They were experiencing a blizzard that February night in 1960 as two young men sat chatting after a few beer in a ’55 four door sedan Ford. Mitch had driven into Saskatoon that Saturday looking for some “action” and I was the last straw, with everyone too busy and the evening slowly slipping into midnight.
“I think I will take the next bus home”, I glumly slipped those words following a long tale of woe that I had hung on my recent friend. I was depressed and the pressure of second year Chemical Engineering courses, a boarding house that had measured out 2 meat balls (made the Fall before) doled out for every dinner, no money nor parents where I could access any, were taking its toll on this 20 year old.
With an abrupt “Hell no!” Mitch started his car and advised, “you are coming with me to the farm” as he manoeuvred “__o__ wagon” (the colloquial name for his wheels), toward 33rd Street and on the way West of the City.
“No, I have studying to do, a bunch of homework to complete and the weekend is the only time I can catch up”, I protested as he carried on plowing through snow that had already accumulated to a worrisome proportion that would have stopped any normal Saskatchewan resident.
“It appears to me that you need to receive shock treatment to get you straightened out a bit and back on an even keel” as he headed West on 33rd. I realized then just how stubborn the Ozeroff family could be as well as resolute in their convictions.
Our exit out of Saskatoon met with literally a full definition of “whiteout” and I had no idea whether we were still on this grid road or in the middle of a stubble field but somehow this guy kept that vehicle between the fence posts on one side and the Saskatchewan Power poles on the other for the 20 or so miles necessary to reach the North – South intersecting grid road that would take us North to the Ozeroff farm and then I realized that we were turning right.
It was at this time that my self-depredation switched over to self-preservation when I became fully cognizant that I was out of control with these new events in my life. My mother had tried really hard to teach me to recite six (6) psalms in Russian so that I could comfort myself with God whenever I felt threatened. She was unsuccessful until this point. I recited these psalms in order, consistent with how I was taught at 5 years of age when I was supposed to have achieved all this, then, but now, I was scared like I never was previously and the need to do it all came back to me.
The condition of the road going North was worse that the West – East Grid because the usual West wind was causing drifts of over 5 feet in height to render passage difficult for a dog team much more a Ford but when the drifts were “hit” at 50 miles an hour, it just meant that a noticeable slowing took place for a moment and the windshield was no less impossible to see through.
I was into my second reciting process when Mitch stopped the car and pointed out two barely visible fence posts on the driver’s side, “we need to hit right in between because we will be attempting to cross the field to the farm house as the roads have been plugged for a week and impassable. So this will have to serve as our driveway,” he advised with a devilish grin on his face.
“We will back up to get a run at this gateway so hold on to your hat,” he further cautioned as he revved up the motor and somehow kept that thing on the road for a 1/2 mile or so in reverse.
Just as I got my new wind, we began gathering speed forward and I started another rendition of the 6 psalms. “Okay, brace yourself we are going for it!” and he wheeled to the left, just missing the post on my side, and we started a most infamous journey into oblivion.
I have no idea how deep the snow was in the field but I became increasingly aware that our forward progress was being seriously challenged.
It was a weak question that I asked my Tormentor, “how close do we get to the farmhouse?” dreading the answer and hoping that the news would be better than I expected to hear.
“Until the car stops”, was the intelligent answer.
“Then what happens?” I was desperate for a response that could be consoling to my disintegrated wits.
He smiled as the car finally stopped, “we walk!”
There was a finality to that last statement and assessment of our situation and so I bundled up as best that I could all the while being thankful for my prayers being answered that I was still alive but the new threat was how do we deal with a windshield temperature of minus 60 and snow knee high in that open field?
Sensing my concern, Mitch pointed to the Southwest, a distant glow of a yard light which he identified as the objective farmhouse.
We trudged single file, I stepping into the short lived footsteps of Mitch in front of me as the drifting snow filled them as quickly as they were imprinted.
Yes, another round of psalms and we finally reached the safety of the farmhouse.
I never did think once of my woeful issues of that day during this entire episode and I recommend this process to all those, who practice Psychiatry and Psychology, to use it on their patients. So Mitch is definitely a Medical Practitioner with talent.
So this is the manner of which I “bonded” with Mitch.
Years go by and Mitch became a successful Farmer as well as many other endeavours on his long list of achievements and now it is 2014. Mitch’s wife of 51 years, Dorthy, suggests that I drive him to the farm to “inspect” the harvest that their son Darryl was conducting on their 4,500 acre group of farms. I was excited to witness all that had changed from the time that I had left my family farm of 320 acres back in 1958. There would be much to see and appreciate as to how farming had advanced in those years between.
I am driving because, Mitch has physical challenges that rendered his body unable to safely drive the pickup that we were in. As I surveyed his gnarled fingers and thought about the treatment he provided me back in 1960, I noted that his body had changed but his spirit and humor had not dissipated one iota.
There was no “woe is me” to a rendition of all the “aches and pains” he was obviously experiencing, all I heard was about production rates of Canola, Wheat and other crops that were successful because of the research in crop propagation that is the results of the University of Saskatchewan Agriculture graduates.
