I Just Gotta Tell Some One

     I was standing on my side walk today when an old beater of a car swung across the road to me. The old guy looked pretty rough and his car was packed with stuff and he had a huge dog in the front seat. I thought he was maybe going to ask for directions. But no. He asked me if I knew about all the magpies around here. My Middle school teacher brain clicked in and I said, "No!"

    Now our area has a very heavy population of magpies. They are all over the place. They are a nuisance and steal lots of little birds from nests.

    The "no" answer didn't stop him for a second. He just had to tell somebody his story. He had just seen two magpies chasing a jack rabbit. One magpie was chasing from behind and one was at the front. He was so amazed at what he had just seen that he had to stop and tell the first person what he had seen. He picked a good person to tell his story to as I am interested in those things and have posted many times on jack rabbits as our area has many jack rabbits as well as magpies. 

A feisty little guy in my neighbor's back yard

A trick rabbit drinking from the sprinkler also from my neighbor's yard

You have to look very hard but you will see a very young rabbit.

I was two steps away from this one when I took his picture.

    Magpies are well known to be teasers. They will tease dogs . When the dog leaves it's food dish in goes a magpie as magpies like dog food.

   Magpies will tease red squirrels. One magpie will be above the squirrel in the tree and the other one will be below the squirrel. The poor squirrel will try to climb the tree and finds Mr magpie. The squirrel goes down the tree and there's a magpie below. The chase gets pretty exciting until the squirrel jumps from the tree and escapes. 

   So watching the critters sometimes gives us unexpected stories.

The Arctic Changed Me for the Rest of My Life

    On one of my first Arctic posts I mentioned that the northern experience had changed my life. People wanted to know how my life was changed. So here goes. The last of my northern posts.

    I was raise in a rather isolated prairie area. We went to the local village for groceries. The local village seemed like a big deal. This did not give me much exposure to any different people or ideas. Our family kept to themselves to some extent. We were close to my father's family and visited with them often. Our church group was small and very conservative. As a result exposure to others was limited and somewhat discouraged.

    When I first left home everything was new and different. I was totally unprepared for this.

    When I moved to the Arctic I was exposed to things that were really different...a different culture...a different way of life...people from all over the world.  In our orientation we were given a good basis on what to expect and how to handle it. I was also lucky in that there were experienced people on staff who were very knowledgeable and were willing to explain a few things. 

    I was able to mix with many Inuit and aboriginals who were very good at telling about their culture. I learned that when I was in the north they were the masters of the environment and I depended on them for guidance and safety. They appreciated this and were very open about their life. I also got to go out on trips that others would never have gone on.

   As a result I changed many of my courses to Indian and Northern Education. I began reading and thinking about the culture. 

   As a result, I looked at race and different cultures in a completely different way. I learned to look at people for who they were instead of what race they came from. I became very sensitive about any racial discrimination and wouldn't let biased ideas go by me without a challenge. I never would have become open minded about race and culture if it hadn't been for the northern experience. For the rest of my life I have become more and more aware of prejudice and how harmful it can be. I've become a much happier person and certainly much more self assured.

    This has helped in many more areas than race when there are major differences. You have to look at the individual for what they really are. One of my former students has been a life long alcoholic and drug dealer. I visit him when he's not selling drugs. He knows that when he's selling drugs I will have nothing to do with him. He is one of the nicest people you could find when he's out of the drug culture. So instead of writing him off as a druggie I hope that by visiting him someday things will change.

    One of my neighbors is Chinese. Now I don't think of the Chinese part when I meet her.  She's a very unique character and always full of life. She always stops when I'm in the yard. One day she was asking about some Indian woman who lived up the street. I said, "What Indian woman?  There are no Indians on this street."  I tried  hard to think of who the Indian was because I know all the people on the street. I just hadn't thought of this person as being Indian. So I teased my Chinese neighbor about looking at other people from a racial point of view . We had a big laugh and then a big discussion.

   So I'm happy that my northern experience set up the remainder of my life on something that gave me a purpose in my life.

The Ration

    In one of the last posts I mentioned that in the north I was given a "ration" for a year's supply of food. Some people may think of ration as a limit while others would think of it as a share. Some readers seemed a little bit worried about the ration.

    The ration was quite an interesting device. The ration was carefully and well planned for so that someone in isolation would have ample food for one year. The ration was also carefully devised so that a person would have a balanced diet. So there were foods from all food groups. 

