COMMON GROUND by JUSTIN TRUDEAU

    I just finished reading Common Ground I found it a very interesting and informative book. I remember Justin's birth and heard about him many times but your don't really know what his life was like or what he did. This book fills in the details.

    Justin's Dad Pierre, was late 40's when he married Justin's mother who was in her early 20's. Justin comments on this factor.

    Justin goes on to cover his parent's divorce, upbringing by his father and much more.

    Justin claims he had a fairly ordinary childhood with brothers who often rough housed. But on the other hand Justin and his brothers travelled with their Dad and met many dignitaries.
 
   Justin spends a lot of time covering his long post secondary education. He spent time teaching and travelling. He decided to take engineering.

   Justin then covers his slow entry into politics. He thought things out before entering the political field. He was ready. He new what he wanted and how to get it.

    He covers his mother's mental health and how it affected his growing up. His mother also remarried and had two children which of course, gave him two half brothers. He spent much time with his mother's family. He also has a half sister who is Pierre's daughter.

   He covers his romance and how he met and courted Sophie. He wants to work with his wife as a team.

   He also had major loses on his life. His brother Michel was lost in a mountaineering accident where he was carried to the bottom of a mountain lake and was never found. And of course, his father's death was devastating.

     Along the way other topics are covered and of course the details are there.

     I found this an interesting book and would highly recommend that people read it. You may not agree with everything, but you will understand Justin's main goal that he wants to find common ground with Canadians and Canada as a country. Surely unity makes for a stronger country.

Hiawatha Ground

       I went to a one room country school for nine years and left it in June of 1954. The next year in June of 1955 the school was closed. In 2006 a marker was placed on the original site of the school and a celebration was held. I was not able to attend the ceremony so I wrote a poem. This poem has been sitting around for six years as I was trying to find a picture of the building. 

This picture was taken in 1948 and shows an interior view of the school.  I am in the second row from the back , third from the left!

This shows a little bit of the weather beaten building and the class from 1947-48


HIAWATHA GROUND

Quiet earth lay covered by prairie grass and buckbrush ,

Meadowlarks,crows and hunting coyotes occasionally passed by,
Briefly visited by many spring blooms ,
And ancient quiet people who scanned the willows for big brown bulks ,
Of many life sustaining energies.

Dustyhorn, Bitternose, Whitefeather, Asqpace...

Suddenly, settlers appear to till the land
And put down roots of settlement
Which spawned wire fences , trails ,roads
And dwellings to house their families
And patient beasts of burden.
King, Clark, Minnings, Paul...


Then their children required an education
So a school house was  patiently planned
By careful applications to the powers of the land
Who controlled the many details of
Official school district formation.
Hawes, Weurfel, Winks, Rathwell...


So with patient effort acceptance was gained
To build a school with gifted labor
Borrowed money and volunteers who
Undertook the time consuming supervision
Which produced a shining building for the children.
Ingelton, Bushell, Taylor, Wildeman...


Years of care to run the school
Find and pay a teacher
Repair the roof and walls
Fill out the required forms and reports
For the privilege of keeping kids in school.
Barber, Johnson, Langille, Stevenson...


Quiet Christians gathered there
In the name of the Lord to sing
And pray and study God's word
Which supported their souls
And daily trials and tribulations.
Mehaffey, Ronald , Kline, Muir...


Years ground by with depression
Drought ,war and changes slowly
Came to settlers and their way of life
As some moved on to other grounds
To find an easier success.
Manke, Brust, Kabernick, Leggott...


The silent end quickly appeared
When only six lonely scholars filled the desks
And sad decisions were made
To close the Hiawatha learning center
Which had faithfully served quiet locals
Epp, Kreiger, Enns, Freisen...


Now, the ground sleeps deeply once again
Visited by passing hawks and goldfinch
Covered by annual snows
While the joyous shouts of children
And devoted settlers are no longer heard .

Red tailed hawks, ground squirrels, butterflies...

Ten former students and three former teachers.

The marker set up on the school site.

The Old One Room country School

      This was the fifth post I made when I started blogging. I was disappointed to find out that no one read it so I'm posting it again. When I read this about my life I find it hard to believe that this is my experience in school. It's long ago and far away.Red

     Where in the world would I come up with a name Hiawatha House for my blog ? Did I see something like this somewhere else? Did I have a streak of creativity . Well, actually none of the above .


     I went to a rural one room school for nine years from the mid forties to the mid fifties . Yes, you can think ahead and guess ... the name of the school ...Hiawatha School District #1720. I, like many others who attended such schools look back with fondness to such schools and therefore honor my old school a bit by naming my blog Hiawatha house .


     I looked forward to going to school as we were somewhat isolated on prairie farms and therefore it was a place to have many playmates and fellow students . We were active on the playground before school began at nine AM. Games were played . Activities from the previous day were continued such as building a snow house or fort .There were chores to be done like putting the horse away for the day, starting a fire in the big stove or getting the day's supply of water . All of these things were done with other kids . It was like a very large family as the enrolment was from nine to seventeen students while I attended .The day proceeded with classes , recesses and noon hours.


