MURDER

       I wrote the last post for my friend, Bob. He commented that we had taught together in the same school for 24 years and he didn't know the story of my first year teaching. So,  I was trying to explain how Bob could find more about me. 

       I thought I'd have some fun with Bob and ask him to search for murder on my blog. To be safe I checked it out myself. I was very surprised that the story I was looking for was not there but there were five other stories.

     So that gives me my topic for today. 

     Many times I've told you of teaching in a very isolated northern community. I have no idea how close the nearest road came to me. I know that I was 300 miles from any service like medical and air transportation. Flights into the community were only occasional.

    Did I say this was supposed  to be about murder? Well , yes, but I had to set things up. 

    I was working for the federal Government. I was in the province of Quebec so there was some friction between the two governments. 

    One early Sunday morning, when we were still in bed, one of the people came and said, "Alisi's baby not good." The Micro Manager had been treating this little girl so she quickly got dressed and on her way to check on the baby. 

    To The Micro Manager's horror, when she got there, the little girl was dead. Furthermore, it was very obvious that the little girl had been beaten. The MM hurried back to the house to take the next steps in the case.

    The Quebec Govt. looked after justice matters. So off to the Quebec administrator we went. Al, The Quebec administrator, radioed the only police man within 300 miles. Horror of horrors. There were no airplanes to bring him to our settlement. He  said it could be six weeks before he got in. So , over the radio , he told us what he wanted us to do. We were to collect the body. That was the Al's  job but he asked me to go with him. The MM was to make a sketch showing the injuries. It was gruesome There were many burns and bruises. 

    Now, I was a naive prairie boy, who never ever dreamed that I would find my self looking after such  situation. We were to put the body in a box and keep it in the Al's garage. It was late Sept. so the garage would be cool. Now we were pretty nervous as neither one of had any experience with bodies. We went down and Al   picked the little girl up in his arms. After we said we should have taken the box and carried her in the box. 

    Fortunately the police man who was younger than Bob and I came in 5 days later and took the body and mother. Oh, I didn't say that it was obvious the mother had beaten the child. What did we do with the murderer those 5 days? We couldn't arrest her. We could not hold her in custody.  Her niece said that she would stay with her aunt and they carried on with daily life. The lady was seriously mentally ill and was not likely to harm any one else. 

   So again, I never thought I would be in such a situation. I'm sure that no other criminal situation would have been handled the way Al and I looked after it. 

    I haven't had to look after another case since!.  

 

MORE GRANDMA

      My Grandma's life here, was a good example. However, I keep thinking about how she came to this country and left her family somewhere else. My Great Grandpa brought all of his adult children and they were all married. For several of them the in laws came along so there were several large families in a group. Most of these people had  lived in the same place in Russia and many were related. 

     However , in Grandma's case , as far as I know, she didn't have any relatives in the area. There apparently were some relatives in Illinois but I don't know if there was contact...maybe some letter writing. Most of the family communication was in German so I may have missed some things. 

     One of her brothers did show up in about 1947. One day a stranger got off the train in the village.  He had no coat or baggage. He asked where CK lived. He was about 200 meters from his sister's house. He was a big surprise as they didn't know that he was coming. He visited for seven days and got back on the train and was never heard from again. So some of the pioneers had to be strong to leave and lose family.

     Some people did come to the homestead as one and no family. However, many of the homesteaders came as family groups. My Mennonite neighbors came from the USA in large family groups. 

    Grandma's children were large. Her four sons were all over 6 ft. tall. Her four daughters were large women . When they all visited grandma, the men sat in the kitchen at the table and the women sat in the living room. The grandchildren tore around the farmyard.

     So as well as being strong physically they had to be strong emotionally as well.  

ERNIE

    When I lived in a far northern arctic settlement we had to have a person who looked after all of the maintenance required for daily living. This person saw that the generators were running for our electricity, that we had water, that sewage and garbage were looked after, that our furnaces always had a supply of oil in the tank and anything else that had to be done. On top of this the guy had to be able to work independently, have good communications skills, get  along with others, plan for a year ahead. So you see this person had to be just about everything. 

     My person was Ernie, a French Canadian, who was born and raised in a fringe area. The family eked out a living by working part time in the bush and producing their own food and many other necessities of life. This background made Ernie  an all round handy man. In these communities they only spoke French.

     Ernie was a bachelor and a very jovial , amicable kind of guy who enjoyed life with very little.

    Ernie joined the army early in the war as it was a place to eat and get some pay. Ernie purposely chose an English unit as he wanted to learn English. On his first day his group was lined up and they asked for someone to volunteer for a job. He stepped out and said yes which was probably the only English word he knew. What he'd volunteered for was to type. He'd never seen a typewriter before . He always laughed about that one.

    Now after the war a high percentage of government employees were veterans. So Ernie came by his job in our settlement. He was well able to live in isolation and was a good cook and housekeeper.