The 1/2 hour trip was interrupted with “remember so and so, well that was their homestead but it is now owned and operated by…” There was no negative discussion whatsoever. This is the individual that I have chosen to write about. A man that understands that life has its roadways and one just needs to travel on them and keep in mind that there will be hills and valleys along the way with level stretches as well.
Perhaps that explains why this man has always stood out as my agricultural representative in the “special friends section”. It seems that discussing negative issues didn’t get on our agenda because the positive topics were too many where something tangible and progressive would capture the main issues for the limited times that we were able to see each other in the years that we had separated since 1963 to pursue our individual chosen careers.
We needed to see the behemoth combine in operation, which was able to do the work of two combines, that the family farm owned. It was unbelievable to see a 160 acre field (the former reference to a farm as when every settler could obtain title to a 160 acres for the sum total of $5.00 at the turn of the 1900 century on the prairies) threshed in less than seven (7) hours. The grain hopper capacity was 400 bushels and needed emptying at least two (2) times an hour. A huge truck with a capacity in each of two (2) hoppers of 700 bushels each or 1,400 for the truckload was ready to take the grain away every 2 hours or less.
How things had changed when, at one time, eight farmers hauling sheaves for a day would thresh 1,000 bushels into a granary which was my memory. Wow!
I asked Mitch on the lack of animals on the farms. Mitch was quick to explain that he had been toying with a decision, at one time in his career, as whether to continue being a mixed famer or go straight grain. “One day this stubborn heifer was not going to follow any more instructions from me and lunged at the corral enclosure where Dorthy was sitting. Fence, heifer and Dorthy became mixed with dust and the result was Dorthy had to have many operations to finally allow her to walk. Our decision to abandon cattle was made then and there!”
We drove to the home farm that was “heavily populated” with shining steel grain storage bins, along with farming equipment everywhere. “Drive in to that new shed, over there,” Mitch directed.
I thought I had driven into a small skating rink as a large grain truck was standing on the gable end with room on the front for more equipment. As we stopped in the middle of this building, Mitch remarked that it was just completed this year to store some of the equipment as all would not fit in.
I thought back to my visit to the Ozeroff family farm in 1960, the changes were like a new world opened over the fifty-four (54) years.
We were met by his son Darryl who used the Ozeroff humor to ask “what these two old-timers wanted on his farm?”
Mitch responded with “what do think and have?”
That was my next surprise as while we sat, Darryl accessed a fridge on the far end of the new shed to obtain, Scotch, ice, water and glasses. “Yes things had changed on the farm,” I congratulated both father and son.
“How did you enter into the political scenario?” I asked Mitch as at one time Doukhobors were disfranchised by the Federal Government and so this deserved an explanation as to how he had become so involved.
“In 1979 a group of neighbors approached me to run for School Board because of dissatisfaction with the representative of the day,” Mitch explained. “Although I was the ‘underdog’, I was just 6 votes short of victory when the 400 odd votes were counted”.
“In the Spring of 1980 I was encouraged to run for a second time as Delegate to Saskatchewan Wheat Pool (SWP),” and the rest is now history.
“Yes Dorothy, Darryl and my two daughters pitched in and looked after the farms while I was busy representing the 70,000 farmers for (SWP) for twelve years as Delegate and then elected by my peers to act as Director”, Mitch recalled. “A great deal of scheduling and extra work was necessary to meet the needs of the farm and the fixed meeting dates of SWP but we persevered and we did it”.
“There were many trips to make as Director of SWP, some of the noteworthy ones were:
1. Across Canada with frequent stops in Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver
2. Germany
3. France
4. USA
5. Quebec”
“I have no regrets with my participation in SWP, the largest farming cooperative in Canada, nor the Credit Unions as I feel that this group activity is what made Canada so successful in Agriculture and finances.”
Mitch did not stop with his mission with SWP but was also appointed to the Agricultural Credit Corporation by Premier Roy Romano and served as Vice-Chairman. During this time a Canadian Adaptation and Rural Development (CARD) was set up by the Federal Government. With all this involvement Mitch became Chair of a Community Development Organization that represented over 60 organizations that were funded by CARD which participated in the distribution of just under $100 million over approximately eight years that the funding was in place.
In the late 1970s, the Saskatchewan Government started to address the resolution of funds being held by them as a result of the unfortunate bankruptcy proceeds in 1939 of the Christian Community of Universal Brotherhood, a Doukhobor enterprise operating in the three (3) Western Provinces since the early 1900s. Mitch was selected as one of four representative Doukhobors in Saskatchewan with one from Alberta and four from British Columbia. Mitch was at a Vice – President and then elevated to President in the creation of the CCUB Trust Fund which invests $227,000 to perennially distribute interest yearly to Doukhobor projects from those Provinces.
This is a phenomenal feat for a man with grade eight formal education as I compared Mitch to my seventeen (17) years in formal education and I know how difficult it was to understand “Roberts Rules of Order” and the usual parliamentary procedures necessary in the political arena with all the agendas, reports and documentation that must have been what Mitch had to deal with on a regular basis.
