We depended on people buying lots of White Sliced Lakeview Bakery Bread to get us through. And they did. Gardening was on the way out, as was healthy bread, and a whole lot of other 'progressive' things, like television and yellow margarine, were making their way into our lives. I've been fortunate to have wise and generous gardening neighbours, colleagues and a father-in-law to teach me some gardening skills and I still learning many new skills. I'm really encouraged by the number of younger people who are seriously gardening, even on small Vancouver city lots. There is nothing quite as wonderful as looking over the dinner table and giving thanks for the garden goodness. I'm sure my Dad had the same gratitude for every slice of white bread.
If I didn't know any better I would say this photo was taken in the Depression Era by Dorothea Lange, whose haunting photos captured what we know as the Dirty Thirties, but in fact it's my dad at our 1819 - 8th Ave A, home in Lethbridge, Alberta somewhere in 1958 or so, captured on a little Kodak Brownie. That garden does not look very promising and really Dad never was much of a gardener though I guess when you buy a new home as a young immigrant family, a garden is just what you do. Our gardens, through my dad's steady guidance, got smaller and smaller and trips to the Japanese market gardeners on the outskirts of town, more and more frequent. By the time we were in our second home, I'm pretty sure we didn't grow anything but a few rows of green beans. I do however recall that there were other families that we knew that were really good at this and depended on eating from their backyard gardens through the winter.
We depended on people buying lots of White Sliced Lakeview Bakery Bread to get us through. And they did. Gardening was on the way out, as was healthy bread, and a whole lot of other 'progressive' things, like television and yellow margarine, were making their way into our lives. I've been fortunate to have wise and generous gardening neighbours, colleagues and a father-in-law to teach me some gardening skills and I still learning many new skills. I'm really encouraged by the number of younger people who are seriously gardening, even on small Vancouver city lots. There is nothing quite as wonderful as looking over the dinner table and giving thanks for the garden goodness. I'm sure my Dad had the same gratitude for every slice of white bread.
1 Comment
Nancy
6/24/2015 05:20:08 am
The ground in Saskatchewan right now looks just about as dry as this sadly. And, we have 5 days forecast with 30+ degree temperatures! Send the rain Lord, quickly!
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