Stephen Bengert
Page 291A Harvest of Memories
Stephen's parents were Mr. and Mrs. Karl Bengert. My parents were Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Thomas. They came from the old country and homesteaded west of Leipzig where we were born and raised. We attended Krist School.
At the beginning of the dirty thirties we had a lot of severe thunder storms but no rain. For days and months the high winds hardly stopped; the sand blew into the air till we could see the sun. It sifted through the windows and doors so there was also sand on our straw mattresses and even in our food. In the summer we gathered dry cow chips, these were burned instead of wood for cooking and baking. My parents made a clay brick oven in the basement which was fired with straw. When there was a good the bread was then placed on a iron stand and baked. We also made manure bricks which took all summer to dry. In the fall we helped with the stooking; then came thresing time, which meant hard long hours of work, as there was always a big gang to cook for.
A little spending money was made from gopher tails and crows legs for which the councillors paid one cent a piece. A few gophers were snared for pets, broke in like a horse and we made a little fence and harness for them.
The evenings in winter were spent with games, playing with homemade cards and using a coal oil light; sometimes we went tobogganing with an old binder platform down the Tramping Lake hills, but tht was too hard to pull up. The boys would shoot rabbits in winter which were very good to eat. They also had rabbits hunts.
Thursday was "train day"; the men would go to Leipzig for mail and listen to the radio which had a headphone. This was in Tony Kaufman's general store. Apples came in wooden boxes and were wrapped. This tissue was a real treat to use in the outhouse besides the catalogues and newspaper.
Stephen went working at the age of 17 at Russel Cook's farm at Thackery in 1928. He was able to buy some land in 1931 and started farming with the help of the neighbours. He batched unitl we married in February, 1935. We lived there four years, it was a big house. The Sebastian Sahli family moved in with us for a few years and used the spare rooms; their children wen to Thackeray school which was half mile to the northwest.
These were the horse and buggy days wich included runaways, in the time lots of upsets as the snow was wery deep and the sleigh would slide off the trail. People hauled wood in bitterly cold weather from the bush for fuel, but during the night the fire would get too low and many a morning the water in the pail was frozen.
We enjoyed ourselves with school house dances and playing cards. In summer we joined a beef ring, they brough fresh meat every week, some of this was canned as there was no other way to keep it. Our elevator man was John Conn and wheat was 52cents a bushell. One year (1935) we took all the Thackeray school children to Narrow Lake for the annual school picnic, the teacher was Miss Hazel Harlton. Sometimes at Christmas, Christ Kindl would come dressed in white, leading a make believe donkey and Pelz Nichol, a fierce looking man with horns and a chain around his waist carrying a switch.
In August of 1936 our first daughter Helen was born. In 1938 we bought our first radio which was quite an entertainment. This being relief years, we got cod fish, apples, cheese, etc. A few years the government gave each $5 a month for boarding a man in winter. My brother Peter Thomas stayed with use one winter then he joined the army.
In August 1940 our second daughter Caroline was born. In the spring of 1941 the Thackeray neighbours had a frewell party for us and we moved east to the Spyridge district on the S 9-40-18. The people here celebrated a lot of birthdays and names day. These were the war years so we needed coupons for butter, sugar, meat, liquor, etc. They also collected old bones, empty tooth paste and shaving cream tubes for the war. We sent cartons of cigarettes and chocolate bars to George Sahli and Pete Thomas who were serving overseas at the time. One year we had a plague of mice. They destroyed the grain in the stooks that stayed in the fields over the winter months.
Beatrice was born in June of 1947. In December of 1947 we were tired of the impassable roads, the long distance from the elevator, school and town so we bought the N. 4-40-19 near Wilkie. Here we planted a lot of trees for shelter.
The stormy winter of 1950 when the trains and snow plows were stranded, I was called upon to haul passengers to and from the stations and took men out to repair the telephone line which broke down from Reford to south of Leipzig, besides making two rounds a week on the North East Mail Route.
In 1953, Coronation year, the girls broke in two calves and drove them in the parade, then Unity also got tem for their parade.
In 1955 the town of Wilkie asked us to enter something in the parade that was common fifty years ago. We broke in a steer and drove it with Mr. Bill Porter's horse. There was Joe and Ernie, myself and Frank Bengert on the outfit.
Helen worked in the cafe two summers, then she married Edward Risling in 1954. They live in Battleford and have three children. Caroline took nurses aide training then went east to work for Dr. Hermitte in Pembroke. She married Richard Gauvreau. They have two girls and live near Toronto. Beatrice worke for C.J.N.B. for three years. She is married to Leo Lauzon. They have two children and live in Grand Prairie, Alta.
We moved into Wilkie in 1977.
Last Updated: Tuesday, February 12, 2002
