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• so A L B E R T A W O M E N ' S I N S T I T U T ES
that it was overshadowed by the tall Balsam on one side and by a third'
tree, a gigantic Pine, on the other. This Pine was grand for climbing, ^ nd
many an adventure was planned by the boys seated among its wide branches.
Beneath these trees was a veritable wild flower garden, for we carried from
the woods and planted here, a great number of wild flowers : T r i l l i u m , Dog's
Tooth Violet, Squirrel Corn and Dutchman's Breeches, Indian Turnip, Blood-root,
Hepatica and Violet. The Balsam was broken off a few years ago during
a tempest, but the Cedar and the great Pine are still flourishing.
The foregoing is but a word picture that any ex- farm boy can duplicate
in general outline if not in detail, and it is painted with the hope that some
may be inspired so to duplicate this effort. I would like to add to the picture
one more touch, but I do so with the dread of being classed among ihose
given to superficial sentiment. In spite of the risk, I am about to say that
today I feel as Dresser must have felt, when he too was an exile from home,
his home on the Banks of the Wabash:
" But one thing there is missing in the picture,
Without her face it seems so incomplete,
I long to see my mother in the doorway,
As she stood there years ago, her boy to greet."
Coming home from public school each night, coming home from High
School each Friday, coming home at longer and longer intervals, from farther
and farther away, each time as I came up the drive beneath the Balms it
seems as if there always stood in the doorway the mother who never was
anything but a g i r l ; until one day I was called from a lacrosse game and
handed a telegram, and then there was no longer an old home to revisit.
And so I tell the bo3" s under my care, when they talk of what they shall do
at close of term: " Go home; go for a day or two anyway, even if your girl
wants you to do something else; for you too there will come, all too soon, a
day when there w i l l be no old home to revisit."
Sometimes I wonder if it is really desirable to revisit the site of what was
once the old home, whether it be not best to retain the picture unblemished
by the changes one must find, whether one is justified to himself i n yielding
to natural inclination. Once our young people sang a song that was popular
in its da}', sang it without a care, and without a sense that one day it would
inevitably come home to the singers; the second verse ran thus:
" The other day as I drew near
That old home I loved so dear;
A stranger came to meet me at the door.
Round the place there's many a change,
And the faces all seem strange,
Not a loved one comes to greet me as of yore.
For my mother dear is laid
' Neath the Elm- tree's pleasant shade.
Where the golden summer sun shines bright and warm,
And beside the old fire- place,
I can see a stranger's face
In my father's old arm- chair down on the farm."
X o ; it is doubtful if it pays to go back, it is not advisable either to look
back too much. One is best justified in looking backward, if he so look in
order to gain inspiration to go forward.
Object Description
| Rating | |
| Title | 1930 - Annual Convention Report |
| Subject | Convention;Report; AWI |
| Description | Report of the Sixteenth Annual Convention held May 20-23, 1930 |
| Language | en |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Type | text |
| Source | Alberta Women's Institutes |
| Identifier | awi0811099 |
| Date | 1930 |
| Collection | Alberta Women's Institutes - Collective Memory |
| Repository | AU Digital Library |
| Copyright | For Private Study and Research Use Only |
Description
| Title | Page 78 |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | AWI Collection |
| Collection | Alberta Women's Institutes - Collective Memory |
| Repository | AU Digital Library |
| Copyright | For Private Study and Research Use Only |
| Transcript | • so A L B E R T A W O M E N ' S I N S T I T U T ES that it was overshadowed by the tall Balsam on one side and by a third' tree, a gigantic Pine, on the other. This Pine was grand for climbing, ^ nd many an adventure was planned by the boys seated among its wide branches. Beneath these trees was a veritable wild flower garden, for we carried from the woods and planted here, a great number of wild flowers : T r i l l i u m , Dog's Tooth Violet, Squirrel Corn and Dutchman's Breeches, Indian Turnip, Blood-root, Hepatica and Violet. The Balsam was broken off a few years ago during a tempest, but the Cedar and the great Pine are still flourishing. The foregoing is but a word picture that any ex- farm boy can duplicate in general outline if not in detail, and it is painted with the hope that some may be inspired so to duplicate this effort. I would like to add to the picture one more touch, but I do so with the dread of being classed among ihose given to superficial sentiment. In spite of the risk, I am about to say that today I feel as Dresser must have felt, when he too was an exile from home, his home on the Banks of the Wabash: " But one thing there is missing in the picture, Without her face it seems so incomplete, I long to see my mother in the doorway, As she stood there years ago, her boy to greet." Coming home from public school each night, coming home from High School each Friday, coming home at longer and longer intervals, from farther and farther away, each time as I came up the drive beneath the Balms it seems as if there always stood in the doorway the mother who never was anything but a g i r l ; until one day I was called from a lacrosse game and handed a telegram, and then there was no longer an old home to revisit. And so I tell the bo3" s under my care, when they talk of what they shall do at close of term: " Go home; go for a day or two anyway, even if your girl wants you to do something else; for you too there will come, all too soon, a day when there w i l l be no old home to revisit." Sometimes I wonder if it is really desirable to revisit the site of what was once the old home, whether it be not best to retain the picture unblemished by the changes one must find, whether one is justified to himself i n yielding to natural inclination. Once our young people sang a song that was popular in its da}', sang it without a care, and without a sense that one day it would inevitably come home to the singers; the second verse ran thus: " The other day as I drew near That old home I loved so dear; A stranger came to meet me at the door. Round the place there's many a change, And the faces all seem strange, Not a loved one comes to greet me as of yore. For my mother dear is laid ' Neath the Elm- tree's pleasant shade. Where the golden summer sun shines bright and warm, And beside the old fire- place, I can see a stranger's face In my father's old arm- chair down on the farm." X o ; it is doubtful if it pays to go back, it is not advisable either to look back too much. One is best justified in looking backward, if he so look in order to gain inspiration to go forward. |
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