Summer Recollections #2

What Did You Do On Your Summer Vacation?

 (an essay)

From the time I could print and spell in elementary school, it was the dreaded question or topic of composition writing. The school was one room with grades one to eight. It was the same teacher, same kids and same question every September. "What did you do on your summer vacation?"

It was the 1960s; lots of families didn't even have two cars let alone cottages, campers and boats. The teacher of the school in our little village came from Gananoque and went home for two months every summer to her family and the summer life of the St. Lawrence River. The rural kids didn't know such glamour.

Some years, the composition was quite short. "We went swimming in Chalk Lake and had a picnic one afternoon." Short and sweet and true. That was the summer of a farm kid. As I got older, the composition varied somewhat. "We went to the Sunday School picnic at a park with a swimming pool. We had a pot- luck supper and we had races and competitions." The composition was always the same content but each September the composition got a little wordier about the same two events of summer...swimming and the Sunday School picnic. We were farmers and didn't have summer vacations or trips. Summer was mostly work with a little bit of play with neighbouring farm kids.

So, what was our summer vacation REALLY like?

Summer was preparation for winter! Plain and simple. It took many years for me to figure it out. We were always working towards surviving the winter. There were human needs and livestock needs. As a kid, I didn't see it that way. The responsibility of survival fell to the adults.

Preparation for winter began before the current winter even melted away. Maple syrup started in late February and ran through March. It wasn't a large-scale operation but enough to get a large family through until the next maple syrup season. To put it in context, a large family was a three-generation, ten-person family living under one farm house roof. Two grandparents, two parents and six children lived together in one house. It took a lot of food!

The two-acre garden sustained the family. Planning and ordering seeds from Stokes Seeds began before the first day of spring arrived. Two acres provided enough fresh produce for day to day living and also enough for winter. Food security was number one to parents and grandparents who had lived through the depression of the 1930s.

Bushels of produce such as potatoes, turnips, carrots and beets were stored in an underground root cellar. Vegetables that wouldn't overwinter in the root cellar were blanched and frozen in a deep freeze or canned in jars. Fruits were grown on the farm (raspberries, strawberries, apples, pears, gooseberries, currants, sour cherries and grapes). What wasn't grown was purchased by the bushel (peaches, plums, crab apples) and canned in jars that lined the shelves of the cellar beneath the kitchen. Upwards of a thousand quarts of fruits and pickles, sauces and juices were stored in a colourful display and fed the family for six months or more each winter or until the harvest of the next seasons' crops. The summer kitchen or back kitchen had a wood stove that burned through all the months of canning. Supposedly, the summer kitchen kept the rest of the house cooler. Day by day, the task of preserving food for the following winter was the goal of my mother and grandmother. The six kids helped with the garden. Very little was purchased from the general store or supermarket.

Equally important was the work of the farm men. Crops were planted and harvested to keep the livestock, chicken and pigs fed through the winter. From planting time in the spring to harvest time in late summer and early fall, growing enough feed to store was the goal of the men. The scale of farms was smaller in the 1960s and 1970s but it was labour intensive, physical and demanding. Two or three cuts of hay were cut, dried and stored; grains and corn were grown, combined and stored in granaries; the straw of the grains was baled for straw bedding; root crops were dug and gathered by hand. Over the years, the farm became more mechanized. In turn, the size of the operation increased and farmers had to work just as hard to keep up with mechanization. The goal never changed...preparation for winter months.

Like humans, the livestock had to be fed daily or twice daily, cows milked, young stock raised; pigs and chickens were raised to fill the freezer along side a beef animal. The entire summer was busy with jobs that would keep ten people fed all winter.

These days, we find ourselves busily preparing for winter again. Growing enough feed in a hot summer is a challenge. Only when there is enough hay, corn, straw and grain can we feel ready for winter. Luckily, along the way I found that people can buy food in grocery stores!

Throughout the summer, I watch people passing by with campers, canoes, kayaks and toys. I wonder where they are going? In September when the teacher asks "What did you do on your summer vacation?" they will have stories to tell!