Peter Robertson is one of only a handful of people who live in Wordsworth. The hamlet in Southeast Saskatchewan is part of Poet’s Corner, a line of towns named after authors and poets, including William Wordsworth, Thomas Carlyle, Robert Browning, Robert Service and Archibald Lampman.
The community used to boast a rail station, three elevators, a general store and a one-roomed school house. Today, little of that remains. The curling rink (the last communal building) is closed and Main Street has long since been grown over with grass. Wordsworth’s fate is similar to many small Saskatchewan towns – in fact, it reminds me of another town closer to Regina that I have a particular attachment to. I haven’t been there in years, but I used to be fascinated with a small abandoned farm house near Frankslake. Each year, more paint stripped off the walls and the ceiling began to sag. I used to look through the old hard-bound copies of Reader’s Digest left scattered on the floor and imagine the woman who used to read them. There’s something quaint – and even romantic about history grown over – at least that’s what we wanted to ask Peter Robertson.
“He’s not here, but I can call him for you,” the receptionist at Carlyle Town Office told us when Derek and I walked in.
“Hi, Peter? There’s a Global camera crew here right now. They’re doing an historical feature on the area and wanted to talk to you because you’re one of the only people who still live in Wordsworth.”
There was a pause on the other line.
“No, I’m serious,” we heard her say.
I think Peter Robertson was still scratching his head when he met us at the town office five minutes later.
“I’m really not the person you should be asking when it comes to poetry,” he said. He had to make a few calls because it’s not easy finding someone from Wordsworth these days but fortunately for us, Phillip Hewitt had just returned from goose hunting. He was back at home when we pulled into his farmyard.
He too was likely scratching his head (metaphorically speaking) when we asked him if Wordsworth was (or is) a “poetic” community since it was named after a poet.
“Not anymore poetic than any other place,” he hazarded.
But he didn’t hesitate to tell us stories of the town’s past I’m sure I’m not the only one who’d find romantic: the weekly outing to “town” on the train because the dirt roads were often impassable; how the boys would play in the puddles at recess and then have to spend the rest of the day in their soggy sock feet; or the time he left a teddy bear in the thresher and it became a nesting bed for mice in the spring. It’s the stuff poems are made of, don’t you think?
When it comes to Saskatchewan town names, Bill Barry wrote the book on it – no, literally, he actually wrote several. He says the railroad was not particularly “inspired” in coming up with fitting names for Saskatchewan towns.
“You know the poetry of Robert Browning; would you say that has anything to do with Saskatchewan?”
He added he would have liked to see more First Nations names used for Saskatchewan towns: “some link to what’s us instead of these hairy-fairy names that really don’t mean a damn thing.”
While I can’t disagree it would be nice to see more First Nations and Métis heritage celebrated, just because these names might have been chosen at will – or even at random – doesn’t make them meaningless. History is often imposed on a people and things that weren’t fitting at first are adopted – Carlyle may have been a Scottish essayist, but Carlyle is also, now, very much a part of Saskatchewan.
Legacies are something we were looking at this week. Like many residents who don’t know where their towns’ names came from, many people in Saskatchewan don’t know the origins of hazing or paddling. Still, every fall, teens are involved in “initiations,” which go too far. It’s a tradition, but maybe one that needs to end.
We also looked at the legacy of Terry Fox and people walking, biking – even skateboarding in his footsteps.
As always, we look forward to hearing your feedback and the stories about your communities and your legacies. Keep in touch!
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