14

No, you never saw many wildflowers on the prairie.

You didn't?

No, not really, not flowers. Or even buds. It was all grass and whatever.

Do you remember how tall the grass was?

Hmm?

Do you remember how tall the grass was?

Not much different that what it is there. Cause so many people walked on it. I mean, everybody walked out there--for the air.

15

Laying down on the tall grass prairie
21 July 2003
Tolstoi, Manitoba, Canada

16

For me, it's just, love going out for a walk through the prairie and experiencing it. I love laying down on the prairie and looking up at the sky through the grasses and the flowers. You know I mean, it sounds silly but I just, I love doing that. The smells too, I mean there isn't much I don't like about the prairie, I guess. It just seems to be a real part of me.

17

Dandelion wine
2001

18

And we used to hide in the ditches, And I used to take the prairie, and the, and the, dandelions, I made, I brought the dandelions we'd pay, we would, we would get a penny for oh, like a week's picking of dandelions from Mrs. Little, because she made the wine, she made dandelion wine. And there was lots of them in the ditches, so we'd go up and down the street every second day to get dandelions for her.

19

Running in Stocking Feet
1910
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Credits:
Image courtesy of: Glenbow Archives, NA-1904-1

20

When I went to run, I was running in the Scottish Sports, which were held at Polo Park, they had the horses at that time-the race track was there. I had to run in the Scottish Sports and they told me I couldn't run with my stocking feet and I had to wear my shoes with spikes because the gumbo was so hard it would cut my feet. So Mom and Dad, I came home and told them I couldn't run and Dad used to use a stick and a pipe, a piece of pipe. The pipe and a stick on the lane, which was cinders, and he would run me from the house, down to the corner of the lane and back again-that's how I learned to run. And um, I came home and told them I couldn't run, because they wouldn't let me run in my stocking feet, and of course I had never worn cleats, like you know. And so they, ah, went through everything, their pants pockets and drawers and everything else, and they got me enough money so I could go down to Eatons and get a pair of cleat shoes and I never worn them before and I put them on my feet, run the race and won it!

21

Sunlight Soap
12 July 1912

Credits:
Image courtesy of: Glenbow Archives, NA-4387-6

22

Shovel the snow, I had to do the dishes and I had to make supper every night. My sister, Molly and I, she's older than I am, we made supper every night for the nine of us. Set the table, and you know, my sister and I, were making supper and she decided that we were having turnips. So I went down to the basement to get the turnips out of what Dad called, oh...a bed. He used to put sand down there, and you know the basement wasn't finished, it was just mud all around and mice running here and there. An old furnace that he'd put coal in it and it used to heat the house and anyway, we went down and got the turpips and my mom used Sunlight soap--for our hands, for everything, cleaning the sink, everything we did it was Sunlight soap. And P & G Soap and so Molly made, Molly, that's my sister, Molly made turnips and she was washing them off in the sink and whatever happened she picked up, not knowing the colour of it, the Sunlight soap with the turnips! And I guess it wasn't a very big piece, but anyway, we all had soapy turnips that night for supper and she never lived it down! Dad was the first to notice cause he always eats, eat quicker than we did, so anyway, we tried to figure out what was wrong--we couldn't figure it out! But then Mom said, later she said, well, she knew what happened cause her piece of soap was gone.

23

Hawk games
2005
Manitoba, Canada

Credits:
Image courtesy of: Manitoba Conservation

24

I think perhaps the most, I guess the philosophical things in those days if one were to go and sit someplace away from the buildings if it were clear sky, you know, you'd see the hawks way up which you could hear them and strangely enough, I guess they were enjoying themselves, but they probably caught a gopher or something and there'd be two or three of them and the high one would drop it and the one below would swoop in and catch it and then swoop away with it again and these kinds of things umm…unless they were whistling, there'd be no noise. One could hear his heart beating. Everything was just silent and I think that's the thing that I reflect upon perhaps more than anything else. And of course one remembers the surrounding around his native area, but I guess it..I guess it brings to mind a certain wonder, like prarie sunsets, whatever, there's just nothing comparable, there's not an artist that can even begin to cope with the natural beauty of those things. You can see some of them from here, but you have to be outside of the city to really experience what the natural prairie is all about if you could find any now.

25

Bicycling on the Prairies
1900
Manitoba, Canada

Credits:
Image courtesy of: Archives of Manitoba, Transportation Bicycle 1

26

You knew where you were going though, it was your buddies place (laughs) and what not. Ah, but we didn't have time for mischief. We'd walk a mile and a half to the river to go swimming. Until you got bicycles.

Yeah.

And for bicycles my brother was alive then and ah, he… I went up to Minnedosa in a, by car, took the bicycle with me when I was about 14 years old. Took me 6 ½ hours to get back to Portage.

Wow.

And that was a gravel road most of the way.

Yeah. That's crazy (laughs)

And then ah, my brother was about 17 and he got an invitation into Winnipeg, so he road into Winnipeg.

How long did that take him?

Three hours.

Three hours!?

Yeah, he was much stronger in the legs than I was.

Wow.

Yah, three, three and a half hours. But, he was putting on; we had an odometer on the bicycle. He was covering one hundred miles a day in Winnipeg.

Miles?

Miles.

That's very impressive.

And that odometer, when it came back, was still on the bike and it was used for delivering dry cleaning. It broke down, in one year, at 9000 miles. Quit work.

The odometer stopped working.