REINIGER,AGNES (SCHWEDA)<BR>SCHOOL DAYS 1925-1936
By Agnes Reinger (Schweda)

I started school in 1925.  Mr. Lynch was my first teacher, for one year only.  From 1926 to 1932 I attended the public school, with Sister Agnes, later Sister Regina, as my teachers.  In the fall of 1932, I started High School at the Notre Dame Convent, with Sister Regina for grades 9 and 10.  I then completed my last two years, with Sister Cajetan, who was also the Superior of Notre Dame.  I completed grade 12 in 1936.  Out of five graduates, only one of us was able to continue further.  That was Ernest Hansen who took a business course.  The rest of us lived at home on farms.

This was during the drpression years.  There were no loans from the government to finance further education.  The parents often could not afford to either.  Many children quit school after grade 8, by then most could read and write well, and we often had spelling bees, before grade 8 was completed.  So, many of us wound up staying at home.  There was no other choice.

Depression Years:
Growing up during the 30's, left a mark on most of us.  In 1927, our father's health was failing.  He spent about three months at Rochester, Minnesota, where he had surgery two or three times.  That same winter Mother needed surgery and went to Macklin, Sask. hospital for that.  So the farm, and we six children were looked after by Rudolf Huber and Mary Schimnosky, a neighbor's daughter.  From their caring for us and the farm, a romance developed and they were married in 1928.  In the fall of 1929, three of our family had to get operated at Scott, Sask, for appendicitis, Mary in Aug., William in Sept., and myself in Oct.  It must have been a difficult time for our parents, as money was scarce and prices for grain had hit bottom.

Somehow we kept the farm from going under.  Dad worried about medical debts owing, and more.  There was work to do, fetching the cows on foot, milking, separating the milk, feeding the calves.  The wood box and coal pails had to be filled, ashes from a cookstove had to be carried out; in winter, two coal heaters were used, so more ashes.  Eggs had to be brought in daily and the chickens were fed and watered.  In 1935 we milked ten cows, mother sold butter to village people, the cream was shipped to Biggar Dairy Pool, by train weekly.  The money received paid for all groceries bought, sometimes there was some cash left to send an order to Eaton's or Sipson's catalogues, for yard goods and towelling.  Most women sewed and flour bags made sheets, pillow cases, dish towels, even underwear.  Patches on clothes, were familiar to most families.  Some children wore no shoes in the summer and we walked one mile to school in Leipzig.  In winter Dad, or older brother, took us younger children to school with a team of horses hitched to a bobsleigh.

These were difficult years, families were large, there were no helath insurance plans and no family allowance cheques.  Many fathers applied for relief called welfare assistance now.  In 1937, there was a drought and I remember the grasshoppers too, going into fields and gardens.

Wartime Years 1939-1945 and later on

In Sept. 1939 war was declared.  Many young men and women enlisted,  perhaps more out of a need for income, than love of country.  Some even married, knowing that at any time husbands had to go overseas for the duration of hostilities.  Much was rationed, gasoline, meat, sugar, butter, liquor, and coupons were used from our ration books, for the purchases of same.  Also the manufacturing of machinery, cars furniture and appliances such as fridges and stoves, stopped and this lasted until after 1945.  People were alsways fixing things up, until these appliances wore out.  No one seemed to be complaining about it.  "There's a war on" was a favourite expression, all over Canada, I am sure.  Prices were fixed by the Wartime Prices and Trade Board.  Rents were fixed and imspectors checked up on ladlords who gouged tenatnts.  How times changed after 1945!

Many returned soldiers came back to their communities and found few jobs available.  It started an exodus of couples and single workers to Alta. and B.C. for jobs.  Entire families, also left our district of Leipzig.  Today many small farmers sold out to larger operators.  Slowly the centralization process began shaping up.  Our Country schools closed, village schools next, then followed store and post office closures, as well as the abondonement of the C.P.R. Branch Line in 1983.  Our small towns are getting smaller.  It's a fact of life!  It makes some of us sad to see our roots disappearing.  We look for reminders of past years.  Hopefully not all heritage buildings will be destroyed.