SL Historical Society Poetry Contest Winners - ........................................Return to Homepage

Historical Category - 1st place - George Page - poem entitled - Uneeda Rest

2nd place - Catherine Doolittle and family - View from Ernst Island

Humorous Category - 1st place - Betty Graham - poem entitled - The SLHS

2nd place - Dick Shand - poem entitled - RememberVanomi

Poems outside the prize category deserving special merit were Betty Graham with poem

"Sparrow Lake" and Leslie Wagner with "The Camping Years".

UNEEDAREST ..................................Contest entry no. C 7

When I was young and at my best

I used to work at Uneedarest.

We worked from dawn till dishes done

But despite the toil we had a lot of fun.

At the end of a day we all seemed in a trance

Until someone would say " They're having a dance."

Out of that trance we would be in a flash

And into our clothes we would get in a dash.

We'd borrow a boat to go over the lake

Where we'd party and dance until it was late.

Then back to the lodge for a few hours in bed

When too early it was time to get back on the tread.

 

There was main lodge with Bungalow and Cottage with gable,

And boathouse and icehouse and washhouse and stable.

With winter home, shop and a recreation pavilion

There was quite a collection of buildings to work in.

Esy and Orma were siblings in charge,

Orma the kitchen and Esy at large.

Eileen was kept busy looking after her boys

Robert, Alan and Lawrence had many smart ploys.

There was a whole gaggle of girls from a number of places

Tending room and waiting on tables with very good graces.

There was short Jim a dishwasher supreme,

And Bryce was a cookie who often fell in a dream.

I worked with Esy to do everything else

Until in quick time I could do it myself

 

The pay was not great, about a dollar a day,

But we got our board as well as the pay.

The tips were quite good in American cash

For all of the services we did with panache,

Like carrying bags, and delivering ice,

And everything else we did just to be nice.

We washed all the linen in a big wooden tub

Driven by steam to give it a scrub.

It was all hung out on lines under the sky

Then folded and mangled by this young guy.

Each room had a cooler in the form of a bucket

The coolant was ice where each day I'd tuck it.

After cutting up blocks into small pieces in turn

Which required a knack taking some time to learn.

The blocks came out of the icehouse in legion

Where Esy had stored them in last winters season.

 

All cooking was done on a huge wood stove

While Orma directed like a boss on a drove.

My job was to split all the wood that she burnt,

And she wanted it fine, which I quickly learnt.

Es cut most of the wood the winter just past,

But at times we cut more because it just didn't last.

It wasn't much fun for this skinny young tizzy

On that old crosscut saw with a big strong Esy.

After an hour or so when I was just about beat

He'd mutter "Don't mind you riding, but don't drag your feet."

Something else that almost wore me down to a nub

Was when he'd grab some knives "to give them a rub."

To the grindstone we'd go where I'd turn the wheel

And he'd sit there pushing to polish the steel.

 

Bulk purchasing was done, including the meat,

Which I had to bone and tie up so neat.

The bones were all saved and cracked up with an axe

To boil into soup with flavour the max.

Before organics were much of a trend

Meals at Uneeda certainly didn't offend

For produce was grown right there on the "Farm"

That was tended quite carefully to prevent any harm.

Much weeding, hoeing and thinning required

Until I confess that I was quite tired.

Potatoes and corn and strawberries too

Cabbage and carrots and beans they all grew.

Then to make quite sure that nothing would spoil

These things had to be picked or dug out of the soil,

Taken back to the lodge to prepare to be eaten,

Or bottled or canned for later depletion.

Pickles by the pail, sauerkraut by the crock

All made fresh on the kitchen chopping block.

 

The farm had hay that had to be cut

To feed an old horse who was a bit of a nut.

The only work that she did was cutting the hay

That insured her winter was a comfortable stay.

She was tricky to harness in her long narrow stall

Where she'd try very hard to pin you on the wall.

The first time I tried I got it backward instead

With hames at her tail and chains at her head.

I never told Es or he'd have made up a song

Although he did say "What took you so long."

Forking the hay to the top of the stack

Required me leaming a leverage knack

That made me, a skinny young teen,

Appear as strong as a weight lifting keen.

 

Sparrow Lake is famous for fishing all year

So guests came prepared with all of their gear.

And Ezy built boats were just the right thing.

But they had to be launched early each spring

Out of the boathouse on an overhead track,

And of course in the fall they had to go back.

The boats were all moored to a great floating dock

That was anchored out front to an island of rock.

And from island to lodge was a long wooden walk,

Which was also erected quite early in spring,

Complete with light poles and lights in a string.

Then just like the boats to put it quite terse

Along in the fall it was all done in reverse.

 

In addition to all of the games and the fun

And all of the regular chores to be done

We did a lot of other strange work,

Like repairing phone lines that were broke with a jerk.

Es had pump, barrel and wagon that stank

So we pumped Canning school septic tank.

We set up tables at the Sparrow Lake church.

Pulled cars out of ditches that went in with a lurch.

Drove Es's old REO rattling car,

But were never allowed to go very far.

Drove the tractor to cut the ripening hay

Hit a fence "Holy Sailor" heard Esy say

I worked for the Clipshams all of six summers

And some of the tales I could tell are real hummers.

Lakeside corn roasts with stolen sweet corn

A runaway horse scared by Jim Cammick's horn.

Water traps for guest's night roaming kids

Who raided our rooms during what sleeping we did.

Barrel traps for skunks out of control

After feeding them fish like cats on the dole.

The girl to boy ratio was nigh ten to one

And hustling and teasing them was a great deal of fun.

Then it was fall, time to put down the tools

Pack bags, collect pay and go back to our schools.

Despite all the fun we swore we'd never go back

But come next summer we'd take the same track.