What is Remembrance Day?

By Terrie Todd

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, the First World War officially ended with the signing of the armistice agreement. Originally called “Armistice Day,” this day was first observed in 1919 throughout the British Commonwealth.

From 1921 to 1930, Armistice Day was held on the Monday of the week in which November 11 fell. In 1931, the House of Commons changed its name to “Remembrance Day” and set it for November 11 every year thereafter. The United States used to commemorate Armistice Day on November 11. In 1954 they changed the name to Veterans Day.

Each year, the Royal Canadian Legion sells poppies to raise funds to assist veterans.

As a girl in elementary school, I recall standing in the assembly hall for this occasion every November 11. We’d wear poppies, sing O Canada and Oh God, Our Help in Ages Past. We’d spend a full interminable minute in silence, staring at our shoes. Wreaths would be laid. One of the older students would recite John McCrae’s poem, In Flanders Fields. We might have had a bugler or trumpeter play The Last Post if our small community had had one. A veteran or two would say a word. We’d close with the singing of God Save the Queen. Then we’d get to go home for the remainder of the day. If we were lucky, there’d be snow to play in.

To me, it seemed an event about old men. Now I realize that most of my community’s WWII vets, like my father, were only in their forties at the time. Now that I’m a mother of adult sons and a daughter who did a short military stint, I see it all through a completely different lens.

Every year on November 11, Canadians pause in a moment of silence to honor and remember the men and women who have served and continue to serve Canada during times of war, conflict and peace. We remember the more than 2,300,000 Canadians who have served throughout our nation’s history and the more than 118,000 killed in action.

Canada’s national ceremony is held at the National War Memorial in Ottawa, with the Governor General of Canada presiding. The televised ceremony is also attended by the Prime Minister, other government officials, representatives of Veterans’ organizations, other dignitaries, veterans, as well as the general public. Usually, a children’s choir sings. When I hear them, I’m transported back to that elementary school assembly with the somber adults and the mysterious traditions that now mean a whole lot more.

Canada's National War Memorial in Ottawa

Terrie Todd is the award-winning author of four historical and two split-time novels. Rose Among Thornes won the 2022 Word Award for best cover and the Debra Fieguth Social Justice award. The Last Piece won The Word Guild’s best contemporary novel award. Her next book, Lilly’s Promise, releases next month. Terrie lives with her husband, Jon, in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, Canada where they raised their three children. They are grandparents to five boys.
 

 

 

 

 

From soup explosions to fearsome medical procedures, from the stories behind our favorite Christmas carols to meeting a first grandchild, Terrie Todd’s popular “Faith and Humor” column has been encouraging and amusing readers of The Graphic Leader for ten years. This book celebrates a decade of wit and wisdom found in Terrie’s hand-picked favorites. Arranged by category, Out of My Mind could be called a weirdly out-of-order memoir of a life in which faith and humor dwell hand in hand. Categories include: Faith, Marriage & Family, The Writing Life, Health & Fitness, Easter, Mother’s & Father’s Day, Thanksgiving, Remembrance Day, Christmas. Out of My Mind makes a great gift for any occasion.

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Butchart Gardens

by Anita Mae Draper

circa 1921, The Sunken Garden, Butchart Gardens, Victoria, BC 

Back in March 1992, I had a job opportunity to spend a week in Victoria on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. With my workday ending at 4:30 pm, I had time to explore the sights. One of my forays was to the renowned Butchart Gardens, a National Historic site of Canada located in nearby Brentwood Bay. The site of the Butchart Gardens is a depleted limestone quarry originally owned and run by Robert Butchart who, in 1904, had moved with his wife from Ontario to start a cement business on the island. By 1909, the limestone was exhausted and Robert abandoned the scarred pit, but not Benventuo, the home which he and Jennie had built on the site. 

Jennie Butchart at Benvenuto, Butchart Gardens, Victoria, BC

Jeannette Foster Kennedy was an adventurer who had flown in hot air balloons. She had graduated from Brantford Young Ladies' College and held a certificate in chemistry. She had won a scholarship to study art in Paris. Yet Jennie married for love and settled down with her cement manufacturer with an ugly pit for a view. Jennie was not a gardener, but it is said that one day as she stared at the ruined landscape of the scarred quarry, she envisioned it filled with a glorious array of color. 

March 1992, The Sunken Garden, Butchart Gardens, Victoria, BC

As someone who's lived in a Zone 1 or 2 gardening region most of my life, and an enriching five years in Zone 5, I was excited to see what was happening in Zone 8 in March, which was when I took my trip in 1992. This will explain why my photos show greenery, but not the glorious color that appears in many brochures and advertising ephemera that represents the Butchart Gardens. Regardless, the image above shows the fabulous Sunken Garden with two of the iconic Pyramidal Arborvitae, originally planted over 100 years ago. If you compare this image with the 1921 photograph at the top of this post, you will see how the conical trees were set on either side of the main path, exactly where they are today. (My image doesn't show the tree on the left of the path.)

