From 1923 on Henri J. Bandet was a laborer, but a special kind because he could fix up just about anything. He was at the service of the church, repairing, and making the collection at Sunday Mass. He heated the church in winter time for Sunday worship or for funerals and weddings and he also heated the parish hall whenever necessary. In those days houses were heated with wood and coal. It meant shovelling coal. Soon the Sisters asked him to take the responsibility of their heating system. This meant breaking big pieces of coal and plenty of shovelling. Around 1930 there was an improvement when the one furnace was transformed into a "Stoker" which took small pieces of coal fed slowly from a funnel. Henri soon enlarged the funnel with boards which he could take down for filling and put up again. Of course he had a ramp up which he could drive the wheelbarrow full of the powdered coal. Still on very cold winter nights it meant getting up at 2 o'clock in the morning to refill and keep the fires burning. So after filling the funnel, Henri took the habit of sleeping on a wooden bench close to the furnace. One morning at 5 o'clock, Henriette was sent by her mother to get her father and not finding him, was returning home, when good Sister Anna noticing the child showed her where her father was sleeping. In the worst part of winter he would shovel three tons of coal a day at the convent alone. Coal was piled outside, at a safe distance from the convent. Once at least, internal combustion did break out about 1940, and these piles had to be spread out to stop the fire. This also meant shovelling the coal twice.

Soon some of Henri's children went to the convent to meet him around 5.30 p.m. and come back home with him for supper. While waiting, they played and ran in the big hallways of the basement. Weren't the sisters kind and patient to accept this? No wonder these children have kept such fond memories of those days, and two have joined the Order! (The Sisters even treated these children with cookies or candies at the proper seasons1)

Henri J. Bandet was also hired by his brother Simplice to repair the machinery and also to help in building all kinds of needed buildings on his farm. Nothing needing fixing was beyond his capacity: he always figured something, whether it was a door, a window, a tap, plumbing, radiaters, cupboards, motors, pumps, furnaces, stoves, electric appliances, clocks, watches, etc... he welded, glued, sandpapered, replaced parts... he even repaired spectacles and shoes! Where did he get all his knowledge? "Just by reading" he once told his daughter who inquired. he read lots, on all subjects. And he was not what you would call a fast worker: he studied carefully what the problem was before attacking it. He was thorough, and did minute adjutments. He never got tired of learning through reading. Yet who remembers seeing him read on weekdays, except in evenings after work? He read something once and knew it. Never anyone did see him consult a book while working. When he could not get a book in French, he used his French-English dictionary... and showed his children how to use it. Being fifteen years old when he came to Canada, he never went back to school here; but was hungry for knowledge. He understood the written English, but had difficuty with the spoken English.

Henri and his brother did not only speak French but they also spoke " patois ", a kind of dialect they had learned when very young. They used it whenever they did not want their children to understand their conversation, and also when phoning each other and felt some neighbor was listening on party lines.

Mrs Henri J. Bandet was also a very talented woman. As the eldest of the Émile Gilliard family, living on a farm, she learned very young how to cook and do all kinds of things. At nine years she started baking bread. She went to Buffer's Lake school for three years so she could read, write, and do some arithmetic. She helped all her children (except the last who was 20 months old, when she died Nov. 28th, 1949) to learn their catechism, and study their lessons each day and do their homework. Henri also helped his oldest children do their homework when his wife had trouble or had too much to do. It did not take long that the oldest helped the younger when necessary. Even if they were poor, the children always had what they needed for their studies. It was understood that no one would leave school without completing their grade twelve.

The clothing was all home made. Mrs. H. bandet was a good seamstress and she knitted all the sweaters, mitts and stockings. Henri had purchased a knitting machine and all cotton and woollen stockings were made with that machine. It was a real blessing because to buy everything all made would have been too hard on the family's low income.

Father Bourdel always encouraged family prayer. He also told young parents to pray that the Lord would develop the intelligence of their children. Morning and night everyone would kneel, but at Henri's home the prayer was not as long as at his father's, but he would never miss it. When the children were old enough the mother asked them if they would like her to wake them up for daily mass. One after another accepted joyfully and made it a habit. However the mass did not take the place of the family morning prayer. On arriving home after mass, all would kneel for the prayer before breakfast. It was not hard to get up in the morning because all went to bed at 9 pm at the latest.

Sunday was the Lord's day and a family day. Mass in the morning, Vespers followed by the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament in the afternoon or in the evening. Parents and children all went, even the baby who in doing so learned very early the road to church and also learned to respect the prayers of others by staying very quiet. The rest of the day was spent in playing games, and reading books especially in winter. In summer, when the children were small, Henri would give each one in turn bicycle rides, then when they were bigger they would play ball, hopscotch, tag or hide and seek, with their neighbors. Here again what beautiful souvenirs recall the names of Edna, Laura, Rose and Rita Painchaud. There are also the Cadorettes, the St. Pierres, the "Three" Lepages, the Henriets and Poilièvres...

