A Soldier's Life

I found the following article in the Cupar Herald dated 24 August 1916.  No source is given.  It gives a different perspective and perhaps a sense of humour.  You may judge for yourself.

1950's push cart

The museum would like to thank Dennis Demyen

for the donation of a 1950's push cart

from the estate of his wife Barb.

The push cart was lovingly used

 through her childhood years

and will become an important feature 

of our summer display.

Qu'Appelle Valley Network May Meeting

Rebecca from White City and Pat from Dysart get a chance after lunch for some personal conversation.

I realize a lot of people don't like meetings but not only is it a time to find out what other small museums are planning and what are there challenges, but how we can all share and help.

This was our first network meeting in Cupar.
Next meeting will be in Dysart scheduled for
October 15.


If any of you feel like day trips this summer and fall, here is the schedule of events for our group.

Qu'Appelle Valley Museums

Schedule of Events 2016

May 28 Indian Head Bell Barn: Lobster Dinner

May 29 Abernethy: Open House

June 25 Cupar: Strawberry Social: 2-4pm

featuring Blue Country band from Fort Qu'Appelle

June 26 Indian Head Bell Barn: Horse Fair

July 14 Dysart: High Tea: 1-3pm

July 15 Indian Head Bell Barn: Pizza Night

July 16 Kronau:Simple Fun Family Festival

featuring “Up Side of Maybe” band from London Ontario

July 22 Abernethy: Abernethy Fair & Open House

July 23 Glenavon: Fair Day & Open House

July 25-29 Kronau: Making Memories Kids Summer Camp – Session 1

August 13 Dysart: Museum Day: 1-4pm

August 13 Indian Head Bell Barn: Barn Dance

August 14 Indian Head: Open House at 1 pm.

August 15-19 Kronau: Making Memories Kids Summer Camp – Session 2

September 17 Indian Head Bell Barn: Barn Dance

September 24 Grenfell: Fall Fair & museum quilt raffle draw

September 30-October 2 Abernethy: Culture Days

October 1 Indian Head Bell Barn: Octoberfest

October 1 Cupar: Harvest Lunch & Culture Days 11am to 2pm

October 2 Kronau: Culture Days – Celebrating Ukrainian Culture &

anniversary of the first wave of Ukrainian immigrants to

this province

October 15 Kronau: Annual Fall Fundraiser at U of R

Featuring Chester McBain “The Entertainer” Magician

December 3 Kronau: Santa Store – Children's secret Christmas shopping

day at the museum

December 11 Kronau: Christmas Program and Carol Sing-a-Long.

Special Exhibits:

Cupar: The 1950's featuring toys

Dysart: Music Through the Years

Kronau: “Marching on to War” impact of wars on Saskatchewan families

Old School Communication

Let me begin by saying I am a baby boomer and you can choose to judge my attitude and technical abilities by that. I like to start the day with a cup of coffee watching the news. Yes I realize it is highly filtered, but that is not what bothers me. It is the 24 hour news channels that spend more time on ads then news. By the time the geriatric ads for reverse mortgages, “help I've fallen and can't get up”, step in baths and circulation boosters are over I really am not sure what important news item I wanted to see. Those ads obviously target a specific audience. Anyhow I have turned to my ipad with it's ad blocker. What a joy. I watch and read as many news channels as I want when I want. They are still filtered and I am aware I am not being told everything but can we trust all the variations of “social media” as being more truthful. Note to self, take everything with a grain of salt. The other day I read an article on going “old school”. I think I am beginning to hate that phrase. It was about young tech savvy people going back to flip phones from smart phones. Interesting. It kind of made me happy as we chase the illusive idea of keeping up with technology. As I wander through our museum looking at “old school” communication technology I smile to myself. On a wall hangs a wooden phone, it used a party line and everyone on the line had their own ring. Of course some people had to listen in. My mom and grandmother had a code they used. Once it was “the princess has arrived” Well the gossip that went out that the princess from England had arrived. It was actually the birth of my aunt. Did you know on facebook you can read other peoples posts even if you are not a friend. Try privacy settings.

Does anyone remember the rotary phone? My favourite. I loved turning that wheel and listening to the sound. I was easily amused as a child. Then came the mobile phone, barely. It was large and cumbersome. Now we carry our life in our pocket, our “smart phone”. Do you misplace things? Do you have a passcode? Did you download the app that helps you find your “smart phone”? Do you understand what I am saying? 