Spring 1923, The Sunken Garden Quarry Walls, Butchart Gardens, Victoria, BC

With the help of professional gardeners, Jennie tucked plants and seedlings in every opening and crevice along quarry walls so that what looked like the above photograph in the spring of 1923, appeared in March 1992 like this...

March 1992, The Sunken Garden Quarry Walls, Butchart Gardens, Victoria, BC

Jennie left a rocky mound in the middle of the pit area and added a stunning curved stone staircase which led up to a fabulous lookout of the Sunken Garden. 

1911-1912, The Sunken Garden Staircase, Butchart Gardens, Victoria, BC

Although there are images that show the mound in full splendor, I was pleased to see the staircase surrounded in muted foliage rising from a sea of green when I took this image in March 1992...

Spring 1992, The Sunken Garden Staircase, Butchart Gardens, Victoria, BC

The Sunken Garden is only one of 5 gardens which make up the Butchart Gardens, the others being the Italian Garden, the Mediterranean Garden, the Japanese Garden, and the Rose Garden. I loved the Japanese Garden and the peace I felt as I toured that part, but it was the Rose Garden which made me pause.

1923, Rose Garden, Benventuo, Butchart Gardens, Victoria, BC

The Rose Garden was the only time I wished I had been able to tour the Gardens later in the year. Although I could visualize the trellises laden with heavy-scented boughs of roses, I missed the beauty of having them in my memory. Even yet, I dawdled as I walked beneath the arches, promising myself I'd return some day to face their emblazoned bloom. 

Spring 1992, Rose Arbor, Benventuo, Butchart Gardens Rose Garden, Victoria, BC

With fear and lock downs filling our current world, we need to think about how we will use our time when we finally have the liberty to walk free outside. I've started making a list of places I really want to see or revisit...not if I get a chance, but when I make the time. First on that list is to revisit the Butchart Gardens, this time with my husband and plant-loving daughter, unlike my solitary visit years ago. Beauty after the ugliness. That's how to brighten our world.  

Have you made a list for when you regain your liberty?

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Anita Mae Draper lives on the Canadian prairies where she uses her experience and love of history to enhance her stories of yesteryear's romance with realism and faith. Readers can enrich their story experience with visual references by checking Anita's Pinterest boards. All links available on her website at www.anitamaedraper.com

Winter Travel by Caboose

Heated caboose on sleigh runners labelled "Saskatoon Beer", 1900-1909. Source:

Western Development Museum Curatorial Centre, Saskatoon, SK

Did the above image grab your attention? It sure caught mine. I was researching images of winter transportation, such as school bus sleighs in heavy snow zones, when I happened upon what I first thought was an early party bus. Considering it is heated by a stove and shows two women and a man in well-dressed clothing, it seemed to be the right setting. However, further research seems to indicate that the heated caboose in this 1900-1909 photograph was actually used to transport beer from Saskatoon Brewing Company to Saskatchewan's thirsty bars, and not the people who would drink it.


The word caboose intrigued me as I'd only heard it referred to as the back end of a train, but when I searched for winter caboose I found an exhibit for 100 Years of Transportation in Lanigan and District at virtualmuseum.ca. Thanks to the Lanigan & District Heritage Centre for granting permission to show them here. 

Home-made Winter Caboose, ca 1940. Courtesy of the Lanigan & District Heritage Centre, Lanigan, SK

The common denominator of a caboose is the presence of a small stove. In the accompanying text, Marion Barclay writes, "...They were quite comfortable and warm. You plodded along and you never got there very fast. It was a little better than walking."

I discovered that a caboose was often invented and built by a farmer for any winter travel whether it was for school use, church, shopping, or visiting.

Closed-In Rig, circa. 1930. Courtesy of the Lanigan & District Heritage Centre, Lanigan, SK

One prairie province over to the left, Alberta was using the same type of caboose for winter travel. Sometimes they would take an old car or buggy topper and put it on a wooden sleigh bottom - anything to stop the wind and keep the heat inside.

Go-devil sleigh, Dorothy area, Alberta, ca. 1930s. Courtesy of Glenbow Archives, Calgary, AB

Heading back into Saskatchewan, we see how a Catholic priest completed his parish circuit during the prairie winter. 

Father Thomas J. Ash near Meacham, Saskatchewan, n.d. Courtesy of Glenbow Archives, Calgary, AB

You can see the smoke stack in some of the photographs, such as this one from the Sask History Online site with the Western Development Museum (WDM) which shows two women waving from the inside. A note written across the top says, "One like this tipped over with mom inside." 

