Chapter 13
Hard Decisions

Getting seed and feed together to put in a little crop that spring was rather difficult. We hauled some from Griffin and some from Innes. I can't imagine how we cleaned the seed as there were no cleaners in the elevators other than a few that had Carter disk cleaners perhaps. Also we were short of some equipment - we used somebody's seed drill part time. Uncle Charlie had brought up our two milk cows and year old heifers. George Johnson resumed his previous milk buying pattern every Sunday morning. 1935 was a better year of rainfall and crops were growing better, but in July rust developed in the wheat crop and it was a very poor milling quality. It was suitable for seed and we at least had seed and feed for 1936. Very little money. We had nothing to sell, how could we have money? I guess we were back on welfare again. 1936 was something like 1932. We all harvested a small, light crop. Nobody had a lot of acres in crop and it was just another year of getting by on relief seed, feed and welfare.

I want to backtrack to 1934 for one event that didn't involve our family directly but it may have influenced the Truman's at Midale at a later date. Uncle Elmer was getting fed up with the economic situation that showed no sign of improving and they decided to sell the garage and business and move back to Illinois. I'm not sure if Aunt Maud's parents were living or not. They had owned a fairly good house in Keithsburg. It seems very possible they had died recently as Uncle Elmer's moved into the house on arrival in Illinois. Grandpa Truman had come to Halbrite about 1923, soon after Grandma passed away, to live with Uncle Elmer's. He was to go back with them to Illinois. He had moved around to each of the Truman households in Canada, but his home base was Uncle Elmer's in Halbrite. He was quite often at our place for a week at a time and he always helped with the dishes or did a little weeding in the garden. He was never in the way. One fall he even tried hauling grain to the elevator. but the rough ride home in the empty wagon was too hard on him. That exercise didn't last long. His favorite entertainment was playing the mouth organ or accordion.

Uncle Elmer packed a lot of his best and most expensive tools where they didn't show, he loaded their furniture in his ton truck and some on a four wheel trailer and hitched it behind the truck. Uncle Elmer drove the truck and Aunt Maud drove the car - I'm guessing at some of this. We weren't even present when they left Halbrite, although I expect Uncle Charlie's and Uncle Clair's were there to say good-bye. Uncle Elmer and Aunt Maud had adopted two children. a girl and a boy. Edith was five or six years old and Dwayne was probably two years old when they left Halbrite. They took all their schooling in Keithsburg. Edith still lives in the old Whitehall residence and Dwayne was in the US Navy during World War II. Maybe Dwayne was older. He could not have entered the navy until he was 17 - he was a big, strong boy.

1937 made some big changes for all three Truman families left in Canada. In July there was no crop in sight in this area. Uncle Clair and Aunt Rhoda had never bought any land, and it may have been a little easier for them to say "We have had enough. We are considering selling our assets and going back to Illinois too." The other Truman's at Halbrite never knew another aspect of their determination to "get out of Canada" before their boys were old enough to vote. Aunt Rhoda told Nellie and I about it when we visited her in October 1985. There was an election coming, federal or provincial. I don't know which. and Darwin was going to be old enough to vote if he so wished. That would cause him to declare himself a Canadian citizen. after all they were both born in Canada. Aunt Rhoda almost demanded "Let's get out of here before Darwin becomes a Canadian Citizen." They were all still American citizens as long as they didn't vote or make a declaration. It was late July or August when Uncle Clair moved their horses, cattle and machinery to Carievale and sold it all by auction. There was a bit of crop in that area so I suppose there may have been a few more dollars there too. It was also possible that the drought had never been quite so severe either. Uncle Elmer drove back to Canada with his truck. loaded up as much furniture as he could and presently Uncle Clair's were gone also. Melvin. Uncle Charlie's youngest son, went with them. This left Uncle Charlie, Aunt Mabel and Glen more alone than they had been as far as relatives were concerned. It was a little more that they could accept. The drought was serious enough that RM [Rural Municipality] councils had to decide how much feed they could expect to supply. And accordingly. there were rumours there would have to be major adjustments as to how many horses and cattle could be maintained. Uncle Charlie and Glen, along with other local neighbors, had been away from home on two previous occasions. bailing hay and straw to ship home to meet the need of the locality. One year they were to Deloraine, Manitoba and one year up near Kelvington to bale supplies of feed. Now it appeared it would be necessary to sell a large portion of their milk cows. This did not sit well with Uncle Charlie at all, or with many others I'm sure. By the end of August it seems their minds were made up. I had been up north harvesting and came home in September as Uncle Charlie had written to me asking if Earl and I were interested in moving to Midale to rent their farm. I guess he wanted to give us first chance as he knew we had relinquished possession of our place and were now just renters. He at least owned the land and expected to keep it for awhile. What we didn't know was that it wasn't quite all paid for. It didn't take long for Earl and I to decide that we would move. The buildings weren't much worse or better. There was more stock water, and we would be closer to town. "Let's go." Immediately on top of our decision, Uncle Charlie made arrangements to move. What they wanted to do was to "sell out" in an area where crops were better and there was a little more money. Uncle Charlie and Ruben Berg were good friends and they got their heads together to make plans just to be helpful. Ruben had a sister and brother-in-law, Harry Gaetz, living at Mair, out northeast of Carlyle. They were willing to have the sale at their place. Glen moved some horses out there first. Then we loaded as much machinery as we could on five or six wagons and Glen pulled that out with their John Deere D. They left behind one old binder, one twenty run drill, a wide track bob sleigh and their Bennett Buggy (Buttermilk wagon). We gave them two horses to sell in payment, sorrel Bird and Dolly. I went with Jimmy Wallace of Estevan who hauled out all the milk cows. It rained on us the last few miles and Jimmy had trouble staying on the road. The sale was billed for the fifth of October. It was a raging snow storm that day, so the sale was postponed to a week later, the 12th. In the meantime, Earl and I gathered up all we had and moved in at the farm at Midale. Uncle Charlie spent a couple of days clearing up affairs at Midale. It had rained almost three inches while they were away at Mair.

We sat up and talked about happenings in our families during their sojourn in Canada. Uncle Charlie could be very sad without being sour or grouchy. He was leaving good friends he had known for twenty-four years. I expect the closest of them all was John Fossum whom he had known and worked with to some extent every year, threshing and making hay together. They had also ridden or walked together on many occasions to lodge meetings all those years. Some of the last things he said to me were, "I'm sure the country will recover and you will all be alright." But I know he also wanted to be with his brothers. They had always been and always would continue to be a close knit family.