1

Prairie fire
2004
Living Prairie Museum, St. James, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

2

And if you continued on down that path, there was ah an outhouse on the very edge of it and one of the family stories was the day that my dad accidentally dropped his, what he thought was his, put out cigarette or match and, and still sat there for awhile (laughing) until the whole family saw him race out, I guess, with his pants around his ankles. Because (laughing) it was another prairie fire. One of many that we had. We had many stories about prairie fires. And let's see. And then ah, north of that was a huge garden that they put in. And we had picked potato bugs and things like that in that garden. And the house was a, was a dirt basement so it was on a little bit of a hill about 2 feet high or so. And ah, extended out from the house maybe 10 feet, this little hill. And ah, it was flat, a flat topped hill. Just a mound basically to keep the house off the ah, you know, water from running in or whatever. And dad set a fire once at the edge of that mound - 10 feet from the house, and didn't test the wind so we were (laughs) all dipping our potato sacks into that water tank and putting out the fire before it hit the house, basically.

Mmhmm.

We were our own fire brigade.

3

Hauling water from the Sturk's natural spring
1921

Credits:
Image courtesy of: Glenbow Archives, NA-1500-2

4

Ping-pong. And darts in the kitchen. The dart board was on the bathroom door so we had to stop the dart game if someone had to use the washroom. And ah, we had a wood stove with ah, stove pipes from which, you know, hangers hung with the clothes on to dry in winter. And um, [sound of something rubbing the microphone], we had a cellar with a, pumped water, which I stopped drinking water after I left Ronald Street because nothing tasted as good.

Mmmm. So you had a…

There was a lot of iron in it.

…a well underneath?

We had a well underneath, I guess. You know, I never saw it, but…

Mmhmmm.

Ah, let's see. You lost me.

So you didn't go down to the neighbourhood pumps for the water?

No we didn't.

You just used the water underneath.

I think at one time they did, but um, but um, because I remember them talking about going to Wallacy Street to get water, but that was before my time. We had a pump. That was my job, was to bring up the water.

Heavy job for a little…

Yup.

…the youngest.

Yeah.

5

Picking mushrooms
2006

Credits:
Image courtesy of: Nova Scotia Museum DHP042497-DEV01514

6

...us the ah concord ah baskets, concord grape baskets, empty of course. And Terry, who was 5 years older than me, and myself would go out and pick it full of mushrooms and bring them home and she'd fry them up in butter, salt and pepper and… and so ah, delicious.

And these mushrooms just grew naturally on the prairie?

These mushrooms grew wherever the horses from Sunshine Riding Academy on Wallasey Street ah, went by, because they grow in horse manure.

7

Doing Chores
1906

Credits:
Image courtesy of: Glenbow Archives, NA-1148-11

8

My brothers had to, you know...ah shovel coal down the coal chute. Which we sometimes slid on in our old clothes. Slid down the coal chute which is a lot of fun. And um, they shovelled all the way out to Harcourt Street which is, you know a distance of a block to get the car out in the winter.

Wow.

And, just regular, regular chores around the house like, you know, take out the toilet (laughs).

Yah. Out to the outhouse?

Yah.

The outhouse way at the far end of your property, that was where they took it?

Yah that's probably where they took it. Somewhere 'round there I think yah. And you know putting on socks to ah shine the hard waxed floors, the linoleum.

Yah.

And our floors were slanted because it was on a dirt basement. So it was great fun because you could just slide down the kitchen basically. You know take a running start and slide most of the way down to the kitchen, yah.

9

Wind in the Grass
1971
Living Prairie Museum, St. James, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

10

Grass, mainly. The sounds of ah crickets. Ah, the wind, the wind blowing the grass and I, you know, I guess when I was little, that's what I saw mostly. I, we did lie on our backs and look at the stars at night and also the, also picked out pictures in the clouds in the day. And that was something that we did - it wasn't just a one time thing, you know? I mean my friends and me did that.

How tall was the grass?

Ah, the grass was, at that time I would say, about (pause) two to two and a half feet tall. It wasn't as tall as some of the tall grass prairie things that I've seen.

11

Vertical Man, Horizontal Land
1973

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And that may be true of ah just childhood, is that you, you get a sense of yourself in time and space. And ah, wherever the nature is, you know, and I think in the, in the prairie, years later I came across a a book, the title of a book, I didn't read the book but the title was "Vertical Man and Horizontal Land". And ah, so you do, you do kind of get a sense of ah, you know, of ah, higher being being up in the sky when you stand in the prairie. You don't get a sense of that space going on into nothing, you know? In the day time or the night. The night time seems like a blanket, and the daytime seems like a a positive sunlight type of experience, you know?

13

Lynne Gordon at the Prairie Reunion
20 August 2006
2795 Ness Ave, Living Prairie Museum, St. James, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

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...as you get older then you you sort of come full circle and and you know the land, you know I'm recalling now more things from childhood that shaped me. And nature certainly shaped me. And as I teach, I teach about the birds and the things that were important to me as a child, you know. So in that sense. Yah.

Would you ever consider bringing your class here?

Yes, I would.