In my school days, over 60 years ago, I learned that anyone who wasn't a WASP was less than the ideal Canadian. WASP stood for White, Anglo-Saxon Protestant. I could check all the boxes, and felt good about it. What I received in school was an indoctrination into the Orange Order perception of Canada and … Continue reading WASP to Woke
Canadiana
The most popular snack food of Canadians
By Bondolo - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18761126 These are Cheezies, the favourite snack food flavour of Canadians. Other snack foods come in a variety of flavours, but W. T, Hawkins Ltd. has never seen a need for ranch flavoured, barbecue flavoured or salsa falvoured Cheezies. This is the only product made by the … Continue reading The most popular snack food of Canadians
Gentle Mary laid her Child
In 1919 a weekly Methodist paper announced a contest for the best new Christmas Carol. The winning entry was the following poem from Joseph Simpson Cook, a Methodist minister in south-western Ontario. The tune is Tempus Adest Floridum, composed in 1582 for a Latin hymn, adapted by John Mason Neale for an English hymn in … Continue reading Gentle Mary laid her Child
The first car my mother saw
My mother, who was born in January of 1908, told me that the first automobile that she ever saw was a Gray-Dort. Her uncle bought it when Mom was still a little girl and it was a sensation in their little community in south-western Saskatchewan.. I don't know what colour or model her uncle's car … Continue reading The first car my mother saw
My Jesus, I Love Thee
My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine;For Thee all the follies of sin I resign.My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art Thou;If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.I love Thee because Thou has first loved me,And purchased my pardon on Calvary's tree.I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow;If … Continue reading My Jesus, I Love Thee
Dreams and happiness
Let me ask you a question — if you achieve the thing you are dreaming of, will you be happy? Tom Sukanen came to Saskatchewan from Finland as a young man with immense strength and talent. He was a friend to all. He helped neighbours build their homes, work their land, repair their machinery, thresh … Continue reading Dreams and happiness
Divine intervention
Daniel was in a dilemma. He was a captive in a strange land, yet now he was being offered training that would prepare him for a lucrative career. The only problem was that one of the benefits of this training program was that he would be given the same food to eat that the king … Continue reading Divine intervention
Happy thoughts
Image by Scottslm from Pixabay There's a bluebird on your windowsillThere's a rainbow in your skyThere are happy thoughts, your heart to fillNear enough to make you cry. (The first stanza of Bluebird on you Windowsill by Elizabeth Clarke.) Elizabeth Clarke was a nurse at the Children’s Hospital in Vancouver. One day in 1947 one of her patients, … Continue reading Happy thoughts
But God Can Save Us Yet
[This is an excerpt from a Canadian Classic, Roughing it in the Bush, by Susanna Moodie, first published in 1852. At the climax of the crisis described here, she buries her head in her apron. It was her custom to pull up her apron to cover her head for privacy when praying.] The winter and … Continue reading But God Can Save Us Yet
You don’t know the wind
The title comes from a line in an art book published 25 years ago, titled If you’re not from the prairie . . . The art is by Henry Ripplinger and the poetic text by David Bouchard. Together they evoke childhood in rural Saskatchewan just as I remember it. Another line in the book says … Continue reading You don’t know the wind
Flatlander Faith 