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In the Good Old Days

  • Posted on July 20, 2009 at 4:23 pm

oldcargreenHow often have we heard older people refer to  “Back in the Good Old Days” ?  Endless amount of times, I’d bet, and yet, maybe in some sense, they truly were good.

David and I went shopping for Mom yesterday, to Zellers. She needed a new housecoat and a couple of night gowns, so we figured, Zellers.  Got half of what we wanted, which is a whole different post.

Point is, that at dinner, Mom began talking about the Good Old Days.  How her family moved to Edmonton in 1939, the day before War was declared. Not a good time, and yet, many older people recall those days as being good. I think I can understand why, but Mom wasn’t thinking about the war, but instead about the move to the Big City. It was a huge change for her.

She recalled too, how she decided to go to the new store in the city, Zellers. They had been advertising for help when she moved, but figured there might be part time work still available. I mean you have to remember, this is 1939, and the Great Depression wasn’t exactly over.

Turns out she got hired full time, some 70 years ago, to work in Woman’s Wear, where cotton socks were selling for 12¢. I don’t know, but damn I’d like to get some cotton socks for that price today, and I’ll lay you ten to one, they were a better quality than what we get today. Oh, and I am sure they weren’t made in China either.

It is interesting though, to listen to hear talk about those times. Like how the store manager was impressed with her sales ability, and yes, she even remembered his name. I wonder, how many clerks in Zellers today know the name of their store manager?

Then there was how she would walk to work, with a few other girls, who were along the way. Now, how often do you see that today? People actually walking to work? I guess maybe those times may not have been great, economically, nor peaceful, but the friendships, the associations, seem to have been more important, and perhaps comforting, hence the memory of the times being good?

Just a thought, but then too, Mom talked how many girls would bring their lunches, and would go across to the diner, to order a drink or maybe a dessert, but not lunch. I mean you try bringing your lunch into a restaurant today, and only ordering a drink. Man, you’d be shown the door so fast, your heels wouldn’t touch the floor, if you were lucky. More than likely you’d also be harangued for your nerve.

Maybe they were the Good Old Days, because people were nicer, friendlier?

A Dreamer & A Realist

  • Posted on July 5, 2009 at 11:59 am

Talk about an interesting combination.  My father was one who dreamed of things, of doing more than perhaps he did, while Mother was the practicle one in the family. She ran the budget, and yet never seemed to daunt Dad’s dreaming. She supported him, in a way I am jealous of. I wish David would support me that way, and me him.

They had a perfect partnership.

Annice KovnatsMom is about reality, yet she too had her dreams. At an early age, she wanted to be a writer, which is maybe where I get my passion for fiction from. Idon’t know why she never got to write, but I remember her talking once about it, about how the family just didn’t have the resources for that. And yet my Grandfather wasn’t a poor man either. He ran a small wholesale, and seemed to have done okay.

It isn’t clear if he owned it, or just worked there, but it gave Mom a good background in business, which she used when she married Dad. Sidney Finklemen Kovnats, was his name, and it’s odd, but I really don’t know all that much about his side of the family. Oh, I knew my grandmother well, and yeah some of the stories, but I never really knew the details, as I do about Mom’s side.

Dad’s father, or step father I believe, was a fur trader up north, in the High Prairie area. They owned a restaurant and trading post there, and lived above the store. Now this is back in the late 1930′s and Dad married Mom in 1942.

According to them both, the town had about 300 White people, and was home to many Native Indians. Several thousand actually, and the big deal was once a week, when the train from the big city would roll through. There weren’t super highways, or even more than a dirt trail back then, so Dad says, and Mom collaporates.

Odd, how Mom went up there, to live, when really she had never been a country girl. I know my Bubba Polsky (Dad’s mother) wasn’t thrilled about the match, and yet as time wore on, I think she came to appreciate Mom more than her own daughter. After all, it was Mom who put up with everything, while her daughter was off in Winnipeg.

Makes you wonder if there wasn’t a bit of a dreamer inside of Mom too, and that through Dad, she managed to get her fill of dreams, of adventure?

I mean who else would move to a place, where running water was the local river, and plumbing meant a trip to the outhouse? Yet she did, and you know, when she talks about those days, her face lights up. Kind of nice to see, and maybe why I would rather live in the country, than in a city, despite it’s conveniences.

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