I
lived in the same house on the same farm for all my first seventeen
years until I left home to go to university. My mother moved to that
farm as a new bride and my parents had their 25th
anniversary there before they retired. The farm was located 10-13-22
(section, township, range) in Manitoba, Canada. The phone number was
Oak River 308-3. We picked up our mail at the post office in town,
Box 61. No one ever lived in that house after my parents retired. In
the last couple of years, my brother Harv has reported that the house
and the yard and barnyard have all been bulldozed and no sign of our
old home can be seen today. The land they occupied has returned to
field.
Our
only close neighbours were the Haggertys on the next farm, about a
twenty minute bike ride west and south. Theirs was the only house,
the only light, you could see from our place. Ann and Murray had
three girls, Bev, Linda and Leila (twins). The twins were four months
younger than me, but one year behind me at school, in the same grade
as my first brother George. Our parents were good friends and we
spent many hours playing together, at our place or theirs, in the
house or outside. When Murray got sick and Ann went back to work as a
teacher, the family moved into town and two years later, into
Brandon, the closest city. As the twins entered their teen years and
were into boys, we lost touch. When I was at university, they were
already married. I have no idea where they are now.
For
a couple of years after the Haggertys left the farm, families rented
the house and then my dad helped my uncle Tom and aunt Jean buy that
farm and our nearest neighbours became our cousins, Ron, Garry, and
Brian, and Cameron who was born after they moved there. We visited a
lot with them too, we kids playing cards or ping pong indoors or
outside in the pasture, the bush, or around the dugout and barn. 
That house was an old house, bigger and a bit fancier than ours, with a basement and a coal chute. Inside there were embossed tin tile ceilings and a bay window. I spent hours in that house but I do not have one photo of it. One hot spring day the house caught fire and burned down. No one was hurt. Only Auntie Jean and the baby were home at the time. It was thought that perhaps coal chips or coal dust had ignited in the hot sun. They built a concrete basement and cistern and moved a modern new house on to the same spot as the old. Like Dad, Uncle Tom sold the farm when he retired. The boys live in Dryden, Ontario, Alexander and Flin Flon, Manitoba, and Lethbridge, Alberta, and thank goodness that their wives are on Facebook, I hear snippets about their lives.
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