Rosalie Reinbolt (nee Beaudry)

Story #2: Growing up, My Younger Years – Part 2 ***New Story!!!***

When I was a little older, I used a railroad plank as a raft on the slough. Once again, I managed not to fall in, or worse. In the summer, I spent all my time with my horses, dogs, and cats. I had a great life growing up. 

One summer I climbed the windmill at Grants. Mrs. Grant took a picture of me, and said “I have 11 children and none of them has ever climbed that windmill!” She probably never caught them!

In the winter, I tied my sleigh to the horse’s tail and went across the road where the neighbour had left stooks out. I would drive the horse close to the stooks , then make him turn so my sleigh would knock the stooks down and all the mice would scatter. One little girl made a big mess of the field that day. The next day the farmer came with a sleigh and hayrack to pick them up. 

On the farm, I was always at the blacksmith shop with Dad. I really do remember how he shrunk the wheels and put them back together. He would reem the spokes down, then he would solder or weld the rim a little smaller, then they would put a great pile of straw over stones to keep the rim off the ground. They would light the straw and the rim would get red hot by the time the straw burned away. Mom and Dad each had a set of tongs and they would put the rim on the wheel and pound it straight. Then they tipped it up and dropped it into the water. It would shrink and the rim would fit tight to the wheel. The rim would keep the wheel from wearing down.

Dad had a water cooled engine with a magneto attached. He went to the house and said to me,” Leave things alone. God will get you if you touch that.” After awhile, I decided to crank it and as it came around to the connection, WELL, I got a really big shock right up my arm. I ran away as fast as I could. I really thought God had seen me. I realized years later that Dad must have disconnected the wire to the spark plug which gave me a shock. He wanted to teach me a lesson when he said to leave it alone and he knew it wouldn’t do harm to me. Mom and Dad were probably both in the window watching.

Dad or Philip would break up the field across the road with a two-furrow plow and horse. The furrow was black and shiny; it would stay nice and damp until the next furrow turned over. Buster, my dog, and I would follow in the furrow that half mile up and back to smell and feel the fresh soil. The feel and the smell are vivid memories until this day. 

I was always doing things with horses, one evening Mom asked me, “You tethered your horse on the north road, did you bring him in? Go get him, but walk him home, it’s dark.” I rode him back through the ditch without a bridle. A car was coming and I forgot about the approach, my horse and I tripped on the approach at a gallop, and when my horse fell, I flew over him. I wasn’t hurt, but we had to walk the rest of the way back. Mom never knew about that. Often, I would ride Philip’s horse, Skip, to go check cattle. I had heard Philip say Skip could jump fences, so I took him over three fences. Mom was watching from the upstairs window. It’s a good thing the fences were low. 

When I came home from school I would play outside, especially in the winter. I would listen to the coyotes howl, and howl back at them. 

One year the teachers paid us a penny for crow or magpie eggs and 3 cents for two crow’s legs. I spent a lot of time roaming the trees and gullies and collected money for the eggs and legs. Mom never knew where I was, I would be gone for hours and she would just say, “Be careful”. 

Scullys lived 2 ½ miles from us and we would walk there frequently. They had adopted a girl, Mary, and we became best friends. Mary and I would catch frogs in the slough and play with kittens in the loft of the barn. 

I loved cowboy stuff like Dale Evans and Roy Rodgers. A girl from Cutknife taught her horse tricks so of course I wanted to be a cowgirl and a trick rider. I was with my horse all the time. Many times I would come home from Wilbert store standing on my horse at a gallop in the ditch. People slowed down to pass me but said I looked so confident atop that horse. What a showoff! I would ride backwards if the wind was blowing in my face, and I always rode bareback. Most of the horses were slow and patient so I could lay down on their backs for hours looking up at the clouds making different pictures for me. 

I spent many hours with horses, cats, and dogs. They were my playmates. Usually when I wanted to get on my horse, I got him to put his head down and I would put my leg over and he would throw his head up and flip me on his back. I would have to turn around to face forward. I did this with Teddy and Speedy.

My animals and I had a wonderful life

When I joined the 4H club in Cutknife, I was 12 or 13. We did many fun things, square dancing, and curling. The first year I raised a calf (Lucky) but that was the year of Foot and Mouth disease, so we couldn’t show or sell our calves. In Homecrafts I got lots of prizes for my baking in the local fair. I even beat Mom in fancy bread and pie!

