Two more sleeps until I board the plane for Calgary...yeehaw!
Rita di Ghent: Blog
Seeing the Prairies by train is a life-long dream trip for jazz vocalist-songwriter, Rita di Ghent. Rita's grandparents were homesteaders in Lloydminster in the late 20s and 30s and her father was born in Unity. As a young orphan, Rita's grandfather, Avery, "ran away with the circus" (believed to be Barnum and Bailey's). He was good with animals and a clever inventor and was also a news phenomenon as a diviner of water, sparking such headlines as "Avery Ghent Baffles Science" (Time Life Magazine).
He met Clara Knights one night when he stayed at the Ontario boarding house that her mother operated. They fell in love and Avery set out to make a land claim in Saskatchewan, sending for Clara once he did. Avery bought two quarter sections all in all. It's Rita's dream to find and stand on those quarter sections where both her father and many family stories about the Prairies were spawned. Homesteading life was taxing for women and Rita's grandmother took occasional trips by train [...]
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He met Clara Knights one night when he stayed at the Ontario boarding house that her mother operated. They fell in love and Avery set out to make a land claim in Saskatchewan, sending for Clara once he did. Avery bought two quarter sections all in all. It's Rita's dream to find and stand on those quarter sections where both her father and many family stories about the Prairies were spawned. Homesteading life was taxing for women and Rita's grandmother took occasional trips by train [...]
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