NOBODY WANTED US

     Every couple of weeks I call my brothers. The agenda for the call goes first; How are you doing; second what are you doing and then it wanders on to what happened in the family a long time ago.

     A lot did happen in our family. My brother and I were Irish twins. Irish twins are when there are two births within the same year. My brother was born on the 6th of the month and I did not turn one until the 21st of the month

    Twins get a bum rap for being able to get into mischief. We've all heard ,"What one can't think of the other one will." 

    However, I think Irish twins can get into mischief by just standing there. 

    When my brother and I were 3 and 4 we were sent up to our paternal grand parents in the middle of the winter. I'm not sure how long we stayed with them but I remember grandma had the big feather comforter that was about 12 " thick. 

   We then went to our uncle Fred's. We got into our aunt's cupboard and found her dried apples which she used for making pies. Fortunately we were caught before we managed to eat the whole package. 

   Then we went to Uncle Albert's . Here, we found a package of playing cards that we hid so that we could play with them but we didn't know any card games. 

   Then we went to Uncle Friske's, who had a large three story house. This was a great place to run around. The teacher boarded there and took us to school the next day. Some of the bigger kids supervised us. The teacher later became our Aunt.

    At some time our family was rescued from us. The hostage exchange was made in the village.

    Why were we away from home in the winter?  We think we were sent away when our brother was born. You can see why they wouldn't want us in the house during a birth. 

    So did nobody want us and kept sending us to different families or did they all want us and took turns looking after us?

    Memories of children is suspect. One of us will remember one thing but not another. How accurate is our memory as young children? The other factor is that now we are in our mid eighties. That's about 80 years ago the this happened. 

    For us it's pleasant to look back.

RESOLUTIONS

       Every new year there is talk about "New Year's Resolutions." The chatter is the same. Many resolutions are made but not kept. And there are a pile of reasons why resolutions aren't kept.

      Then the counsellors get in there and explain how to keep a resolution so it makes it more difficult to abandon your resolution. I have never officially made a New Year's resolution. I have thought about some things that need attention. I know that my organizational skills are poor or is it that I just don't care much. But as you can see I have not done anything to improve my organization and orderliness. 

     New years is also a time to look back and reflect. Reflection seems to be a moving target. Our memories are not precise. When I talk to my brothers we all seem to have some variation in the memories. 

    One thing I know is that I have definitely had 85 New Years. The first few don't count as we don't seem to keep any memories.

    For example, today would have been my sister's 83 birthday. However, she only got to celebrate eleven birthdays. Since I was only two when she was born, I don't remember her birth. Then I started to think about how many new years I actually remember. As it turns out , not very many. I remember the first time I took the Micro Manager out it was New Year's Eve 1965. I remember that as a child the church had a special program for kids on Jan 1. The Sunday School performed all it's stuff and then were given a bag with candies, nuts and an orange so that's why it was called a Sunday school treat. 

    So once again we mark a January first with a mixture of happiness, resolve and memories. 

   I wish all of you a very happy and successful 2025. 

WHERE ARE WE GOING NEXT?

   John from John's Island asked me where I was taking you next. I told him , "Back to the same place."

     For my newer readers a brief explanation on the background of these posts. I was a teacher and spent 1967-69 in the small Arctic community of Wakeham Bay, Quebec. There were 188 Inuit and 10 white guys.  I was a teacher , principal and local administrator.  They were all very interesting positions but very challenging and a lot of work and time. . The community was 1200 miles north of Montreal , Quebec. There were no roads to this community and no regular air schedules. We went 6 or 7 weeks at a time without mail.

     I had a 14 year old boy as a regular paid interpreter. the Micro Manager was eager to do nursing there but there was no position. She got $50.00 per month to do health care and there really was full time work. She didn't have an interpreter but between her limited inuktitut and their limited English they got along. When there was a serious case she got Lukasi to be her interpreter.

     This post is really about Lukasi. There was nobody finer that Lukasi. He was 18 years old at the time. I don't know where he picked up his English. In this video he is talking about petroglyphs which were found a few miles away. It's the only place in the north with petroglyphs.

    While we were there a well known photographer came to photograph the petroglyphs.  Fred Breummer came and stayed in my house for 8 days. Those 8 days should have counted for at least 5 university credits. We talked late into the night about his experiences. Fred had had a tremendous amount of northern experience. I think Fred wrote about 25 books. Most of them featuring his photography. Fred did a major article on the petrogyphs.