Then I reflected on the days when we met at a Doukhobor Youth choir practice back in the Fall of 1958 in that Doukhobor Meeting Hall at 525 Avenue I in Saskatoon. Mitch was just one of the some twenty (20) young people there who came from all the original Doukhobor communities in Saskatchewan. Most were in Saskatoon to attend courses which would establish their future careers. Mitch made all of us feel welcome to a Youth Choir that had existed previously and so we just carried on. Eventually we totalled 35 members.
Mitch was interested in the Choir Director position and after a few years, he became a Director, a position that he held for seven years following the time I left in 1963. He worked well with Youth. It was during this time that the Variety Night idea was created and an opportunity to perform was held every second weekend in March to permit the usual preparation for university exams by the choir participants.
In 2014, Mitch assisted me in developing a list of 172 names (not considered to be a complete list) who participated in this Saskatoon Youth Choir (SDY). Should the Reader be interested, this list may be found on my blog by entering https://elmerverigin.wordpress.com
Mitch has taken time to assemble all the various reel to reel recordings of the may performances at the Variety Nights with particular interest in the SDY content. He has developed CDs that will bring much enjoyment and nostalgic memories to SDY former memories as well as those interested in Russian singing.
Our friendship continues to these years following the days when Marilyn Verishine met Elmer Verigin and Dorthy Soukoroff met Mitch Ozeroff with all credits to the SDY where the meetings took place in Saskatoon. Mitch was Best Man at the wedding for Elmer and Marilyn but Marilyn and Elmer with their family were in Prince Rupert when Mitch and Dorthy married in April 1964 and just too far away to attend.
Mitch and Dorthy participated in the Blaine Lake – Saskatoon Choral Group for many years as well as the Saskatchewan Choir. These cultural choirs participated in Folk Fest, Multicultural activities around the province as well as in Doukhobor events. CD recordings were created and marketed to those who wished to purchase same.
This Chronicle has now come to the phase where some interesting stories must be told, in addition to the opening classic, that will make Mitch blush even at his age:
1. His early training in Tractor operation resulted in a serious misjudgement of the turning circle and managed to remove a section of. the new fence recently strung by his father. Not a happy result in father / son relationship
2. Combines, filled with wheat, do not pass over wet ground too well as Mitch found out early in life. The result was a half day of “playing in the mud” with jacks, chains and tractor to finally extract the machine. His father was very impressed and added to the relationship.
3. When he went on his own, he had a stubborn starter on his pickup that needed fixing one of these days but the summer fallow was more important. It was lunch time and so the trip home was a necessity. The starter did not cooperate and did not care that Mitch believed in co-ops. An idea #1 came to this farmer, “why don’t I push the pickup while in gear with my tractor?” So there was ‘engagement’ but Mitch was not fast enough to get off the tractor and into the truck. Idea #2 was to lay a ‘jack’ at the bottom of the accelerator which would ‘engage’ the truck and allow Mitch enough time to get into the truck and away he would go. Well ‘engagement’ was achieved but the truck hit a bump allowing the jack to drop further onto the accelerator. Too bad there was no hidden cameras to capture the scene of Mitch chasing his truck and hollering “Whoa, Whoa” but alas the truck was no horse and stopped only when it hit a pile of trees and stumps. Saskatchewan Insurance only honored claims that were investigated by the RCMP who in turn had to interview witnesses. Oh, I would have paid $100 to watch Mitch squirm as the Officer said “Really?”
4. In later years Mitch had to get on the tractor to help Darryl but both tractor and equipment had increased in size, power and width of equipment behind. It was deja vu, you might say, with Match and tractor only this time Saskatchewan Power had to replace a few posts much to the disdain of this senior farmer
5. A wedding present from Dorothy’s parents were a goose and gander to beautify the yard. Ganders are possessive and any threat perceived or otherwise, would be attacked with severity. Mitch mastered the job of interceding between gander and his children many times as the fun and games became fear when the gander got too serious. He never admitted to scars on his rear.
So this provides the Reader with an appreciation of the depth of the convictions of Mitch to his Doukhobor roots and to agriculture which was the basis of Doukhobor survival. This was a significant reason for an invitation from Canada to pioneer the North West Territories in 1898, the precursor to the Province of Saskatchewan.
His love of singing came to him from a talented mother. He is always ready to help a neighbor and friend. He always accepted to officiate at funerals and other functions as was the Ozeroff tradition and custom of Doukhobors.
Above all, he loves his family with all that Michael Ozeroff possesses in body and soul.
He is a trusted and devoted friend. My friend!
A Transcription was from a hand-written version, by Michael Ozeroff provide June 28, 2015 to Elmer Verigin in my Office at 145 – 4200 Grandview Drive, Castlegar, B.C.
1. Transcription forwarded to Mitch for review July 29, 2015 by email
2. Chronicle started by Elmer Verigin July 29, 2015
3. First draught completed August 06, 2015
4. Sent to Mitch for comment August 06, 2015
5. Mitch approved for blog publishing August 09, 2015
Elmer Verigin 