Muriel Tuffnell grew up on a farm with two sisters and a younger brother. Now living at New Hope Lodge in Stoughton she reminisced about her life with The Observer.
On the farm Muriel grew up working hard, but it was simply part of her life and often her chores turned into fun.
"You didn't get away from doing chores," Muriel explained. "We had to milk the cows and do the sheep and the calves, just general old time chores."
"You'd go do the chores and then go do your own thing. We never really thought of not doing them, but you'd also not get away without doing them."
Muriel went on to say that she didn't care for the sheep, but they were something her mother loved.
"Mom liked sheep, Dad didn't like them at all, so she took care of the sheep and Dad took care of the cattle and horses, while we helped," Muriel said.
Chores were found both in the house and out, but one of her main responsibilites included looking after her little brother.
"[My brother] was a little devil," Muriel smiled. "We laughed about it, but he was quite a bit younger. He was always tagging along and he'd tell Mom and Dad everything we did wrong, he tattled on use, but we lived through it and we still love him."
"He was our favourite brother because he was our only brother. It's funny how you can love somebody and hate them at the same time. We lived through it though and we still love him."
When they were young, Muriel remembers how her parents were quite strict but extremely loving.
"My mom and dad were really good to us," Muriel stated. "We had a good time, my dad and mom were jolly people."
"My dad was really good, he'd play with us and then make us go do our work... He was strict, but he was good, he was a lot of fun, he'd play games with us like tag or chase us around snow banks."
However, when asked to do something by their father, Muriel and her siblings would do it and it would be done right because that was simply the way it was.
Muriel remembers the winters being very cold and difficult, but they were something to get through together.
"Winters, they were cold, cold and that came with lots of troubles, there was lots of snow to fight with, but we did it," Muriel smiled. "We bellyached about it some and laughed about it some, it was no big deal, it was just a thing we had to do, complaining or laughing we still did it."
"I don't know how you can have fun and crab too, but we did."
Despite this crabbing, Muriel said that they had a very good life.
Muriel went through school, enjoying her time there.
"We loved school, my sisters and I," Muriel stated. "I liked a lot of subjects. We all did well in school."
Muriel would later marry and have three children, two girls and a boy. Her parenting style would mimic that of her own parents, strict yet fun.
"It was good, I loved having kids," Muriel stated. "And they all loved each other, there were no problems with each other. We all laughed and giggled together, I was maybe the biggest kid of them sometimes."
"Still when we get together the kids are still laughing about what we did together. I'd get down and roll in the snow, 'Oh, Mom you can play this game!' And I probably couldn't, but I did play it anyway."
One of Muriel's favourite things to do is visiting with family and reliving these memories of days past.