    So there were cases of canned fruit and vegetables. There was a variety of canned juices. There were cases of soup. 

    We had canned meat such as bacon, ham, sausage, stew, sardines,  salmon , tuna and many more that I forget. We had powdered eggs that were good for baking or making scrambled eggs.

   We had lots of flour, yeast, sugar, cereal (both hot and cold). We also had macaroni, spaghetti and rice.  We had both canned potatoes and powdered potatoes. 

  We had powdered milk and a case of condensed milk. This was 1963 and powdered milk hadn't been around that long. It was miserable stuff to mix. I would use an egg beater and the only thing that happened is that I got a very dirty eggbeater as the stuff stuck to the egg beater. Now try washing your egg beater with this stuff on it!

   There were other dried things like onions, apples, raisins, prunes and apricots and probably a few more things that I forget. 

   Salt, pepper, pickles, ketchup were in the ration. There were a few boxes of cookies and biscuits. The biscuits were like hard tack . the biscuits were really good with coffee or tea. Rumor had it that the origin of rations went back to the second world war. We sometimes joked that they were left overs from the war.

    So you see that this was a very well planned food ration. 

    Now not everybody liked the rations. These for the most part were forms of foods we did not usually eat. There were some foods that people were not familiar with at all. Many people did not eat very much canned goods period. Very little canned meat was eaten. So the ration was a favorite topic of conversation. Many hot tips were exchanged on how to use some of the stuff. Many times people got together and traded things that they didn't like for things they did like. 

   So when care packages arrived from home they were much appreciated. Mom sent me samples of all her Christmas baking and extra of the stuff she knew I really liked.

   So there was no need to worry about my food. I hope I have covered some of the things readers were curious about.

   Oh yes , rations were good for something else. The ration came in one box that was about 6' by 3' by 2'. It would take three or four men to wrestle this beast to your apartment door. One of the girls was completely overwhelmed by the huge box. Before she figured out what to do some of us took her ration apart and piled it up like blocks so that it blocked the hallway. We thought it was a good practical joke. The next thing we knew the fire inspector came roaring through the building and told everybody that this blockade had better be down by 6 PM . Of course people who weren't in on it didn't want to clean up the mess. The culprits didn't want to do the cleaning because then they would be identified. We did get the mess cleaned up and then helped the girl unpack her stuff. I think we wanted to make contact with this cute girl and this was a lame brained way to do it.
    

Skating Started Today

    Many things in the world may have started today , but the only thing that matters is skating started!

    I skate every Tuesday from Sept. to April. It's great exercise and fun. The skaters are a very friendly group to belong to.

First, you have to get to the arena. Today was hot, dry and windy! Not the kind of day you would think about skating.

Meet your friends

The ice surface all ready for us.

And away we go!

Fancy pair!

One of the best parts of skating...coffee!

Where's My Check?

        They say.....things come in threes. Well here's the third problem I had when I first traveled north.

      The two previous posts dealt with amazing transportation snags and a housing surprise. This time it's money.

    Everybody knows that there's big money in the north. In my case my salary would be about  one and a half times more. It was part of my decision to go north but certainly not the only one.

    I left home with $200.00 in my pocket. In 1963 it was a good sum of money. This would easily carry me until I got my first check. 

    Well, I went to the post office on the day the checks were supposed to come and there was nothing in my mail box. The teachers who were on last year all got checks , but the new guys didn't get checks. The govt. wouldn't or couldn't give us an advance. So there I was with very little money in my pocket. You really didn't need any money. Well, you had to buy smokes and beers. Well, everybody knows those things could be omitted. I bought bread and milk which were very expensive. I wasn't going to bake bread. A loaf of bread was very expensive. 

    So I wrote Dad to take $200.00 out of my account and send me cash. 

    So October we head to the post Office on check day and you guessed it no checks for the new guys. I got my first check in November. Of course it was 3 checks at once.

    Not getting the pay check was stressful. It wasn't too bad for me but more difficult for married people.

    I understand why the check was late but it still hurt. The office where we were paid from was 5000 miles away in Ottawa. All our qualifications had to be sent away and assessed and then payment made. We also had a government austerity program at that time. The government cut staff and you guessed they didn't have enough people to figure out what to pay us. We also didn't have a phone line to the outside. We had a local telephone system but no long distance. I'm sure the govt. would have heard a few things if we had long distance service.

