07-028: Did They Work Hard All The Time?

 

© G.R. Clare, 1997Turning a rough homestead into a good farm was the work of a lifetime for at least the first generation of settlers on a piece of brush-covered land. But most of the early settlers were young people, with lots of energy and a desire to make a bit of fun for themselves whenever they could.

The Tremblay farm hosted a Sports Day in 1914 with horse races and a dance, and the following year, on July 1st, the first of many Pouce Coupe Community Picnics took place. The fun included tug-of-war, log-rolling in the creek and a two-night dance. There was a Stampede in Rolla in 1919 and Dawson Creek held its first Fair around 1922 as well as being the site of some early rodeos. The first Rolla Agricultural Fair was held in 1923 to celebrate the growing success of the area’s farms.

Baseball teams were popular, too, with Dawson Creek, Rolla, and Kilkerran fielding teams which travelled as far as Grande Prairie, Spirit River or Taylor to play — usually a two or three day affair with a dance or two thrown in.

Even when winter came, it was just a matter of changing sports. Rolla had a good hockey team in 1921 — Lloyd Zimmerman, Carlin Coons, Clyde Miller, Bruce Vincent, Carl Clay, Claude Tower and Cecil Watts made up the whole team. Just seven men who bought their own equipment, paid their own travel costs and played virtually the whole game whenever they took to the ice. Hockey was played outdoors, of course, on natural ice. The rink in Rolla was built where the Curling Rink used to be while games in the old Dawson townsite were played right in the creek bed. People came for miles around to hang over the boards and to cheer their favourite team on. Fights were not part of the game, so the old-timers say, although hard checking was part of the fun. After the game, they were all friends again. As with most sporting events of the day, hockey games were often followed by a dance. Why come all that way just to spend an hour watching a game?

Naturally, there was curling wherever a suitable sheet of ice could be found or made. One of the highlights of the curling season, according to the Rev. Russell Ross, was the Fynn Trophy — a block of wood with a tin cup nailed to it — which could be played for anytime a team mounted a challenge against the current holders.

Did they work hard at homesteading back then? Of course they did, but they also worked hard at having some fun!