“In the spring of 1928, not quite 15 years after the settlement had begun, Jake Funk opened the new red-brick store on a prominent corner of Main Street in Blaine Lake, Sask. It had high steps leading to the front door and a bright red-and-white sign above it that read ‘OK Economy Store.’ In front, he placed two benches, which soon found ready takers in older Doukhobor and Russian men who loved to wander downtown to sit and visit in the sunshine, cracking sunflower seeds,” wrote Katie Funk Wiebe in My Emigrant Father. The photo shows the OK Economy store, circa 1930s, that Jake Funk (1896-1986) managed. Mennonites, like most Canadians, have strong feelings about the role and reach of department stores, markets, grocers, thrift shops and online retailers. What stewardship issues concern you most?
For more historical photos in the Mennonite Archival Image Database (MAID), see archives.mhsc.ca.
Katie Funk Wiebe Photo Collection / Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies
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