      I found this video of Lukasi discussing the petroglyphs.   youtube.com/watch?v=TJSolwDrxbo   Sorry I can not the video link on the blog.

I HAD A SNIFFLE

    Yes, I'm a sniffler. I told you that before.  There are certain things that bring a little sniffle and tear that does not drop. I'm proud of my kids even thought they are 47 and 49.  When they achieve something and I'm proud of them I sniffle. I sniffle when they get married. 

     Now yesterday I was listening to the noon radio show. It's a talk show and the topic was the North. The hostess had asked  if we'd been in the north and what our experience was. She had 2 northern guests to add to the conversation.

   She had many phone calls, emails and twitter comments. 

    All people emphasized how impressed with the North they were. They mentioned vast open spaces. A feeling of peace and quiet. Discovery. Personal growth. Most people said it had caused a major change in their life that stayed with them.

    Most callers were strongly urging that every southerner should have a trip to the North. One caller suggested that all northern travelers be paid for their trip North.

     When I heard the comments and descriptions , I was brought back to my time in the north. I was influenced by aboriginal culture. Then I was influenced by colleagues who were from many other parts of the country. We had to mix or at least I did. I couldn't help but come away with a different point of view.  Various comments reminded me of different experiences. Flying on bush planes and landing on floats. All night parties when it didn't get dark! The characters who had lived in the north...trappers. 

    I met them all.

    My wife and I talk about the North everyday. We relive experiences . We wonder what would have happened if we'd stayed there.

    So listening to this hour long show brought back many good memories and a sniffle.

Soapstone carvings

 My favorite guy

My 34 pound lake trout from Great bear Lake

    My winter coat ans sealskin

MOTHER'S DAY BRINGS MEMORIES

      Mother's day brings lots of greetings to Mom's and an expression of appreciation of all that Moms do. It's a day to stop and consider how much Moms do for us. Some people just give a greeting and some have a lavish celebration. Sadly some don't mark the occasion at all.

     Well, some of us elderly people have our memories jogged and we think of our mothers of long ago. We can  not wish them a happy Mother's Day but we can think back to all that our Mothers did for us.

    I like to remember back to the time before I was born. Well, I can't really do that but I can certainly put many things together and then realize how much my Mom did for me.

    First, there was lots of excellent food but no money. Mom had gone through the depression as a young person and the issue was to survive. Mom's house was very poor. In the winter the house froze out over night. I was kept snug and warm, but I can easily realize how hard it was to raise a small child under those conditions. 

    These memories or the research make me appreciate all that was done for me under extenuating circumstances.

    Mom died in 1973 before she turned 60. 

     Mom with my son when he was about 2 months old.

Perspectives Gained by Searching

    Sometimes I start an aimless Internet search when I'm feeling curious. I was born about 5 miles from the village of Esk,  Sask. In it's hay day Esk had a peak population of 50. Now it's population is probably zero. I Googled this village last night because I knew there were several websites about it. None of these sites had much information because no one has contributed to them.

    My search did lead to a link on cemeteries. There were two cemeteries for the village. Think about it ? Two cemeteries for a village of 50 people. First , I went though the list  in the Baptist cemetery. It's a walk threw history. There were people who were elderly when I was a child and those who have  died since I left the area. One thing I noticed was that an Aunt and uncle were not buried there so now I will have to look for them.

    The Lutheran cemetery is larger and that's where my relatives are buried. My Great Grandpa donated the plot of land for the cemetery. Again, I was just going through the names and not concentrating.   All of a sudden a name popped out at me and it was my Mom. Why did the name pop out? I haven't heard my Mom referred to by her name for a very long time as we always talk about "Mom" and her friends who would use her first name are not here anymore. By this time I was awake and I knew what name would be coming next...my sister who passed away when she was eleven yeas old. 

   So coming across these two names got me thinking. Mom died in 1973, My sister died in 1953. So this year there are two anniversaries. My Mom passed away 40 years ago and my sister passed away 60 years ago. I started to wonder how these family members will be remembered. There aren't very many people who are living who knew my sister. Her memory is carried by very few people. My Mom is in a similar situation. If my Mom was living, next year she would have been 100. Very few of her acquaintances are left. Very few people are left who knew her. 

   So time rolls on and generations spend their time here and pass away. Grave markers will remind people of who was here. Slowly over time the markers will also disintegrate and we will be forgotten.