      Since there were one to nine or ten grades in a one room school, the teacher had to arrange to have all grades organized so that they were active in the learning process at all times . Much independent work was done by the students . Students helped one another . You couldn't help but hear other lessons or activities going on around you . If you were in grade one you could listen to a grade eight science lesson . By the time you got to grade eight you'd heard the lesson seven times ! Was it boring ? No, it was your turn to be involved in the lesson that you had waited so many years for . Teachers changed and the grade eight science lesson changed . Many activities involved the whole school ...Christmas concerts . All students performed and sometimes the little guys performed with the big guys as a school choir . Think how proud the little guys were to be in something with with the big guys . Our ball teams were made up from usually grade threes to nine. We were immensely proud of these teams when we played other rural schools .


     From grade four to nine I was the only one in the class . I proudly claim that I was top of the class for five years in a row . Besides this I liked working independently . I would do my work fairly quickly , and behave myself so I was not noticed . Why? Then I could read . I loved to read . I would quietly chose a library book from the small book case we had and read . Some of the books I read many times . The school had encyclopedias which I would spend hours thumbing through . I'm sure that most of the time the teacher appreciated me getting lost and not being a nuisance . I'm sure some of the teachers were bright enough to realize that what I was doing was certainly contributing to my progress . I would read and have one ear on what was going on in the classroom ...multi tasking!!


     So the country school was a very pleasant place to spend your time . I have always looked back with pleasure at the time I spent in a rural school . Was it a totally successful learning venue ? Not really . Apologies to those who look on country schools as great learning institutions . There were many positive things which occurred , but many things were absent . We learned the basics , but often not much more . I learned to be a good reader and independent , but didn't learn to be assertive or competitive . As a result when I went to a small high school and later university , I found it difficult to be very active and participate in learning activities . I had not learned to discuss , question or write with any degree of competence .


      However , I do look back with fondness to the time spent in a rural school . We were more than a school ...more a large family with community involvement .


     So here's to you Hiawatha school!


     Hiawatha School closed in June of 1955 with only six students attending in the final year .


     There are many interesting books written about the rural school . One author is John C. Charyk. He has written several interesting accounts of rural schools . Try "The White School House" or "Syrup Pails and Gopher Tails ."

He Left Them Laughing When He Said Good-bye ... a Good Read

      Grant MacEwan is a prolific Alberta author who wrote about agriculture and western Canadian  history. I've read quite few of MacEwan's books and find them informative and interesting. My wife really likes MacEwan's stories.

        Grant MacEwan was born in 1902 and raised in Saskatchewan. He was very interested in agriculture and took an agriculture degree. He was Dean of Agriculture at the University of Alberta where he published an number of books on various agriculture topics. He was also Mayor of Calgary , Alberta and the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta. He was a busy active man who found time to research and write about much of Alberta's history.

       I recently read He Left Them Laughing When He Said Good-bye. It's the story of an young Irish lawyer who comes to Calgary in 1883 when Calgary is very new. Paddy Nolan set up a law practice, but his real claim to fame was as an orator, and raconteur. Nolan was witty, humorous and a credible actor. His law practice was mainly in criminal defence and he had a good record of getting clients off with his rather creative defence strategies.

     Paddy Nolan was active politically although he only ran in one election and did not win. However, Nolan met all the strong characters active in public affairs in Alberta  at that time.

     MacEwan tells an interesting story of Paddy's activities and along the way describes a very interesting character. While MacEwan is describing Nolan he manages to tell us much of Alberta's early history. MacEwan leaves you wanting to know more about Alberta's early history.

A Child's Remembrance

With this week's Remembrance observations, I have been thinking back to what I actually remember about WWII. If you visited Hiawatha House earlier this week, you saw a simple acknowledgement of Remembrance Day. A radio station I listen to was asking people what they thought about during the minute of silence. Many interesting calls came into the station. We not only remember those who died , but what freedom was won, and how we enjoy it because of their efforts. Too often we do not appreciate that the freedoms we enjoy were won at great cost.

This topic also got me thinking back to what I remember about WWII. I was born in Oct. 1939, a few weeks after the war started. Of course, I do not remember the early part of the war.

I vividly remember some things about those times. Keep in mind that they are from a child's perspective. We lived about 40 kms from a special airport which was set up to train pilots. It was known as the Dafoe Airport. The area we lived in was flat prairie with few cloudy days. I remember the noisy yellow Harvards flying over our farmyard. I always hoped that they would land in the yard and pick me up and take me for a ride. Many times they came over at treetop level. (Our farm was surrounded by a shelter belt.) Sometimes they were flying in formation. For a four or five year old it was very exciting to see.

My younger brother and I would listen to the news and turn to each other and say "German,German,German", as the news was always about the Germans. This caused us some consternation as we were of German heritage, and heard the German language in our home almost daily.

We were also involved with wrapping parcels which my mother made to send to her brother and other relatives who were overseas. She would put in some baked goodies and maybe socks, toothpaste and other personal items. We probably weren't of much help to her, but she involved us, and as a result I remember some of those things.

At the end of the war my brother and I were again listening to the radio as reports were given describing troop ships arriving and unloading. We always wondered if Uncle Ernie was getting off the ship. Of course, very few people knew when their family members were actually returning.

