Brushy Lake and Warm Weather Fun

(Video opens on a historic marker sign that says Brushy Lake School. It is mounted on a pole that is along a fence line. In the background there is a yellow field of tall grasses. The film’s title appears: Brushy Lake Warm Weather Fun).

(John Richter shares memories at the Beiseker Golden Years Club)

John Richter: The school sports activities, we did play “fox and goose” and “fox and hare” in the snow and things like that.

(Monty Metzger shares memories at the Beiseker Golden Years Club)

Monty Metzger: We played anti-i-over, we’d throw the ball over the school on one side to the other, and they would grab the ball and come around and tag you.

(Fred Lyczewski shares memories at the Beiseker Golden Years Club)

Fred Lyczewski: Anti-i-over, that was over the school. I don’t recall knocking a window out, but that was always a hazard.

(Vera Schmaltz shares memories at the Beiseker Golden Years Club)

Vera Schmaltz: When the weather was nice, we would always go outside and play. At recess time we would always play anti-i-, because we only had about 15 minutes. Then at lunch time, we would play baseball and there wasn’t that many, so we just chose teams and the boys and girls all played together.

(Adrian Wolfleg sits in the Niitsitapiisini: Our Way of Life Gallery in the Glenbow Museum in front of a large tipi)

Adrian Wolfleg: We had granaries outside and those graneries were a god-send to our active imaginations. Kick the can was very active and different kinds of tag, and it was like a well manicured lawn, the grass didn’t grow big in that area, later on it did. When we were younger, we would be active through there. We’d get a bit of shade, get a bit of breeze, and we had a lot of fun around those graineries.

(Leonard Hagel shares memories from his home over zoom)

Leonard Hagel: There was a bounty on gophers, and that wouldn’t go too well these days, but the gophers were quite a nuisance. We could collect a few cents for every gopher tail, and the teacher would keep track of our gopher tails and we bought war stamps with the money. The gophers were an endless amount of entertainment for us. We were chasing gophers and trying to get that two, three, four cents.

(Leah Uffelman shares memories from her home over zoom)

Leah Uffelman: The generation before me were into basketball and when I went to school, for some reason it wasn’t popular again. That was the early ‘40s, so the people in the ‘30’s were into it, they had outside hoops for basketball.

(Frank Schwengler shares memories at the Beiseker Golden Years Club)

Frank Schwengler: We played a lot of softball, and I enjoyed that. We chose sides and sometimes there were girls joining in and we had some pretty good girls who were pretty good ball players. But we played a lot of rugby and that was rough, that was mostly boys, the girls didn’t play that, it was a little too rough. It was pretty hard on clothes too, you’d grab somebody and sometimes the shirt would come with it. But we had a lot of fun.

(Matt Schmaltz shares memories at the Beiseker Golden Years Club)

Matt Schmaltz: In summertime we played some ball, maybe through school a little bit too.

(Jean Schwengler shares memories at the Beiseker Golden Years Club)

Jean Schwengler: Everybody played, the little kids and us older ones and they were put in various positions were they could play the best and we played all the little schools out there.

(Adrian Wolfleg sits in the Niitsitapiisini: Our Way of Life Gallery in the Glenbow Museum in front of a large tipi)

Adrian Wolfleg: Other games too, we had family picnics and gatherings and we had soccer tournaments. There was some pretty serious players we had there.

(Leonard Hagel shares memories from his home over zoom)

Leonard Hagel: And then at the end of the year, we had the school sports day, which the whole community came. And if we did well at our school level, we’d go to Beiseker, for their annual event,  to compete against more kids.

(Fred Lyczewski shares memories at the Beiseker Golden Years Club)

Fred Lyczewski: And we had swings, when I think of what they try to do in schools today, where they might get hurt. Well, we got away with it, we maybe got hurt or fell down, but nothing drastic.

(the Beiseker Station Museum logo appears).