Elizabeth McLachlan

This book looks at twelve small towns on the Canadian Prairies, four towns in each of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. These are towns that have reinvented themselves to come back from dying out completely. One chapter for each town tells us the history of the town and what they’ve done to keep the town alive.

I grew up in a small town in Saskatchewan, so I found this really interesting. It might have helped that I know some of the towns (and I know about Rosebud, AB and Vulcan, AB and their “claims to fame,” so to speak); however, I really do think the stories of these towns could be interesting to anyone. The author really does write the stories of the towns very well. The book reminded me a bit of CBC’s “Still Standing”, except the book includes more town history, in addition to the current situations in the towns.

Favourites of mine were Craik, SK (now an eco-village) and Neubergthal, MB (done up as a historical Mennonite village). My Dad’s background is Mennonite, so that might also have helped with the interest there. Other towns (you can guess what Vulcan is famous for): Rosebud is for the dinner theatre in town; Warner, AB for a world-class women’s hockey program; Elbow, SK for their marina, Beacham, SK for the artists in town; Inglis, MB for their “elevator row” (historical grain elevators). The title really drew me to the book, as I have family in Herbert, SK. The author did not include Herbert as one of the essays, but she mentioned a bit about it (and the title) in the epilogue.… (plus d'informations)

Elizabeth McLachlan's GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN is a nostalgia-ridden look at the tall landmarks that once dotted the wheat belt of western Canada. In their 1940s and 50s heyday there were over six thousand of these 80-90-foot tall wood-constructed grain elevators in Canada's western provinces. Now there are only a few hundred remaining. They have all burned, collapsed, or been razed and replaced by more efficient, fire-proof concrete structures, not nearly as picturesque as the old ones.

Ms. McLachlan was the wife of a grain agent for twenty years, moving from small town to small town, and her own story, in the twenty-some page Epilogue is possibly the most interesting part of the book. The book's format consists of cobbled together anecdotes from now aging farmers, elevator managers, repair crewmen, and grain agents (and family members of all), which, while charming enough to begin with, become a bit redundant and even a tad tedious after a while.

Yet I liked it, probably because I was an "elevator kid" myself. My dad ran an independent grain elevator and feed store in our small Michigan town for a little more than twenty years and I was a part-time, often reluctant employee there between the ages of 10 and 17 (when I finally rebelled and got a somewhat 'cleaner' job at the local A&P grocery store). In any case, I could relate to the descriptions of the ubiquitous dust and chaff, as I spent countless hours sweeping out the grist mill and warehouses, grinding and bagging loads of corn and oats (mixing in the salt and molasses) for cattle feed. And the long hours of wheat harvest also struck a familiar chord. One of the anecdotes here recalls, "as his father's helper, one of Art's jobs was to climb into the boxcar while it was being loaded and shovel like mad into the corners."

Ah yes, I remember it well. And I had galloping hay fever, so it was a miserable job for me, laboring in those clouds of wheat dust, eyes and nose streaming tears and snot, sneezing and gasping. Not fond memories certainly, but probably good training.

The stories here brought back plenty of memories of my own. I'll probably pass the book along to my older brothers, who served their own time in Dad's mill. If you were a farmer from, say, the forties forward - or worked in a grain elevator - yeah, you'll definitely relate.… (plus d'informations)