A Thank-You Note for the Cream Money book

A thank-you note came in the mail the other day, from a woman in Alberta who received our Cream Money book as a gift from a friend.

As this book has already done many times since it was launched on May 23, 2015, Cream Money: Stories of Prairie People prompted this woman to remember her years on the farm and to share them with us:

"I was also raised on a mixed farm and surely can relate to my mum hand-milking 6-8 cows & shipping cream with a cream truck picking up the cream. Also I married a mixed farmer & we, like a lot of neighbours, milked a few mix-breed cows until we became fluid milk shippers and increased the herd to 50 or more, at times, Holsteins.

“After finding it so difficult to hire help for winter chores, we sold the quota before the price rose. Then I went back to shipping cream but had to deliver it to Vermilion, where a cream truck met the few cream-shippers left. After it stopped, we left the calves on the cross-breds we now had and even bought the odd calf to put on the heavier milkers. I milked one, with the first milkers we had used earlier, until March 2014, when the old favourite dried up – just couldn’t sell her so I had her put down mercifully.

“Thank you again. I’ll write a thank-you to (my friend) for thinking of me.”

This lovely thank-you note came with another pleasant surprise – a cheque made out to the Saskatchewan Lung Association,“in appreciation of the work of DriverWorks Ink in publishing Cream Money.”

We were delighted to pass that cheque on to the Lung Association and to express our thanks for her thanks. Win Win Win!

A Future Reader Is Why I Write

It always blows me away when children recognize the Never Leave Your Wingman book. I am slowly getting used to adults telling me they've read and enjoyed this inspiring book about a seven-time cancer survivor and her wingman husband, but children's comments always surprise me. Pleasantly.

At a recent signing at the Chapters bookstore in Regina, Saskatchewan, a little girl came up to me and said, "I have this book at my school!" She gently touched the book cover as though it was a precious diamond or her favourite toy.

I asked which school she attended. She replied, "Douglas Park." 

I asked about her school because I and Dionne Warner, the subject of the book, have each spoken at various schools in Regina and elsewhere. I have not yet presented at that school and I wasn't sure if Dionne had either, but no matter. I was pleased that she expressed interest in the book.

As they were walking away after our chat, the little girl's father commented that his wife has posted on Facebook about the Never Leave Your Wingman book. Again, I was pleasantly surprised but I did not ask any further questions. 

I know! That was very difficult for this woman who has spent her entire adult life asking questions of others. But I fought my inquisitive journalist urges and refrained. Instead, as they walked away, I called out to the girl, "Keep reading and learning!"

She called back, "I don't know how to read!" I again was surprised. She was so intelligent and interested. I had not thought about her young age until then.

"I'm sure you'll learn soon and be great at it," I told her.

I turned back to my table of books and said to myself, "And that is why writers write. For future readers like her."

Cream Money book launch among the best for DriverWorks Ink

We recently launched our newest non-fiction book, Cream Money: Stories of Prairie People - and it was the most fun book launch ever. At least that's what the people in attendance said, and who are we to argue with them? It definitely was a great time!

Thirteen of the 30 people who contributed stories to this fascinating book were at our launch. Some of them drove almost three hours to be there! It was the first time I had met a number of these folks in person - I'd only talked to them by phone or email when editing the stories they submitted - so I was thrilled to shake their hands and thank them in person for contributing to our book. 

The launch began with a happy, casual atmosphere that continued throughout the afternoon. But first I'll bring you up to speed on what the book is about and why we published it.

Cream money was an important source of income for farm families on Canada's Prairies in days gone by. Farm women in particular - including my mother - milked the cows, separated the cream from the milk, then sold that cream and/or milk to neighbours, friends, and townspeople to earn a little extra cash. The money earned was used to purchase groceries, fabric, farm supplies, and other items that could not be produced on the farm. 

DriverWorks Ink, our publishing company based in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, produced this book to record some of this Prairie history and pay homage to this long-ago way of life. We're also making a donation to the Lung Association of Saskatchewan from some of the book's proceeds, by the way. I thought I'd add that detail before I forgot.

