My husband’s grandmother, when, after the death of her husband, was faced with having to make her own way in the world, began to rent out rooms in her three-story house as a means of making money to provide for her two small children.
She had a garden in her backyard where she grew her own vegetables, then in the fall she would can and freeze those vegetables, helping to lower the money spent at the grocery store.
She barely threw anything away. She rewashed, reused, and recycled long before it became the thing to do. She was a hard-working woman, just as many women of her generation were.
In the 1930’s, Grandma bought land at a northern Saskatchewan lake and had a cabin built. She did this to have a place to take her children for a couple weeks each summer, as well as to combat her allergies which were less when surrounded by the boreal forest rather than the bald prairie. When she wasn’t there, she would rent the cabin out for extra money.
Life at the lake in the thirties was much more rustic than it is today. The bathroom was an outhouse at the back of the yard, and the fridge was a barrel with a tight-fitting lid, then wedged into a hole dug outside the front step. Entertainment was watching the lake.
There was no paved highway from the city to the lake, only narrow gravel roads creating much dust, and Grandma, with her allergies, would hold a wetted handkerchief over her nose the entire drive, proving just how determined she was to get out of the city.
When Grandma’s daughter married and had children of her own, she also took them to the lake to spend the summer. As a child, my husband spent many happy hours fishing off the dock, swimming out to the raft, and helping grandma around the cabin, which he continued do well into his teenage years.
Originally, the cabin was very small. There was a galley style kitchen at the back, which held a cookstove that was used for heat, (that is still there today), separated by a wall with one tiny bedroom on the other side. A larger room at the front of the cabin was used both as a dining and living room, and had two picture windows overlooking the lake.
In the sixties, my father-in-law added two bedrooms to the side of the cabin, and installed electric baseboard heating, as well as a wood burning fireplace in the living room. Many happy hours were spend watching lightning crack across the water during thunderstorms while they were cozy and warm in front of the fireplace.
When my husband and I married, instead of going to Hawaii, or Mexico, or some exotic place like many couples do for their honeymoon, we went to the lake. It was June, so school wasn’t out yet and we practically had the place to ourselves. The peace and quiet you experience being at a northern Canadian lake when there’s no one else around, makes it feel like you’re the only ones left on the planet.
In the early eighties when outhouses were outlawed, and my husband and I began taking our own children to the lake, a bathroom was added at the back of the cabin. No more trips to the outhouse at two in the morning were greatly appreciated!
I have many memories of swimming, floating on air mattresses, and building sand castles with my children on the public beach just a hop skip and a jump from the front yard. We’d then go back to the cabin to have a wiener roast, or a barbeque, or go for a long walk around the lake, even in the rain. There’s a picture I have in my memory of my son and daughter, around ages five and seven, holding their umbrellas and jumping in puddles as we walked down the road to the store, likely to buy an ice-cream cone or some candy. There was even a used bookstore a fifteen-minute walk away, something both my daughter and I appreciated.
Now, my own daughter and her husband are taking my granddaughters to lake. They take swimming lessons, have wiener roasts, watch fireworks, and go for long walks, just as the generations before them did.
The cabin hasn’t changed much since the sixties when my father-in-law renovated; the cupboards are outdated, the linoleum is curling and the cabin has a slight tilt, but each summer, it’s alive with the sound of people having fun.
Nowadays, instead of cabins that can only be used during the summer, there are more and more of the old cabins being razed and houses built in their place where people have all the amenities they do in the city. The thought has crossed our minds that perhaps we should bulldoze the place and build something new; but how do you tear down all these memories? Will they still be vivid in my mind if the cabin is no longer there?
Grandma has been gone for many years now, but I hope she knows how her foresightedness has given many generations so much happiness. I wrote the book, Sunset Lake Resort, as a tribute to her and to the women of the world who are making their own way, and doing it well with dignity and grace.
We still have no television at the lake as some people do with their satellite dishes and internet connections, and the bookstore has been replaced by a cannabis store, but there are still long walks in the rain.
Joanne Jackson is an award-winning author of three novels. Her previous novel, A Snake in the Raspberry Patch, was the winner of Crime Writers of Canada’s Best Crime Novel set in Canada for 2023, and short listed for Saskatchewan Book Awards 2023. Her first novel, The Wheaton was released in 2019, and her new novel, Sunset Lake Resort, was released in June 2024. Joanne lives in Saskatoon with her husband, Tom, and an old border collie named Mick. If you keep your eyes peeled you will see Joanne and her dog walking come rain, shine, snow, or whatever weather Saskatchewan throws at them.
