65 Years Ago In Bill's Journal

1952
November 5: The two Indian women recently admitted to East 3 are Mrs. Nellie O'Watch and Lena Peigan. The latter being Tommy John's cousin.
Dick voted at Bye's today. Dad and I got driven to Balrobie in Sandy Goff's car to vote. Mrs. Wheale and her grandson, Wayne Fushtey, went with us to vote. Then he drove up back to Lipton where Dad bought some groceries. Roy was in town with both Uncles. We had supper at Tom Goff's , then waited for Sandy to drive us home, which he did eventually. We got home around 9 pm. Fred Senft got elected as reeve but the contest between Sandy Goff and August Zielke was in doubt.

Sandy Goff and his Model T Ford with a few friends a few years earlier. 

Late Harvest and Municipal Election

November 12, 1946
Bud came along before daylight this morning trying to start the tractor so he could take the outfit up to John Senft's. He couldn't get it started so he asked me to come out and help and eventually he had to put a fire under it to warm it up before he could start. Then he went down after the separator. He succeeded in getting it to the yard but the radiator was freezing up on him so he had to give it up as a bad job and went up to John Senft's. They both came back with John's team to haul the separator but when they started off one of John's horses was scared of the separator behind him so they had to take him off and borrow Roy's horse, Duke, before they could get away.
I got a tank of water and then turned the team out and did some fencing. They got John's oats threshed. Bud running the machine and John Senft, Kreutzer and Donald having racks. John Senft and Bud brought the separator back at night with the John Deere tractor. They threshed about 15 loads of sheaves.

November 12, 1946
The great municipal election day. Robert Senft and Mike Engel came after Uncle Arthur in a car and took him to Hobetzeder's  to be D.R.O. I went and did a bit more fencing on the East line of 13. John Senft hauled a load of wheat for Bud. and while we were having dinner he came along to haul a load for Dad. So I went to the bin with him and helped load up. Dad went off to Lipton with him. They didn't get back until nearly 6 pm and Edwin Senft came along in a car right behind them to take them back to Balrobie to vote. They only just got there in time. Bill Senft brought them and Uncle Arthur back. Manuel Miller won the election.

Bud Nevard on a newer tractor (Ford 9N). Not the one referred to in the above journal entries which was a McCormick Deering 15-30.

Headlands Picnic 1943

From the daily journal of Bill Nevard.
June 29, 1943
Dad and Uncle Horrie both went to Lipton with wheat. I was cultivating. Jubilee seemed to find it hard work so I let him out after dinner and got Spark instead. I found out this afternoon that Violet has a wire cut in her fetlock so I let her out tonight.
Roy and Joy went to Balrobie dance.

June 30: I caught Embers this morning and went on 25 with the John Deere gang plow. Dad had put the new shares on but it soon cleaned and is working alright though plowing rather deep. Not an awful lot of tall growth on the stubble yet excepting stinkweed. Joy and Donald went to Headlands picnic and all three of them went to the dance.

A Funeral

December 12, 1966

I went to visit Bob Drever this morning. I also cut up three more pumpkins for jam. In the afternoon I dressed up and drove to Lipton for Bill Peak's funeral. It was held in Lipton Town Hall. Most of the people were there when I arrived. Pat Neil, Philip Fisher, Harold Phillips, William Michelson, Edwin and Victor Senft were the bearers. Anne Yackel played the organ. Quite a number of people attended. Les and Joy, Mr. and Mrs. Fisher, Mr. and Mrs. Tom Neil, Gladys Hays and Thelma Kreutzer, Mr. and Mrs. John Senft, Mr and Mrs. Sid Phillips, Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Hook, Bill Newth, Mr. and Mrs. Reg Waters, Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Huber, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Bryant, John Kube. I did not go to the cemetery but came home. It was a beautiful day. Bill Peak was 81 years of age and came out to the country in 1911.

Bill Peak is somewhere in this photo taken at a Church service at Balrobie School.

Coronation Day 1937

May 12, 1937 actually. While Bill Nevard worked at home planting the crop , some of his family made the  trip to town for the day of celebration of the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Some excerpts from letters give quite a good account of the day's events. This one written by Joy Nevard....

Donald, Uncle Arthur and I walked to Senft's. When we arrived quite a few people were there. Edith Seip, Miss Dodd, Mrs. Newton, Tom and Irene. We waited for a while til Mr. Dan Seip came with the truck with some of the other children in it. We all got in the truck and went off singing and yelling. When we arrived in town we got out and wandered around buying and looking at things.
At ten minutes to one we all went to the town hall. There were 8 schools there including Lipton, Hayward, Jeshurun, Shawlands, Headlands, Balrobie,  Heavylands and Freelands. Then all went up in twos and we had medals pinned on our coats. After that Mr. Fisher gave a speech. We all marched to the school grounds where there were some trees stuck in holes in the ground and piles of dirt on each side and as each pair came up we went one on each side of the hole and threw a handful of dirt in. After that we marched to the sports ground. We had races. Donald won one race and got fifteen cents. I raced but I did not win.
Then there were ball games. When the games were over we went to the town hall for supper. We went out and had some fun. Then Mr. Dan Seip, Uncle Arthur and Miss Dodd came to the truck. They stood talking for a while. Then Miss Dodd came and told us we could stay to the picture show. We got home about 11 o'clock.
                                                                Your loving cousin, Joy
P.S. Kenny Fisher took pictures of us while we were having our badges put on and we were standing in line.
 Now some from Roy's letter....

I guess you heard the coronation celebrations over the radio eh? Well Bud and I rode down to Lipton on Snap and Fly on coronation day  and Uncle Arthur and Joy and Donald went with the rest of the children in Dan Seip's truck.
We watched the different school groups all assembled in front of the school. Then we went over to the station and watched the children march to the sports grounds. We went over to the sports grounds and watched the procession circling around. We saw Sidney Ford and he was with us for quite a long time. He was asking us about you too.
We went to the Chink's cafe and bought chocolate, ginger beer, peppermints, gum, etc.
After a while we went to the sports grounds again and watched Headlands playing softball against Heavylands. Heavylands won. Balrobie played against Hayward and Balrobie won. Sandy Goff was pretty good.
We went to Calver's and got tickets for the picture show. Then we had lunch at the chink's. We had supper at the town hall. At half past seven the picture show started and lasted for two hours. When we came out we saw them shooting off fireworks in Walwyn's back yard. We came home a few minutes later.
                                                     Your loving cousin Roy

Main street of Lipton as seen from the top of a grain elevator in the 1930s