Well here is the moral to my ramblings, I have chosen to be selective in the technology I use and keep up with it based on my needs and not pressure from my peers or much younger generations. Having said that one should never stop learning and  always be curious.

A few words of warning about today's technology, think before you hit “delete”, don't automatically hit “yes” because it's there, free isn't always free. What will happen when you hit update just because it's there? Think first because it isn't always good.

Moving Exhibits

Spring, a time of renewal and time to rethink museum displays. Our wildlife / taxidermy exhibit has been in the main building for years. The wood is lighter in behind, so I suspect it could be 20 years. It has now been moved to the hallway adjoining the other major displays. I must say it really looks good there. 

Our new mannequins have arrived. Our permanent war exhibit will house some of them. Now the problem is fitting the new ones in, which seem to be slightly taller than the old ones.

The summer exhibit featuring the 1950s will be positioned where the wildlife exhibit originally was.

Cleaning and dusting exhibits seems to always fall to our female members and what a fresh smell everything had when they finished. So over coffee several of our female board members poured over 1950s Eaton's catalogues doing preliminary research. Although we do have some 1950s artifacts others will be coming in just for the summer.

People will be pleasantly surprised come the Strawberry Social on June 25^th.

Saskatchewan Oil Industry

I found this article in the Cupar Herald dated May 11, 1939.  It made me think about how things change and cycle round.

CPR platform wagon

Spring is near and one of our major projects a CPR platform wagon has been finished.

Thanks to the many hours of dedication by volunteer Jim Adam.  The wagon was in very poor shape, especially the railings and it did take some time to research it to get the look just right.

The next step will be
to create a permanent
space to house it
along with CPR
artifacts we have been
accumulating.

Cupar Boys WWI 1916

Originally it was thought that WWI would last only a few months. Although a number of the boys from Cupar left for the war in 1914, a great number enlisted in 1916. Below is a photo of the Cupar boys who were in the 195^th Overseas Battalion City of Regina at Camp Hughes in 1916. Also a list of their names.

One of the things we too often don't think about is what effect the removal of these young men had on the small farming communities and the ability of farmers to both seed and harvest their crops. Below are 2 articles, a general one on the need for soldiers to assist in seeding taken from the Cupar Herald dated 6 April 1916, and the other from the Cupar Herald dated 24 August 1916 refers to the brief return of many of the Cupar boys to assist with the harvest.

                                                                         6 April 1916

                                                                 24 August 1916

In a Box or In the Trash

Winter seems to be passing too quickly and my winter to do list doesn't seem to be happening. Well at least not the official one. I wanted to go though and photograph items from the 1939 Cupar Herald. I meant to put the photos from our summer exhibit in an album. I haven't opened and updated the museum's laptop. I haven't typed up the museum minutes from November. Must move that up my list once I get back from Saskatoon. I had wanted to put more posts on the museum blog. I have maintained it but have ignored checking out the twitter and facebook links my niece set up. Well that has only been 3 or 4 years. I shouldn't even mention the slides I brought back from Vancouver, I think it was 12 years ago. They are safely in several boxes hidden under a bed gathering dust. It breaks my heart to think about culling them down and throwing them in the garbage. The list goes on.

And then the big distraction happened. I got an ipad. My husband downloaded every free app he could find just in case I could use them so I have been putting them in folders and deleting the ones that are basically ads. I like to read the news in the morning and unfortunately on TV there are so many ads I can't remember what I was watching. So I love the ipad for that. Didn't mention the solitaire games that are eating into my productive time.

Email. I have 2 of them but have ignored one for 3 or 4 years. Mistake. So I confess the gmail one has been ignored. Who knew my mail was under the category “more.” all mail not in box. I was delighted to see my gmail account was on my ipad. ALL 895 OF THEM. In the box in the trash. I apologize to anyone who was trying to reach me. I'll get around to it next year. I kept 21 of the 895, and am pleased to see people and institutions following and retweeting. Thank you. But why on my laptop do I have 100 messages and on my ipad only 21. Never mind I'll get around to it next year.

Oh yes it's almost time to start thinking about my spring to do list.

