Everyone's heard the story that begins "When I was a child I had to walk 5 miles up hill through a snow storm to get to school" or something like that. Well, my mother has a story like that and it's true! She and her siblings had to walk about 5 km up and down hill and through a ravine and by a creek to get to school in another province! Here is a picture of my mom in front of the school - she's the girl to the far left, in front of her brother Art. He must be poking her or something, she looks terribly unhappy!
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| From the writer's collection |
I've written before about my mother's family and how they settled in MacNutt Saskatchewan. They actually lived a fair distance out of town and could not easily get there on a regular basis. There was a school located in town but this was not the school that the Besler children attended. There was a much closer school located in Manitoba!
The following map shows where my grandfather's two sections were located and where the school was. You can see MacNutt on the map way to the south of the Besler property.
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| Created using lsdfinder.com |
The children attended Cupar School No. 1633. The one room school house was built in 1911 and is located in what is today the Municipality of Roblin. Here is a photo taken by School Inspector R. J. MacKenzie, date unknown. I don't recognize anyone in the photo but it gives you a good look at the school itself.
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| Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photos. |
The Besler family walked from their farm to school and back every day. There were not real roads back then which made for a tough journey. My mother recalls a bear sighting one day when she was quite young - her older siblings took off and left her to fend for herself. Luckily she made it home in one piece! The teacher at the time was a Miss Campbell who was teased unmercifully by the farm boys - they called her Miss Camel and one day locked her in the outhouse (my uncle Art apparently was the instigator)
The school is still standing but has been turned into a private home. We were able to find it during our vacation this summer but no-one was around so we weren't able to get too close. Here's a picture I shot through the trees. The location is isolated now so I can only imagine how isolated it was back in the 1930s
The Beslers moved to Winnipeg in 1936 and my mother continued her education at Victory School located near their home in West Kildonan. This school was built after World War One and opened in 1920. Here's a picture from 1922.
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| Winnipeg Tribute, September 16 1922 |
Here's my mother and her classmates outside the school. She is 6th from the right in the second row. The second picture is from the pageant at this school, probably in her last year. She's fourth from the right in the second row.
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| From the writer's collection |
And here's my mom visiting the school in 2012. We were able to go into the school but the school was drastically enlarged in 1950 and she really didn't recognize anything. The main door looks to be the same though!
In 1940 she graduated from Victory School - here's a notice from the Winnipeg Free Press on June 1st 1940 commemorating the occasion.
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| newspaperarchive.com |
As the article note students from Victory School moved to Centennial School for Grade 10. Centennial School was built in 1913 and later became part of West Kildonan Collegiate. Unfortunately I was not able to get a picture before it was torn down but here is an undated picture showing what it looked like.
Later that year my mother's class was photographed for an article in the Winnipeg Free Press that ran on November 14th 1940. She still has a copy of this article showing the cooking and sewing skills being mastered. She is second from the right in the cooking photo. Answer to a bachelor's prayer indeed.
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| newspaperarchive.com |
My mother only spent a brief time at Centennial School before she had to enter the work force but she remembers her school days fondly. She has never stopped learning and conveyed her love of reading (and sewing!) to my sister and I.
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