(Selected, compiled and edited by Helena Long, from an article by Mrs. Bill Stuart written for the Unity Homemakers’ Club and read at their December, 1972 meeting and reprinted in the December 20, 1972 issue of The Northwest Herald.)
A welcome visit
In 1906, a pioneer and his wife lived in an old log shanty, 12 miles north of Unity. They had lumber ready for a house but winter storms had set in before they could build. So they lived in the 10 by 12 foot room, which the woman had brightened up – glad to keep busy so the loneliness which hung over the vast plain wouldn’t descend and envelop her.
She had arrived Nov. 6 and now it was Dec. 24 and she hadn’t yet set eyes on another woman. But today they were going to the Martins and she would see Mrs. Martin and her little girl Ethel. First though they had to drive to Wilbert for the mail for the community. They had horses, which were better on the roads than the plodding oxen of their neighbours.
Dressed warmly, away they went, with the faithful team of Jack and Ben trotting and walking the snowy miles.
Meanwhile, little Ethel Martin (who became Mrs. Ralph Janowsky in later years) had thawed out a lookout spot on the window pane in the kitchen. When she saw the team drive in, she ran to her mother and said, ‘Oh Mother, here comes Andy Morrison and he’s brought a little girl to play with me!”
That “little girl” was the pioneer’s wife, Mrs. Dave Morrison Kennedy!
Presents from China
Mrs. Sam Leeson’s earliest memory was Christmas at Grandma’s. Grandma was a gentle, composed, delicate, little woman, who wore a black lace cap with violets nesting in the lace.
The folding doors at Grandma’s house were pushed back, the big room filled with relatives and the long table loaded with food.
A young uncle, who was a sailor, was just back from a trip to China. He had brought back a fragile tea set for his mother, and dainty lacquered boxes as gifts for the aunts. To the children he gave boxes of chocolates, a wonderful extravagance in their eyes. Mrs. Leeson treasured the box with its cheerful red roses on it for years to come.
Midnight mass
Margaret Gerein Krips (Mrs. Karl Krips) never forgot the first midnight mass she attended with her family. They drove seven miles to Revenue in a sleigh through a Christmasy night of stars shining bright. When they arrived at the church, the hundreds of candles were all aglow and the choir began to sing “Silent Night.” Eight years old, Margaret was struck with the age-old wonder of Christmas.
