They say you can’t know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been, and although not all residents of the City of Chestermere are ‘from’ here, it can always be fun to learn about the history of where you now call home.
For the Grade Two students of Prairie Waters Elementary, they had quite the experience on Thursday January 8th, when members of the Chestermere Historical Foundation stopped by to have a bit of a show and tell of what Chestermere was like many years ago.
Jen Peddlesden, who is the president of the Historical Foundation and often referred to around town as ‘Granny Jen’, along with Kay Clarke and Audrey McDonald, had quite the display of old fashion household items that the second graders were quite mystified with.
The fifty plus students that were in the room were taken through a day in the life of working on the farm. From waking up early and either walking to school or getting a ride in the ‘buggy’, to how the students took their lunch to school – not in the fancy superhero or princess lunch kits of today…but in a simple pail. When Mrs. Clarke ask the students what they did after school, she received responses like ‘play video games’ and ‘do homework’, which brought smiles to the faces of the ladies of the historical foundation as then they began to explain to the children the list of chores that children use to have. Feeding chickens, collecting eggs, and milking cows. Oh, how the times have changed.
Students were then treated to watching how to make homemade butter in an old fashioned butter churn. As the children were taken through their trip down memory lane, Granny Jen and Mrs. McDonald took turns churning, and by the time the presentation was at its end, the cream had turned to butter and the students were amazed. The question was then asked, how did they keep the butter cold? Mrs. Clarke showed the students a photo of an icebox and another of a few men and horses out on the lake, cutting the blocks of ice that would have been placed in the ice box to keep it cold. When Mrs. Clarke asked if the students knew how the horses kept from falling, one student proudly said, “he wore skates”…and laughter filled the room.
The Chestermere Historical Foundation (CHF) was established 01 April 2011. It was preceded by the Chestermere Historical Society which existed from 1961 until 1994. You can learn more about the Chestermere Historical Foundation by visiting http://chestermerehistory.org/
