When Clouds Got
in the Way
Edith Smith VanKleek | Courtesy of Diane Grainger
The First World War
In 1914, the First World War was suddenly upon us.
Recruiting officers came and held meetings, and all the
able-bodied men in the community enlisted. Social life
boomed, as every man who left for the army must have
a send-off dance.
A winter sleigh trail was cut down beside the
railroad track, and the trail crossed the West Prairie
River on the ice. This made it only three miles from
the homestead to town. We all attended the dances, as
everyone came to visit. Ladies brought the lunch, and
a collection was taken up to pay for the wash boiler of
coffee that was always consumed at every dance. Cups
were tobacco cans. Babies and small children were laid
to sleep on benches that circled the room or on the
floor in the corner.
The first dances were held in the dining room of the
McLeod Hotel and later in the IODE (Imperial Order
of the Daughters of the Empire) Hall (after they got it).
My brother played the violin for free for these dances,
and a local lady chorded on the organ.
The train left for Edmonton at five o’clock a.m.,
and we would dance ’til then. The train stopped right
behind the restaurant, and parting had to be quick
when the train came. To see a mother embrace her son
and say goodbye, perhaps forever, made you realize
what High Prairie was giving for the defence of the
country.
An IODE was organized to send parcels to the
High Prairie boys overseas. There were nineteen men
who enlisted from the small community, so there
were nineteen parcels to send every time. They sent
fruitcake, cookies, chocolate bars, socks, soap, writing
paper, pencils, toilet paper, shaving needs — whatever
would be needed by the men in the trenches. (One
man must have run out of writing paper, because he
sent a letter home written on toilet paper!)
The baking was done in the homes of the settlers,
and the IODE put on different events to make money
to pay for postage and things to put in the boxes.
These boxes were sewn around with cloth, and cost
$1.00 each to mail to England. From there, they were
sent somewhere in France to wherever the boys were.
Armistice and the 1918 Flu
On November 12, 1918, we heard that the First
World War had ended. (Everyone knows that it was
November 11, but something was wrong with the
telegraph that accompanied the railroad to High
Prairie, and we didn’t get the news ’til the papers came
on the train the next day.)
There was no great celebration. People just cried
for joy.
Of the nineteen who had enlisted, only one was left.
During the fall of 1918, the soldier boys returned
to Canada, and they brought something with them —
the germs of the 1918 flu. It wasn’t long ’til all public
places were closed — schools, churches — and public
gatherings were forbidden.
Adapted with permission from Edith’s memoirs, Our
Trail North, by her granddaughter, Diane Grainger, a
teacher retired from Edmonton Public and Sturgeon
school divisions.
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