I just thought I'd add something to this.... Having money didn't save people from starvation or the elements. In 1979, The owner of "The Lakeside Leader" from Slave Lake, Alberta (who also owned the weekly in High Prairie) invited me to help cover the story of moving a very old, dilapidated cabin from out of the bush located between Grouard and McLennan. We were there to watch and document the dismantling of the building by archaeology students. The quality of the furnishings was decent... They were well made and cared for. What REALLY caught our attention was when they started dismantling the logs... They were chinked with paper money! The largest bill was a $10. There was a few thousand dollars (face value). The bills had no numismatic value because of water and sap stains and much of it had been gnawed by rodents but what caught my attention was the misery the cabin owners had gone through to survive... They used a small fortune (by the standards of those times) to stop the cold from freezing them. Their money couldn't buy them the luxury of heat! An old brittle journal (diary) was found. Within the pages was finding the baby frozen in the morning. I swear I could see the dried tears on the page. I asked the leader of the archaeologists if I could have one of the worst bills as a momento of this experience. He offered me one of the better bills but I refused.... so he gave me an old, partly eaten bill. I kept it in my dictionary for a couple of months then had it framed... To remind me what cold was all about... to remind me of what they endured. I just wanted to add that a diver once found one home-made crutch at the west end of Lesser Slave Lake. It was tied with sinew and had an old broken hammer-head as a pick in the bottom so the user could grip the ice. A couple of old-timers told me that there used to be an old, one legged fisherman that used to spear fish through the ice and who apparently fell through the ice and was never found. This memory means more to me today than it did then because I now have only one leg and spend most of my time in a wheelchair. I couldn't imagine trying to feed my family under those conditions! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Viola Seward" <olla@mercury.i29.net> To: <METISGEN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, December 31, 2001 1:33 PM Subject: [METISGEN-L] O.t. Very O.T. > Just reading Sutherlands pages and all i could think of was my > grandmother who was born at Now Cecil.SK. Her and hubby and children > lived from day to day. Never knew what would be the meal next day. But > thank God they lived in the woods on White Earth Reservation. Always > animals to kill for food. Yet we must have been just about as poor. But > remember hearing about tar paper houses all my life. Yet never ever > lived in one. But then my father was a disabled WW1 vet who got $42.00 > per month. Yet 7 children. But my father also trapped and fished a lot > so imagine we were luckier then many who got no government check. Now > this was during the depression where even people who were well off > faired no better. Well just wanted to tell you this. > Thanx. > Viola. > ---------snipped to save our database-------------