Our Pioneers

“The year 1991 marked 100 years since my Huscroft ancestors came up to Canada from the United States by covered wagon and established themse lves in the Kootenay Valley. This poem reflecting on those earlier times and the hardships my pioneer ancestors must have endured was written specifically for the reunion book. ”

In history if we could turn back a page
We would find our forebears in a rugged age,
With things so different than we have today
No modern things to ease the way.
Their shoes were neither left nor right
They’d swap them ’round at bed each night.
If the wear was even, the shoes would last
And shoes were a boon in those days past.
Their clothes were cumbersome away back when
No wash and wear or spandex then.
From Lye and ashes they made their soap
And water was hauled from a well with a rope,
Or carried in buckets from a nearby stream
Our gleaming showers were a future dream.
And electric lights? No never for them
It was tallow candles away back then.
No jets to speed them on their way.
No trains or cars to ease their way.
No super highways ribboned the land.
No 911 or phone at hand.
Their only help for each days demands
Was the end of their arms – their own two hands.
If our forebears ever look down on us
They must wonder why we make a fuss
And complain at all of our daily lot
When compared to them we have such a lot.
Compared to them we live like kings
Beyond their dreams, if their dreams had wings.
But they loved and laughed and did their best,
They opened the land so our lives were blessed.
To express my thanks, I can only begin –
We owe so much to our pioneer kin.