Remembering the Farm: My Grandparents Hingston 50th Wedding Anniversary

My brother, Stan, found and scanned the Guest Book from my grandparents, Freke and Kathleen Hingston's 50th Wedding Anniversary in 1964.  It brought back a great many memories of times past and people long gone.

My grandparents were married in May of 1914.  My grandfather always joked that the Great War did not break out until August. Fiftieth anniversaries were still a rarity in the early 1960s that they were sincerely celebrated.  Grandma and Grandpa had moved to a seniors lodge in North Battleford a couple of years prior but since they had lived all their life in the Cavell-Landis district, that is where the celebration took place.

A family dinner was held at our home on the farm which had been their home from 1914 to 1945 when they retired into a small house in Cavell.  We got the yard more or less beat into shape and emptied almost all furniture out of the living/dining area to make room for tables and chairs.  Not sure how many were there but they all managed to squeeze in somehow.

After dinner there was a come-and-go tea in the Landis Hall.   My brother noted that whoever was in charge of the guest book did a terrible job of getting people to sign as I am sure 75% of the people who came did not sign.

My grandparents lived to celebrate their 60th anniversary in 1974 which today is not so uncommon but was very special then.  Their health did not allow any major celebration and by that time they had outlived all their friends anyhow. They were well enough to attend Ella's and my wedding in April, though. Grandpa died the following year at age 90, living longer than any of his four brothers, even Uncle John who was the oldest. Grandma died in 1983 at age 95 but the last few years were very unkind to her.

I remember them well - we visited often in the little house in Cavell, then the little house in Landis from 1955 to 1963 and the lodge in North Battleford. They were good people.  Grandpa said when he came to Canada from Ireland in 1906 he had $400 and after farming, preaching and raising four kids over the decades, he still had $400.  Life had cost him nothing.

Colourized wedding picture

 It was a late spring when they got married and there was still snow in early May in central Alberta

Bob Hingston (nephew) and Grandpa and Grandma at the dinner in our home

 Ignore the date on the picture. Film got developed when it got developed at our home.

At the Landis Hall.  Joe Moore (nephew) in L background 

Some of the guests

George Hindley was the minister who married them.  Chartiers were their pastors in North Battleford.  Henry Johnson was my mother's father.  Grandma Johnson had died a couple years earlier.  Tom Moore was Grandma's brother in law.  Auntie Lily had died a few years previously. Eva, Frances, Winnie and William were their four children, with their spouses. The rest of the signatures are cousins

Gift from Bob and Millie Graham

Bob and Millie Graham farmed 1/2 mile from our place.  They were our closest neighbours and friends over the years. This plate is now with my daughter Kylee-Anne.

Volk and I Go Scouting

Kashtanka has gone back to live with Sveta. Kashtanka has not been well and seems to be allergic to something here.  Volk is quite happy to be alone.  No barking, no howling and so well behaved on walks.  Today was a nice cool breezy day so we went to a new area I had been curious about since I saw it on Google Earth. On the map it looked so much longer than my usual route I hesitated to try it until it was cooler.  The actual difference is only about 0.5 km (3 km vs 2.5 km).

The area with all the white appears to have been the beginnings of something which was then abandoned.  It is flat and surrounded by a ridge about 2 meters high of what I assume to be topsoil scrapped off long ago.  What ever was to have happened never did.  Possibly as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union, I do not know.  Now that I have seen it, I can at least ask.

New route in red, usual route in yellow

Grown up to weeds

The trail was very fine powdery dust

Some places nothing grew

Volk enjoying exploring new territory

Alanya - down by the see

Alanya is located across the Gulf of Antalya from Kemer where we usually holiday in Turkey but about another two hours by tour bus as the coast slants away to the east.  Tanya and Masha had been there in 2014 but it was my first time.

We should have known the trip was jinxed when we got there at 1:00 am and found that our Samsonite suitcase combination lock had been rolled.  I never use it and had no idea what the combination was.  Three wheels of 10 numbers is 1000 possible combinations.  I went through 800 in an hour and a half but had to quit with blood blisters on both thumbs.  Next morning I borrowed two screw drivers and pried the lock open.

 Besides swimming, I like to take in some of the historical sites of which Turkey abounds and had pretty well seen all the ones close to Kemer.  On the peninsula which you can see in the above picture are the ruins of a Seljuk Turkish castle and citadel with 6.5 km of walls built in the 13th century on the ruins of Roman and Byzantine fortress built 2000 years ago. Links here, here and here. There is also the Red Tower and ancient dockyards in the same area.

I found Selavi Tours which offered a city tour which included the fortress, the tower and the dockyards as well as the Dim Cavern. Not sure how the tour company pronounced its name but it should have been c'est la vie or better yet, caveat emptor.  We did indeed go into the fortress but we toured a Turkish home set up as a museum and an old mosque in one of the older settled areas inside the walls.  Because I raised hell with the tour guide, we then did not even stop at the tower or dockyards.  Do not ever use this company if you are in Turkey.