We did travel by train occasionally, and in those times the trains were loaded with people in the forces. We found the people in uniform to be very exciting.

My wife was born in England and spent the war years there . She remembers different things. The rationing of food was a large issue for her. She remember the blackouts and her Mickey Mouse gas mask that she was issued. She also remembers some bombs which landed near her home, and the fires which were caused by them.

My memories are only snapshots of incidents which occurred . I often wonder how other children were influenced, and if they were traumatized by what they saw and heard at such a young age.

The Berlin Wall...My Personal Connection

The picture of the Berlin wall falling twenty years ago tonight is still crystal clear in my mind. It was a turning point in history. I was glued to the television and could hardly believe what I saw. There was doubt throughout the whole evening as we did not know if the army and/or police would come out and attack the crowd. There was the odd camera shot of police around corners and behind buildings, but they did not attempt to disperse the crowd. Later, we saw pictures of police officers abandoning their posts and some even joining the crowd in celebration. It was truly a momentous night.

The personal connection is a bit of a stretch, but I really like this story...

My wife toured Europe with four friends in the early sixties. These were the days when you really could "see Europe on five dollars a day". They hitch-hiked into West Berlin. You had to be picked up at a certain spot, and then drive the Autobahn through to West Berlin without stopping. A very friendly West German picked them up, and not only found lodging for them, but toured them around the city. It was a very fortunate contact, and my wife kept in touch with him for many years afterwards.

She remembers the beauty of the city and seeing the wall. One thing that shocked her, however, was how the wall was built through the midddle of a church. She was also struck by the crosses and flowers which marked places where people died as they were trying to escape East Germany by climbing the wall.

The kicker in her trip to West Berlin was that the whole time she was there, the Cuban Missile Crisis was taking place. Of course, they knew nothing about these events. They were in a foreign country and were not able to follow the news (not that she was much interested in current events to begin with). However, the trip had a major influence on her life.

Hiawatha House

HIAWATHA HOUSE

     Where in the world would I come up with a name Hiawatha House for my blog ? Did I see something like this somewhere else? Did I have a streak of creativity . Well, actually none of the above .


     I went to a rural one room school for nine years from the mid forties to the mid fifties . Yes, you can think ahead and guess ... the name of the school ...Hiawatha School District #1720. I, like many others who attended such schools look back with fondness to such schools and therefore honor my old school a bit by naming my blog Hiawatha house .


     I looked forward to going to school as we were somewhat isolated on prairie farms and therefore it was a place to have many playmates and fellow students . We were active on the playground before school began at nine AM. Games were played . Activities from the previous day were continued such as building a snow house or fort .There were chores to be done like putting the horse away for the day, starting a fire in the big stove or getting the day's supply of water . All of these things were done with other kids . It was like a very large family as the enrolment was from nine to seventeen students while I attended .The day proceeded with classes , recesses and noon hours.


      Since there were one to nine or ten grades in a one room school, the teacher had to arrange to have all grades organized so that they were active in the learning process at all times . Much independent work was done by the students . Students helped one another . You couldn't help but hear other lessons or activities going on around you . If you were in grade one you could listen to a grade eight science lesson . By the time you got to grade eight you'd heard the lesson seven times ! Was it boring ? No, it was your turn to be involved in the lesson that you had waited so many years for . Teachers changed and the grade eight science lesson changed . Many activities involved the whole school ...Christmas concerts . All students performed and sometimes the little guys performed with the big guys as a school choir . Think how proud the little guys were to be in something with with the big guys . Our ball teams were made up from usually grade threes to nine. We were immensely proud of these teams when we played other rural schools .


     From grade four to nine I was the only one in the class . I proudly claim that I was top of the class for five years in a row . Besides this I liked working independently . I would do my work fairly quickly , and behave myself so I was not noticed . Why? Then I could read . I loved to read . I would quietly chose a library book from the small book case we had and read . Some of the books I read many times . The school had encyclopedias which I would spend hours thumbing through . I'm sure that most of the time the teacher appreciated me getting lost and not being a nuisance . I'm sure some of the teachers were bright enough to realize that what I was doing was certainly contributing to my progress . I would read and have one ear on what was going on in the classroom ...multi tasking!!


     So the country school was a very pleasant place to spend your time . I have always looked back with pleasure at the time I spent in a rural school . Was it a totally successful learning venue ? Not really . Apologies to those who look on country schools as great learning institutions . There were many positive things which occurred , but many things were absent . We learned the basics , but often not much more . I learned to be a good reader and independent , but didn't learn to be assertive or competitive . As a result when I went to a small high school and later university , I found it difficult to be very active and participate in learning activities . I had not learned to discuss , question or write with any degree of competence .


      However , I do look back with fondness to the time spent in a rural school . We were more than a school ...more a large family with community involvement .


     So here's to you Hiawatha school!


     Hiawatha School closed in June of 1955 with only six students attending in the final year .


     There are many interesting books written about the rural school . One author is John C. Charyk. He has written several interesting accounts of rural schools . Try "The White School House" or "Syrup Pails and Gopher Tails ."