Square Butte Community Association
This has been a difficult year for the SBCA due to COVID and our wall restoration. Regrettably the board had to make a decision to cancel the Sept. breakfast and the Octoberfest Event. We only hope that in the near future we can safely get back to gatherings at our newly renovated hall. The renovations are nearing completion with landscaping and touchups in the hall to be completed by the end of September. We can’t wait to put on one big party when it is safe to do so. Don’t give up on us! The AGM is slated for November 19th with a complete review of the years accomplishments. We are beginning our 2022 membership drive. It may feel like you received very little benefit from your current membership but we will try and make this year special in spite of COVID.
Square Butte Ladies Group
The Ladies have had 3 very good Millarville Markets this summer which goes a long ways to fulfilling our donation commitments. Thanks to those who stepped up with some lovely baking and those who so graciously bought our goods.
We are reaching out to ladies to join our small group. With more participation we would be able to offer some fun things to enjoy and to meet your neighbours and cultivate relationships.
Contact: President Jill Fry 403-931-3420
Community History
With COVID restrictions upon us it feels like we have been having the worst years of our lives, which got me to thinking about our relatives in the past who had to suffer through some extremely difficult times.
They arrived in Alberta (N.W.T) by various means. Some travelled by ship from their homeland, leaving all their families behind, others with their horses in box cars from Ontario, others overland. The call of the west was strong and a future of freedom and land of their own so compelling.
The 20’s & 30’s saw rheumatic fever, diptherea, tuberculosis, whooping cough, small pox & polio. If you can imagine the treatment for polio was the iron lung which helped you breathe. If you survived, most were left with a lifetime of disability. My grandmother would swab the childrens throats (diptherea) with coal oil, which the doctors said had helped them, but the after taste was awful. Thankfully with the advancement of medicine and sanitation these diseases declined and some eradicated due to vaccines.
Some recollections of the dirty thirties were that times were hard for everyone. The freight trains were crowded with hobos “riding the rails”. There was very little rain and many dust storms, making it necessary at times to light a lamp during the day.
Some years there was more pigweed than grain. For two years the army worms ate all the leaves off the trees. Tea towels and pillow slips were made from cotton flour sacks. Aprons and tablecloths were made from gingham flour bags.
Bennett wagons were made from old car bodies. Homemade soup was made in large iron pots. A good cow or yearling brought the sum of $10.00. Cream was 8 cents a pound for special in 1932 and the pastures were poor. Many farmers in the Byemoor area left for greener pastures. From most accounts the foothills never experienced the devastation that the prairies did. Then the Second World War occurred!
There is such admiration for those that came before us, for their resilience in the face of disease, loss of life, loss of land and loss of livelihood.
You may wonder about the reason that so many of those that grew up or experienced hardships have a hard time throwing things out; it is because it was so instilled in everyone to not waste, that it could be used in the future.
At present we take so much for granted but gives you pause to be thankful for what we do have.
Contributed by Mary Ann Watson
Square Butte Hall Contract Information
Address: 290132 Hwy 762
squarebuttehall.com
facebook.com/Sqbuttecommunity Square Butte Community Hall Facebook Page
facebook.com/squarebutteladies Square Butte Ladies Group Facebook Page