In the book's introduction, I wrote that my mother sold cream in pint and quart jars to families in town and in cream cans to the local creamery about once a week from the 1950s to the 1970s. With this money, she paid bills and purchased sugar, salt, fresh fruit, canning supplies and other grocery items that could not be grown or made on our farm. She bought fabric and sewing notions and, if we children happened to make a rare trip into town that week, we were sometimes allowed to spend 10 cents in any way we wished. As we grew older and farm finances allowed, we were sometimes each given a shiny quarter, which led to lengthy deliberations about whether we should spend it on bubble gum or chewy Mojo treats. Or should we spend our entire allowance on one bag of potato chips or one chocolate bar? Often we would make deals with each other and share our purchases after we returned to the farm with our bounty. (From Cream Money, "Introduction - My Family's Story" by Deana J. Driver)

The Cream Money book contains 29 short stories and two poems written by a variety of Prairie folks who talk about events on their farms during the 1920s right up to the mid-1980s. There are stories of hard work, fun, and adventure that honour family and community. You'll read humorous tales of children falling into full milk pails or mice falling into cream cans, and explanations of cream money well spent or other adventures during those years on the farm.

While I was compiling and editing the stories for the book, those who contributed their family's stories often expressed their gratefulness that these pieces of family history will be preserved through the book's publication. It has been a central piece to the work I do as a non-fiction writer and Prairie books publisher, so it was nice to hear that they understood the reasons that my husband Al and I published the book. Our contributors brought this grateful attitude and their excitement to our book launch and we were off to a great start when we saw two of the contributors at the launch venue, raring to go, as we were arriving to get set up!

We were fairly busy during the launch so we didn't take a lot of photos, but here are a few to give you a flavour of that great afternoon:

We set our Cream Money cake and a few lemon tarts on a table in between two old, empty cream cans. Just looking at those cream cans brought back a lot of memories and began some storytelling for folks.

I welcomed everyone and shared a bit of my family's story and the reasons we published this book. Some of what I said was similar to what you'll hear in this CTV Regina interview I did leading up to the launch.

Eleanor Sinclair of Fort Qu'Appelle, SK, (author of Our Lamps Were Heavy) spoke about the dairy cooperative's strike in the 1970s, which led to their farm having to get rid of vast quantities of milk and cream in any way possible while the strike was on.

Bryce Burnett, a rancher and cowboy poet from Swift Current, SK (who published his award-winning book Homegrown and other poems with DriverWorks Ink), shared his poem "Cream Cans," outlining the many uses these cans have had throughout their long lives. (Later, one of our other contributors told us that he had heard Bryce speak before but was excited to meet him at our launch. We were happy this event enabled the two of them to have a visit.)

Next, Dexter van Dyke of Regina, SK, shared his story of being involved in the milking process and benefiting from cream sales proceeds when he was a child.

Above are some of the people at our Regina launch. Janice Howden, a contributor from Saskatoon, spoke about the book on Saskatoon's Global TV. Here's that interview for you to enjoy.

Among the connections that were made between the people at the launch were some priceless moments that occurred between these two contributors. Roy Tollefson of Moose Jaw, SK, born in 1926, met Clara Puddell of Moose Jaw, born in 1924, at our launch. Their daughters work together in Swift Current, but these two had not met before. They quickly discovered that Clara knew one of Roy's siblings. They enjoyed talking about mutual acquaintances and much more. Amazing.

When the speeches and readings were finished, we asked all the contributors who were present to please get together for a group photo. As family and friends stood in front of us and snapped photo after photo with their cellphone cameras, we proudly held our books and grinned like the happy authors we are!

Back row l to r: Dexter van Dyke, Truus de Gooijer, Irene Bingham, Jerry Holfeld, Glenn Swallow, Maurice Giroux, Marlene Hunter, Bryce Burnett.

Front l to r: Roy Tollefson, Deana Driver, Clara Puddell, Ruth Wildeman.

(The cream cans on the book's cover came from Allan and Elisa Jackson and the book's cover design is by Erika Folnovic of Regina, SK. We also thank Creative Saskatchewan for assistance in producing the book.)

At one point in the afternoon, my husband and publishing partner, Al Driver, asked 89-year-old Roy Tollefson, "What does it feel like to be a published author?"

Roy replied, "I never thought that would happen. I helped with a community history book and I wrote a little piece for that but that doesn't count. This is really special."

We couldn't agree more.

Thank you to Roy and all the other contributors to our Cream Money book.  We hope all of you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed writing our stories and getting the book published.

Don't forget, you can purchase a signed copy from us here.

Happy reading!