I wonder what is the difference between distraction and procrastination. At least I know how to prioritize, right?

Cupar Centennial Pool

The Cupar Lions Club began in Cupar in 1964.  Unfortunately records of their activities between 1964-2005 were lost to flooding. They have throughout the past 50 years been critical to fund raising and assisting the community. The first major project was the Cupar Centennial Pool. Recently a past Lion's member, George Stuart, found in his personal papers a financial statement for the pool committee between 1965-67, and sent it to our museum. 

Another member, Jack Mitchell, found a few black and white photos that he shared with us. Unfortunately the people are not identified.

Krammer    Construction  

Lion's Fundraising Auction for 
Swimming Pool

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

 

Hopefully other Lion's members will find the odd document or photo from their private collection of Lion's activities that they can share, or better yet write up a history for us before their history and contributions to this community are totally lost.

Cupar Museum Christmas Supper

This year marked the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Cupar and District Heritage Museum.  Each year the museum hosts a Christmas supper for their members and volunteers.  This year 40 people attended.  The museum board likes to attach a cultural event to the evening. This year local singer Nikki Wagner entertained us.  What I especially enjoyed was not just her beautiful voice, but the stories about the significance that each song had to her musically talented family.  Each song had a memory of a period or event in her life, some happy and others quite sad and tragic.  These stories were intimate and revealing.

  The memory of family members who have passed on continues to live on and is honoured and shared with others through music.

Collections Digitization

(Photo : Cam Hart workshop leader) 

A number of years ago when I was still teaching in the Film and Video Department at the University of Regina, I asked a student who had been in my 200 level production class and was, after 4 years of study, about to graduate, what he had learned. He simply said “I learned to focus.”

Through the years the word “focus” has stayed with me.

  

 If you asked me what I learned from the Introduction to Collections Digitization Workshop held recently in Saskatoon, it would  be the need to “focus.” Too often when I attend workshops I think I have to do everything, implement everything I have heard at that particular workshop.   I become overwhelmed, then I remember  the word “focus.”   I am not alone. Each of our little museums has a board of directors and we need to “focus.” 

The workshop gives us directions, but we need to decide where to go, how much we can achieve, and lay out a plan before we begin. The word POLICY has always put me into a panic, but suddenly I realized that a policy assists in giving “focus.”

What does our museum feel is critical to digitize? Why is it critical? For what purpose are we doing it? How will we do it? How will we use it in the future? How will future generations access the information as technology changes? Will our digitized information be corrupted and be unaccessible?

I began to realize that by asking questions it would help us “focus” on our needs. The workshop gave us basic technical information, online resources, software available, hardware and equipment needs etc, but it is up to each of us to “focus.”

folklore activities questions

I attended the Qu”Appelle Valley Network meeting in early October. One of the joys of these meetings is the mini workshops that happen. Of special interest was a workshop on What is Intangible Cultural Heritage, presented by folklorist, Kristin Catherwood. She has graciously allowed me to share a set of questions to assist people in getting the memory juices flowing. I hope you will find it of interest and useful.

You may contact her at kristin@fromthegap.com

Harvest Lunch

Thanks to all the Cupar museum board members and our many volunteers for making our Harvest Lunch on October 3 a great success. We had approximately 88 people attend. The few remaining pies, bread and soup were sold at the end. Last year we were at the town hall, but this year we were back at the Legion/Library building as our medical services have found their permanent home at Shalom.

Lipton Hebrew Cemetery

I guess like everyone, I don't know where the time goes. Summer as usual was too short. Sad to say one of our big outings was a trip to KFC in Fort Qu'Appelle. On the way home, north on highway #35, I realized that we weren't really that far from the Lipton Hebrew Cemetery, only 8 km as the crow flies from Lipton really isn't that helpful. Follow #35 north to Hayward road, turn east (right) for about 10km on a gravel road, then north (left) for another 2km about. Beautiful countryside.

The grave houses are rare to this province and even though we were welcomed by big vicious mosquitoes and ran quickly through the cemetery it was well worth it. The museum is a little tin shed but don't let that fool you or let the mosquitoes drive you away. It is very informative.

As a bonus we stopped at a sign for the Reindeer School ( Tiferes Israel School), again a chance to view the countryside that the early jewish immigrants from Romania and Russia settled and established a farming community around 1900.