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by Sharon Hamilton As part of an ongoing project to capture the histories of members of our local community, Sharon Hamilton is interviewing local residents to hear about their lives, their origins, their childhoods, and their life experiences. Such a project, often referred to as an oral history or a living history, is undertaken to record the perspectives of real people, real life experiences, and to make history come alive. We thank those who have agreed to share their memories with us, and invite all members of the community to come forward and take part, as well. Those who may be interested in having their story told are invited to contact Sharon Hamilton at 204-827-2430. The rolling hills in the Bruxelles area have attracted many settlers from Belgium over the years. Two of these settlers were Astrid Wytinck’s father and mother, Victor and Maria (Hooft) Claeys. Victor came from Belgium in 1925 and worked for one year so that he could afford to bring his sweetheart over to Canada. Maria arrived in 1926 and they were married in Bruxelles. Victor was working for Victor DeKoninck. His wife Maria prepared a wedding dinner for the newlyweds and gave them a potato pot as a wedding gift; their only gift. Astrid’s father worked for farmers in the Swan Lake/ St. Alphonse area and her mother was a housekeeper for Adelia Pouteau. Saturday was pie making day at the Pouteau’s and Maria spent a good part of the day making pies for Sunday dinner. When the Pouteau boys came home Saturday night from the bar they would eat the pies. Maria then started baking the pies and hiding them under her bed. The boys found them hidden there and ate them so Maria found another hiding place where they weren't found. When she was leaving their employment the boys asked where she had ended up hiding the pies. She replied, “Did you ever look under your own bed?” The Pouteau boys had great respect for Maria and all of them visited her before her death in 1956. The Claeys were blessed with six children. Omer was born in 1927 and Albert in 1928 in the Swan Lake area. After the Claeys moved to McCreary, Astrid was born in 1934 and Camiel and Bernice were born in 1938. Unfortunately Bernice was stillborn. In 1943, Roy was born when they lived north of Cypress River. The Claeys’ home in McCreary was made out of two granaries that were put together. One granary was the kitchen and the other the bedroom. Snow came in through the cracks. The baby slept with Astrid’s parents to keep warm. The 1930’s were hard times. They lived close to Riding Mountain National Park. Mr. Claeys had a permit to cut wood in the park. Sometimes, when he brought the wood home, there would be a deer hidden in the pile. They never went hungry. In 1939, the Claeys moved north of Cypress River. They moved with the help of Cypress River Transfer. The transfer got stuck at the bridge north of Cypress River with the first load. Mr. Malcomb pulled out the transfer and Mrs. Malcomb insisted that Mrs. Claeys and her little ones stay with her until the truck was unloaded and the fires were going in the house. There was an abundance of spruce trees in the sand hills and permits were available to cut logs for lumber. Fred Bernard, from St. Claude, had a saw mill and planer on the Claeys’ property. Fred and his crew of four men stayed in their home. The logs were brought home by horses and then sawed into lumber. The neighbours also got permits for logs. Maria cooked for about 12 men every day during the sawing and planing. Astrid’s mother did the washing on a wash board. It took her all day. Later on they got a washing machine with a gas motor and a long exhaust hose that went out of the door. In the mid 1940’s, Astrid was the only one attending school, so she was sent to live in the convent in Bruxelles so that they would save the two trips to Cypress River every day. They didn’t have a car and Bruxelles was about 25 miles away so she went in September and didn’t get home until Easter. She was allowed one visit at Christmas time. It was a very long year for her. She said, “It was a good year. I learned a lot. I just didn’t think so at the time.” When the Claeys did get a car in the late 1940’s, it was a 1928 Chevy. She remembers that her family would go to town on Saturday afternoon and pick up everyone walking to town on their way. There were usually about 13 people in the car by the time they got to town. In 1948, they moved to the Bru area. In 1949, Astrid’s mother and father went back to Belgium by boat for a visit. Omer and Albert stayed home to do the chores but Astrid, Camiel, and Roy were sent to the convent in St. Alphonse. In 1953, Astrid married Gerard Maurice Wytinck. He was born on the home farm north of St. Alphonse in 1927 and that’s where they lived after they were married. They raised pigs and chickens and had nine cows that they milked by hand. The cream cheques were very important as they paid for the groceries, hydro, telephone, and orders from the Eaton’s catalogue. Astrid and Gerry raised four children: Dennis, Larry, Doreen, and Raymond. Astrid was a working mother. She remembers baling straw after an early snowfall with a WD 9 tractor pulling a hay rack. She had two of her boys with her and made a shelter on the rack out of bales so that they would be warm while she worked. She also drove a tractor with a child on her lap. Astrid has always made homemade bread. In fact, she thinks she has only bought about 20 loaves of bread in her lifetime. Holmfield, Manitoba, had a grist mill and the Wytiicks would take about 100 bushels of wheat there and come back with twenty-two 100 lb. bags of flour. After her mother passed away she also made bread for her father and brothers. One time, the roads were blocked after a snowstorm so her father couldn’t come and get his bread so Dennis and Larry took a flour bag full of 14 loaves of bread to him by snowmobile. The winter of 1956, after a snowstorm, the Wytiicks had cattle to sell. The transfer could make it to St. Alphonse but couldn’t get to their farm, so Gerry and a neighbour who also had a cow to go ran the cows to the St. Alphonse church ground where they were loaded. While picking stones, Dennis found a fawn and brought it home. It weighed 9 lbs. Of course it was named Bambi and it became part of the family. When Gerry would haul the manure to the field the dog would run in front and Bambi would run behind. A few days after finding Bambi, Dennis found another fawn. He took this one to his friend, Denise. Later on, both deer got together and played in the Wytiick’s yard. Astrid and Gerry ran a dairy for many years. They started with McLeod milkers, and then switched to the Surge buckets, ending up with pipeline. After Larry got married, he and his wife Lorraine took over the dairy and Astrid and Gerry moved to the farm south of them. Here they had a barn full of Hi-line breeder hens and took eggs to the hatchery at Clark’s Poultry Farm in Brandon once or twice a week. Gerry continued to help with the field work and with the help of his ten year old grandson, Darcy, learned how to operate the new machinery. Astrid has had a weather station in her yard since 1985 and measures the temperature and precipitation every day. Every night she phones in the data to Environment Canada. Unfortunately, Gerry passed away in 2001. Astrid continues living on the farm and still enjoys mowing her lawn and gardening. She still raises a few chickens. She loves to bake, which her great-grandchildren enjoy. Astrid enjoys her great grandsons visits twice a week while their father Ryan is doing chores. I personally watched one of these great grandsons devour her baking while he was there. Astrid is surrounded by her loving family. Dennis and Denise farm near Glenboro. Larry and Lorraine run the dairy on the home farm. Doreen and Benny De Ruyck farm near Bruxelles, and Raymond and Kim live north east of Winnipeg. She is also blessed with ten grandchildren and 17 great grandchildren, and she hopes there will be more. Astrid just found out that there will be one more in September! Astrid Wytinck and the late Gerry Wytinck
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