When my parents closed their grocery store, they tore down a wall or two. Behind a wall was an old cooler door (?) that would have been used maybe as an ice box to store sawdust and ice to keep meat or perishables cold. These pictures display the hardware that held the door on tight for over 50 years. They're framed in these shadow boxes on my living room wall.
I don't know that my Dad's hands managed to open that door, but I can imagine that my grandfather filled that ice box as a young man. He was sent to my home town from Winnipeg, a 500km trek to work at the age of 13 or 14. For a while he worked for Mr. Davis at the grocery store that he later inherited. He also found himself working the gold mines at Pickle Crow at the age of 15. Far cry from what a teenager would endure now. I'm sure when *Mila* turns 15, she'll be more concerned about an iPhone or getting an upgrade from her Blue Ray DVD player in her room. She'll never have to worry about crawling into a hole to dig out a naturally occuring mineral or leaving her family at the age of 13 to work 500 km away from her home and sending the money home to her parents. As much as we know she'd like to.
signed, the willow
Several years ago we did a big renovation job in the basement of that building . . . I should see if I've got any pictures of it to show you. You'd think we'd have some somewhere.
ReplyDeleteWell, Hell Ya! Do you have any of the evil ghost that lived down there? Wonder if he/she still hangs out down there?
ReplyDelete