‘I don’t know if she was aware of that before cooking it for dinner’

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Published on Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Photos courtesy of the Beautiful Plains Archives. Jackie Dalton remembers spending the summer playing games at the Neepawa Creamery.

By Rick Sparling

Neepawa Press

For the past three weeks, Rick Sparling has shared memories of growing up in Neepawa during the 1950s and 1960. This final week features memories of the Dalton sisters.

Jackie Dalton’s (Schwab) memories of growing up in Neepawa are summed up in the e-mail she sent me, as follows:

Neepawa was a great place to grow up in. I remember going any place and every place and never having any doubts or fears. I was all over that town. Spent a lot of time at the skating rink. Mr. Wilkie would always help us kids get our feet warmed up after skating for hours. Our feet would be so cold and he would rub them for us and then tell us to jump on our toes around the office to get the blood circulating in our feet again. We didn't want to warm them up too fast otherwise they would hurt even worse.

We played games at the Neepawa Creamery all summer long. Late into the night, just to get one more game in before heading home. I remember playing dodge ball on the street where I lived with some friends.

“Black eyed Susan”

My sister, Donna was riding her bike past the police station and a police car was coming out just as she was riding by and nobody saw the other and Donna went over the top of the car and down the other side and landed on the pavement. We called her “Black eyed Susan” for a time afterwards as she had two very black eyes. She was lucky nothing serious happened.

I remember Lorne Kines grandfather, Ollie Ramstead, had a construction storage shed on 4th Avenue (directly across from Sparling's house.) We somehow got a cement mixing tub and used it as a canoe because the whole area there would be like a lake every spring. We used hoes as paddles to move ourselves around the area.

Interjection from Rick Sparling: If I had a nickel for every time I or my friends 'went over' our rubber boots in this lake, I'd be rich!

One night, I canoed over to a small island on the property and the canoe drifted away and I had to wait until my brother came home to come two hours later to rescue me. We had loads of fun on this lake for years.           

The Dalton sisters’ dad was a volunteer firefighter. Jackie remembers watching him scale the fence in their backyard on his way to the fire station.

We played catch with the liver

Back to Jackie: We would go on Saturday mornings to the north end, near the post office and across the street, there was a vacant lot where the Indians would come into town with their wagons and they'd tie their horses to a hitching post while they did their shopping. We thought it was interesting to see these people because they were different from us and we were curious about them.

I recall being friends with Lawrence Sprott. He lived in an apartment downtown with his mom. After school on some days, I would go there and hang out with him. His mom worked. Lawrence and I played catch with the liver she took out for dinner. I don't know if she was aware of that before cooking it for dinner. My sister and I would often go to the cemetery and play for hours amongst the headstones.

Stu Lindsay used to deliver bread by horse and buggy. I remember him stopping at my house. 

There was a candy store on Mountain Avenue. I used to be able to buy so much candy with a nickel. It was put in a small brown paper bag and would excite me for days.

I remember playing (swimming) in the Whitemud River and coming out of the water with my legs covered with blood suckers (leeches). Had to rip those suckers off.

My dad used to be a volunteer firefighter and I recall that when the siren went off and I watched out my bedroom window as he scaled a 5' fence in our back yard to go through the Catholic Church yard and to the fire hall on the next street. 

Some of the best days were spent at the rink

When I was asking for some feedback for these stories, I also got the following from Donna Dalton (Cady):

I was 12 years old when we left Neepawa. I'll share some of my fond memories of growing up there.

Some of the best days were spent at the rink. Jackie and I were there every waking moment and I think we had skates before we had real walking shoes...lol. Our dad was a figure skater so he helped us a lot. We also had a rink in our back yard, because my dad would flood the yard where normally there was grass in the summer.

One year, Jackie and I did something naughty, however; I can't remember what we did wrong. 

Anyway, our punishment was to stay home during the annual fireworks display they used to put on at the top of the town hill. We decided to sneak out of the house, so we opened the window in our upstairs bedroom and climbed down onto the roof and jumped to the ground. We walked to the fireworks display and sat down. Just when we got comfortable, who should be standing right beside us…Our parents! We were two scared little girls, but they took mercy on us and let us stay for the show.

Just like today, the Roxy Theatre was a popular attraction for kids growing up in the 1950s and 1960s.

We thought we had struck gold

My best memories are of going to Grandma's house on the next street over to help her cook and bake. She cooked five star meals over a wood burning stove. Grandpa cooked his morning bacon and eggs over an open fire in the stove. My grandma was instrumental to my love of cooking that I have had my whole life.

I was friends with Bette Lynn Wickett, whose dad owned the pharmacy on Main Street. One time, we raided the garbage dumpster out back and thought we had struck gold. We found a box of chocolates and after starting to devour them, we soon discovered they were plastic and used for display only.

Gail Strock and I stole her sister's cigarettes and we took them up to a building at the fair grounds and choked ourselves sick on them. That didn't stop me from developing that habit, but I did manage to quit a few years later.

For some reason, I used to hang out at the Royal Cafe remembering they made good Chinese food.

“Central” always knew what was going on

My mom always knew what we were up to because “Central” would call her after she had heard other people gossiping on the phone. That's what happened with 'party line' phones. I actually had the last crank phone that came out of Neepawa. My dad was able to get a hold of it and it still has the original “guts” inside. I gave it to my daughter and she will pass it down to her daughter.

Of course, it goes without saying that growing up in the small town of Neepawa was the best thing that could have happened to me because I still have those same values in life. A friend of my dad told me as a young girl to always be proud of where I came from, so when someone asks me where I'm from, I say, “Neepawa” with great pride.

Last but not least, my parents allowed me to go to a movie with a boy (without the parents) and I'm pretty sure it was you! (You being Rick)

Proud to be from Neepawa 

Back to Rick: The one thing we all have in common to this day is, as Donna Dalton just stated, we are all proud of having Neepawa as our home town.