Horse Lake Chronicles

Memories of a northern childhood. Aldred Neufeldt grew up in the small Mennonite community of Horse Lake, northern Saskatchewan, in the 1940s—a place considered by everyone else to be “the boonies” and a time when the devastating effects of the Great Depression were still being felt. Though times may have been tough, it was a childhood of wonder and discovery, nurtured by energetic and resourceful parents who expressed their Christian faith and community values through deeds more than words.

Neufeldt recounts what it was like to live in the log house built by his father; run along deer trails in the nearby Nisbet Forest Reserve; walk to school on the old Carlton Trail; model home-sewn fashions inspired by the latest Eaton’s catalogue; navigate the social dynamics of a small one-room school; and come to understand how the diverse personalities that made up his extended family—from hardworking pioneer grandparents to an infamous distant cousin accused of murder—helped to shape his own identity.

Told with zest and a keen eye for humorous detail, Horse Lake Chronicles immerses readers in a way of life now scarcely remembered, and in doing so invites us to reflect on our own origins and pathways to adulthood.