I would like to share some events that went
on at the home in Nowlanville.
The house I understand was moved there, it
belonged to my mother's people Bill Burns -
Dad had it remodeled, he was very good
with his hands until he lost his right arm in
the woods in the year 1939.It was not a big building but it housed
some big people. It had four doors which
we were only allowed to use two of them,
the rear door and the kitchen door. The other
doors were used only on special occassion.
The 15 of us with Mom and Dad were seldom
home at one time to sleep. In fact when I
Charlotte became part of the family, Ella
was 15 months old and My Aunt Kate, mother's
sister, offered to take her Ella until mother got
stronger. Aunt Kate had no children so
Ella stayed with them, but we were either
down at her place or she was with us, in
fact we all thought she got the best deal with
all new clothes verses handy downs.
Also when my youngest sister Alberta
was born, my oldest brother Bennie was
home very little as he was in the army.
When I was small, every one was attending
school and the house was quite empty at
times and as the boys finished school
and when the snow came my brothers went
to work in the woods, but that lasted only
for awhile and then they went on to
do other work.
All in all space was never a problem at
home, if you never have some thing you
never miss it. This time of the year back
70 years ago our home would be quiet
comfortable. We would have our wood
stove in the kitchen and in the cellar
we would have a wood furnace. The
wood for the kitchen would be in the
wood shed and the wood for the
furnace stored down below.
Also in the cellar we would have our
vegetables for the winter in an area
away from the furnace. We had what was called
pork barrel with salt and ice in it and also a
barrel with beef. There was no defreezer
around at that time however the food
was always delicious.
Our home was a real home, we came
and went as we wished and also the
neighours children. As children
we spent half of our time outside. The house
was a place were we slept and ate,
did our chores and lessons and all that.
Then we take to the side hill where we would
skate and slide in the winter and in the
summer we played all kinds of games - there
was enough of us to play any game. The kitchen
was the big attraction , the food it smelled so good,
especially the home made bread. Mother
would make bread three thimes a week
about 12 loafes at once, to say nothing
about the sugar cookies - there was never a stale
cookie around.
Peace Charlotte