Pictures

Noble & Irene Yerex & Family

My grandpa and grandma started this family having 10 children working and living on the farm for most of their early years.  I was only around for grandma for 7 years and only have memories of her sitting in her rocking chair just like in the movies smiling at us grandchildren.

Grandpa I would see every Sunday for supper until he passed away in 1981 on Christmas day.  I can remember him to doing a little dance for me when I was young to make me laugh.  He bought a 45 record of a Christmas song called Tiny Tony which was my favourite Christmas song of all time.  I can remember him playing it on the record player in the kitchen of their home on Madison Street in Winnipeg.

Grandpa told 4 or 5 stories repeatedly during those 15 years, all baseball stories from the early 1900's which is pretty cool to hear about.  Baseball was his favourite sport.  He used the same tag lines for each, Lefty Treleven the pitcher who threw a fastball that curved up.  How he always let the bat hang, or how he would sneak a peek at the catcher, which he would make sure you knew that you weren't supposed to do it, to figure out where they were throwing to him and he hit the ball ever so high.  By the time the ball came down and the fielders missed it he was on second base and the pitcher walked over to him and said, "I didn't think you could hit a high ball."  He would say, "I didn't say anything, but what I should have said was I can hit anything."  If you would tell grandpa, you told me this story, he would ignore you and keep telling it.  I learned to just listen and for a while I could repeat the stories word for word.

He was an outfielder playing center field and could cover the balls the left fielder should have had and balls the right fielder should have had.

The summer 6 months before his passing, he came to one of my baseball games and came out onto the field during warm up and wanted the pitcher to throw one for him so he could bat.  He hadn't swung a bat in probably 40 years.  He stood there with the bat hanging like he always said he'd do and they threw a few pitches for him.  I was in left field mortified but everyone thought it was priceless.

My dad would cut his hair once every few months  for him and he loved the horse races.  He would go to the horse races as much as he could.  He drove a cab in Winnipeg for a few years.  He rarely had anything to drink, maybe one drink and only two at the most.  

I started to write this in 2014 and got sidetracked and decided to get this going again.  I have had to go to too many funerals lately and thought we could share our memories for future generations to come with some stories of the Yerex family.  

My childhood of going to family farms is over except for Bruce Fleger who is living on the farm he grew up on with Norma and Jim.  The Burton's farm has been sold.  Daune and Joan's farm was sold a few years ago.  Max and Lorna's farm was sold a few years back.  I'm glad my kids were old enough to visit every farm but unfortunately their kids won't get that chance.

So if anyone wants to contribute pictures you can email them to me and I'll post them on the picture page of the Yerex family.  If you want to tell stories about your families please add them to the comment section for your family.  For example if you want to talk about Carol, select her blog and add a comment.  Anything in general you can add it to the pictures or wherever you want.  

Carol Velva Yerex (Carson)

I could talk for days about my mom and my childhood.  I have people so jealous when I talk about how great my childhood was.  We did so many things and family was the focal point of it all.  We went to the farms of the Burton's, Fleger's, Yerex's in the Neepawa area countless times and coming from the city it was a lot of fun to relax and take in the view especially from Max and Lorna's home close to Riding Mountain.

She followed the sports I played and we had team parties, family parties throughout my childhood.  When family came in from the country they usually stayed with us for appointments or tournaments during those years.  As an only child it was great to have people around to talk or play with when I was a kid.

She was on the phone with many family members for hours and hours sometimes.  I imagine calling our home before call waiting wasn't easy back then.  With our family spread out over western Canada, we had many trips to Calgary, Edmonton, BC, Saskatchewan and around Manitoba.

Family and friends is what my mom lives for.  She was always the go to person when my older cousins would go to university and stay at our place for various amounts of time during the school year.  She is the youngest of the 10 Yerex's and sadly the last one of the ten still around after Uncle Daune passed away in October 2016.

She has written songs, she performs at senior homes a few times a year and still works three times a week and they ask her to work more.  I meet her coworkers and they all say she is the one they all lean on if they have a problem or need advice.  It's because she is calm and full of common sense.

She loves being a grandma and so far has been very healthy her entire life.  I love you mom.  

Muriel Gertrude Yerex (Bell)

Aunt Muriel was probably my closest aunt from my teenage years until her sudden passing in July of 2009.  She lived in Winnipeg from the early 80's on and my mom and her were very close, getting together often with hours and hours of talks on the phone.

Muriel had very solid morals and expected people to act in a certain way, which wasn't hard.  All you had to do was be a decent person and not try to screw anyone over.  If that happened you would hear about because she was not afraid to let you know about it.

She had a fantastic sense of humour and was an amazing cook as well.  

She had a lot of crappy things done to her after her second marriage ended in his passing and she had a hard time with her husband during his final few years on earth and she deserved better. She could have put up a big stink over it, but she decided to let it go, shame on those people.  I'm only putting this in here because maybe one day they might come across it and realize they were very cruel in my opinion. I won't get into it but they know who they are and I'm sure no one wants to dwell on it, but Donald wouldn't be afraid to talk about it, so you can ask him!

When Muriel first moved back to Winnipeg she actually moved into the suite I grew up in on Wolseley avenue, so it was nice to be able to see my old home for a few years that she lived there.  One school summer vacation I was on my own at home and was able to go to Aunt Muriel's place for lunch or breakfast if I got up early enough.  That was until she found work and that perk ended.

