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Historic letter paints picture of early Sylvan Lake cottage life

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The picture is of the Elliott family and their guests gathered on the porch of their Sylvan Lake cottage (circa 1930). From left to right: Mrs. (Edna) Elliott; Dr. Jack Elliott (guest); Mr. William Elliott; Jack Elliott (guest); and Bill Elliott. In front is 5-year old Gertrude  (she is the author of this letter written to us in 1996).

Here’s an ‘old-timey’ tale of de-winterizing one of the old cabins in Sylvan Lake. The following was transcribed from a hand-written letter which was one of the very first items donated to the Sylvan Lake and District Archives when it started as a picture museum in 1996.  The Elliott family owned a cottage known as Grey Glen – photo attached. 

June 6, 1996

Suite 301, 6303 – 104 Avenue NW, Edmonton, AB T6A 0X9

The Sylvan Lake Picture Museum Committee, Sylvan Lake, Alberta

Members –

My daughter drove me to Sylvan Lake in March, 1996 to see if the cottage I grew up in was still standing and we were happy to find it in excellent condition, well cared for and very familiar. It used to be called Grey Glen but now is called Sherwood Lodge. It is on what used to be 13th Street, 2nd street from the corner where the Highway from Red Deer turned the corner along the lakeshore drive.

I remember the day-long trip to the lake in an old open Touring Car with celluloid windows that snapped on when it was raining which meant miles of muddy slippery roads which eventually down the years became gravelled. I spent summers at the cottage every summer from when I was a babe in arms from end of June to Labor Day with my family until the War came along and the cottage was sold.

The first thing to be done when we arrived was to pick up fresh straw and butter ($.25), bread ($.10) and eggs (2 dozen for $.25) at one of the farms near the railroad track.

When we got to the cottage, then we had to de-winterize the cottage: take the screen off the chimney, brush the leaves from the eavestrough that ran along the top of the screened porch. The couch cushions and pillows and blankets were taken down from the two wires strung across the Main Room which defeated any mouse damage. Someone had to check and, if necessary, chop some wood and bring it into the back room and stack it. We usually left a supply of wood in the cottage when we left in the fall so it would be dry. This was done every morning we were there. Someone else had pumped and pumped after the pump was put in the place in the well til the water cleared. The 5-shelf narrow cupboard called the Dumb Waiter was attached by pulleys and put in place in the well casing and became our refrigerator. The wooden apple box was placed in the ground box near the well which kept vegetables cool. A path was cleared to the ‘biffy’ and it was inspected and swept clear of cobwebs. Someone else had to clean the lamps and add coal oil and of course, supper was prepared in short order and we gathered around the fireplace.

There were two bedrooms and a double bunk in the pantry (over the wood pile), a double bed and a single bed were arranged at each end of the porch, discreetly divided by awning curtains. The porch also held a large table with benches and Dad’s very special willow armchair which he built for himself out of willow branches and all meals were served there – storm or not.

Sawhorses held springs in each of the bedrooms as well as the beds on the porch and large clean awning sacks were filled with the fresh straw to make a noisy but fragrant mattress and more awnings were hung over the screen on the porch if the weather got blowy. A small kitchen led off the main room and a large open deck at the back served as a laundry, washroom and general handy place. You were considered “old” enough when you could light the storm lantern for the inevitable trips out back at night. The cottage could sleep 14 if need be with room on the floor of the porch if anybody was left over.

It was quite an event when an artesian well was put in the street in front for all the cottages on that street. I don’t have the date.

My mother, who was not particularly anxious to be noted, but every morning as long as I can remember went for a morning dip in the lake from cold water at the end of June to rapidly cooling water late August. It was a ritual strictly adhered to.

My father made sure that children and grandchildren could swim so that they had no worries when we spent the day on the beach, and you can see by the pictures, there was lots of beach.

My brother and I were even made lifeguards one summer during the Regatta. It was a mile to town but it was very necessary we wither swim or walk every day to get the mail and then back again in the evening to make the rounds of the Jitney Dances ($.10 a dance) in the three Dance Halls. There were usually lots of friends to meet or go with. And at least twice during the summer or if somebody had a birthday, our street would have a huge bonfire down on the beach and each family would bring something to eat or pop or coffee.

However, the beach is very different today. We could play softball in the water and the fielders would only be hip deep. It was a very safe beach for all ages.

I recognized at least four other cottages that were there when we were there. People from Red Deer, Olds, Calgary, Bentley and us from Vermilion, but of course I don’t know if they are still going.

One other incident happened one summer. A Tornado tore across the lake, damaged the pier and sunk some of the boats and afterwards when we walked up the hill behind town following the damage, we discovered a teeter totter board had been lifted from its frame and riven right into the school wall.

I am enclosing some pictures I am donating to the Picture Museum. I read about in the paper I picked up the day I was there. There are explanatory notes on the back of the pictures. The big ones are taken from photographs that I have and were used in a Historical Display of costumes. I hope they will be of some use to you and I plan to come later in the summer and see the display.

My father and mother were Mr. and Mrs. W.J. Elliott from Vermilion, Alberta. They are both gone now. Dates of pictures approximately 1921-1938.  My brother’s name was Bill (age 86) and of course mine is Gertrude, age 77.

