Mr. Pudding, from Yorkshire Pudding, likes to take a look at things that are very different like, my home village. He finds these odd places and lets his imagine run.
My home village is Esk, Saskatchewan. Well it was my home village. Today it is a ghost town with a population of 0.
At it's largest it had a population of about 50.
My grandparents retired to Esk in the late 40's. They had no electricity and water. They had a wood cook stove and wood heater for winter heat which was not great. Grandma had some chickens.
They bought flour, sugar, salt , coffee and a few more items at the local store. . They bought the few clothes in the next town which had a dry goods store.
Now there is an abandoned church which interests Mr Pudding. Did I go to Sunday school in that church etc. You can watch a 6 minute video to see what an abandoned village is like. The abandoned church is featured.
Our family did not attend that church but my brother was married in it in 1967 and it was closed shortly after that and the building was sold. Somebody bought it with the view of developing it as a house. It never happened. It would have made a very good house. The guy lived in a house trailer in the church yard and later moved away . The video is probably from 20 years ago and I'm not sure if the church is still there.
As children we were brought to the church and were given inoculations.(Not on Sundays)The late 1940's saw the immunization for communicable diseases. You got a series of shots for each disease so we attended the church often for health reasons.
Now at one time this village of 50 people had 3 churches. All were Christian denominations. Why they had to be 3 separate denominations I'll never know? There was Lutheran, Baptist and United Evangelical Brethern. They did get along in the community.
I realize that it may be very difficult for people from almost any part of the world to understand what I have described. There are many differences in this world and this little village had it's differences.
I enjoyed the video of Esk. The church was quite imposing for a place that probably had a congregation of 20 or thereabouts.
ReplyDeleteI especially liked the turret, a lot of old Salvation Army buildings had those, made to be visually symbolic of a place of defence against evil
I always wondered what the reason was for a square turret. Now I know.
DeleteIt is sad when communities decline, or simply move elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteIn western Canada the farms got larger and very large so the rural population declined.
DeleteI watched enough of the video to get the flavour.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was actually pretty boring.
DeleteAbandoned communities are common in Newfoundland. Outports, only accessible by boat were often resettled by the government against the wishes of the people. It still happens these days but the majority of the people must want it. My husband worked in a one room school when he started teaching on the south coast of the island in a place called Grand Bruit. It was resettled within the last ten years.
ReplyDeleteToday, people return to many of these resettled communities in the summer for vacation.
There was a lot of controversy over this issue. I spent my first year teaching in a one room school. It closed a year after I taught there as there weren't enough kids. There were only nine kids the year I taught.
DeleteIt is from a bygone era, but it sure is interesting to hear all about it. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHang on. I'm going further back.
DeleteIt's hard to imagine how your grandparents lived back then. We can't hardly stand it when our power goes out for a few hours!
ReplyDeleteThey lived a very different life.
DeleteMy father's family was EUB. Hadn't occurred to me for years. The idea of 50 people needing three churches is quite a sign of how much our world has changed, isn't it. I live in a town of many churches, but still...most people in our town do not belong to one.
ReplyDeleteI always thought that this was a small regional denomination so was surprised to hear about it in a variety of places.
DeleteRed, I often get a kick out of Mr. Pudding’s comments. If he’s the one who got you thinking about sharing the video then I give him a high-5. I would love to know how many of your regular commenters will watch the video in its entirety. I did, and love it! Well, partly because I’m fascinated with places out in the wide open country … jusk like Esk. I have a bunch of questions about Esk, but I’ll save them for later. In my newest blog post, I shared some postcards from the early 1900s … one of the postcard pictures shows a steam engine plowing up soil for the very first time. I suppose the first to settle Esk might have done that. John
ReplyDeleteAsk as many questions as you like. I did enjoy your last post showing the book you found.
DeleteI grew up in a fairly small town, or small suburb, really -- but it was MUCH bigger than Esk! I can't imagine living in a place that small. The date on the video is 2019, so if it's only five or six years old, maybe the old church is still standing. (Or do you think it was recorded much earlier than it was uploaded?)
ReplyDeleteI DON'T REALLY KNOW WHEN THE VIDEO WAS PRODUCED. i THINK BEFORE 2019.
DeleteThree churches for only 50 people. It is sad the one church was not renovated to be a home. I am going to check out the video now.
ReplyDeleteHave a happy weekend.
There were 50 people in the village but a large rural population at that time.
DeleteSounds very much like the village my grandparents lived in - complete with wood stove for cooking and 40 chickens out in the little old barn.
ReplyDeleteMost villages here up until the early 50's did not have services. and yes , a cow or two and some chickens.
DeleteWhat a history! I'm still surprised a town of 50 would have 3 churches. Glad they all got along. Seems a Sunday service would innoculate more people, but I bet the province had one nurse who went around giving those shots. Guess Sundays were for innoculating with regligion. Linda in Kansas
ReplyDeleteThere was a fairly large rural population ...more than 50. It was a doctor who gave the shots . then nurse sterilized the needles.
DeleteThat is a beauty of an old church, the attention to detail really shows in the windows and the tower.
ReplyDeletetHIS church was admired by many.
DeleteInteresting video, thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteIn it's day there was a very neat yard and fence.
DeleteThanks for sharing the video Red. I am surprised that you claim the present population of Esk is 0. I had the impression that there were still a few people living there.
ReplyDeleteI found out I'm wrong. there are at least two people there.
DeleteI attended a rural Evangelical United Brethren (EUB) Church in my growing up years in Oregon.
ReplyDeleteWow! I thought it was a small western Canadian denomination.
DeleteA wonderful bit of history in that clip. Old days are gone.
ReplyDeletethe old days may be gone but they were very good in some respects.
DeleteThat's very interesting. My father-in-law's town had a German Lutheran Church and a Norwegian Luthernan Church. I remember a story of someone in the family getting mad at the Norwegian minister (they were Norwegian immigrants) and transferring to the German Lutheran Church back in the day, this going back to the early 1900s. In such a small town it was quite a scandal.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the 6-min video. Like others, I love the wide-open spaces.
ReplyDeleteThat is a small town with a small name. Esk. What an interesting name. The plantation village I grew up in is completely gone. It was totally leveled off and stores built on it and I can't even figure out where our house would have been.
ReplyDelete