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Mather Community Skating and Curling Rink
1930
Mather Manitoba Canada

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In winter the old rink with one curling sheet up the centre was a busy place. The town paused for the annual bonspiel, and battles with rinks from neighboring towns were warmly contested. Skaters circled the curling ice in a rather monotonous pattern, though nobody really complained. Of course, hockey was an impossibility.

The "Big Hill," or "Elliott's Hill," was the common sleighing and tobogganing site for children - and the occasional group of older "children." It amazes me now that it could ever have been called the "big hill". Creating snow caves in snow-banks along the railway right-of-way west of the station often engaged the attention of myself and other boys.

A trip to Rock Lake was always an event. Usually we went to the Elliott-Hill resort on the south side, where we camped for a week one summer. Occasionally our family made the longer trip to Avery's on the north side. It was there I saw my first airplane I remember, a barnstorming crate which now certainly would not attract the passengers it did that day. Airplanes were a rarity in the air over Mather in the 1920's. None ever landed, as far as I know.

The Grove, west of the big hill, with its fine trees, was sometimes a picnic spot. I distinctly recall one such event. My favorite memory of it concerns home-made ice-cream made from real cream. My mouth waters.

I remember the trip to Cartwright for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of Confederation. Mather school took part in the parade there. To mark the anniversary, bronze plaques of the Fathers of Confederation were presented to schools, throughout Canada I presume. Does one hang on a Mather school wall today?

I could go on and on, so many memories come flooding in as I write. But already I have probably claimed far too much space. Suffice it to say now that Mather community was a fine one in which to spend early years, and that to this day I feel a strong attachment to my boyhood home.