Personal Writings

Written by Sherry Stewart

New Chums in the Cariboo

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The Berger Family Find Real Friends in the Cariboo

Sherry Stewart's comments on her writing

Why do I Keep Writing About our Cariboo Pioneers?

Because I respect and admire these self-reliant people. They were all such individuals, they took huge risks, they provided leadership whether they wanted to or not, and most important they lived, by necessity, in harmony with their natural surround. They lived close to the earth—with a minimum of dependence on 'the outside world'. How ready is any one of us if the lights suddenly go out? Remember a few years ago when snow closed all the roads heading north (and south) and the produce trucks couldn't get through? And that was only three days. What if...? I take heart in the knowledge that these folks back in the early 1900s could live up here in the Cariboo without hydro and gasoline, braving winters that dropped to 50 degrees below zero. They cooked with wood and they heated with wood. That was after they had cut down the tree, skidded it to home base, hand sawed or chopped it into logs, and then split the logs and carried them into the house. “If they could do it,” I tell myself, “In a pinch so can I!”

It's about self reliance and creativity, and about being the master of one's fate to whatever degree possible. It's about the satisfaction of doing a job with your own hands, building a barn or putting up produce from your own garden for the winter months, and then standing back and saying to yourself, “I made that myself. I did that myself!” We can't go back to the earlier days, but we can simplify our lives, perhaps make them less focused on the material things that surround and seduce us. The pioneer stories tell us of people leaving a more familiar way of life and daring to risk everything in the enormous undertaking of settling an unsettled land. Yes, I know it sounds romantic, cushioned by 100 years, and by the fact that we know the mostly successful outcomes to their stories But even if many were running from failure, from the law, or worse, they didn't know if they would live or die when they came here.

We read and hear of the hard work, the hideous setbacks, the disappointments, the hardships. But we also hear how families all worked together, women and children alongside the men. Family unity extended then into the community, and the community became just a larger family. Neighbours automatically helped each other. It was code. When there were weekend gatherings, dances and other events, the family stayed together and everyone went along. Kids slept under the benches while the grownups danced or played cards, but they were together. My three children grew up in such a community. We lived on 160 acres at the north end of Roe Lake. No hydro, so no TV. And when the electricity did come in, we just never got around to buying a TV. Our children and many of the other children in the area created things. They made their own dolls and airplanes out of sticks and scraps they found, and they then made up 'plays' and 'stories' for their toys to act out. Their entertainment came from the inside out, not the outside in. That was 1968, not 1913, but the atmosphere of community and the willingness to share and help your neighbour was just as strong as in earlier times. I still see lots of people continuing to honour the lifestyle we saw in our early settlers. And someone said to me the other day, “I believe that people in the future are going to look back and think of the folks living out here at Bridge Lake today as 'pioneers'. So, why do I write the life stories of our Cariboo pioneers?

I identify with them and I believe that they often lived their lives with values that seem to be dropping by the wayside in the (apparently) speeded up world of today. I want to keep those values alive in myself and share them with others.