Albert/Olga Roth
Herb/Jeannette Zollner
Robert/Sheila Schmunk
by Jen Zollner
Barns aren’t merely buildings.
They represent a couple’s dreams; dreams of a beautiful barnyard, dreams of a cow herd and horses and it represents a man providing for his family.
I remember when my dad built this barn on our farm west of Schuler. I was nine-year old Jeannette Roth, watching my grandpa lay the 2×4’s on the grass planning the shape of the hip roof.
I remember driving with my parents to Blairmore to order the lumber.
But time marched on and my parents bought a nearby farm with a better house and a barn.
Meanwhile my married name was Zollner and on our farm near McLaren Lake in Saskatchewan, we needed a different barn. Dad’s hip-roof barn fulfilled our dream.
But more time passes and my husband needed to retire. We had no need to the barn anymore, and like all aging barns, it needed a repair job. Along came a couple who wanted a ‘heritage barn’. I helped them take it apart piece by piece and they rebuilt it near Medicine Hat, on Range Road 52.
Meanwhile my dad had a stroke.
Every week his wheelchair fastened was in my van for a ride and one of the things he got to see his barn resurrected. This song was written for him one Father’s Day. Though he couldn’t speak, he understood every word. I can still see the tears rolling down his face as I sang this to him.
DREAMS OF AN OLD BARN
by Jen Zollner
I was taking apart a barn built by heart,
By the man that I always have known,
His youth was displayed in the barn Dad had made,
It was built nine years after I was born.
As my crowbar persisted against nails it resisted,
I loosened fifteen hip roof beams,
Truth came and i cried I wasn't satisfied,
Was I dismantling his dreams?
Chorus:
Dreams, part of living; dreams, what you feel,
Dreams are forgiving, dreams are for real.
Through the sweat and the dust I knew that I must
Not let this vision slip by,
Of a strong handsome man doing all that he can
So he could for his fam'ly provide.
So strange it did seem to poke through his dream,
Rediscover the man and his cause,
'Ev'ry board has a nail ev'ry nail tells the tale
Of the soul whose dream this barn was.
Now I look through the rain at the man who remains,
Not speaking but in mem'ry he knows,
Of the time and the place when dreams grew from grace,
Came to life as this old barn here shows.
Well, I didn't tear it down I just changed it around,
And I don't think it really much matters,
For in love we have found a heart true and sound,
Where dreams won't easily shatter.
Dreams, part of living; dreams, what you feel,
Dreams are forgiving, dreams are for real.
Dreams, dreams, dreams are for real.
See video of this song from ‘Stories From Seniors’, September 2021