The Lansdowne Letters: On Canoes and Procreation

No, the canoes and procreation aren't connected!

I'm sure somewhere, sometime
canoes have been used for such.

My father was having trouble enough
just trying to negotiate the strip of water 
between the Father's Island
and the DOT dock on the mainland
in his little Hudson Bay Post canoe.

The Father's Island from the DOT Dock

Photograph by Rev. Father Ouimet, OMI

Lansdowne House, Northern Ontario, Canada
Fall, 1960
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

It's Friday, and that means

another post based on 

my father's Lansdowne Letters

from long ago and far away.

I'm sharing two anecdotes 

from Dad's letter of Tuesday, September 20, 1960:

On Canoeing ~ in my father's words:

"I think I have finally mastered that confounded canoe.
Before yesterday I was having a lot of trouble in rough water,
especially if the wind was against me.  

"There were a couple of days 

when I just couldn’t get across to the mainland.  

Luckily this was before school had started.  

"The Father got me all straightened out though.  

It is all a matter of where you sit in the canoe.  

"On a calm day it is easiest to control it from the stern, 

but mostly you sit in the center.  

"On really rough windy days, though, 

you have to sit right up in the prow, or you just can’t steer it.  

"Yesterday I almost had my feet hanging over the front, 

but I got across, even though there were whitecaps on the water.  

"Whenever you sit either in the stern or on the prow, 

it is necessary to carry about fifty pounds

 of rock in the other end as ballast.  

"Shifting this ballast around is a lot of exercise in itself.  

I have taken over an inch off my waist already, 

most of it being sweated off in or around that confounded canoe."

Looking Toward the Hudson Bay Post

and the DOT Dock

from The Father's Island

Photograph by Donald Blair MacBeath

September, 1960
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

On Procreation ~ in my father's words:

"I had quite a long talk with the local Indian chief today.  

He does not speak a word of English, 

but he brought along his interpreter – big time eh?  

Just like a bunch of bloody diplomats.

  

"The chief is Protestant, 

and he is quite disturbed 

that I am living across at the Mission with the Father.

"I explained that it was the only place 

that I could find to stay."

  

Friends gather in the kitchen 

at the OMI Mission in Lansdowne House.

OMI:  Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate 

Center: Father Maurice Ouimet, OMI

Flanked by:  Chicago Bill (left) and Mr. Baker (right)

Back Row:  A Sleepy Uno Manilla and Brother Raoul Bernier, OMI

Photograph by Donald Blair MacBeath

September, 1960
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

  

The chief "was very pleased to hear 

that I was bringing up my family 

as soon as the government built a new teachers residence.

  

"He was also interested to hear that I had five children.  

He said that maybe I could work hard 

when I get my squaw up with me 

and catch up to him.  

He has eleven."

I just have to say,

"How can you not love men?"

They're the same everywhere ~

Here, there, now, then.

Fundy Blue signing off.

Canoeing in Northern Ontario

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