Hello everyone. My name is Lois Perepelitz and I moved to Coronation approximately a year and a half ago on August 21, 2005 from Martensville, Saskatchewan (which is very close to Saskatoon) because my only grandchildren live here.
My passion is to write and have I have written several short stores and submitted them for publication in several magazines and I hope to write a novel some day.
In the meantime, I have started working with Publisher, Joyce Webster on a book covering the history of Coronation and surrounding areas as recorded in the Coronation Review newspapers.
Our goal is to publish a hard cover history book in time for Coronation’s 100th Birthday Celebration the long weekend of August, 2011. It is not a history of families....it is a history of the growth of Coronation, the successes and failures, the weather, the fires, the hard news stories, and some funny stories.
It takes me approximately 16 hours to read and record one year so we are looking at 1600 hours just for obtaining the information.
Then comes the work of editing, sorting, laying pages out, putting together an index and table of contents, etc.
Before that I had written a few feature articles for The East Central Alberta Regional; the Mildred Lawrence story, the M & N Construction article on working up north, and one on Darrell Fiss and his fireworks.
Now Joyce has asked me to write a weekly column to give the readers a peek at some of the wonderful things I find in the old newspapers.
All the newspapers going back to 1911 are at the Review offices and we are using these for the history book.
I have really been enjoying going through them, I feel like I am in a time machine. The newspapers tell the story of the Coronation and area, not only the growth and progress, but the strength and character of the people.
The times were not always easy, they had to work very hard, but they also played hard, and they always, no matter how difficult things were, kept their sense of humour.
The people of Coronation were quick to extend a warm welcome to newcomers. I can say from experience that this is still true, and I would like to thank everyone for that. It really helps keep the homesick blues away.
Reading through the history of a town can sometimes make you feel sad, but mostly it makes you cheer and laugh.
Quite often the words used in bygone days will really mystify me and can be a real challenge to the old brain.
Some days I will read something that really gets my curiosity jumping, for example:
May 19, 1932
“Optimism ‘rains’ at Lucerne. The old Tanner estate has been sold to Elmus Ryan for $600.00, that includes 480 acres grazing land, the remains of a mansion, stables, piggery, drilled well, barbed wire, etc., and 3/4 mile of Sounding Creek. Mr. Ryan will now have a quarter of clear title land to give each of his children for a wedding present, except the baby.”
I think there must be quite a story behind this.
Who was Tanner?
Did he really have a mansion?
Why are there only remains of it to sell?
Why did he sell such a big operation so cheaply, even for the thirties?
You know what they say about curiosity . This is one I would really like to get some feedback on. If anyone knows anything about any part of this I would really appreciate hearing about it.
I work Monday through Thursday in the afternoons so call me at 578-4111 if you know more.
That’s it for this week, I hope you enjoy reading the column as much as I do writing it.

	Lois Perepelitz of Coronation enjoys writing and her latest project is assisting publisher, Joyce Webster with compiling a 100 year history book from the files of The Review in time for Coronation’s 100th birthday celebration on the August 2011 long weekend.

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