    So things began to improve after these three mishaps.

My First Arctic Housing Adventure

    My last post cover my travel to the Arctic and how different it was to travel in the south. Today my story is on housing. This fits in with a post a few days ago when I asked if you were ready to move out of the house.

   One of the things I looked forward to when I went north was to have a place of my own. This would be the first time with my own place as before this I always boarded. At that time, most single guys took board and room. There weren't very many apartments available. It was common for people to take in boarders for extra money. I had the same landlady for three years and she was awesome. She spoiled me rotten. She was better than home.

    So with my northern posting I was supposed to get a single staff apartment. This was a small bed sitting apartment. So your sofa was made into a bed. Each night the sofa was opened up and you made your bed. Each morning your bedding was taken off and folded in a closet.The kitchen stove had three burners and the fridge was half sized, 

    Soon after I was hired I received a letter informing me that they did not have an apartment for me. They would put me in the student hostel. This sounded like a good deal. I would have my private room and receive my meals in the hostel. This would be like living in a hotel! The hostel was a facility that held 350 kids.

    When I got off the airplane at 2 A M and met the Superintendent, he gave me an apartment key. I said, "But I am to stay in the hostel." "No," he said, "We now have an apartment for you." So no notification that plans had changed. Just tell the guy when he gets off the plane.

   If I had known about this change, I think I would have talked to Mom about cooking, cleaning and clothes washing. I might have even found a cook book. I might have even brought some kitchen gadgets. 
  
  For food at that time you were given what was called a ration. In other words you were given enough food for one year. Opening this big box and storing the food in your locker was a big job.

   So along with some travel surprises I also had a lodging surprise. But hey, not too worry. This was fun.

   

Fifty Years ago I Went to the Arctic (Inuvik)

    Fifty years ago this month I left for a six year stint in the Arctic. It was an adventure that changed my life forever. It fits in with my last post as I was moving to an isolated harsh area with unpredictable transportation.

    I had been teaching for four years. I was at a cross road. I knew that I was definitely leaving the position I had. After that I didn't know if I would quit teaching and go into another field , go back to university or find another teaching position. 

    One day I saw an ad in the paper entitled "Teach in Canada's North land." That caught my attention. I thought I would apply and see what happened. I got an interview and later they offered me a position. The position wasn't where I wanted to go but I accepted it anyway. 

   This was with the Federal Govt. and they gave many directions as to what we had to do to prepare ourselves. I had to get to Edmonton and from there they paid for my lodging and transportation. They sent me a ticket and told me that they would reserve a seat for me. All I had to do was phone ahead of time and confirm. 

    Now scheduled service had only begun the year before. It was almost an exaggeration to call it scheduled. It hardly ever flew on the day it was supposed to and sometimes didn't get in for two weeks.

    I went out to the airport and presented my ticket. I was told, "There are no reservations for you. There were about 40 of us in the same boat. A few got on the flight. They told the rest of us to come back tomorrow. We came back the next day and there was a long line up. They cut the line up off just in front of me and said the plane was full. What a shock! I went back to the counter and asked what would happen next. They asked me if I was alone. They said wait, "There might be one seat left." Sure enough there was one seat. They hurried me out to the airplane.

   Now I had never flown so this was a new experience for me. The aircraft was a dilapidated old DC 4 which was out of the thirties. Half way up we ran into violent thunder storms. Put on your seat belts. Then it started to leak right over my seat. I thought, "We're crashing. I'm a goner!"

   We made it to the location where all the new teachers were to be on a week orientation. That was a blast! We stayed in a dorm with one room and about twenty guys. We learned a lot.

   At the end of the week we were to be flown to Inuvik. Guess what? I didn't get on the flight. Tomorrow! 

    I left the next evening at nine PM on a freighter with five passengers. For much of the five hour flight I was in the cockpit. The four other passengers found the softest piece of freight and went to sleep. It was a beautiful clear evening. From 9:00 PM until 2 AM we  flew mostly north and I enjoyed a sunset all the way. When we landed it was dark on the ground.

    So this was my trip to the north. Nothing went as expected. I could roll with the punches and nothing bothered me. It was all an exciting adventure. 

    I was really ready to leave home and establish myself. I don't think Mom and Dad were too happy or confident about seeing me go away for a year.

    I can hardly believe this happened fifty years ago. It seems like yesterday.