Peggy M. Gillett (nee Kirkpatrick)
Why were you born in Regina instead of your hometown of Truax?
The family had gone in for the winter, that was the year I was born.
Were the rest of your brothers and sisters born there also?
No, everyone else was born on the farm. We had an old country doctor who came around on a horse and buggy. His name was Dr. Dunnet and he probably delivered three thousand babies because he was the only doctor around. He was famous around those parts, there was even a park (Dunnet Regional Park) named after him.
When do you remember seeing effects of the "Great Depression" starting?
I think it was '32 when hard times hit. How my parents raised eight children on almost nothing, I don't know.
How did your family survive?
Well, we had help from the government, they gave us coupons that were called "government relief," that they gave to people who were very poor. All our neighbors were very poor too, so we didn't even realize it. We had our own cow to milk. We had our own garden with a big potato patch. Dad would plow and us kids would follow and pick up the potatoes and throw them in a trailer and take them home to put in the cellar under the house, there they kept for most of the winter.
What did your family eat?
Dad used to take a wagon load of wheat to a mill to be ground into flour where they would grind it and he’d bring back 100-pound sacks that Mom would make bread with in a big iron cooking stove. She could make the best cinnamon buns. Sometimes when we would come home from school at night, Mom would have a big pot of flour gravy ready for us to pour over bread-that would be our supper. We ate lots of beans, not much meat.
How did your family get water?
We had a well down in the coulee below the house. We had to go down with buckets, the older kids usually got that job. You had to learn how to lower the rope attached to the bucket and flip it to catch the water-it was quite an art!
What do you remember of the drought/famine of the “Great Depression”?
Army worms that were about an inch or two long and bright green in color would come and cover the ground. When they came, you could hardly walk without stepping on them. The fields were already bare, but they would eat up any leaves or anything that was left. Then the grasshoppers would come in, swarms so thick that it would make the sky dark, it seemed black to me. I also remember dust storms that would come in so strong that you couldn’t see anything. We used to walk one and a half miles to school and on the days of these dust storms, Dad would come and pick us up in the buggy because he was afraid we would get lost walking home.
How did you keep warm in the winter?
We had a cook stove in the kitchen. We lived in a long, narrow house. The boys had a stand up stove at their end for their rooms and we had one at our end to keep three rooms warm...It wasn't warm! (laughs) I hated to get out of bed. Canadians are tough though, alot tougher than Texans!
Did you have to work on the farm? At what age?
Maybe about 7 or 8, we would pick up potatoes. The older boys usually milked the cows and helped Dad in the fields. I remember helping Dad build fences to keep cattle in. I liked working outside better than in the house.
What kinds of jobs did you do around the house?
I would clean, scrubs floors, and clean dust. I learned to sew real young. My grandmother was a great quilt maker and she inspired us girls to learn how to sew.
Did all the girls learn how to sew?
My older sister did, my younger sister didn’t, she hated it.
Did you make most of your clothing or did you buy some also?
I made my own wedding dress! Yeah, we used to buy patterns and material and make our own dresses since we mostly wore dresses back then.
What did you buy from stores?
We had two general stores in our town. They sold everything: food, hardware, yard goods, thread, kegs of sugar and flour, material...
How important was school to your family?
It was important. We started at six years old. Some kids went to high school, some didn't. I didn't-I went to grade ten. After grade eight, we did our school through correspondence. That was in the country, it may have been different in the city. We would leave at eight to be there by nine each day and left at 3:30. We had an hour off for lunch and had a recess in the morning and one in the afternoon. It probably wasn't as important to us growing up on a farm because there was always so much work to do. One of my brothers finished to grade twelve, the others finished to grade ten then helped out on the farm. My sisters did finish to grade twelve.
Did you play any sports?
I played Softball-slow pitch. My brothers played baseball. We used to have sports day, when the neighbouring communities would get together and play ball until there were just two teams. The number one team won first prize which was nothing but a red ribbon (laughs).
Is there anything else you would like to add?
In the wintertime, we would go sledding and skating on the dam just down the hill from our house. Often, the neighbor kids would come over and we’d play games and eat up a whole huge pan of popcorn before the evening was over!
The Full Gospel Bible College Website is a website describing the college and what it has to offer. Copyright 2006 Full Gospel Bible College.
Saskatchewan Regional Parks is a list of regional parks in Regina. Copyright Saskatchewan Regional Parks Association.
Dictionary.com is an online dictionary. Copyright © 2007, Lexico Publishing Group, LLC.
