I was hired by the Government of Canada to Teach in Canada's North land in 1963. The Canadian government took over the education system in the early 1950's. They ran things in a very regimented government fashion. In fact at that time a large percentage of the employees were vets.
So I was required to take an oath to officially make me a civil servant. The next step shows more government organization. As teachers we were given only two weeks of vacation time and the other six weeks that schools were out we were given some kind of employment. The whole thing was kind of a joke.
I looked forward to this experience. I got a position with stores. I learned a few things about how goods are kept track of from time of ordering to usage. I leaned about purchase orders and a few more standard procedures. It was all dull and boring. I had to put the forms together and file them.
After a few weeks the stores manager got the bright idea to send me out to the settlements (Really small places) and check the freight that came off the barges. I don't know if the manager didn't like me and just wanted to get rid of me but it as another great experience. During my time out no barges arrived so I had no freight to check. Now I did have plenty of time to fish and that's how I got my big fish. The place I fished was Fort Franklin on Great Bear lake. Look it up. It's hard to believe where I was.I went to three different places and missed the barges. I flew thousands of miles and saw much beautiful countryside.
After I got back to Inuvik I went south for my two weeks holiday.
Now arrangements could be made so that you didn't have to work. If you took a summer school class you could get out for the regular two months. The next year I did take a summer school class. The year after that they ended the goofy thing of two weeks holiday and we had the regular two months off.
Now I often wonder what happened to the oath I made to become a civil servant!!!
