In the four years 1934 to 1938; it was the tail-end of the great depression that had begun to wane. I was born in 1934 and during those years in the summer my mother and I lived in a tent on the prairies during the summers. She told me that it was the happiest period of her life. She said, " I got up in the morning, swept out the floor of our tent and we picked wild strawberries with the farmers cream from next door. Then you and I did all the nursery rhymes until you could do them by heart. " I was two years old in 1936 and my mother and I were following my father in those summers. As the depression abated, he finally got work again with the railroad as a telegraph operator, substituting in two week stints for the station agents here and there though out the prairie railroad depots.
My mother and I were like camp followers, but she thrived on the change and the bonding with her first born and the gypsy life style. The summers were generally glorious, particularly in the northern part of Saskatchewan in the park lands. In the winter in those years, my father had much less work available to him and we lived with my grandfather and nanny in Little Britain, their roomy house on the Red River where my mother grew up.
The four years I had alone with my mother, in this fashion in the summer, linked by indissoluble bonds not connected with things; house, bed ,bicycle.TV, internet, may have left an imprint that differs from today. The stability that is supposed to be supplied according to the received wisdom that a home must be provided with all the accoutrements in place before family planning occurs, possibly today makes sense. However, a little love, a lot of attention and bonding face to face with your mother, union of mind and body over nursery rhymes, makes up for any irregular camp following, any suspected hardship that wasn't, and all the diverting stuff of today.
My mother and I were like camp followers, but she thrived on the change and the bonding with her first born and the gypsy life style. The summers were generally glorious, particularly in the northern part of Saskatchewan in the park lands. In the winter in those years, my father had much less work available to him and we lived with my grandfather and nanny in Little Britain, their roomy house on the Red River where my mother grew up.
The four years I had alone with my mother, in this fashion in the summer, linked by indissoluble bonds not connected with things; house, bed ,bicycle.TV, internet, may have left an imprint that differs from today. The stability that is supposed to be supplied according to the received wisdom that a home must be provided with all the accoutrements in place before family planning occurs, possibly today makes sense. However, a little love, a lot of attention and bonding face to face with your mother, union of mind and body over nursery rhymes, makes up for any irregular camp following, any suspected hardship that wasn't, and all the diverting stuff of today.
RSS Feed