The Story Behind A Sea-Shell Brooch

During 2022 I have been taking a Humans Being More Class on telling stories in a clear and entertaining manner. Jeff Isom, Chancellor of Nikken University at Nikken International, Inc., leads the class. One assignment was to give a 2 minute talk about something we have around the house.  My choice for this assignment is to talk about a sea-shell dog-shaped brooch I made in 1950 while attending a one-room school ranging from grade one to six in rural Saskatchewan. During that year there were only 16 student. There were only 3 in my grade. 

Quote from my Autobiography Page 18: “Margaret Sarich was my grade six teacher. She trained with my sister, Clare,  in Normal School (Teacher’s College). During the winter of 1950 a hobby class was formed and Miss Sarich taught us leather work, plaster of paris ornaments and  sea-shell jewellery. I made a leather wallet, an ornament and a pink sea shell dog brooch. I still have the dog tucked away in my jewellery box. I remember how good I felt being taught by her. Her remarks on my report card were: ‘Lorraine’s attitude towards her work is satisfactory. She need to pay attention to her reading, Lorraine is an average student’ ” 

Lorraine 2022 

June 8 1960 Memories from my Europe Trip Diary

We were on our way to Switzerland to visited Jacqui's family and picked up our mail. At noon we had arrived at the Frontier of France and Switzerland, where our Canadian driver dropped us off. We stood by the road for a couple of hours before we got a ride. This time with an American fellow from Geneve who drove us as far as the main Lausanne highway. We were now in Switzerland and got our first good view of the geyser on Lake Geneva. A rich elderly man picked us up and took us to right to Rolle, Switzerland. He told us he owned a farm in Chile, a home in Madrid, in Tangers and Evie. He took our names and wanted us to visit him some day.

We spent a couple of weeks there. Rolle was small village in the hills between Geneva and Lausanne. We got really excited over all the mail we received. We had not heard from Saskatchewan since we left Belmont, England. All along our travels we wrote long letters and post cards home. For the next few days as we stayed in Rolle we busied ourselves writing replies. We also wrote to others whom we met and stayed with in Spain, Portugal and France.

June 8 1960 Rolle Switzerland 

Woke early and was down for breakfast by 9:00am. Another cloudy day. Spent all morning ironing clothes. Then sat in hot sun and hemmed our towels if you please, and sewed crests on my jacket. At 2:00pm we went down to a church tea, had ice cream and strawberries tarts. Went to post office, then to the beach. The sun went in and it began to rain so that ended that. Stopped at a bar to keep out of rain. Forgot bread so Marion and I walked back to Ville centre for some. Back for supper and more ice cream and strawberries. Show Aunt Justine and Madeline our pictures before going to hotel at 9:00pm. Beautiful full moon, shining on the lake, Can see the light of France across lake.

                         Lorraine looking out at the Geyser on Lake Geneva.