With the land he had bought in the village, Henri had a well and in the thirties, the well would sometimes give only six pails of drinking water a day and some people in the villaage would come and get some because they had none. Besides, when he became the caretaker of the school Mr. H. J. Bandet had to bring drinking water to the school for the pupils.

In 1929 the family purchased a cow which provided milk and butter for the family. During holidays, each in turn, the oldest children had the responsibility to watch the cow grazing along the road sides going north towards the graveyard especially. While watching, they would read story books borrowed from the library at the rectory. One school day in summer, Henriette saw by the classroom window that the cow ahd gone away by the gate and her mother could not run after it. She asked her teacher: Sr. Marie Claire to run after the cow and she got the permission. The cow had gone half a mile north, so Henriette ran and got the cow to turn around and drove it back home. Wasn't that a beautiful, charitable thing on the part of the teacher to grant her permission to leave the school for a cow?

There was no fridge at the time. How did they keep the milk? They would keep it in the well which was cool. The covered pail of milk was lowered and kept int the well by means of a rope.

Mrs. H. Bandet was also very good at gardening. The garden provided potatoes and vegetables. In the thirties when the children were old enough, they would weed the garden and pick up vegetables needed for each meal. On Saturdays they would pick up the potatoes necessary for the Sunday, These were all washed and peeled ahead of time and kept in water for the next day.

Especially in the thirties, money was rare, because labor was rare and poorly payed. Henri Bandet worked often for .15 or .25 cents an hour, and was grateful to have work. The family needed flour, sugar, salt, etc. and had to go to the store and Mr. Bandet did his very best to pay his bills at the end of each month when he would receive his salary. But came a time when he was unable to meet both ends. His debt grew bigger and bigger at the store of Mr. Aimé Masson. Henri J. Bandet's family owe a great debt of gratitude to Mr. A. Masson because when he sold his store and left Prud'homme, Henri was unable to pay what he owed, so Mr. Masson remitted everything. One day the Lord will say to Aimé? "I was hungry and you fed me!"

During the DEPRESSION the tramps would often ask for a meal. Mrs H. Bandet would never refuse.

It was not rare during the dry years to see the wheat 6 or 7 inches high and absolutely dry and empty, not even something for seeding the next spring. A dozen eggs and a pound of butter had to last a whole week for a family of eight even if it only cost .10 cents each.

In autumn when he had no work, Henri Bandet would go on bicycle with his ax and a lunch for a few miles on some farmer's land, with that farmer's permission, and cut the dry trees all day and pile the wood ready to be picked up later by some good friend who had a wagon and horses, and brought home to heat the house during the winter months.

As was said earlier Henri was caretaker of the school for quite a few years. His oldest girls would sweep the floors and dust the furniture and he would do the hard work. Sometimes the cleaning was not very well done by children 10, 11 or 12 years old. The Sisters again were so patient and kind and comprehensive of the situation.

On Halloween nights some young boys had taken the habit of tipping over the outside toilets. There was no running water in those days. Every yeaar those toilets in the school yard were tipped over on the side and Henri Bandet had to work at getting them up in place again. So, one year, tired of this, he got the news going that he would hide in one of those toilets with his revolver, on Halloween night. Next morning, no one had touched the toilets, and Mr. H. Bandet had been very quiet at home, in bed.

In 1930, under the Provincial Conservative Government, came an order from Regina, commanding the Sisters to remove their Religious Habit, and all the Crucifixes from the schools. On the first day of school in September that year, Henriette went and in entering the class she was stunned. She then blurted "Good Morning" to the strange teacher, not knowing who she was, and took a seat. It was only after a while, after hearing the teacher's voice that she realised it was Sr. Marie Claire with a different garb. Such impressions cannot be forgotten. And the Crucifixes? One Sunday, after Mass all the parishioners attending, went in procession to the school, siging hymns of reparation to Our Lord, to remove the Crucifixes from each classroom and carry them to the church. It was a very sad event and many persons had tears and did not hide them. These crucifixes were placed on the side walls in the church and each time one made the Way of the Cross, they could be seen and venerated. As a reation to this unjust action of the government the pupils started wearing crucifixes around their neck. So instead of having one crucifix on the wall, there were 25, 30 or more in the classroom depending on the number of pupils wearing them. The result was that the Faith of parents and children grew stronger. Needless to say that the government was well defeated in the following elections.

During the depression the teenagers of the village would gather in the church yard to play ball. In order to encourage them the new parish priest, now the retired Archbishop of St. Boniface, His Execllency Bishop Maurice Baudoux had the trees cut and the ground levelled east and south of the church in order to have a bigger and more convenient place for games especially baseball. He also organized clubs for youths JECF, JAC, Scouts... He also had Gospel study groups and other activities which gave an unbelievable formation to all who took part.

Henri Joseph Bandet used to say that the two things he suffered the most on arriving in Canada were: 1 - the cold - they never thought it could be so cold. He really never did get used to it - that is why he would adjust windows and doors so well to prevent the cold from entering. 2- the lack of bread: nobody told them they needed flour for the winter months to bake their own bread. They had the money to buy bread, but nobody had bread for sale. They could have meat easily by hunting, but they were not used to eat meat daily. But Bread! They really missed it.

