Reminiscences
by Winnifred Alexander“Roseberry”
Before our family came to live permanently in the Roseberry district, we came down from Edmonton every summer to spend the holidays. My father had bought land in the district and came down to work the land, while keeping the family in the city and in school there. The farm was a great holiday for us and a change from city life. We just had a one-roomed shack which Dad had built, so we thought it was just like camping.
Up the road a mile, lived a little girl with whom I had made friends the first summer we were on the farm. She had a pony called Birdie which she often rode down to our place. She would give us rides. Edie Ulick went to Roseberry school. She told me all about it. It seemed strange to me that all the grades would be in one room. I really thought that I would like to attend a school like the one she told me about.
Soon after coming to the farm the first summer, we were invited to attend a “Social” at the school. We drove to it in a buggy pulled by one of our work horses. Children said recitations which they had learned at home. There was some singing and lunch was served. Mainly it was a get- together for all the families and it took place every couple of weeks.
One spring I got my wish to attend this country school. My brother had been sick and thinking that the country air would do him good, my parents decided to come to the farm a month ahead. They left my older brother George in Edmonton with friends to finish out his school year. They just took me out of school. Soon after our arrival on the farm Edie came and asked me to go to school with her. I was more than willing. My lunch was packed in a lard pail—just like hers. I rode behind her on the pony, holding on to her with one arm and my lunch pail with the other. All went well until about half a mile from home we decided to ride a lot faster. Exactly what happened I don’t know except that we both flew off and landed on the road. Our lunch was scattered all over and I remember us trying to pick it up out of the sandy road, and stuffing it back into the pails.
When we arrived at school, we were soon surrounded by the other children. A lady came out and rang a bell and the children lined up like soldiers in front of the outdoor steps. We were marched in and I was told that I could sit with Edie in her double desk. The teacher was Mrs. Harper. I remember how the children all had slates. They cleaned them with little wet rags. Paper was only used for very special things. I had never seen slates in school before. This was about 1921 and the slates and double desks were a novelty to me. The teacher was very strict but when I think back I think she gave a lot to those children. We had exercises during which she taught us how to do the Highland Fling and other dances. One day she packed us all in her democrat and drove us several miles to a big slough to see muskrat houses and anything else we could find of interest. She really had us looking every day for strange birds and encouraged us to gather wild flowers and look up all the names of birds and flowers that we found. We ready many books in our search and I learned more about these things than I have ever learned before.
The school was like any other rural school at that time. On the wall was a picture of King George V and Queen Mary. Several maps hung above the blackboards and a battered globe was hung from the ceiling. The children washed their hands in a basin and used a towel on rollers. Water was in a pail and each child brought a cup from home.
Outside was a small barn to house the horses some children rode to school. Two outhouses were the toilets. There was a large yard where the children played. I attended Roseberry school all that month and enjoyed this new experience. After the holidays, my parents decided to stay on the farm until after harvest was over, so now we all went to the country school including my brother, who had come down from Edmonton, and my younger brother Jack who was now old enough to start school. We usually walked the 2-½ miles to school. We went back to Edmonton at the end of September. Five years later we moved out to the farm permanently.
I was now in Grade VIII, and there had been quite a few changes in the school. The teacher was Miss Luella Hamilton—a young lady whom we all thought was wonderful. She was not very tall but with her pretty blonde curly hair we thought she was beautiful. The old time slates were gone and the children used scribblers and pencils. Pen handles with nibs were used to dip into the inkwells on the desks. The double desks were still in use and I don’t think that they were ever replaced.
After some gopher had been pumped out of the well, it was decided that it shouldn’t be used, so arrangments were made for water to be brought from certain homes in a good cream can. It was brought fresh every day. Some of the children were paid a small sum to do the janitor work. This consisted of dusting, sweeping and in the winter building the fire in the big pot-bellied stove which stood in the middle of the school room.
Social life took the form of card parties in the school, or dances about every second Friday. It usually had music by a pick-up orchestra of anyone who could play an instrument. One year my mother directed a play. The local “actors” practised all winter and it was such a success that it became an annual affair. People made their own fun. One of my memories is of coming home one night late, after a party at Roseberry school. It was very cold and as the horses trotted along, pulling our sleigh, my father had us all looking at the northern lights. Such a display!
We had a piano and every year, just before Christmas, my father took it down to the school so the teacher could use it to prepare the children for the annual Christmas concert. This was the big event of the year. All the children received bags of candy and a gift from Santa. It was before we had electricity and the big tree was lit up by wax candles. There had been cases of trees catching fire and actually of schools burning down, so lighting the candles was a ritual. My father and some of the other men stood around the tree. My father carefully lit each candle. Soon it was twinkling and shining in all its glory while the men kept careful watch with a pail of water nearby. It was let burn for a while for everyone to enjoy and then the candles were put out.
One year a glee club was formed, instigated by a young teacher named Helen Deeton. All the young people went once a week to learn to sing many of the old favourite songs. These young people contributed their songs to various entertainments throughout the year.
One event that I well remember was coming to school one morning and finding, that although all the children were soon there, our teacher, Miss Hamilton had not arrived. We waited until long after school should have started but still no teacher had appeared. We decided to go down the road to see if we could see her coming in the buggy with the two little boys who gave her a ride to school each day. When we passed around a bush that hid the road farther on we saw the buggy in the middle of a big slough and the horse was lying down in the water. Miss Hamilton was trying to get the horse to stand up but it was refusing to move. When we got closer she told us that the two little boys, who were supposed to take the trail around the slough, had insisted on trying to go through it instead. The horse had decided to lie down and they were stranded. We said we would go for help. We all went running down the road for about a mile towards Mr. Charlie Savard’s farm. We saw Charlie over in his field seeding with four horses on his seed drill. When we reached him and told him where our teacher was, he unhooked his horse and riding one and leading the others, he rode away to the slough. We all followed and saw Charlie ride into the slough and get Miss Hamilton on the horse behind him and bring her safely to dry ground. Then he rode back in and taking the balky horse by the bridle managed to get him up and made him pull the buggy with the two little culprits to the road. We finally got back to school. Most of the morning was gone. I guess Miss Hamilton wasn’t in the mood to teach so she told us that she thought it was a good idea to clean the school yard. We got the rakes out and were busy raking and picking up, when a car drove into the yard. Miss Hamilton went quickly over to greet the inspector, who wanted to know why the school wasn’t in session. Miss Hamilton told him as best she could about what had happened. He was very nice and with a smile on his face he said that he would come back another day.
Some sixty years have passed since I went to Roseberry School. I have always been thankful that I had those years in a school with all the grades. Before that I had always been in a school with only one grade to a room. After I went teaching myself, I am sure the early experience at Roseberry with children from Grades one to nine in one room had been a real help to me when I was faced with several grades to a room.
Roseberry
Submitted by Winnifred Alexander
132-135