My husband was given a little bit of Baljennie history when on a Friday work bee at the Western Development Museum a volunteer gave him an all account record scribbler with K.J. Mitchell Baljennie 1955 written on it. It was pretty well all done in pencil and in good shape. It was discovered in a box of old things that had been sold at an auction sale in 1972 or later at a garage sale.
K.J. Mitchell bought the Red and White store in Baljennie in September 1947 from Roy Watkins, shortly after he married Neadean Corrigan. They had a family of two children, Jeanette and Harvey. In 1972, 25 years later, they held an auction sale to dispose of all the store and stockroom supplies. It was a big sale and I did include a lot of stock, plus some household items.
They then moved to a little house in Battleford, but Ken kept up his commercial trucking for several years before he retired. Ken passed away in December 2002 and his wife Neadean makes her home at River Heights Lodge in North Battleford and is 96 years old.
The old store and adjoining house remained deserted for quite a few years. It later burned when an out-of-control wildfire ripped through part of Baljennie townsite. The store was burned, plus a few other buildings.
There has been a good stretch of above normal temperatures, plenty of sunshine to melt some of the show about, but there are still some white areas. There has been a mixed bag of all the types of weather – chill winds, some fog, light rain mixed with snow.
The spirit of Christmas asks how successful have we been at battling prejudice, what limits have we placed upon that goodwill to men which is the very essence of Christmas? Christmas should be more than a festive day. It should be a day of dedication to the task of making ourselves better people and making this world a better place in which to life. It should also be a day of contemplation and devotion to the end that the good and welfare of all may be promoted in the affairs of life. When the spirit of Christmas is carried on throughout the year, it enables men and women to live in peace and harmony and to work together to create a better civilization.
May the spirit of Christmas brighten the days of the year to come and may your tree keep its needles, your turkey cook tender, and your hearts be at peace.
This will be my last news report for 2018. See you all again in the new year of 2019 on my 44th years as a country correspondent for the News-Optimist. I have enjoyed it all.
My husband and I wish to extend a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year greeting to the News-Optimist staff, country correspondents, columnists and all my friends and readers of the Baljennie news.
