Naming the West : Stories Siksika

Siksika Elder Story 3:
Stories

Then there’s Central Molders, [indistinct], you go in there. That’s where you get a little more money. "How much do you want?" [they'd ask.] No more than two dollars, maybe a dollar twenty-five.  "I'll write your name."
You go to Esso, Fiddis Garage that one is for the older people, at that time, when they started to get cars. "How much gas do you want? Two dollars? Three dollars?" and they'd give you gas. But not now.
From little boys to grown up men, you can go to town, and we have places to go to get money. They were teaching us if you paid back it would help you all the time. But all those stores again.
They used to have a flourmill, where they make their own flours. And we had our own newspaper, and the blacksmith where they shoed horses. And the one that meets the train every morning was that white guy and a team, who brings the supplies to all the stores. There was even a barn right in Gleichen behind Jackie’s.
If you wanted to go someplace, and you wanted to [indistinct] go with all your groceries and come back the next day, you paid a $1.25 and they’d give you a team of horses and you’d go home. But the next day you got to bring back those team of horses, because somebody else might want them. And nobody, nobody stole anything. You go and play and there’s a wagon full of groceries, you don’t touch them. They don’t belong to you. This is how we were taught. You don’t go that. You see a horse, tied, and the saddle is sitting on the ground, you don’t touch that saddle. It’s not yours. And the boys know that if you got to go home, you go live down the flats, they’d ask “Ride home?” And then you’d ride double and you’d go home. That’s how we were.