1

Bannatyne School: Grade 9 class
1946
St. James, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

2

Or, if we took the short cut, went through the bush, cut it pretty much in half. Just had to be careful, these people named Reynold's, they lived kiddie-corner to Bannatyne School, so you had to be careful cause they had this dog. So if you were brave you went through the bush…

Brave, or late, I guess.

(laughs) Yeah. So we went to Bannatyne, we like Bannatyne school-to me, it's still the best school there ever was.

3

Flo's Baseball Team at Bannatyne School
1946
St. James, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

4

Bannatyne Girl's Softball Team. In the middle row (far left) Florence Brown (nee: Kirkby).
In front of Bannatyne School, St. James, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
1946

5

Jimmy Stewart's class at Bannatyne School
1935
St. James, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

6

…Rifle range to the butts…And we used to go and watch the motorcycle races, they went up over the hill and to the north, through the bushes, they had a path, and one day I went along with my brothers, and Jimmy Stewart was a great motorcycle fan/rider. And one day, he came in one of the races, and he lost control, and or whatever happened, I don't know exactly and he crashed and the next thing I knew, he was just covered in blood and dirt and whatever was on that path and I just stood behind my brother, Lauder, and I just peaked out at and I saw him and that was the last time I ever wanted to go near that race track.

And he died.

And he died. That was really…

7

Excavation of Indian Burial Ground
1930
St. James, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

8

They dug out the top, 'til they come to some stones and then they dug by hand and they dug around and cleaned off these stones and there was a pile of stones in the center and four small, small piles in the direction of the compass (north, south and east and west) and it was getting on to late and the guy wanted to take a picture of these, but he said, well, we'll do it in the morning, so after they left, I guess some kids had come before they got there in the morning and had scattered the stones around so he said, put them back like they looked, and the guy took his pictures, but then they removed the stones and they dug below them and they took out seven skeletons, human skeletons, and the guy took them away, the bones away with him.

9

The prairie was our playground
1940

Credits:
Image courtesy of: Glenbow Archives, NA-3535-159

10

Yeah, the prairie to us was our playground. And going over to the butts, and digging for what we called slugs, I guess, and we used to actually take skis or whatever we called a sleigh, over to the butts, and we'd go up and down there and have a great time. And then we'd walk home and freeze our feet off, think why did we do that, but you know, we always went back again. It was just something about it that drew us there and besides, we didn't have things that entertain us, we had to make our own fun, so, that was the way we did it and we had a great time.

11

Victoria Street showing rifle range and Sturgeon Creek.
April, 1957
St. James, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

12

...close to here, and we used to roam around the prairie here, the distance we would roam in those days was quite a bit, we'd go all the way up to Saskatchewan Ave, and then across it there was some haystacks, we'd go up, play in the haystacks, and there'd be a big barang of kids and coming home you'd see the older ones ahead strung out and the younger ones way behind…played out.

So how far do you think, how far would that be?

Ah…well it was over a mile anyway.

13

Flo's prairie
2004
Living Prairie Museum, St. James, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

14

Well, I think, as kids we sorta though the prairies was ours. We used to go up there and pick crocuses, so many, many times, bring em home, put them in some water, and they always seemed a new adventure every time you went up there. In fact…

and we called it the prairie

In fact, we used to see the kids that went to Bannatyne School, but they lived on the other side of Portage, and it was like they sorta lived there, but then we would hide behind my house on Harcourt Street. And we'd watch around the corner, cause we didn't have any paint on our house and we were kinda embarrassed to say the least. But when we'd see these kids come across there, we'd think 'oh, they're going up to get our crocuses again!