satisfied, the
teacher was off the hook and the actor
relieved it was over with.
Before the Village of Oak Point
cóuld afford a concert and dance hall,
the custom was to use the cottage style
school house. Invariably the teacher
had left to visit with her people. This
made it all the more interesting, for
with her being away it was easier to be
mischievous such as putting gum in
some girls hair and listen to her
scream blue murder. If the teacher had
been around she would have meted
out punishment by keeping you in
after school hours for an extended
period of time.
Christmas brought with it many
pleasantries. The question of a Christ-
mas concert and dance was you might
say, “A pre Christmas event before the
teacher left to visit with parents and
immediate family. Generally the
teacher was an attractive mature girl.
This gave the young men of the com-
munity an opportunity to dance with
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her. Often she became
a permanent resident
in the community
through the charming
approach of some young man. These
were all matters which the more nasty
young male pupils observed closely
and conjectured about.
At the midpoint between Oak Point
and Winnipeg there is the Village of
Warren. The area was mainly settled by
Eastern Ontario people who melded
intó an almost perfect community.
Their church edifice was well con-
structed and maintained with proper
furnishings. There were no roustabouts
only honest well behaved God fearing
people. Their recognition and celebra-
tion of Christmas was a formal event
to the extent of having a well known
United Church clergyman brought in
from Winnipeg. This became the task
of the permanent clergyman who
arranged to have a guest of the cloth
deliver the Christmas service, look
after accommodation and arrange per-
sonal visits to the homes of the elite in
the area.
There were no concerts or dances
and nobody touched liquor, you had
to go North into the Interlake Country
for such deviations, where the
Icelanders and Ukrainians together
with Metis lived under less formal
guidelines. The guest clergyman was
the speaker of the evening and the for-
mality of the event.
Thus populations vary and the
image of each area differs.
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ta te, oliit Ute.
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rr
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Canadian
Frón I
Send membership fee of
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(includes membership in the Scandinavian Centre)
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Telephone: 774-8047
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