If Not Now...When: Telling Your Story

Boomers and seniors: Record your history. There are many resources at your fingertips to help with research. Remember the stories while they are still relatively fresh in your mind.

You may want to begin with Cyndi's List. Tap into AARP's references and do not hesitate to use Family Search.

Here is the beginning of my family's story:

With an oil lamp burning at the table above the general store in the barren prairies of Saskatchewan in the 1930's, Dad discussed and argued values, ethics, and morals with the visiting pastor. Not surprisingly, remnants of these debates appeared in the sermons on Sunday mornings in church where dad loved to sing in the choir.

Hazlet is a small town in central Canada. To this day the main street is dirt. The population has varied little from its original 120 homesteaders, mostly English, Scots, and Norwegians, who were lured to the area with promises of free land and an easy water supply. Free land was doled out provided the homesteaders could endure primitive conditions and a harsh climate. The surrounding towns such as Swift Current and Gull Lake had neither rivers, lakes, nor gulls. To this day the tap water has a natural sulfuric (rotten egg) taste.

It was relatively common for Jewish families to venture to hamlets spiking off the Canadian Railroad to set up stores to supply burgeoning farming communities.

Dad, 16, and his father personally built their store hoping to lessen their struggle to support their large family. But on the day that they were moving into the store, my grandfather suffered a heart attack and died. The role of breadwinner now was placed squarely on my father's shoulders.

It was through the kindness of the homesteaders and their patronage that Dad was able to keep his siblings out of orphanages and foster homes.

Dad grew to love the people (among them the Bangs, Starkeys, Schnuths, Akres, Dewars, and Pattersons) and served them fairly. He earned their esteem and goodwill by keeping long hours, by buying and selling products off their farms, by helping with harvesting, and by participating on the school board. Eventually he was wooed to run for provincial office but because it meant that he would be away in the capital, Regina, from family and business for long stretches of time, he declined.