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A Walk Down Memory Lane

by Agnes M. (Graf) Weicker

190 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #03-2703; ISBN 1-4120-2154-5; US$23.70, C$29.95, EUR19.50, £13.51

A story written from the heart. A true story of life as it was in Saskatchewan in the first half of the 20th century.

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About the Book

About the Author

Excerpts

About the Book This story begins in 1881 when the author's father was born in Southampton, England. He immigrated to Canada, settled in Saskatchewan, raised a family-Agnes, being the youngest-growing up on a prairie farm. We follow the joys and sorrows of the Palmer family through to 1946 when Agnes accepts a teaching position in Rutland near Kelowna, B.C.

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About the Author Agnes wrote this book upon the request of her sons, Gary and Francis Graf. She and her husband, John Weicker live in Victoria, B.C. Agnes was born and grew up in Saskatchewan. She became a teacher and followed this career for thirty-five years, taking her to Asquith, Cudworth and Lloydminster, Saskatchewan, and then on to Kelowna, Prince George, Quesnel, Lillooet, and Victoria, B.C. This book covers the years from 1881, when Agnes's father was born in Southampton, England immigrated to Canada, raised a family (Agnes being the youngest) on to 1946 when Agnes moved to BC. The years from then onward may be forthcoming in a second volume if time and energy permit.

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Reviews

Visit to Rosetown puts real-life faces to author's childhood memories

by Susan Hodgos of the Rosetown Eagle

When Agnes Weicker (née Palmer) decided to launch her book A Walk Down Memory Lane in Rosetown, little did she know she would be experiencing a weekend of re-acquaintance.

"It was just an incredible experience," said the 80-year-old author who now lives in British Columbia.

"People didn't connect me to the area at first until I told them I was a Palmer. Once people realized I was the daughter of Charles Palmer (who homesteaded n the Marriott district) it felt like my own homecoming," said Weicker, who graduated from Rosetown high school in 1941.

Weicker was in Rosetown on Jamboree Days weekend where she did a reading at the Rosetown library and a book signing at Lasting Looks by Linda. As well, Weicker set up a booth at the arena during Jamboree.

"It was quite a weekend. At the library just before I was to start the reading I had a fellow approach me and ask me if I knew who he was. I recognized him as a Carnegie as my mother was best friends with Mrs. Bob Carnegie. One of the excerpts in my book was when Mother had walked the 13 miles to the Carnegies' to help with a birth of a baby boy in 1913. Little did I know that the 12-pound baby boy was the man standing in front of me at the library," said Weicker.

Also of interest to Weicker was her visit to the Rosetown and District Museum where five dollars of each book sold are donated. It was there she met up with Laurel Walker, the great-granddaughter of her childhood best friend.

"I found it incredible to be looking into the eyes of someone I was so close with as a child. But there she was looking at me through the deep brown sparkly eyes of her great-grandmother. I found it amazing that things like that can be passed on from generation to generation, said Weicker.

As Weicker sold books on Sunday, along came one other familiar face of her childhood that of Bill Scott of Rosetown.

"Bill came up to the booth and he was just so pleased to able to buy one of my books. Bill and I graduated together... with Bill majoring in fun," said Weicker with a smile.

The book was written at the request of Weicker's sons who had always enjoyed her tales of growing up on the praries. It is filled with experiences of going to school, becoming a teacher and living through the war years.

"It is a true life history written from the heart filled with both joy and sorrow," said Weicker, whose father immigrated from England to Canada in 1906 with three of his college friends who all played cricket together.

The first book was given to her son on his 55th birthday and at the time only three hard covered books had been published. People asked Weicker to make up some soft-covered books which she did but then found she couldn't keep up with demand. That was when the publisher realized it would be a good book to put out in mass production.

"It is hard to believe my book as been sold all over the world as it is for sale on the internet as well. I have been so fortunate to be in such good health that I can now come back to Rosetown and have these things happen. I think I now have enough stories to write another book," said Weicker with a laugh.

Weicker's book is available in Rosetown at Lasting Looks by Linda, Judy Johnson Insurance and at the municipal office in Harris.

Rosetown native shares childhood memories with book publication

Tammy Rollie of the Crossroads

The hardships of growing up in Rosetown area in the early part of the last century are among the greatest memories for 79-year-old Victoria resident Agnes Weicker.

In her book A Walk Down Memory Lane published last December, Weicker shares stories of life on the prairies in the early part of the 1900's starting with her father, Charles Palmer, who immigrated to Saskatchewan from England at age 30 with three university friends and her mother, Gladys, 19. The story describes her father and mother's upbringing in England and how they made a living and raised a family in Saskatchewan during the hardest times of the century.

For decades Weicker has been telling sons Gary and Francis Graf stories about her childhood on the prairies, and in recent years they suggested she write a book about her life experiences. Since Weicker's book was published last December more than 100 readers have read the joys and sorrows of the Palmer family from 1912 to 1946.

"My two sons were always after me to write my memories," Weicker said in an interview last week. "My mother lived to be 96 and she would tell them a lot about the past. They were very close to her."

Weicker spent six months going through countless photogrpahs, diaries, letters, old newspaper clippings and tapping into her memories to compile a chronological tale that starts at her father's birth in 1881, goes into her childhood and finishes with her first years as a teacher before moving to B.C. at age 22.

"I've always been a collector of pictures and clippings and things. I kept a diary as a child from the time I was 11 until I was 16," she said. "There were a lot of pictures saved by my mother. As I scanned the pictures on my computer the memories started to roll."

The oldest picture in the book was taken when Gladys was six years old in the first car that drove on South Hampton Street in England. The picture was brought back to Canada by Gladys in an old trunk and has since been restored.

Weicker's book includes her memories of different farm animmals, walking the three and a half miles to school and back, the hardships the family experienced, the beauty of the prairies and the freedom the children had to just roam the countryside.

"Prairie childhood was so different," she said. "I remember the beauty of the prairies with the crocuses and the meadow larks, and the smell of home cookingg when you came in the door."

Weicker aslo recalls her first Shirley Temple move, the year King George V died, the frigid temperatures and even the family having to remove the motor from its car and convert it to a Bennett buggy by hooking it up to a team of horses in the 1930s when times got really tough proceeding seven years of no crops, the stock market crash of 1929 and years of drought.

"We couldn't afford gas or to license the car but to me they weren't hardships," she said. "My mother taught me to appreciate everything. Because I was the youngest in the family I didn't feel the depression and poverty my older brothers and sisters did."

One of Weicker's favorite memories as a child was teh dresses she wore. Her mother traded some neighbors garden vegetables for raw wool which she washed, pulled apart and had the children fluff up to make quilts using broghtly coloured broad cloth and a hand sewing machine. She traded the quilts with friends in Saskatoon for designer dresses their three daughters had outgrown. Weicker said she had a special new dress for the Christmas concert every year.

The not so fond memories Weicker shares is of W.W.II and those she knew who had been killed. Weicker graduated Grade 12 at Rosetown High School in 1941, left home to take teacher training

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Sample Excerpts

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