Off to the City

Citizens of Saskatchewan's prosperous little Simmie (pop. 100) were bored. Ever since Christmas they had been snowbound. Twelve-foot drifts blocked their roads to the outer world. Once a week a train (one coach plus cattle cars and boxcars) chuffed in & out, and then silence lay upon the grain elevators along the C.P.R. tracks, the general store, blacksmith shop, barbershop and garage.

For a while church suppers, CCF dances, an occasional four-year-old movie broke the monotony. But the routine palled, and Simmians, their pockets bulging with grain checks, were in a spending mood. The bright lights of bustling Swift Current (pop. 6,000) beckoned. Simmians were ready for a spree.

Some town sports got an idea: charter a train for the 32-mile ride to Swift Current. Archie Simmie, station master and cafe keeper, asked the Moose Jaw C.P.R. office, got word back that for a flat round-trip fare of $2.05, a $200 guarantee, a train would run. By telephone the news was spread; the guarantee became a cinch.

Worth Every Cent. When the big day and the Special came, 85 Simmians were at the depot. All along the line others waited. At level crossings the Special wheezed to a stop, picked up sleighfuls of eager farm folk. It all got so confusing that a railway official laboriously marked the crossings on a map so that the engineer would know where to stop on the way home.

One hour and 40 minutes after setting out, the 263 pent-up passengers invaded Swift Current. Most women hurried to stores, just missed the first nylon sale. They bought clothes for the family, tidbits for the table. Men & women blew themselves to a restaurant dinner, went to a hockey game, or to a movie. Some men watched a few "ends" of a curling bonspiel, took friends to the washroom for a snort or two (with a sharp lookout for the law), got tight.

Half an hour before midnight the Special chuffed happily back to snowed-in Simmie. Average cost of the day had been $20 a family, but some splurged as much as $50. Said happy Simmians last week in retrospect: "It was worth it."

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