In 4H we got to go to other clubs for different competitions, judging or showing, sports, dancing, or curling. We would practice once a week all winter for the Square Dancing Competition. We all dressed alike at the competition and competed against other 4H clubs. Our club got second prize out of all the 4H clubs that entered. I still have my square-dancing skirt. I went to Girls Club week in Saskatoon with a friend and met girls from all over the province. We went for supper at the Bessborough Hotel and took classes in cooking, crafts, and etiquette at the University. It was great.

My memories of those younger years are wonderful. I guess Mom and Dad wanted to have some enjoyment and excitement having a little girl in their lives, but I think they really got more than they bargained for. And I don’t remember them ever getting mad at me. They were very good to me and gave me lots of freedom. Looking back, I marvel at how much freedom I had as a kid growing up on the prairie. It seems life was a lot less complicated then.

Story #1: Growing Up, My Younger Years

When I was 16 months old, I was adopted by Rose and Wilfred Beaudry. I was born in Rouleau, SK but was adopted from a children’s shelter in Regina. Wilfred and Rose had two sons, Philip who was 21, and Albert who was 19. The boys were both working out and shortly after I came, Albert joined the Navy. 

We moved to Cutknife for one year in 1946. We rented the Ramsey house and I attended elementary school. When we lived in Cutknife, we were back alley from the theatre. I would go to the movie for just a dime. The newsreel would play before the cartoons, so I always would wait to be late because that was WWII and the news was usually disturbing. If the movie involved shooting, or was about war, I always went back home. I still don’t like those sorts of movies. 

When I was little, Philip got scarlet fever and was quarantined in his bedroom upstairs. I would play with him for hours, but I never got sick. I did have the measles once. All I remember from that time was staying in a dark room and playing with toys on a pile of blankets. 

One day when I was at school, the fire alarm went off.  Wettlaufer’s garage, Margot’s store, and the RBC in Cutknife all burned to the ground. The drug store was very damaged. What a scary day for me. I stayed at the window in my classroom and wouldn’t go to my desk. After school, my teacher Mrs. Churchman walked me home. 

Before school started again the following year, we moved back to the farm. I drove the horse and cart to school, or should I say, the horse took me to school. I picked up other kids at Wilbert. In the wintertime, I’d pick them up with a cutter. There were many exciting adventures along that road, especially in the wintertime when the snow was high.

I attended Wilbert school. There were 28 kids in Wilbert school at one time, grades 1-10. I lived 3 ½ miles from school. In the fall, on Labour Day, the community would get together to rake and clean up the schoolyard and all the families would come the next afternoon for ball games, picnics, wiener roasts and watermelon and lemonade. We would have a big fire of burning leaves. 

When I was in Grade 6, I changed schools from Wilbert to Alfred. I took Brian, who was in Grade 1 to school. In the winter I would drive the sleigh and horse to school. Brian, Bob, Pat, Betty, Jack and me all got into the sleigh. Betty hit Speedy, the horse, in the rump and he took off like a shot. Everyone fell out of the sleigh but me because I was holding the lines. Everyone was running to catch up to me. Another time I was with Pat and Betty. I was riding Speedy and Betty was on the skis behind. Speedy stopped suddenly and Betty went right through his legs. Speedy never even winched.

Pat, Betty, and I decided to take tap dancing lessons from Cora, my sister-in-law. It was quite fun. Cutknife was having a Talent Night, so Betty and I got Albert’s sailor suits and we danced to Sailor’s Hornpipe. We did very well. North Battleford had opened a radio station and were broadcasting from Cutknife, so we went to on the A.C.T. Amateur Hour. I sang “Lavender Blue” in a paper dress and hat. I don’t think I’ve sung since.

In the spring, two friends, Louise and Sylvie Loranger, and I were walking along the snowbanks by the church just east of the big Foisey house. There was a ditch beside the snowbanks and every once in awhile we would break through. We would get very wet. Meanwhile their older sister came looking for us. She had a stick which she used on us all the way home. It seemed like we played in the water frequently with no supervision. We all made it through though.

We always had a kerosene lamp in our house and Dad kept it lit at night so he could see when he got up. Mom asked me to bring the lamp downstairs to have it filled almost every night. She warned me to be careful going down the stairs, but one night I slipped at the top and slid all the way to the bottom on my bum. Miraculously, I reached the bottom with the lamp still in my hand and the globe intact. 

When I was 10 or 11, I was riding my horse to Wilbert and encountered the police and three or four bloodhounds near the elevators at the edge of town. Apparently, someone had robbed a bank and were on their way to Baldwenton. I really was scared to hear those hounds barking and straining on their leashes as they passed me by.