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'My
Commonplace Book'
By Beryl A. (Bock) McPhee
This is not a novel or anything outstanding as a story, just my life as
I remember it. Sometime in the future it may be of some interest to my
children, grandchildren and their families in turn.
I
was born in Melville, a small town in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada
on 6 May 1923. My father Albert Allan
Bock worked for the Canadian National Railroad (C.N.R.) as a fireman
in those days, he was the man who stocked the boilers with coal on the
steam engines. My Mom, Annie Marie Hardy was a waitress at the Melville
Hotel when Dad met her, she was one of sixteen children raised on a farm
by John and Rosalie Hardy.
As
was told to me later by my family, my parents went on a holiday when I
was about two years old and left me in the care of Dad's parents, George
& Alberta Bock who lived in Watrous, Saskatchewan. When the holiday
was over my Grandmother wanted to keep me a little while longer - she
did all right ! After many arguments all round the "little longer" amounted
to about fourteen years !
However,
my earliest memory is of someone looking at me and talking to me while
I was in my wicker pram in Watrous, our house was a very plain four room
dwelling comprising a small lounge, two bedrooms and a "lean to" kitchen.
Furniture as I remember was a mirrored dresser that had on it Granny's
hand mirror, brush, button hook and nail accessories, all with French
Ivory (Cellulose) handles, there was also a china jewelry box that contained
Granny's strings of jet beads and crystal beads.
Granny
got the box from her brother Fernando when she was a little girl. It seems
one winter day Granny and her brothers were late in getting away to school,
Fernando ran through the barn on his way and used the horse's curry comb
on his wet hair, when they got to school the very strict teacher asked
him what he combed his hair with, when he told her she thought he was
being smart and so he got the strap. Now when the children got strapped
at school they also got one at home from their dad, so Fernando asked
Granny not to tell on him because he told the truth and he would buy her
a present, which was the jewelry box.
In
the lounge was Grandpa’s large black leather armchair and a wooden rocker
each for Granny and me. There was a round table and chairs and for heating
there was a pot bellied stove with a mica window in the door. There was
a trapdoor in the lounge floor which led to the cellar where all sorts
of foods were kept cool. The kitchen had a beautiful combustion cook stove
that took pride of place, and on one side of it was a reservoir for heating
water, much beautiful and healthy food was cooked on that stove - bread
& bean and also potato soup that I particularly enjoyed, Granny made cottage
cheese which Grandpa and I used to like with fried potatoes and syrup,
and Granny would make some lovely tasting bread, I used to knead the bread
dough for her in a small galvanized tub and she used "mother" yeast which
was kept in a glass jar in the cellar.
There
was a big yard to play in out front and a vegetable garden at the back,
our toilet was an outhouse down the yard near the garage that held Granddad’s
Essex car. 
There
were also four large maple trees to climb in where daddy long-leg spiders
lurked. My favorite game before school was making mud pies, I could spend
hours doing that!
Well
school years came along and I enjoyed so many things, some of them are
as follows:
- my teacher
Miss Keeler who I liked,
- I found
I enjoyed learning to write letters and numbers, and of course drawing,
- in the
morning when the bell was rung for class we lined up outside and sang
our national anthem "Oh Canada" and did some calisthenics,
- the year
my friend and I were picked out of the class because we were the tallest
and made up the numbers needed by a higher class who were drilling for
a special event,
- the November
11th street parade by pupils who laid pennies side by side down the
middle of Main St, and
- some
of my school mates I remember are Hetty Borcant (Dutch), Valentine Strom
(Swedish), and Janet & Eleanor Dorward who had Scottish parents.
Granny
and I used to visit an old lady in Watrous who let me choose a dish from
her china cabinet every time we went there, when we visited I always sat
on a chair and said nothing unless I was spoken to, if we were served
refreshments I took only one of whatever it was, the only exception to
this was one day we visited Mrs. Reichart next door and she had made macaroons,
I took the usual one and she could see how much I enjoyed it 
(Granny
didn't make them) and so she insisted I take a second one! Yummy! Granny
looked at me sternly but didn't say anything!
The
weather in Canada was beautiful, Spring (Mar/Apr/May), was chilly but
sunny, one day you would leave the house with a winter pallor and come
home with the beginnings of a very good tan from the wind. The snow would
melt in the day-time and then freeze at night which then made it so slippery
underfoot, this was the best time for making snowballs and snowmen! By
24 May the gardeners were supposed to have most of the planting done as
the frosts were finished and the season was so short.
Summer
(Jun/Jul/Aug), was usually a good mix of rain and sun but it could get
very warm and we had some mighty thunder storms. I would often go out
and pick wild flowers, dandelions, crocuses, bluebells and black-eyed
susans to make up bouquets to take around to all our neighbor ladies.
Grandpa would sometimes take us to Manitou Lake about six miles from Watrous,
it was a mineral lake and you couldn't drown in it. I often wonder why
I was never taught to swim there, of course it was great to play in the
water and sand.
Another
thing I loved in summer was the circus, watching it being unloaded from
the boxcars on the railroad. Across from the front of our house was a
vacant area about the width of a house block, beside that was the railroad
track and a couple of grain elevators, the circus train would pull up
there and I would stand by our front gate all day to watch. The elephants
were brought out first and used to unload everything else into wagons,
then around our block they would go to another vacant area where they
would set up the big top. The next day Granny took me to the circus but
the only things I liked were fairy floss and the animals, I felt so terribly
sad seeing poor lions, tigers and monkeys in such small cages. I just
adored the elephants!