Mr. and mrs Simplice Bandet after their wedding made their home in the house of rock and clay built on the hill. It was a one room house. The kitchen and dining table were at one end and the bed, surrounded by a curtain, at the other end of the room. Mr. Auguste Bandet did not want to live with the newly wed couple at first, he had his bedroom upstairs in the shop. He did accept though to have his meals with them.

Later in 1918, came the influenza called the "Spanish flue", "La grippe espagnole". Mrs Simplice Bandet got it very bad and on account of it lost her first child: Adrien who was born prematurely, in December. Both spouses, in faith, accepted the Will of God courageously.

As was said earlier, an addition to the house was built (of wood) as soon as they could, with a top storey by Simplice and his brother.

Mr. Simplice Bandet, like his father and brother Henri was a very good laborer, carpenter, mechanic, etc... He succeeded in everything. But since he had inherited his father's land and was very busy with all the work it gave, he always asked his brother Henri to help him in the reparation or construction of buildings and in the reparation of machineries. Simplice continued having cattle, sheep, pigs, and chicken. He also by and by got more horses to cultivate his land and for threshing.

As his children grew old enough, Simplice would initiate and inerest them to the animals and the work on the farm. Irène, the oldest was 3 years old and Louis was 1 1/2 when they learned how to ride the Grand Father's old mare "Ida".

Near the machineries or near the animals, one could expect some anecdotes more or less interesting. Who did not have any on the farm? During threshing 1922 or 23, Simplice found his daughter Irène sleeping under the exhaust pipe of the Titan. Was she dead? poisoned? He put her quickly in a rack and rushed to the house, all the while trying to revive her. The nice fresh air certainly helped. Irène remembers her mother and father trying to make her eat chocolate (which she liked so much) and finding it had such an awful taste.

Simplice was very keen with his horses. These even seemed to understand their master. Irène followed her father just about everywhere and learned so well by observing, that at 5 years she could hitch a horse quite well to the stoneboat. At that time Irène and Louis, both went to get the cows riding on the old "Ida".

At 6 years, Irène started school and she would make 3 1/2 miles on horse back. Her first school teacher was Mr. A. DeMargerie, at the little country school called Knapton. When came the time to prepare for her first communion, Irène was taken to the convent by her parents. The child was so lonesome. She had never been away from home and from the farm she loved so much. So she would look towards the south, knowing that her home was in that direction.

When Louis was old enough to go to school, him and Irène had a two wheel cart driven by the old mare "Ida". They would drive across the land of Mr. Jean Baptiste Blain to get to school and neightbors and cousins would hitch a ride especially in winter when it was so very cold.

As was said earlier Mr. and Mrs. Adélard Marcotte were the closest neighbors to the Bandet family. It did not take long for Irène to know the way and to go to visit these good neighbors. Mrs. Marcotte always treated children with candies, raisins, cookies, etc. It did happen once in a while that she went, (Irène) without permission and so her father would give her a little punishment to get the child to understand and remember what she had to do.

At the home of Mr. and Mrs S. Bandet the family prayer was said every night before bed time, but would last about 10 to 15 minutes.

Sunday was the Lord's Day. good or bad weather the family never missed the Sunday Mass. And if because of sickness the mother stayed home with a sick child, Simplice once said that he had never, not even once, missed his Sunday Mass since his arrival in Canada. At another occasion he also said: "I never worked on Sunday and I always had something to eat." He was great reader during his spare moments, in the evernings, on Sundays and especially during the winter months. He also encouraged his children to read as a source of information and knowledge.

Mrs Simplice Bandet was an extraordinary woman. Such a good housekeeper she was. She would cook, wash, iron, mend, and besides there was the garden, the chickens, and there were also the cows to milk. She was always smiling. Always peaceful and calm. Her souce of strength was in her prayer life, she was always asking God to come to her help. As they grew up her children would help as much as they could. They would go and get the vegetables in the garden, pick up the eggs in the chicken coop, and very soon they started miling the cows and feed the animals.

There was also the wood to bring in for the kitchen stove and for the furnace in winter, but very soon the boys helped in cutting the wood and piling it near the house.

Mr. Simplice Bandet was a great singer. He had such a beautiful voice. So Father Bourdel asked him to join the church choir. Simplice often thought of leaving the choir, beause he had so much work with a young family and a farm. When there was a choir practise his wife and children had to wait patiently for him in order to go home. There were sacrifices on all sides, but Simplice remained faithful to the singing of God's praises especially in his heart but also with his beautiful voice. He never smoked, so that must be one of the reasons why his voice remained so beautiful up to the end.

Both, Mr. and Mrs S. Bandet were charitable to all. They always co-operated with the parish priest and all religious organizations. Simplice never accepted anyone present to criticise the clergy and the the religious. he really was an example to all who met him.

For the Faith and courage of our Pioneers: Mr. J. Auguste Bandet and his children, thank you Lord. For their numerous descendants, that they may follow the examples of Faith and Generosity of their Ancestors, we pray to you Lord.