"One like this tipped over with mom inside", 1930-1939. Courtesy of the Western Development Museum Curatorial Centre, Saskatoon, SK

Also with the WDM we have this image of a caboose showing a man and children with lunch pails. It doesn't say if they were going to school, work, or whatever, but it looks like they would be gone for the day.

The rig we used for winter travel ‘47. Courtesy of the Western Development Museum Curatorial Centre, Saskatoon, SK

Travelling east to the prairie province of Manitoba we find what they called an "Early Bombadier [sic] type bus" used to ferry miners to the Flin Flon mines. I'm fairly sure they meant a Bombardier, although as an anglophone, I remember calling it a "bombadeer" in my younger days as well.

Early bombadier type bus, Manitoba. Ca. 1930s. Courtesy of Glenbow Archives, Calgary, AB

In the 1950s, the Lanigan School Unit purchased a Bombardier for getting students to and from school, and by that time the winter caboose had started to look like the modern version we know today.

Lanigan School Unit No. 40, 1950-1960. Courtesy of the Lanigan & District Heritage Centre, Lanigan, SK

As you've noticed, all of the above images are from the Canadian prairies, but not for want of looking. When I crossed the Manitoba border into Minnesota, however, I found this one in the fonds of the Beltrami Island reforestation project...

This cabin was mounted on sleigh last winter to transport four children to and from school. July 1936. Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

The writeup for the Beltrami Island one says, "This cabin was mounted on sleigh last winter to transport four children to and from school. A stove was kept inside to protect them from the severe cold. The children only missed one day of school the entire winter. Used to leave the house at 6:30 a.m. so as to get to school by 8:30 a.m."

There should be more of these types of images in photo albums and museums all across the snow belt of America and I'd love to show them here as well. If you know of any pre 1950 images like the ones above please let me know, either here in the comments or through the Contact page of my website.

Do you have a preference for winter travel when all of the above images are taken into consideration?

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Anita Mae Draper's historical romances are written under the western skies of the Saskatchewan prairie where her love of research and genealogy yield fascinating truths that layer her stories with rich historical details.  Anita's short story, Here We Come A-Wassailing, was a finalist for the Word Guild's 2015 Word Awards. Her novellas are included in Austen in Austin Volume 1, The American Heiress Brides Collection, and The Secret Admirer Romance Collection. Readers can check out Anita's Pinterest boards for a visual idea of her stories to enrich their reading experience.  Discover more at:

Website - www.anitamaedraper.com

Pinterest - www.pinterest.com/anitamaedraper/

Alberta Ranch: Summer Haying

Have you ever been on a hay ride? Nowadays they call it a hay ride but instead of using hay, you get to sit or lean against straw bales. Physically, the difference is that straw is the stalk that's left after a grain like wheat, oats or barley has been harvested. It's a yellow or golden color and because it's hollow, it's kind of fluffy until it's pressed down flat which makes it great for animal bedding.

Hay is alfalfa, clover and many grasses that are cut while still green during the summer months and baled or wrapped to seal in the nutrients for the cold winter season. The stalks make up a large portion of hay because they are filled with nutrition unlike the hollow stems of straw. Between the stalks and dried leaves, hay is scratchy, poky and prickly. Think of the bay leaves you add to soups and stews.

Anita Mae Draper nee Muir, Ryland, Ontario

I know because I learned to drive a tractor when I was 12 so that I could pull the hay rack (wagon) while my grandparents pitched hay onto it. My cousins got the job of running back and forth and tamping down the hay in the wagon while I drove to the next hay stack. By the end of the day, they had cuts and scratches from the hay, and if I have to admit it, they had a couple bumps and bruises, too. You see, being a new driver and all, I kept letting out the clutch too fast and having the tractor jump forward which made my cousins tumble into each other and over the side. Oh, the hazards of haying season.



That same summer, Pappa (my Finnish grandfather), taught me how to use the hay cutter and hay rake. Although Pappa could do it himself with a rope that was pulled behind the tractor, he had a bad back and it was better if he didn't have to turn around so much to see what was going on. The hay cutter was a long sickle like moving blade like the kind the maintenance crews use to cut grass and hay beside the roads. On the farm, I would sit on the hay cutter with the 4-5 foot blade heading off to the right. Pappa would start the tractor and off we'd go. My job was to watch for rocks or any other things that would stop the cutting action and either ricochet off or break the blade. Whenever I spotted something, I would push down on a foot pedal while pulling back on a lever which would raise the blade. The harder I pressed and pulled, the higher the blade raised.

As with the other ranch photos in this series, the images of haying in this post are from the Glenbow Museum Archives collection of photographs by rancher Hugh Beynon Biggs showing life on an Alberta ranch in the early 1900's.