    The only vehicle in the community was a J-5 which was a small tracked vehicle like a pick up truck. This vehicle was used to haul things around the community. Every time it moved it was loaded with kids who wanted a ride. Kids visited him every evening. Ernie liked the kids and they liked him.

    Ernie kept the diesel engines running to produce power. He was creative. They expected him to keep our houses supplied with water, but they didn't give him a water tank. Ernie got some plywood and built a big box to haul the water. He knew that a wooden box would hold water just like a metal tank. He had a pump and pumped water from the lake into the box. He came to our house and used his trusty pump to pump water from the box to a tank in the house. In the winter he oversaw the cutting of ice that was used for water in the winter. Again he built a sledge to haul the ice to our house. 

     So it was a great situation but Ernie had one major flaw in his character. He was an extreme binge drinker. Many men like Ernie would come to an isolated settlement or a "dry" camp where they could limit alcohol consumption. Two or three times a year Ernie brought in some booze. He would drink until the bottle was empty. He became a completely different person. Anger raged. He would turn off the electricity hoping that I would challenge him. I never did and after a few minutes the electricity would come on. I would avoid him at these times as it could be more than unpleasant and completely unproductive.

     When Ernie left for summer holidays he would always say, "I don't know if I'm coming back." For his summer holidays he would go to Montreal and it was one long binge. Three or four weeks later Ernie would show up on a plane and with a big smile would tell us he was happy to be back.

     I've often wondered what demons drove Ernie to the extreme binges.

My Delusion

      For the first part of my life I was sure that the place I lived was the best place in the world. Everything we had was the best. We produced the best and most wheat in the world. We had the best education system in the country. And on it went.

      Now all this came from a little boy who lived on an isolated farm. A weekly trip to the small village of 50, but sometimes the kids didn't go for weeks. A couple of times a year we went to a larger center (2000 people) for shopping and the odd dentist appointment. My world was on the little isolated farm. We went to  one room school. Our playground was around the land we lived on.

     Well,  you can see the reason for thinking I lived in the center of the world. We didn't go anyplace and were not exposed to anything outside of our local area. The convenient explanation was that we were the best.

     Now I did not stay on the little farm. I ventured away from the farm and village. I was completely unprepared to cope in a small urban area. I discovered that students had been to better schools. Other young people were much more socially prepared to cope in post secondary situations.

     So after one year I left the urban area and went back to the comforts of the rural setting. I still had some things in my head that we were best in. Wasn't our provincial football team the best?

     Now the final part of my delusion was destroyed when I first taught in a large school. We had 51 teachers. There were teachers from each province in Canada. We had many British teachers. There was the odd American. We also had a couple of Australians. This is one of the best experiences I ever had. Many great discussions were held with people who came from very different areas and backgrounds. I began to understand that the other guys had come from great systems. Once I got it through my head that I didn't come from the best place in the world, I could learn and understand how others thought and lived.

   Now this was a good eye opener and there's nothing wrong with an eye opener. The little farm and village were taken out of me and put in their perspective.

    How about you? Did you grow up thinking you were the center of the universe?

The old farmhouse

Grade three

Getting the Cows

     This week I listened to a very humorous motivational speaker who was brought  to Red Deer by the Red Deer River Naturalists. Al Batt comes from rural Heartland Minnesota and I thoroughly enjoyed his presentation.

    Al's theme was mentor ship. He used his father as an example. Al was the youngest in a farm family that was very busy. One day seven year old Al asked his father if he could have a job. Al's Dad said, "Well what do you have in mind?" Al said, "I'd like to drive the combine. " The "no" answer came pretty quickly. However, Al's Dad gave him the job of getting the cows from the pasture twice a day. Al was very happy and set about to do his job as best he could.

     One morning when Al was looking for the cows he saw something white on a fence post. Little Al thought it was a ghost. Al took the cows home and told his Dad. Al's Dad immediately took him by the hand and went back to see the ghost. Al's Dad explained that it wasn't a ghost on the fence post but a snowy owl. His Dad told him all about snowy owls and that is what got Al interested in birds so that today he is a highly respected ornithologist. 

    This story reminded me of my own farm experience. I had to get the cows morning and night starting when I was about five years old which was about 1944. The cow pasture was always close to the farmers's yard and was usually submarginal land if possible. Sometimes it took a very long time for me to find the cows as I had so many interesting things to look at . The area was only about half developed so there was still some excellent native habitat. So I knew where Saskatoons, chokecherries, Pincherries, raspberries, strawberries and a whole lot of other good things were.  There were sloughs, willows brush and grassland. It was super habitat for birds. 

I don't have a picture of my brother when we wee little so here he is long after the days of getting cows.

