Dosie Doe

Carragana Junior Square Dance Club

My Parents lead the Club and "I" was a member even if I didn't like it, but the girls were nice!

My parents went all over to jamborees, they even danced on CKOS CTV in Yorkton.

Cordwood

The bushman hauled cordwood out of the bush and piled it in big piles near the railway siding and then train would spot the cars and they would be loaded by hand, a big job. And we (the boys) would be warned off of the piles because if they start rolling we would be crushed.

Boy Toys

These were my favorites, I made buildings, planes, caterpillers etc, I still have them somewhere.

Toys at Christmas: trains, blocks, steam engine, and chemistry set, sure I was spoiled.

A real working steam engine

Let's go to Baker's

A favourite pastime was going to the Baker farm; I walked a few times on the tracks. Exploring the old homestead log cabin with toys and stuff was exciting. I remember in ’67 I was home alone when Les came to use the phone because his dad had a heart attack.

Herbert Baker was born at Grass Lake, N.D., he came with his parents to Canada in 1905 when they homesteaded near Kelliher. Myrtle McCallum was born in Minnesota. Herbert and Myrtle were married in 1921 and they lived near Kelliher.

In 1940 they came to the Carragana District and they bought Charlie Rodney's homestead N.E. 36-41-9, where they farmed until Herbert passed away in 1967.

They have one son Les who farmed the home place. Les served in the R.C.A.F. in WW ll. AS well farming Les is a very able carpenter.

Les was a tail gunner in a bomber. I used to enjoy looking at his pictures on the wall of planes and RCAF men. We used to go to the hunting cabin at Piewe Lake in winter with horses and sled. And we walked in the summer and fall. I wish I had a picture of the hunting cabin, with the log barn.

I visited with Les in 2002 before he died, the same old Les.

Darrell on the tracks west of Carragana

Four Generations

Mom's Grandpa Kjelshsus was so excited when he became a great grandpa,

when Darrell was born in 1951. He thought the paper's headline "Four Generations Travel to Golden Wedding Anniversary in North Dakota" was great. We had gone done to Grandpa's sister Julia 50th Anniversary in July 1952.

Great Grandpa passed away five months later on Dec 17 1952.

Cheese Slicer

The only thing I remember from Mom and Dad's store; is the cheese slicer and cheese underneath a glass cover. I think that's why to this day I like Old Sharp Cheddar.

Greenwater Lake Provincial Park

Square dancing jamboree at Greenwater, my parents took part in a jamboree each year, and I had the run of camp yah haw. At midnight all those crazy dancers went square dance in the lake, and they would called the Square Duck Dancers.

Summer at Greenwater Lake

The Village of Carragana is located 10 kms east of Porcupine Plain on highway 23. It is situated just outside of Greenwater Provincial Park in the lush Porcupine Provincial Forest. We drove through Porcupine and turned at Chelan and then proceeded to the lake. Before the early 60th when it rained the hills were impossible to get up except have a tracter pull you up.

Even after the new highway was contstructed the big hill was hard to get up especially with older vehicles. I remember dad backing down the hill and having another go at it.

Big slide for little boys

Camping in tents, rental cabins or friend’s cabins at Greenwater in the rain, taking swimming lessons.

Rental Cabins

Mrs Lozinski Mrs Bloski My Mom

Bill Bloski Les Baker

Big Fisherman

We went fishing at Greenwater Lake a lot, for Pickerel and jackfish; I caught a 4 ½ lbs Pickerel which was big for that time. We jigged frogs for bait. Dad and Les had a homemade wooden boat with a gas motor, I remember sleeping under the bow or going under the bow in storms.

Doreen Rundvall Les Baker Darrell Rundvall

Skating at the outdoor rink and hockey

We had an outdoor skating across the highway from the school. It was painted white, and had two shacks, one for each hockey team. We used the south one for the Carragana kids. With wooden plank floors scrapped and soured by the skates with wooden benches all around the outside wall.

This is what the uninsulated shacks were heated with, they got red hot, and snow and mittens would melt real quick. But the heat was really nice when it was -25c.

I was not that good of a skater, my ankles were weak, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to stop. The boards stopped me regularly.

When it snowed we had to clean the snow off the ice with scrapper and shovels, and shovel the snow over the boards; it was quite the job but I enjoyed it. Go figure.!

Ice House

Big blocks of ice harvested in the winter were covered with sawdust and stored in the Ice House in the middle of school ground in Carragana. Ice lasted till the next winter, the ice was used in ice boxes to store food or to make ice cream. It was cool in there on a hot day and smelled like wood, electric or gas fridge’s put an end to ice houses.

We had one of these ice cream maker,

my favourite flavour and it still is, maple walnut.

It was a lot of work turning especially just

before it was done.