Autumn
(Sep/Oct/Nov), Indian summer, glorious! The leaves turned colour and dropped,
the fragrance of them in the fresh air is never to be forgotten, nor is
the glorious smell of the cranberries after the first frost, everyone
had bonfires then and started settling in for the winter.
Winter
(Dec/Jan/Feb), Very cold but so very enjoyable, Christmas was the main
event! Granny baked all sorts of goodies, Grandpa got in the barrel of
fresh frozen herring for the winter and boxes of Macintosh Red and Delicious
apples, and one of mandarins which were called Jap Oranges because they
came from Japan. One time he bought Banana apples, they were shaped like
the delicious and were the same texture but tasted and smelled like bananas,
the skin was quite yellow with some brown spots, we enjoyed them but only
got them once. When the snow came I couldn't wait to go out and play in
it with my sled, one year we had the snow to the top of the house when
it had drifted, we got up that morning and it felt very strange being
closed in and not being able to see out the windows. The neighbors had
to dig us out and later that day my cousin Norma Thomas and I had great
fun pulling our sleds to the top of the house and sliding down.
Christmas
was always special but one year very special, as usual we had a real floor
to ceiling spruce tree and would decorate it, this year Grandpa decided
he would show us what it would look like with candles on it - real candles!
He carefully clipped all the candles to the tree and with Granny standing
by with a bucket of water he lit them all. That was the most thrilling
sight - like fairy land! They were allowed to burn for only a minute or
two because of the danger but that was my most wonderful present that
year. The type of presents I got those years were mostly books - which
I liked best (I still have David Copperfield), one or two toys and one
year an Eaton beauty doll, she stood almost 24 inches high and was made
of porcelain, her legs and arms were movable and she had dark hair and
eyes that opened and closed. My cousin Norma got a blonde one the same
year and how we loved them! Mom
and Dad always sent me something special.
Granny, being so religiously
inclined, took me to Sunday School and church every Sunday. 
She
would try all sorts of religions but never Catholicism! My favorite was
the Salvation Army, for small children there was a big sand box on legs
and behind that were tiered seats where the little ones sat, the teacher
illustrated Bible stories with toy people and animals in the sand box,
we were always interested and learned our lessons well. My favorites were
Noah and the Ark, the parting of the Red Sea and Jesus born in the stable.
At Christmas we always had a concert in the Salvation Army Hall, it was
so much fun dressing up and playing a part, they found out I wasn't bashful
so I would learn by heart the story of Jesus born in Bethlehem (Luke 2,4-14)
and I would stand on a chair so everyone could see me and recite this,
Granny was so very pleased with me! I always got a book for a present
from Sunday School for good attendance through the year.
Grandpa
worked for the C.N.R. for many years, in the last years in Watrous he
worked in what was called the storehouse, a sort of stock-room holding
all sorts of engine and train parts. As I grew older I was allowed to
take Grandpa's lunch to him as he worked all day Saturday, it was a real
experience looking into the many cubbyholes and boxes that were there,
at quiet times Grandpa would give me a ride on the huge turn-table that
was used to move engines from one single track to one of about a dozen
in the round-house for repair. Whenever I went to the station to watch
the train come in or meet someone, I stood behind somebody and covered
my ears because the engine was so loud and big, the whistle blew and steam
came out everywhere and the whole platform would shake.
The
station had a restaurant called a Beanery where you could get good meals
on a quick short train stop, the food was always ready and the waitresses
served you immediately, what a shame that steam engines were lost to progress.
In the summer every Monday evening at 6 pm exactly Grandpa would wait
with watch in hand for the silk train to fly through, it never stopped
except for refueling once or twice all the way from west to east across
Canada carrying perishable raw silk from cocoons in Japan to factories
in Eastern Canada, people set their clocks by it! Granny and I could get
free railroad passes and took many trips on the train (economy class of
course) but as I could - and still can - sleep anywhere, any time, a seat
in a railroad coach did me fine.
Many
an hour we spent in stations waiting to change trains, they had huge waiting
rooms with hard wooden benches and strange people always "waiting", it
used to keep me occupied trying to imagine where they came from and where
they were going to. On the train was the conductor who took and punched
the tickets and a "Newsy", a man in C.N.R. uniform who made at least two
trips through the coaches carrying a very large basket, from him you could
buy candies, fruit, drinks, magazines and papers, etc. He was always friendly
to everyone and was so greatly missed by all when progress retired him.
My most prized possessions were books, pencils, crayons, paper and paints
so when we went on the train for a day trip to Saskatoon, Granny made
sure we "hit" Woolworth’s first, she could do what she wanted then for
the rest of the day as I was content!
On summer holidays I was taken to Shaunavon, Sask. where Mom and Dad lived,
Dad worked then for the Imperial Oil Company and drove tankers. I felt
I had two homes which of course I did, but I never felt more fortunate
than any other child, I would much rather have lived with Mom and Dad
all the time but as children in those days were supposed to be "seen and
not heard" I didn't say much and of course couldn't do anything about
matters.
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