1

Moving to Harcourt Street
1940
St. James, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

2

1937 or '38, my parents carted me by little wagon, I slept in it at night time, they carted me out to this old dilapidated house; two story house. With a barn. And it was on Harcourt street, to the west. Which is now, ah, which is now part of the Living Prairie Museum and adjacent to the Sturgeon Creek school. This is very close to the border of the property of the school. That house was, as I say, dilapidated and I think I lived there only one year. We moved down to Williamette on Harcourt Street, 272 Harcourt Street. It was called Williamette in those days. It wasn't called the … the '60's that it was changed to Lodge.

3

The Bald Prairie
1902

Credits:
Image Courtesy of Glenbow Archives NA-3563-54

4

No trees. There's just bald prairie. And I remember the tiger lilies and the crocuses and stuff like that. I particularly, what sticks in my mind as a young lad at that time, was the spring time, I went out to the barn and I heard the meadowlarks, the robins and the smell. The smell of the fresh air was particularly noticeable to me at that particular time.

Can you try to describe that smell for me?

Well, it was very fragrant. Ah, very fragrant. Ah, well, in those days too, after a rain there was released negative ions from the grasses and, and stuff like that. And that invigorated you. They use negative ions now in hospitals to help aid in the recovery of patients. So, it was similar, even when I lived down further on Harcourt Street off of Williamette there was an awful lot of ah, um, ah...empty spaces - fields we call them. Fields, in between houses. And when I used to come home at night time from the theatre downtown, either I walked home from Sharp Boulevard; the street cars only ran to Sharp Boulevard. But anyway, I either ran home, walked home or took a bus. After a rain, those negative ions were just so noticeable. And they gave you such energy, boy oh boy, and a feeling of well-being.

5

Bannatyne School
1951
St. James, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

6

So, I mean, you can call them little burrows or anything or whatever you want. But, in those days: "You from Woodhaven?" "Yah". "You from St. Charles?" "Yah". "You're from Sturgeon Creek". And we knew specifically where the person approximately lived. So, why they came out. I don't know. I was too small. But, I'm glad they did because, ah, even though the Children's Aid Society took me over, I had established a real rapport, friendly relationship with my peers, ah, and their parents. Ah, I was into sports, and Spud Murphy - Harold Murphy was his real name, but we used to call him "old Spud". Ah, he was the principle of the Bannatyne school. And he insisted that all students get involved in sports of some sort. So there was football, soccer, hockey, baseball and the occasional boxing (laughs). But, I was very avid in ah, in ah, and active I should say, ah in sports. And although I'm of ah, I was only 5'9 ½", 5'10" at the time, I was quite strong. And, one time, it was grade 9, the Children's Aid Society had me out 26 miles west of Stonewall and I wanted to come back to Sturgeon Creek so badly, but the Children's Aid Society tried to get me to stay out there, on a farm. I hated it with a passion. Anyway, they finally relented in the early part of October and I came back to school and they found me a home in Kirkfield park, and I came to school announced that, Mr. Grafton was the teacher of Grade 9, I announced that I was coming back to school that next day. As I was leaving the school, walking across the playground, Lennie Brown came out, running after me, he says: "John, how would you like to be on our soccer team?" I says "yes". And I knew I was home.

7

John A. Carlstrom's Yearbook
1946
Bannatyne School, St. James, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

8

John Carlstrom's Yearbook from Bannatyne School, St. James, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

1946

9

Hunting and trapping on the prairies
1919
Manitoba, Canada

Credits:
Image courtesy of: Archives of Manitoba, Sport-Hunting 10, N4334

10

There was so many, so many plants. Oh my god! But you see, even when I moved down Harcourt street there, to Williamette and Harcourt, I used to, during the '40's, I walked up and down there, into the bushes. Up even passed Saskatchewan Avenue, through the bushes, with my little gun. I'd shoot rabbits or squirrels and stuff like that. And I also did a lot of hunting, ah trapping I mean, sorry, trapping. I trapped weasels, ah, tried to trap mink. Most of the mink were escaped from ranches. They were was, up over here, [referring to his map] was a mink ranch. That's where they mostly escaped from. Those pelts were worth more than the weasels. I think at that time the weasels were only worth about $2.85 for a good pelt. They… I went to the Sturgeon Creek in the spring time - early April, and trapped muskrats.

11

Adventures with poison ivy
1960

Credits:
Image courtesy of: National Library of Canada, 261

12

Ah, that in itself is a story that is painful (laughs). Very painful. I used to caddy at the St. Charles Golf Course and, I think I was 13 at the time, and they had no bathroom facilities for caddies in those days. So you had to go into the bush to ah, ah relieve yourself. And, I had to one time do number two. And ah, so I squatted down and I finished and I looked in my wallet and I didn't have any paper. So I saw these plants with big leaves on it. So I used those to wipe myself and the next day, ah, the poison ivy hit. And increasingly over the next three weeks - it lasted about six weeks. And I was covered. Not only from the rear-end right to the eyes; all over the body. And as Carmen Ratan said at the time, "It may hit you for seven years straight, but after that then it should it should go". It did. It hit me every summer for seven years.

13

Scott Homestead
1948
Living Prairie Museum, St. James, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

14

Way out here, [referring to the map] an old haunted house. Um, there was 5 or 6 of us, would go up to that haunted house way up passed Saskatchewan Avenue in the fields here.

So near Victoria Street and Saskatchewan Avenue?

Yeah. Old haunted house. And we'd go in there with our slingshots. Three guys would get up on the second floor and three guys on the bottom floor and we'd have a fight. You know? And of course we didn't hurt each other much, but we scared the be-Jesus out of each other. You'd aim your sling shot with a rock and it would go whistling around the room like that and you'd try to avoid it. Well that's boys for ya.