By ERNIE NEUFELD
A change of domicile prompts a considerable measure of packing, and an accompanying need to review accumulated clothing, defective furniture, objets d'art, souvenirs and documents that may have become history in the passing years.
When one's stay in one residence has been almost three decades, as was mine last summer when I left my comfortable home on Scott Street in favor of the modern next-to-last resort for seniors before the move to elder-care and beyond: the condominium.
That's when consequences of hoarding, collecting and rat-packing come home to roost. Some treasures simply defy credibility. Why was that or this not thrown away upon reaching - or passing - whatever usefulness it ever had? Sentimental keepsakes are consigned to one of several disposal boxes with heavy heart and even a sense of guilt.
Inevitably there are newspapers and parts of publications kept
because they once held significance lost in the relentless march
of life and history.
In a sheaf of personal documents I discovered a Saskatchewan
Government Insurance house organ, the entire front page adorned
by a photo of Weyburn's own Alex Miles. The pamphlet is dated
September of 1963, and shows him even more handsome than he is
42 years later, but with no accompanying clue as to what earned
him this position of honor. All was revealed on the inside pages.
If you resided in Weyburn at that time, you will remember the
hailstorm that shattered windows and roof shingles, pitted west-facing
sidings and vehicle exteriors and caused no end of other damage.
My own home on Woodlawn Crescent had half the roof replaced as
a result, and the siding puttied and repainted.
Small wonder Weyburn was prominent in SGI concerns, as there were hundreds, perhaps thousands, of insurance claims. Alex, of course, was the crown's local agent, and up to his neck in the storm's aftermath.
One long box contained a treasure trove predating my residency in Weyburn. A special prize in the bundle of old newspapers was the six-page color tab section with comic strips of the Star Weekly of August 28, 1943.
The "Thimble Theatre" strip - a name I had long forgotten - opened with a blonde housemaid (not the familiar sweetheart Olive Oyl) wondering, with lunch approaching, as to the whereabouts of adopted Swee'pea, forever a crawling infant in a long red nightie.
Popeye learned the child was with gluttonous Wimpy, assisting in the operation of his bovine lawnmower on neighborhood lawns. With feeding time near, Wimpy lifted the rear end of the critter, while Swee'pea tugged at the exposed appendages to supply the meal's beverage.
With the lawn completed, Wimpy lifted the child into the saddle, and the two rode off with Swee'pea steering by manipulating the animal's horns.
"No doubt you have heard of the gasoline shortage" [it was wartime], explained Wimpy. "Well, blow me down - 'at'sa limik" was Popeye's comment, with his sailor hat rising half a foot (the era's mark of surprise) above his head and with a hearty "arf arf."
In the "L'il Abner" strip, Pappy and Mammy Yokum were startled to see L'il Abner approach followed by the unattached legs of Flame McGoon, who had "cashed in her chips" 50 years earlier. Abner explained the legs were following him "on account" of he was so "purty". He added: "She says she's gonna folly me fo'evah! After thet, though, ah'll be rid o' her."
Unwilling to wait that long, Mammy escorted the legs into the family shack, produced a shootin' iron, and convinced the legs it would be best to leave her son be.
Other cartoons that will be familiar to readers of my vintage were "The Lone Ranger", "Little Orphan Annie", "Abbie and Slats", "Elmer", "Right Around Home", "Tillie the Toiler", "Rosie's Beau", "Bringing Up Father" and "King of the Royal Mounted."
Inside the tabloid cartoon section was another weekly feature, the 16-page "complete novel"", in this case titled "Wayne of the Flying W."
A further attraction of the weekend paper was a rotogravure section of news pictures. Wartime years offered ample subject matter for readers.
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