Muriel was a huge curling and baseball fan and loved going to the Goldeyes games with Ed and Carol.  Muriel would ask Ed about certain players and if he put down any of the players she liked, you'd hear, "Put a sock in it Carson! Put a sock in it."

They'd get calls from Muriel during curling games discussing the terrible calls or bad shots or the players they liked or disliked.  She loved a good time and a good party.

Many Christmases were spent at Muriel's place over the years and she made everyone feel welcome.  

During my teenage years, anytime I would tease her about her smoking, I'd hear, "Oh you're just a rotten teenager."  I heard that until I turned 20 and it changed to, "It wasn't long ago you were just a rotten teenager."

The 80's were many memories of Christmas parties at our place or hers, with her infectious laugh.  She seemed to have the most fun at family get together's, reunions or even just us visiting or popping by for coffee.  

Muriel and my mom handled our family reunion of 1987 and when we had the three legged race, the highlight of the reunion was Muriel and mom's three legged running.  It looks like they were running in slow motion. I believe it was the slowest run race in three legged history.

Mavis Margaret Yerex (Williamson)

I probably spent most of childhood with Aunt Mavis along with Aunt Norma because my cousins Garry, Dale, David, Bruce and Janice were close to my age so we would try and organize a week in Neepawa, a week in Morris and they would come to Winnipeg for a week.  Ideally all at the same time.

We lost Aunt Mavis way too soon on November 15, 2006 at age 70 from leukemia.  

Aunt Mavis was a very kind person and had a tremendous sense of humour and loved telling any story she found funny.

I could go on and on about stories of my visits to Morris and Reston but not all of them can be told here!

Mavis loved children and at family gatherings you could find her watching the kids play and have fun and she would have a half smile enjoying every minute of it.

She taught school and taught David for sure one year and I don't know if I could have handled my mom teaching me at school, but David didn't seem to mind.

I never witnessed Mavis angry.  When she did get upset about something it was a quiet talk with one of the kids she was upset with.  Garry had many of those talks.

Mavis and John loved watching hockey and it didn't matter if it was the WHA, NHL or WHL.  They would watch the Jets in Winnipeg and had season's tickets to the Brandon Wheat Kings in the WHL.  They golfed a lot too.  I remember John mentioning how Mavis would beat him at golf.  A. Because she became a pretty good golfer. and B. Because once the kids were old enough to be on their own Mavis golfed every day between housework and making meals while John was at work.  Some men may have been a little peeved about losing to their wife at golf but John told the story bragging about it.

My fondest memories from childhood summer vacations are at the Williamson's, Fleger's, Burton's, Daune and Joan's, Max and Lorna's, Tom and Judy's.  

You felt welcome in every one of the Yerex siblings' homes and after some of the stories I've heard from people I've met over the years, it's safe to say I was very lucky to be in this one.

Glen Arthur Yerex

Glen was instrumental to my existence.  Besides my middle name named after him he was also good friends with my dad Ed Carson who met my mom through Glen.  He was a baseball player who was a catcher and caught for his brother Daune and my dad.

Glen married Vera in the 60's and although never had kids himself he did act as a father to me at times when I was growing up as they only lived a few blocks away in the Wolseley area.

Glen smoked and drank and always made sure to tell me to never start either.  He liked to gamble at the races and he liked to have fun.  I got to work construction with him for a few summers and it was a lot of fun.

He talked about my dad like he was a hero.  Always saying he was "Number one."  His stories were always entertaining.  When he was in the hospital during his last few weeks of his life he made sure to tell my kids to not carry on like he did during his life with regards to smoking and drinking.  He always wanted others to be healthy yet he did the exact opposite.

He had a hearty laugh and loved to hear about what was going on in everyone's life.  He loved a good joke.  Enjoyed talking about construction, baseball, hockey and always asking who I thought was going to win the Stanley Cup this year.  I was right maybe once or twice and of course bragged to everyone that I'm never wrong.  He made some great memories growing up in the Wolseley area.

Norma Rebecca Yerex (Fleger)

My auntie Norma was taken way too soon.  She was a real lady and many of you may not know she had wrists as powerful as I have ever seen.  There was a game you played where you had a broom and you face each other and grab the broom and you try and twist the broom down making the other person have to let go.  Uncle Jim said go try with Norma and she almost broke my wrists!

Another story happened in maybe 1980.  We used to go out to the farm for a week every year for summer holidays and slept in their camper beside the house.  Garry, David, Bruce and myself had a lot of fun talking to all hours of the night in the camper.  But this one time there was a fair of some kind and people from around the country side would enter their jams and jelly's to be voted on for best jam or jelly's and auntie Norma came home with ribbons for her jam's and jelly's and her cranberry jelly came back with a first prize ribbon and I was looking at the ribbons and all the jars of jam's and jelly's and the labels were hand written by auntie Norma, and on her 1st place winner it said "cranbelly jelly."  I said auntie Norma, take a look at your winner.  She looked at the label and said what Robbie?  I said it says, "cranBELLY jelly not cranberry jelly."  She must have laughed off and on for hours that night.  I think the funniest thing she thought about that was that none of the judges or people at the fair noticed it either.