Then and Now

By David Dawson

A little while ago my brother found an old diary up in the attic of the house in England where we grew up written by my grandfather. No doubt it was put up there by my father after my grandfather died back in 1948 and had been sitting there ever since until a leaky roof forced a tidy-up. It covers the years 1893 & 1894. Generally speaking it is rather boring though from a family history point of view it covers the time my grandfather was dating my grandmother and it actually records the day they got engaged.

From a current environmental point of view the sort of lifestyle a 20-year-old man led in 1893 is rather interesting. For one thing this was before cars had been invented, even bicycles were very rare and as yet unpopularised, so my grandfather walked practically everywhere, though there were steam trains for longer journeys. On one occasion, when he was visiting London, he records going on a bus, which must have been a horse drawn omnibus. Most of his family and friends lived in close proximity and they used to get together for birthday parties and other events. In fact I think it is true to say they were a lot more sociable than we are today. Remember this was before TV, before radio and even before telephones, so people had to make their own entertainment or go visiting. My grandmother was one of seven children and they all married ‘the girl or boy next door’. The census from that time shows quite a few of the families living on the same street. Coming to the present time, just over 100 years later, although I know all my neighbours, the people I socialize with are scattered all over the place. I have friends in Winnipeg, Steinbach, Kleefeld, Ste Anne etc and to visit I have to drive there.

In my grandfather’s day there must have been grocery stores, butchers and bakers on every street corner – or certainly within easy walking distance. Perhaps the people who developed shopping malls in this country with their huge parking lots can be forgiven as that was at a time before it was realized that car exhaust fumes were bad for the environment. From the centre of Steinbach to the three grocery stores north of town is at least one and a half miles. A healthy adult can walk at between three and four miles per hour, so it would take most people about half an hour to walk to do their grocery shopping, and then another half an hour home lugging heavy bags of groceries. Frankly I don’t blame anyone for driving, especially in winter. Nevertheless one thing that always strikes me as contradictory is that people will walk for half an hour on their treadmill, then jump in the car and drive to the grocery store.

More and more apartments are being built in Steinbach so the potential for a downtown grocery store must be increasing. Personally I think it is a great shame the old Economy Foods complex which included a small mall and grocery store has gone, but that is the sort of thing Steinbach needs today.