Memories from Florence Sprackett on November 21st, 2017 (Sandra & Ray Peters were present)
(Photos courtesy of Florence Sprackett)
- First Photo: Mary, Hilda, Laura, Florence and Marian Sprackett
- Second Photo: Florence playing her violin
- Third Photo: Don and Florence’s Wedding Photo
- Fourth Photo: Don and Florence later in Life
- Fifth Photo: Don Sprackett
There were stores in Gilmour and Gunter. Stan and Fern Robbins had one out by the highway.
Gilbert Phillips had a store located further in Gilmour beside where Jerry Phillips lives today (2017).
McMurray’s Store was located in downtown Gilmour across from Grandpa Jim’s house.
I remember there were two stores in Gunter, one was owned by a Hamm the other one I can’t remember who owned that one.
Sprackett’s sawmill burned before Don and I were married. on December 23rd in 1942. In those days we had a “shivaree”. I was playing the violin when the folks came making a lot of noise outside. Don said, “I didn’t sound so good.” We had a few laughs about that.
We had a 1940 Dodge car when we first got married. Don loved his cars and wouldn’t let the girls eat in the car or put their feet on the seats.
Our house was 2 rooms, the kitchen and a bedroom on the back. This house was moved from Gunter. Grampa Jim had provided a bunch of lumber to someone but they didn’t pay for it so we ended up with the house I still live in today. Our daughters, Sharon was born in 1944, Sandra in 1946, and Bonnie Lynne in 1947, bathed in a tub behind the old cook stove. We built several extentions on the house the first in 1946, added the upstairs in the 1960’s and the upstairs room above the kitchen in 1997.
Grampa Jim Sprackett was a very kind person. Even when there was no work to do he kept men working. I recall Mrs. Whitmore from Murphy’s Corners telling Don and I, ”if it wasn’t for Jim Sprackett our family would have starved. He made the trip over here with flour to keep us going.”
There was a United Church on the hill. They had Christmas concerts in the basement there. That’s where the original school was up beside the church as well. In the 1950’s it burned down.
Grampa Jim was sad about the train station closing. He used to get warm in there in the winter. Mort Baker looked after the station for years. I remember some of the people here when I first moved in. There were Sprackett’s of course, Baker’s, McMurray’s, McKenzie’s, Jenkin’s, Peller’s, Dafoe’s, Johnson’s, Blatherwick’s, Stickwood’s, Aide’s and Gunter’s.
There was one well for the whole of Gilmour. It is still on our property and you can see it from the kitchen window. We have cleaned it out once in a while but it is still usable. We changed the handle once in a while too.
The train came up one day and down the next day. It stopped to pick up lumber at each mill in the area.
There was no telephone when we first got married. But when it did come to Gilmour our first one was a two party line. The telephone number was 8-J-1. We were on the same line with Grampa Jim. I remember that Tom Jenkins was the operator at the time.
In 1958 we got our first television. Sandra was twelve at the time. Before we got ours, the kids went to their Aunt Laura McKenzie’s place. A favorite memory was watching Peter Pan starring Mary Martin.
The kids in town played kick the can, Red Rover and Hide and Seek until dusk, you never had to worry about abductions in those days. They biked all over and went swimming in the Deep Hole in Beaver Creek, Steenburg Lake (then known as Bass Lake) or in St. Ola off the dock.
In the winter, they went sledding, tobogganing and skating.
We never locked our doors unless we were going away.
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