Ruby Rafuse has faxed information on an important event held April 25 at the Western Development Museum, North Battleford. This was the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation Provincial Angling and Henry Kelsey Big Game awards presentation for 2014. Angling commentary was by Darrell Crabble and Heath Dreger. Big game commentary was by Meghan Scherger and Brett Seidle and the Henry Kelsey chairperson, Joyce Lorenz.
From Thickwood Hills Wildlife Federation, president David Holmes and members Sharon and Nelda Swistun, Gordon Moore and Ruby Rafuse were present. Peter Swistun from Whitkow area, who shot a large white-tailed deer a number of years ago, and Russ Hanson displayed their mounted deer. Obviously they are worthy of a lot of attention.
Of interest closer to our area, Kirk Morrison of Turtleford scored 171 5/8 typical white-tail. Brian Busse from Leoville 199 1/8 non-typical white-tail and scoring 20 11/16 black bear is Ken Weber of Battleford. Many years ago, my son Greg and Ken's son Curtis were on the same hockey team in Battlefords Minor Hockey League.
Another former resident of Mayfair, Nellie Adamus, celebrated her 92nd birthday April 24 at her daughter-in-law Gail Adamus's residence in Battleford. Nellie was a resident at Ruth Whyte Manor for many years until her health started to fail and now is taken good care of at River Heights Lodge in North Battleford. Years ago, Nellie's husband Joe restored John Deere tractors and had these on display in their Mayfair yard. When Mayfair would host an important celebration with a parade, guess who would proudly drive one of his treasures? Yes, he did a great job of restoring these machines and it was a landmark in Mayfair for many years. Now sits a deserted corner lot, with many good memories.
Joe and Nellie, like most of the people in that generation, toiled hard to raise a family of eight children. Nellie had an identical twin and Joe mistakenly tried the wedding ring on the wrong sister, to the amusement of the twins. To make ends meet, children on the farm always had (no matter which farm family) to be responsible to milk cows, haul bales, cut wood and carry it to the house and, of course, look after the younger ones. In this day and age children would roll their eyes if asked to perform some of these tasks, while being engaged on one of the many electronic devices.
A special day is planned for Sunday in Mayfair Hall. "Be Prepared to Be Impressed" is a function sponsored by the Mayfair Library. An impressive art show with professional artists Doreen Kalmakoff, a painter and teacher from Blaine Lake, Al Nelson Weitzel from Saskatoon and Dorothy Schmidt, a painter and instructor from Medstead, are among a few to display their work. Also numerous local artists will be in attendance to show and perhaps sell their drawings and paintings. For more information call Dora Brown at 306-246-4849. There will be a silver collection at the door.
Speers Dinner Theatre hosted another successful live performance this past weekend, sponsored by the United Church and Speers Recreation Board. Blazing Guns and Roaring Gulch by Shubert Fendrich was a comedy acted by a capable cast, some doing this for the first time. Ruth Foster and Linda Paulow were the ticket seller and director and have been involved with this for many years. Of course a large crowd from our area always enjoys Speers entertainment.
On the topic of live theatre, yes I did attend Theatre Saskatchewan's 81st annual TheatreFest in Melfort, held at the Kerry Vickar Centre. The plays I watched included The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen's Guild Dramatic Society Murder Mystery, a comedy by David McGillivray and Walter Zerlin Jr, presented Thursday by The Paper Bag Players from Yorkton. This play was about what every drama club experiences: the horrors of what can go wrong on opening night. Most of the performers in this play played roles of many characters.
The Mighty Carlins, a comedy by Collin Doyle, took place on the anniversary of a mother of two sons and her drunk husband as they gather at the family table and reminisce, drink, drink and do more drinking as the night draws to dawn. Smokescreen Productions from Prince Albert did an excellent job in this performance. Saturday featured Much Ado About Nothing, a comedy by William Shakespeare. It had a large enthusiastic cast of mostly younger people
The last two plays had a warning: contains objectionable language and mature themes. There is always a series of seven plays starting on a Sunday evening and ending after seven evenings. The awards were presented following the final play on April 25. This year's adjudicator was Ian C. Nelson from Saskatoon. Every play entered won an award, as there were 16 presentations.
Faye Liebaert, Leanne Cherwinski and I are season ticket holders at Persephone Theatre in Saskatoon. Sunday we were spectators at The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee performed in Rawlco Radio Hall. This was tastefully done with a lot of excellent singing cast members.
Alice Grigor, a hardworking volunteer in Mayfair, received a Heritage - Community Achievement award at the sixth annual Rivers West 2015 Volunteer Recognition Banquet. This was held in the Catholic Church basement hall April 22 in St Walburg. The CWL prepared and served a hot roast beef supper enjoyed by approximately 200 guests. The people from Mayfair that enjoyed the evening included Margaret Adam, Connie Giesbrecht, Judy Kennedy, Ellyn Scotton and I. I nominated Alice in February and she wasn't overly enthusiastic about it but is certainly a worthy recipient of this award and sure did appreciate it.
There were 14 awards presented to individuals, clubs and sports teams. Amongst a list of numerous contributions towards the community, Alice's largest undertaking was spearheading the large Mullingar history book .
Connie and Doug Giesbrecht have returned home after a winter of house sitting in Edmonton, whose occupants vacationed in Yuma. Doug and Connie have a lot of relatives in Edmonton and enjoyed their "vacation" in the nasty cold weather. Connie told me a comical incident with a four-year-old grand-niece. The mother and child were on a train in Edmonton. This small child chattered away constantly and asked her mother if she could talk to two older women. The mother said "yes" so the conversation started with the wee one informing the ladies that she is four years old. She innocently asked them "what's your age?" They replied, "We are quite a bit older than you." She persisted  in trying to find out their age. "What number are you?" They still didn't give a definite answer, so the little girl said, "Did the numbers run out for you?"