    I always had to take my little brother along. He was less than a year younger than I was. He was a pain. I liked to talk to myself but I didn't like anybody to listen. I would make him walk behind me but he would sneak up behind me and listen. I would make him walk ahead but he would go so slow I would catch up to him. He didn't know how to chase cows, according to me, so I blamed him if the cows went the wrong way. So we got a lot of free fighting time in when we got the cows from the pasture. This job had to be done in all weather. To this day I still like walking in the rain.

    Before I was given the job of getting the cows it was my Mom's job. Mom would have to take a three year old (me) a two year old ( my brother) and a one year old (my sister) in a carriage. I often think of poor Mom and how difficult her life must have been. One day my Mom asked me if I wanted to see a very pretty bird. She told me I had to be very, very quiet. We crept through a ditch and willows. We were crouched down low and there I saw it. Right at eye level I saw a mallard drake swimming on a small pond. It was very near to us and I stopped breathing as it was such a beautiful thing. 

    So Mom was my mentor. She took time from a hectic , chaotic schedule and showed me a very beautiful bird. I've been a birder ever since. Nice mentor Mom! Thanks for setting me on a most enjoyable life time activity.

    So Al Batt reminded me of when and where I got my interest in birds and so the mentor ship theme was reinforced for me. From about 1955 on this type of farming was discontinued. I often think about what farm children miss by not having to "go for the cows."

    Now I realize that for many readers this post will have very little meaning because they never had the experience " of getting the cows."  I hope that you will be mentors to others in other areas. 

My Great Good Fortune: a new brother when I was fifteen

       Yes that's right! I had a new brother when I was fifteen and it was a major good fortune in my life.

      I began thinking about this situation after I had talked to a friend who was born three weeks before her brother finished high school. He did not handle it well as he was knocked off his perch as top dog in the family. He became permanently estranged from his family. I thought how sad! How much was missed.

      I began to think then that I was very fortunate as we found our new brother to be the best thing since candy.

     Now I have to back up a bit. My sister died very suddenly and unexpectedly from illness when she was eleven and I was thirteen. This loss was devastating  to my Mom and Dad. In the mid 1950's it was considered that a replacement child would be a proper solution for the loss of a child. So at age forty my mother became pregnant and delivered a beautiful healthy little boy on Valentine's Day. So surprise to Mom and Dad as they had really hoped to have a daughter. This surprise was not noticed for a second as the family were all overjoyed at the new baby.

    As you remember, this was an isolated farm so Mom had left a couple of weeks before the baby was due and came home when the weather and roads allowed. It was a great day at our house when David arrived home. Mom showed the three if us our new brother and I remember being very touched by this small new person who had become a member of our household. Mom involved us in David's care from the first day. We thought it was a big deal to hold David, feed him and oh yes change him. I'm afraid to admit that he was a bit of a toy and as a result he received a tremendous amount of attention. It was good for all of us as we had something which allowed us to grow and David received more attention than most other infants and I'm sure he felt that he was wanted and appreciated. This was a good situation for our Mom as being an older mother and still having a busy household to look after, some willing hands to look after a new baby would have been great for her.

     As everybody knows little people grow and develop very quickly. David always had people to play with him and keep him company. There were no children in our district who were David's age so his older brothers were his playmates. We put big old cowboy hats on him and told him his name was "Tex". When we asked him what his name was he would say "Tex" and we were all amused . In fact it was worse than that. His middle name was Calvin and when he was little he couldn't say Calvin. He said"Calman" so there was more amusement at David's expense. These antics were continuous.

     David did give me one of the biggest frights in my life. When He was about two Mom had put him outside to play. He would usually stay right around the house and she would keep her eye on him. She couldn't see him so she told me to go out and check on him. We had had a heavy spring snow storm. It was easy to follow his tracks in the snow. I found him in the ditch by the road. There had been water in the ditch and it had snowed so heavily that the snow covered the water. David didn't realize this and so kept on walking until he toppled over face down into the wet slushy snow. When I saw him face down  I was terrified as I thought he had drowned. I waded in and picked him up and he was fine but very wet.

     All too soon I left the home as I went to Teacher's College in the city so I only lived with him for a little more than two years. My two other brothers soon left so much of David's life was as an only child. He was very good for Mom and Dad as he was very laid back and agreeable. He got along with adults very well. Our ninety year old grandfather lived with us for six months of each year. I think grandpa appreciated his youngest grand son and they certainly spent time together. One time they were arguing a bit so Mom went to see what was going on. They had a small child's book that was upside down and they had a disagreement about the rabbit. Grandpa said it was a jackrabbit and David insisted it was Peter Rabbit. Grandpa was talking in German and David was talking in English. Apparently that is how we communicated with Grandpa, but I don't remember doing that.

    I regret that I missed being in the home when David grew up. However, it just doesn't work that way. The short time I lived with him was rewarding and I couldn't see life without his presence and all the experiences afforded us for personal growth and development. 

    


Dave many years later moving forward but not into the lake.