Photos

Many places in the Red River Valley used to grow sugar beets. Elie - St. Eustache - Marquette, Oakville, Portage la Prairie, Altona, Gretna, and Winkler , just to name a few.

In the 1960's, some of the area youth would work for local farmers, one of which was Mr. Armand Bernardin here in Elie.

We were paid 10 cents a row for hoeing and twinning out the young beet plants. It was definitely hard on the back.

That was one way of earning spending money. Another way was picking up beer and pop bottles along the highway, and turning them in for cash.

Spending money could also be earned by babysitting.
During WWII, in 1942, Japanese families from British Columbia were sent to Manitoba to the Red River Valley and there were some families living in St. Eustache along River Road. I'm not sure with which farm family they were assigned to be for farm work.

Work on the sugar beet farms done by these people was back breaking, and labour intensive, with meagre income. Housing conditions were often inadequate, and ill equipped to withstand the cold winter months.
First Nations people also worked the sugar beet fields.