Add to that a terrible chest cold (heat, humidity, AC) and one bad night with Norovirus stomach flu which was working its way through the hotel and you have my holiday. Masha had the flu one night too but not so bad.

We did get to swim, Tanya and Masha more than I did, but still enjoyable.  Once I get out in deep water, I bob up and down like a cork and slowly move around like a 40' barge with a 10 horse motor. The salt water makes it possible as I do NOT swim.

Getting in and out of the water was a bit trickier for me as the wave patterns near the shore created some problems if you were not careful. The waves are stronger here than Kemer. There is about 15 to 30 feet of gravel when you first hit the water, followed by a shallow rocky shelf.  The waves seem to roll in but when they hit the shelf they stand straight up and really hit you.  Which is not bad if they are a foot high but a two or three foot wall of water has a lot of power.

Going into the water, you just follow a wave after it breaks and get past the rocky shelf before the next one. Coming in to shore for me was difficult as I have no balance coming out of deep water and my keel draws too much draft to float in on my back.  A wave would push me forward and the undertow would pull my feet out from under me, dumping me in the gravel.  The first time it happened the undertow also took my swim trunks down around my knees, much to the audible amusement of the onlookers.

At supper one evening we were sitting with a young couple from Poland.  They had been swimming and the girl showed me her scraped shin from being dumped by a wave.  I told her what had happened to me and she said her bikini bottoms ended up around her knees too with the same wave.  Her boyfriend thought it was funny.  Male bystanders, I expect, to quote Robert De Niro, were just grateful.

A woman her age

My youngest (34 in December) is a librarian at a Middle-High School in North London ("70 nationalities, 80 languages").  She is a bit off the wall so provides endless amusement to the students, most of whom love her dearly.  They in turn amuse her.  This was her facebook post from yesterday:

A student was doing a creative writing exercise at school today, describing the people in the library. And here's what he had to say about me. I'ma just ignore the 'a woman her age' comment, though.

Chris Evans (Captain America, not the BBC personality)

Music: the Hurtin' Kind

Blogs will be a bit thin the next couple weeks.  Going on holidays tomorrow morning, Back late Sept 5th.  computer stays home.  Unless I can figure how to blog from my cell phone, I'll see you all when we get back.

Music: with Soul

Links to Russia Stories

The boys in Moscow have had an easy week of it.  I went to Kyiv and back on Tuesday for a business meeting and to pick up a new computer and connect with old friends.  Sleeping on trains is a thing of the past for me so I went 24 hours with no sleep.  Wednesday was a write off.  Since then I have been busy setting up the new laptop, switching data and programs and learning Windows 10.  Took my old laptop in to Mir Computers, had it cleaned, polished and converted to Russian language Windows 7 for Lina.  It will likely give her a few more years of service and even at 5 years old was better than her old one.

Dozens of news stories went unread this week but here are a few that might be of interest.

More of Kremlin’s Opponents Are Ending Up Dead

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/world/europe/moscow-kremlin-silence-critics-poison.html

The Unsolved Mystery that Brought Putin to Power

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/439060/vladimir-putin-1999-russian-apartment-house-bombings-was-putin-responsible

Internet just quit; it must be Sunday.  "I used to hate computers but then the server went down on me". . . Back up again.  

On August 6-7, Russia claimed that Ukraine had sent undercover terrorists into Crimea to blow up infrastructure.  Two Russians were allegedly killed in the firefight while the Ukrainians were supported by artillery fire from the Ukrainian side.  They even "captured" three Ukrainians of the infiltrating group and a cache of explosives and weapons to prove it. Putin etc threatened extreme retaliation for the 'provocation".

This fake news story ranks up there with the crucified 3 year old, the 10 year old killed by Ukrainian artillery fire and the girl raped by refugees in Germany. There was no intrusion or Ukrainian artillery fire.  There was apparently one firefight between either Russian deserters and the Russian border patrol or between Russian military and Russian border patrol in a case of mistaken identity. Hence two Russians killed.

Of the three "captured" infiltrators, the first one appeared on Russian TV,  confessed and named names. (Of course all Stalin's victims confessed and named names too and for the same reasons, of belonging to fictitious political organizations or plotting to blow up non-existent bridges, etc.)  He had been kidnapped from Zaporozhzhia especially for the occasion and has not been allowed a lawyer or visitors to whom he might tell the real story.

The second is an anti-Ukrainian from L'viv who had completed two jail terms and fled to Crimea in time to avoid a third. The third was arrested several weeks prior to the alleged incident.  Oh, and the video of the "captured" weapons and munitions? Shows a full moon which was July 21. Isn't it fun?