Memoirs?

Someone asked me this week if I was going to write a book when I retire. It’s certainly something I’ve thought about but the answer has to be no. The main problem with me writing a book about my 35 years with The Hudson’s Bay Company and The North West Company is that too many people are still alive. I can think of more than a few happenings that would make at least a TV movie but there is no way I could afford the certain lawsuits!


Actually I’m just joking as there are lots of little things that could be told. Things like me being lectured by a fellow in Mistassini because I cut down a living tree and learning that “you never kill anything you’re not going to eat” for example. How about the time we chased the bears up the river bank with only .22 caliber rifles and me finding out later that the bullet in the chamber was a dud and didn’t fire?

How about lighting up the muskeg with ski-doo headlights in the middle of a winter night so the DC-3 bringing the students back home from school for Christmas would be able to land? Along the same theme how about stuffing black garbage bags with snow and laying them out on the drifts so the Twin Otters with our grocery supplies could have some sense of depth perception while trying to land in the mountains of Salluit?

Having to go to work by helicopter when it was freeze-up or break-up time in Moosonee and Moose Factory… Seeing half the sky blacked out when the geese all took wing at the same time at the mouth of the Severn River… Watching 500+ white beluga whales feeding in the Churchill River one evening… Glaciers on Baffin Island… White-out on the Barren Lands… Fish ‘n Brewis with Scrunchions and Cod Tongues in Labrador…

Hmmm… maybe I should give that book some thought.

Reflecting...

I was just contemplating the events of 24 years ago today. I remember feeling a pat on the backside about 4:00 am and this voice saying, “It’s time”. Having been camped out in Moose Factory in a borrowed apartment for the past couple weeks I knew exactly what those words meant. I was about to witness my first being born.

We were living in Moosonee then but the hospital was in Moose Factory and it was freeze-up time which meant all kinds of transportation headaches so we went over to the island early to wait.


Della, a good friend of ours worked and lived right next door to the hospital and she was nice enough to offer us a spare room in her apartment for the duration of the wait. Anyway, Gloria called across the road to let them know we were on the way and we headed out the door.





It was freezing rain that night and we could see the nurses watching nervously out the third floor windows as we took tiny and unsteady steps across the road and down the walkway to the emergency room doors where we were met by an orderly with a wheelchair.





I think I needed it more than Gloria by that time but they made me walk anyway while she was wheeled up the ramp to her room.

The next couple hours are a little foggy in my memory but all I remember for sure is the doctor making a football catch of this little purple bundle that was squirming and healthy.

Sandra turned 24 today but that’s not possible… it couldn’t have been that long ago, could it?

Welcome to the Niska Inn!

Please give a warm welcome to one of the newest web sites in my group. This one is the Niska Inn located in Moosonee, Ontario. The Inn is located just a couple minutes from the shores of the mighty Moose River and has all the usual amenities plus the chance to see a seal or beluga whale. Not too many locations offer that! By the way, Moosonee is Ontario's only seaport and is a neighbour to Moose Factory which is located on an island in the middle of the river and is Ontario's oldest European settlement. In summer you take canoe taxi's back and forth between the two communities and over freeze-up and break-up the only way to travel is by helicopter. It's worth taking the train trip up there on either the "Polar Bear Express" or the "Little Bear" and if you need any information just let me know or send an email to Dan and Nancy at the Niska Inn. Tell 'em "Our Manitoulin" sent you!