Click here to read more stories about Sylvan Lake history on Todayville.com. 

 

 

Community

SPARC Red Deer – Caring Adult Nominations open now!

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Red Deer community let’s give a round of applause to the incredible adults shaping the future of our kids. Whether they’re a coach, neighbour, teacher, mentor, instructor, or someone special, we want to know about them!

Tell us the inspiring story of how your nominee is helping kids grow up great. We will honour the first 100 local nominees for their outstanding contributions to youth development. It’s time to highlight those who consistently go above and beyond!

To nominate, visit Events (sparcreddeer.ca)

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Addictions

‘Harm Reduction’ is killing B.C.’s addicts. There’s got to be a better way

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From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

By Susan Martinuk 

B.C. recently decriminalized the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. The resulting explosion of addicts using drugs in public spaces, including parks and playgrounds, recently led the province’s NDP government to attempt to backtrack on this policy

Since 2016, more than 40,000 Canadians have died from opioid drug overdoses — almost as many as died during the Second World War.
Governments, health care professionals and addiction experts all acknowledge that widespread use of opioids has created a public health crisis in Canada. Yet they agree on virtually nothing else about this crisis, including its causes, possible remedies and whether addicts should be regarded as passive victims or accountable moral agents.

Fuelled by the deadly manufactured opioid fentanyl, Canada’s national drug overdose rate stood at 19.3 people per 100,000 in 2022, a shockingly high number when compared to the European Union’s rate of just 1.8. But national statistics hide considerable geographic variation. British Columbia and Alberta together account for only a quarter of Canada’s population yet nearly half of all opioid deaths. B.C.’s 2022 death rate of 45.2/100,000 is more than double the national average, with Alberta close behind at 33.3/100,00.

In response to the drug crisis, Canada’s two western-most provinces have taken markedly divergent approaches, and in doing so have created a natural experiment with national implications.

B.C. has emphasized harm reduction, which seeks to eliminate the damaging effects of illicit drugs without actually removing them from the equation. The strategy focuses on creating access to clean drugs and includes such measures as “safe” injection sites, needle exchange programs, crack-pipe giveaways and even drug-dispensing vending machines. The approach goes so far as to distribute drugs like heroin and cocaine free of charge in the hope addicts will no longer be tempted by potentially tainted street drugs and may eventually seek help.

But safe-supply policies create many unexpected consequences. A National Post investigation found, for example, that government-supplied hydromorphone pills handed out to addicts in Vancouver are often re-sold on the street to other addicts. The sellers then use the money to purchase a street drug that provides a better high — namely, fentanyl.

Doubling down on safe supply, B.C. recently decriminalized the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. The resulting explosion of addicts using drugs in public spaces, including parks and playgrounds, recently led the province’s NDP government to attempt to backtrack on this policy — though for now that effort has been stymied by the courts.

According to Vancouver city councillor Brian Montague, “The stats tell us that harm reduction isn’t working.” In an interview, he calls decriminalization “a disaster” and proposes a policy shift that recognizes the connection between mental illness and addiction. The province, he says, needs “massive numbers of beds in treatment facilities that deal with both addictions and long-term mental health problems (plus) access to free counselling and housing.”

In fact, Montague’s wish is coming true — one province east, in Alberta. Since the United Conservative Party was elected in 2019, Alberta has been transforming its drug addiction policy away from harm reduction and towards publicly-funded treatment and recovery efforts.

Instead of offering safe-injection sites and free drugs, Alberta is building a network of 10 therapeutic communities across the province where patients can stay for up to a year, receiving therapy and medical treatment and developing skills that will enable them to build a life outside the drug culture. All for free. The province’s first two new recovery centres opened last year in Lethbridge and Red Deer. There are currently over 29,000 addiction treatment spaces in the province.

This treatment-based strategy is in large part the work of Marshall Smith, current chief of staff to Alberta’s premier and a former addict himself, whose life story is a testament to the importance of treatment and recovery.

The sharply contrasting policies of B.C. and Alberta allow a comparison of what works and what doesn’t. A first, tentative report card on this natural experiment was produced last year in a study from Stanford University’s network on addiction policy (SNAP). Noting “a lack of policy innovation in B.C.,” where harm reduction has become the dominant policy approach, the report argues that in fact “Alberta is currently experiencing a reduction in key addiction-related harms.” But it concludes that “Canada overall, and B.C. in particular, is not yet showing the progress that the public and those impacted by drug addiction deserve.”

The report is admittedly an early analysis of these two contrasting approaches. Most of Alberta’s recovery homes are still under construction, and B.C.’s decriminalization policy is only a year old. And since the report was published, opioid death rates have inched higher in both provinces.

Still, the early returns do seem to favour Alberta’s approach. That should be regarded as good news. Society certainly has an obligation to try to help drug users. But that duty must involve more than offering addicts free drugs. Addicted people need treatment so they can kick their potentially deadly habit and go on to live healthy, meaningful lives. Dignity comes from a life of purpose and self-control, not a government-funded fix.

Susan Martinuk is a senior fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and author of the 2021 book Patients at Risk: Exposing Canada’s Health Care Crisis. A longer version of this article recently appeared at C2CJournal.ca.

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