Catch your own.

My great grandfather lived through world wars and lean times, and so, he knew of hunger and starvation. He knew what it felt like to go without, and when good times of plenty and abundance came back around, he would still not bat an eye at getting your own dinner where you may. Shooting and trapping birds, looking for wild eggs, teaching the boys how to catch their own dinner; all part of the daily life. My father remembers. He likes to tell me sometimes about how they would check the starling(?) nests for eggs and bring some back to him. We are no longer allowed to shoot starlings, and they are a pest to our garden. They didn’t get the currants or plums this summer, but they are still circling over the apple trees. One hour is all they need to ruin a whole crop – tons of apples.

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2017.01.23

My grandma told me a story a couple of years back, of how they got snowed in where they lived before. Grandpa had to leave for work by climbing out the second floor window and ski to town. The snow reached second floor in height.  I don’t remember for sure if this second part was the same winter, but grandma needed milk for her little baby (my father), and so left him sleeping in the cradle and hastily skiied to town and back to bring the milk, since the milk man couldn’t come.

Their elderly neighbour perished from cold while shoveling snow.

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