I was born in Lena during the onset of the Great Depression. Lena had a grain elevator and general store; it was near the town of Kilarney. We had no money and no doctor. Illnesses were treated with Milk of Magnesia, Kristere - an enema which came in a red bottle, Cod Liver Oil and Castor Oil.

Brother Nick had been born in a hospital in Russia. When I was born in Canada in 1929, Father helped deliver me in our home and my mother almost died of complications in giving birth. A neighbour lady came to care for her and slept at our house with one eye open.

I first attended school in St. Rose in northern Manitoba where a nun was my teacher. Prayers were said in the French language but I was not expected to participate. One year later we moved five miles to Oak River. This school had no electricity; it was heated with a large stove. The children were brought to school by horse and cutter during the winter months and in buggies during the summer. I remember teachers Coutts, Smith and Young. We attended DVBS during the summer of 1935; it was led by a Wiebe couple.

Church services were held in the schoolhouse. Dietrich, Ed, Abe Bergman and other men sang with us. Our family was very musical and we had a choir, men's quartette, mixed quartette and a trio within our family! We had no church building until I was five. I remember the wedding of Ed Bergman and Lena Janzen. Mr. Bergman led the German language services. We travelled in a Sonnendach: a two-wheeled buggy pulled with one horse. I remember taking Mom to St. Rose at the age of six years.

I was eight years old when we moved to Leamington, Ontario. My mother's brother, Jake Reimer said, "Come to Leamington: milk and honey flows here!" We sold our cows, horses and implements and bought Greybound bus tickets. This left us with $200 pocket money. The bus had a pot for a bathroom; I was in charge of the pot. We travelled as far as Winnipeg where we stayed with our Uncle for a few days. Then we travelled on to Detroit, Michigan. A stranger gave us each a McIntosh apple. Another bus took us to Leamington. Ed Reimer's dad picked us up in a Model T Ford. Reimers lived east of Leamington next to Bill Schellenbergs near the old school there with Henry Abrams including Henry, John, Jake, Agatha and Annie. We moved in with the Abrams. We totalled 14 in the house: eight children and six adults. In the meantime, my father looked for work and a house.

When I was 12, we moved to Highway # 18 near Union and worked the Harry Adams farm on shares. They had horses, cows and grew tobacco. They offered us the two houses and land for $9,000, but we didn't buy it because we had no money. Dad drove a 1930 Whippet. It had two spare tires, a back rack for luggage, and four doors. These doors were called suicide doors because the front opened to the rear and the back to the front.

After one year we moved to a farm across from today's Meadow Brook subdivision. Here we farmed 50 acres on shares. We grew onions, potatoes, and feed for the cows and horses. After two years we moved to the Leamington Side Road (Hwy. 77) where Ron Janzen's business stands today. We had a house and garage. In 1943 and 1944 Dad, my sister and brother and I all worked at H J Heinz. Dad received 56 1/2 cents per hour; we children each received 37 1/2 cents per hour. Mom packed our lunches in paper bags and we shared a package of readymade cookies. Our lunches were kept on a closet shelf and by noon the sandwiches were covered with little brown ants. We shook the ants off the sandwiches before eating them. They didn't hurt us.

I quit working at Heinz's and returned to school for a while, then went back to the factory. In 1945 Dad bought a 52 acre farm near the East Mersea school. Then the neighbours sold us a nice house and 60 acres for $11,000. Dad gave him $12,000. All our wages went to pay for the farm. We grew late tomatoes, soya beans, corn and shipped cream. Dad shovelled coal at H J Heinz and in 1950 he said, "Listen, I'm working hard shovelling coal; I'll study to get my 3^rd class engineering papers." At 52 years of age he wrote his exams in Toronto; sister Ann went to write for him. Dad got his engineering papers and ran the boilers in the H J Heinz powerhouse for 20 years.

I quit H J Heinz and farmed for several years, worked as a fruit and vegetable inspector and a construction worker building homes. When, in 1964, Heinz went into glass bottle canning, I started there for 90 cents per hour. When the union came in 1970, wages climbed higher, and we paid into a pension plan. In my 25 years there, I missed 1 1/2 days of work.

My future wife Louise, who lived in Kitchener, came to Leamington one weekend with my cousin Eleanor Federau. They attended the Leamington fair. I met Louise at church on Sunday morning in 1953 and we were married in 1955. We lived in the James house on Elliot Street for three years. Then we moved to Dad's farm and built a new house there. After living on Hazelton Street for a while, we lived in two locations on Pearl Street. We then moved to 67 Danforth Avenue afterwhich we bought our house on Audrey Street where we lived for 45 years.

My Dad died in the Franklin Home in Leamington at the age of 80 years. Mother reached the age of 103; she died in the Leamington Mennonite Home. The tombstone of my great grandparents, Jacob Reimer and Wilhelmina Strauss, were discovered by a farmer who farmed this property in Wiesenfeld, Russia.

Today we live on Pickwick Drive. We are happy and healthy, have a daughter and son-in-law and three grown grandchildren.

   back