Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the balls start rolling at 7:15 p.m, so make your way there, who knows you could be the next big winner.
Next Thursday, make your way down to the village office at 7 p.m. for the very important monthly meeting. Everyone is invited out to attend all these meetings.
The next seniors’ monthly meeting is scheduled for May 4, and all seniors are more than welcome to attend. These meetings start at 12 noon.
With spring finally (hopefully) here now and you need to head to the transit station, the hours are: Tuesdays from 1:30 - 5:30 p.m. and every Saturday from 8 a.m. - noon, so hopefully these hours are convenient for everyone.
Let’s now look back at some of the special features that happened in the history of the Botha Area. Looking back at what Mrs. Lyman Slifka stated in the years 1932 or 33, they were well into the Great Depression. At that time, if anyone was fortunate to own or inherit land and equipment, etc. and had it paid for, they were considered rich. Unfortunately, they did not fall into this category, but fortunately through her words. this showed how they survived.
They lived in Botha at that time in a house complete with leaky roof, also in the yard was a old rundown barn and garage (not used). However, their neighbors had both cattle and chickens.
Anyways, one of the neighbor’s chickens, however found its way to their rundown barn and laid her daily egg for several days. With them being unfortunately unworthy they enjoyed this daily egg, to feed their family. However, as time went on, this one chicken started aging and the eggs came to a stop. So Mr. Lyman Slifka decided seeing this one chicken made their place home, Lyman decided to have her for supper, to feed his family. Shortly after they located she had laid one more egg, which was very soft. So that evening they had that chicken plus dumplings and also pudding for dessert.
Lyman himself was a serviceman and was overseas quite a bit, so while he was gone, his wife decided to inform their neighbors about their one chicken that came over and stayed at the Lymans home and what had happened. They all had a good chuckle over this.
Unfortunately, on August 25, 1943 Lyman passed on in the invasion of Sicily and was buried there. In 1946, the family moved to Calgary where Mrs. Slifka remains.
One of the poems I found from those pioneer days, I would like to enclose is written by Martha Snell Nicholson.
Prayer for home
- Marsha Snell Nicholson
Walk through the rooms of this house,
dear Lord
Making them fair and sweet,
May every wall know the touch of Thy hand,
Each floor the print of Thy foot.
Help us to look through Thine eyes,
dear Lord
To stand at our windows and see
Not commonplace people who walk
the Streets,
But Souks who have need to Thee.
Kindle a fire on our hearth,
dear Lord,
Warming all who might come.
Build Thou an alter where prayers arise,
For prayer is the heart of the home.
Sit at our table with me, dear Lord
Making each meal a feast,
Breaking the bread, and pouring the wine,
Our Host and our Guest and our Priest.
Dwell in the rooms of our house, dear Lord,
Making it sweet and fair,
Till even the people passing will say,
The blessed Lord Jesus lives there.
So if you have anything you would like to share about the Botha community, please contact me, so we can add it to our column.
Also the Old United Church has changed into a museum, so please contact the village office and find out more information on this project and come on down and check things out.