Saturday, January 26, 2019

I HAD AN OBSESSION

     I've been off the blog for a few days. I didn't want to be away but I got caught up in something else. Something I just couldn't let go.

     From time to time I like to surf the net. If I start finding things then I'm really hooked and end up end up spending a lot of time...obsessed!

     For some reason I googled my home village of Esk , Sask. Now Esk is a ghost town. At it's peak there were about 20 houses. Right now there's only one house that is inhabited. Most other houses were abandoned and the municipality took them over and the houses were destroyed. Would you believe that if you google Esk , Sask you will find 10 pages of topics. So I was rewarded by going through the pages and finding interesting items.

    Now I've had it in my head to do another  post on the first school I ever taught in. I knew there were some photos of the school. I found the photos and they were of two art web sites. Were they going to give me a few photos? Nothing doing. They ask for $525.00 for their photos. I asked anyway and as you see I don't have photos.

    You will have to be satisfied with a photo I had on an earlier post about the school.




    Somehow while looking for some school photos I found a former student and her sisters. All this is by accident while following my obsession. I accidentally found their mother's obituary. She had lived to be 98 years old. This is how I found the three girls. this family was very good to this kid who was their teacher. I was 18 years old and pretty insecure and lonely. They had me at there place many times. I took the Dad fishing and fishing became one of his passions.

     So I have some information to contact one of the girls. You bet I will contact her. It was sixty years ago that I had her in gr.7. She is only 8 or 9 years younger than I am.

    So these two topics yielded some very interesting info.

38 comments:

  1. ...let me tell you my friend, you are not the Lone Ranger when it comes to obsessions. I think that my middle name should be Obsession or maybe Obsessive. When you are passionate about things that are important to you, this is what happens.

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    1. It's always a bit of a high when you find something you weren't looking for.

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  2. My husband tells me when I get into a project, I’m so obsessed that he can’t get me into doing anything else. Ah well... at least I get it done. Your obsession got you very interesting information that you can build on. How wonderful that you might be able to make some connections.

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    1. Probably us "obsessors" should live alone!!!

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  3. It can be so easy to fall down the internet rabbit hole! Especially when researching a particular topic. It is great when you find a lead and that takes you to another and so on. What a shame they would not share photos. Maybe you could do a trade with them and offer to share one of your photos of the school with them if they would share one of theirs? It would be mutually beneficial. I hope you are able to get hold of your former students. Keep us posted.

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    1. They are arty photos not just pretty picture.

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  4. In a physical sense, what a shame it is that Esk has almost been obliterated but in the memories of those who lived and worked there, Esk will endure like a symbol of a purer, less complicated world... and possibly better too.

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    1. You have a very good sense of what these little villages were like. Things change and the villages don't serve a purpose any more.

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  5. What a fascinating story Red. Good luck.

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  6. Internet opens the world, you can find so many information. Go on with it!

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  7. Oh, I hope you find her! One of my joys in retirement is to keep up with some of my students from my last 15 years of teaching with the advent of Facebook. Maybe i will someday make an effort to look up some of my favorites from the Old Days before Facebook! (Oops, a teacher who had FAVORITES? Did i say that? ).

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    1. I taught in the same school for 28 years. Many of the students still reside in the district and i see them. Two live on my street. I've serves on various boards with some of them. You bet it's a rush!

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  8. Hello, I can get obsessed with something I am doing. I hope it is not a bad thing. You came across some interesting information during your obsession. I assume you will post about the contact when it is done too. Have a happy day and a great new week ahead.

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    1. I hope I get there. I hop that security systems don't keep me out!

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  9. Good research, Red! I'm surprised at the cost, for a non-profit blogger. You could link to them, and this would increase their profile. sigh.

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    1. These photographers must make some sales when they set those prices.

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  10. That's great, Red. I look forward to finding out how the contact goes. Very cool! :-)

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  11. The best part of the internet is this path we take to find glimpses of our histories. That and blogging!

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    1. Yes, the Esk search brought many names that had not been forgotten but that's all there was ...just a name. Now it's filled in a bit.

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  12. What a good use of your time and the internet.

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  13. Esk reminds me of a corner hamlet near where I grew up- two or three houses on each corner of an intersection, and that was it.

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  14. That's great news that you found some of the people you knew years ago. It's wonderful that you spent some good time to find that info. Can't wait to hear if you connect with the people. Good luck!

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  15. One of the wonderful things about the internet...that you can make discoveries such as these. My brother sent me a link recently to my mother's childhood home in a little village in Greece. All this with Google maps. I was able to see the images of the house and search around the village she grew up in!

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    1. Oh, Martha! How cool is that?!

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    2. Google allows you to go most places in the world if you know where you want to go.

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  16. That is too bad about the photographs; it's not like you intended to re-sell them or are using traffic to your blog to generate revenue. Ah well.

    On the plus side, you were able to find important people from your past, and that's excellent.

    You look much older than 18 there. Kids grew up a lot faster back then.

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  17. Inside I was much less than 18!

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  18. I hope you find the family and make some new memories!

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  19. Yeah for finding old students! How about taking a photo of their photo?? You know on your computer screen? :)

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  20. This is touching to know about our native town dear Red!

    When I left my village after marriage it had 33 houses and now almost 200 or more

    Thank you for sharing this treasure image! You look very decent and shy young man.

    That family sounds very sweet and kind
    I wish you good luck for finding the lady belong to same family!

    Internet and specially Google is such blessing to have

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  21. One never knows what can be found, and even changing the command a bit to get more

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  22. You are not alone, Red, in getting caught up in obsessions. It happens to all of us, even if the topics differ. Hope you can connect with that former student.

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