Recently while reading a hometown newspaper I stumbled across the painting to the right of the school I attended as a child. This painting by Gail Frasz brings back great memories of the small farming community of Benson where I grew up and went to school. I think the population back then was around 100 people.
I spent most of my free time riding dirt bikes in the summer, snowmobiles in the winter and my horse Flash the rest of the time. Every other waking minute was spent on a computer learning to program in Commodore 64 BASIC, Assembler and later C on my Amiga computer.
There wasn't much opportunity to get in trouble in a town like this. The nearest Mc Donald's was 70 miles away and shopping was at least a 30 mile drive south, we had no movie theater, no Walmart and no restaurants. The local curling club would open after church on Sunday where you could get a Coke, a bag of chips and a chocolate bar and five mojos for a dollar.
The school has since closed with the local children now travelling by school bus to larger centers nearby. I have to tell you there is something magical about growing up in the prairies and going to a small school like this. Its unfortunate that the school can no longer be sustained due to a lack of population.
It was not uncommon to combine grades in a school like this. For example grades 2,3 and 4 may be in the same classroom with one teacher with the older kids helping the younger ones with their assignments. Recreation in the wintertime was a ping pong table in the back of the classroom and we had tournaments when the weather outside was too dangerous. In the months of December and January windchills of minus 100 degrees were not uncommon. Our winter gym class was of course the local curling rink and for technology we had one Apple IIE computer that was shared by all the kids. You only got to use it if you did something special.
Most of the kids who attended the school were from farms nearby and if the busses couldn't run due to a snow blizzard we'd ride our snowmobiles into town so we could still attend school for the day. We'd then spend the day in the gym playing floor hockey. I use the term gym loosely, it was actually an empty classroom with a linoleum floor. :-)
My parents contacted the artist last week to see if a print of the painting was available as I really want one for my office to remind me of the past. Recently while talking to a senior exec at work who had a similar upbringing as myself he challenged me to never forget where I came from. Unfortunately, there wasn't a print available, but my mom surprised me this morning with an email to say that she's having one painted for me. What an awesome gift, thanks mom!
My wife has a theme song for me which I was telling Lenn about awhile back via instant messenger, seeing this photo of where I grew up definitely brings that song to mind, its a sappy old country soung by Glen Campbell. I guess that old saying still holds true, "You can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy." :-)
I still wouldn't trade where I am today for anything, but I do think its important to remember where you come from and not lose sight of that.
Where do you come from?
