1

Raised on Metis music
2004
Living Prairie Museum, St. James, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

2

I tried to bring them up with the morals I was brought up with, you know. And I cooked pretty well the same foods, to this day we still cook a lot of the same foods we grew up on and my kids love that. And the music we grew up on they love that too.

Yeah, well you know the fiddling and the dancing the Red River jig and that, it's our background, being Métis.

Our kids they grew up with that kind of music around because we liked that kind of music.

Yeah, country music.

And, uh, they tell me my son was working for this construction company and the boss had the music on, the old western music and he was singing along with it and he says, "holy cow, how do you know the…" "My mom grew us up on the music".

3

Ducharmes and Watsons having a weiner roast.
1955
547 Lakeview Road, St. James, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

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Ducharmes and Watsons having a weiner roast.

Front (L-R): Norma and Amelia Ducharme
Back (L-R): Shirley, Bob, Bill Watson, and Norman and Diana Ducharme.

547 Lakeview St.
Circa 1956.

5

After a blizzard, the Watson and Ducharme children tobogganing off the roof of the ice house.
547 Lakeview St.
Circa 1960.

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After a blizzard, tobogganing off the ice house
1955
547 Lakeview Road, St. James, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

7

And then our fathers would hook up the toboggans and then pull us behind the car on the toboggans.

Yeah.

I remember doing that.

Hey, that was fun!

That's awesome, that's fun! I'd like to try that.

They'd lose us and then have to stop the car and we'd run behind jump back on.

And being out on the prairie like that, there were huge snow banks, because the plough would come and open the road up like, Watson's access to the road was from Harcourt to Lakeview and so that they had to open up that whole field and they had, we had huge snow banks from that and of course we, they opened up a road for us to Ronald, was about half way to what they had to do for, for Jack and we had these huge snow banks, we used to build snow houses, like igloos, in there we'd dig em out…

Oh yeah, and make tunnels.

And make tunnels all over in the snow banks.

8

Walking home through the prairie
June, 2005
Living Prairie Museum, St. James, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

9

Big family, huge family, but I used to love the flowers in the field. I'd take my time walking through the field, to come home from school because you'd come across the, there was the buttercups, there was the bluebells, and the crocuses--I love the crocuses and the clover.

There was some, ah…

And you get that...

Tiger lilies, too.

…fragrance. Oh yeah, we had tiger lilies, oh yeah. And they all grew in the prairie there, I don't know if they still do I imagine they still do.

We used to always pick bouquets for mom and shake the ants off and bring them to her, she loved that.

Yeah, we used to, but I used to love the flowers. And there was those white ones too, what were they? Uh, oh, that was clovers, I guess. But, it was all so pretty, I just loved walking through the field to come home, we had our pathway through there…

10

Monday was wash day
1914

Credits:
Image courtesy of: Archives of Manitoba, Foote 2115, N2873

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And my mom was always a hard worker, I remember when Monday was wash day, you know and baking bread day and she had clothes line of clothes and our job after school was to take clothes off the line and bring them in, dampen it and put it in the back for ironing day and fold it, I remember folding day

Yeah.

And in winter it was stiffer than a board bringing it in.

And we had to hang em, we had to go out and hang em in the wintertime, and so that they froze slightly and, and there is no freshness like that. It doesn't matter what kind of air freshener you use.

Bounce sheet whatever, it doesn't bring that smell, when you go into sheets that have been hung outside and frozen.

When you bring them in and you know there is no freshness like that, there is no, nothing like that.

Monday was wash day and Monday was baking bread day.

12

Canning the Garden
1950

Credits:
Image courtesy of : Glenbow Archives, NA-4159-29

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We had a dirt cellar in our little old house.

Yeah.

Canning season that was full of jars

Yeah, cause we'd can everything from the garden because there was no freezer.

What kinds of things did you grow in your garden?

Oh, peas, beans, potatoes,

Corn.

Corn.

Beets.

Beets.

Cabbage.

Cucumbers, cabbage, everything was canned and pickled and…

Yeah.

It was…

Everything we could can we canned and we used to go in the bush, there, ah…the big bush, and there was wild strawberries….

And raspberries

And raspberries and uh…chokecherries, right?

Yeah.

Yeah, chokecherries, we used to pick those as they ripened and we'd can those.

And mom would make jam out of that.

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Waxing the floor with wool socks
2005