In the following photograph you see two men standing on the hay racks where they're pitching the hay around and tamping/pressing it down to make room for more. The two men on the ground are preparing to pitch hay up to the men on the hay rack. My guess is that the man in the foreground is sitting on a cutter with the blade hiding in the grass on his right. The lever to raise the cutter is slightly in front of him within reach of his right hand. (Sticking up behind the other man.)

Haying, Springfield [Biggs] ranch, near Beynon, Alberta. ca. 1900. Courtesy of Glenbow Museum Archives

Once the hay was cut, it had to be raked into piles like the ones in this next image. The man's right foot is on/near a pedal that raises the rake when it's full. There's also a lever that he can pull. I seem to remember using both the lever and the pedal when I was twelve, but if you check out this video of a woman working the hay rake, pay attention to her right foot at the 6-8 second mark. (If the link doesn't work, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZW9YTZwGow)

Man with hay rake, Springfield [Biggs] ranch, near Beynon, Alberta. ca. 1900. Courtesy of Glenbow Museum Archives

This next image called, Load of Hay at Camp, implies that the farm hands camped out during hay season. This makes sense because as soon as hay is ready to be stacked/baled, it should be done as fast as possible. Rain will rob nutrients from the hay and cause mold which will spoil hay and make livestock sick. Spending time traveling back to the ranch to sleep isn't good management if you have food and shelter available to the men.

Load of hay at camp, Beynon area, Alberta. ca. 1895-1896. Courtesy of Glenbow Museum Archives

Perhaps they didn't have shade awnings like they do now, but these ranch hands knew how to use hay and here you see them using it to provide shade for their dining table. Can you see the bucket in the front? I believe that's a stump or can behind it where the men would sit while shaving. There's probably a mirror under the upturned basin. 

Springfield (Biggs) Ranch, near Beynon, Alberta. ca. 1900. Courtesy of Glenbow Museum Archives

With the hay cut and raked, it would be stacked in the field so it was easy to reach in winter. Better to have the hay out in the pasture near the stock than try to haul through snow drifts. 

Haying, Springfield (Biggs) Ranch, near Beynon, Alberta. ca. 1900. Courtesy of Glenbow Museum Archives

The hands would stack the hay in a high arc so that rain and snow could slide down the slopes.

Staking Hay, Beynon, Alberta. ca. 1895. Courtesy of Glenbow Museum Archives

Usually the top couple of feet on a hay stack will be spoiled from the effects of the elements, but then it will be good underneath, so when planning a hay stack, they will put hay that isn't as good on the top as the cover. Nowadays they use tarps.

Haying, Springfield (Biggs) Ranch, near Beynon, Alberta. ca. 1900. Courtesy of Glenbow Museum Archives

How long do they make these stacks? I don't know as this is the longest one I've seen made from loose hay. 

Hay Stack, Springfield (Biggs) Ranch, near Beynon, Alberta. ca. 1900. Courtesy of Glenbow Museum Archives

And of course, not all the hay is left in the pasture. This next image shows a ranch hand directing the pulley system which lifts a hay carrier up to the loft of a barn or stable. In one scene of Romantic Refinements, my novella in Austen in Austin Volume 1, my hero is the man forking hay in the wagon. There's a tense moment when the heroine wonders if the rising hay carrier will fall on him and that's all that I'm going to say about that. 

Haying, Springfield (Biggs) Ranch, near Beynon, Alberta. ca. 1900. Courtesy of Glenbow Museum Archives

And of course, things happen no matter where you are. I have an idea of what may have happened to this broken hay wagon. 

Damaged Hay Wagon, Springfield (Biggs) Ranch, near Beynon, Alberta. ca. 1900. Courtesy of Glenbow Museum Archives

What do you think happened to it? 

Thanks for allowing me to share a journey back to my childhood and farther back to the turn of the century.  For more photos of this Alberta Ranch, check out these other posts:

Feb 5, 2016 - Alberta Ranch Winter Photos

Mar 5, 2016 - Riding Side Saddle

Apr 5, 2016 - Ranch Photos Women and Chores

May 5, 2016 - Alberta Ranch Cowboy Chore Photos 

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Anita Mae Draper's stories are written under the western skies where she lives on the prairie of southeast Saskatchewan with her hubby of 30 plus years and the youngest of their four kids. When she's not writing, Anita enjoys photography, research, and travel, and is especially happy when she can combine the three in one trip. Anita's current release is Romantic Refinements, a novella in Austen in Austin Volume 1, WhiteFire Publishing, January 2016.  Anita is represented by Mary Keeley of Books & Such Literary Management. You can find Anita Mae at  www.anitamaedraper.com

Romantic Refinements by Anita Mae Draper

It's the Texas-style version of Marianne Dashwood in Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility...

A  misguided academy graduate spends the summer falling in love . . . twice.

One of four novellas based on Jane Austen's heroines found in 

Austen in Austin Volume 1