The Lansdowne Letters: The Stag Party

My father knew when he went into the North
that he would face the challenges of loneliness and isolation.

Northern Ontario Lake

Flickr:  Dmitri   license

"The bush is a bad place,"
Dad later said of his experiences, 
"for anyone lacking the inner resources and personal fortitude
to exist for extended periods of time completely cut off from civilization."

He had two cardinal rules he lived by in Lansdowne House,
and they helped him cope with the loneliness and isolation:
1.  Alway keep yourself busy.
2.  Never let yourself go.

To this day I can hear Dad's toneless half whistle 
and the rhythmic back and forth scuff of his brush 
as he spit-shined his shoes.

It is one of the most memorable and familiar sounds of my childhood.

Second Rule in Action
Photo by Donald MacBeath

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue  

All Rights Reserved

Pressing his clothes, polishing his shoes, shaving daily, 
and dressing for work was the easy part.

Keeping busy, especially
on long, dark, cold nights
pressed in on all sides 
by boreal forest and muskeg,
was much harder.


Bedroom of Dad and Uno's Two Room Shack 
Photo Likely by Uno Manilla
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue  
All Rights Reserved

How better to push back than to host a stag party? 

That's exactly what Uno and Dad did
in their small shack on the Father's Island
on a dark night over fifty years ago.

Dad and Brian Playing Cribbage
Front Room of Dad and Uno's Two Room Shack

Photo by Father Maurice Ouimet  

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue  

All Rights Reserved

On Monday, October 31, 1960 
My father wrote:

Hi There Folks:
The winter social season got off to a flying start tonight, 
with a stag party held at our cottage.  
All the white men came, except Mike Flaherty.  

All told, there were eight of us:  
The Father, the Brother, Brian Booth, Bill Mitchell, 
Duncan MacRae, Milt MacMahon, Uno, and myself.  

We had two tables of bridge going in the cottage 
and two pots of coffee going on the stove.

Our guests arrived about eight o’clock, 
and the party broke off about midnight.

The Well-Traveled Strip of Water Between the Mainland and the Island

Dad and Uno's Brown "Cottage" is to the Left of the Church

Photo by Father Maurice Ouimet, circa 1960  

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue  

All Rights Reserved

  
We stood in the door of our cottage 
and watched them come over from the mainland.  

I have often stood and watched 
the lights of a car coming up our lane, 
but last night I was completely fascinated 
by the light of flashlights coming across the water.  

By eight o’clock it was pitch black, there was no moon, 
and they had to use flashlights to navigate their canoes by.  

Even Duncan and Milt came by canoe, 
because they had laid up their speedboat for the winter 
when we thought the freeze-up was starting.

 Different Party, Different Night

Brother Bernier Had Just Skunked Uno at Cribbage.
The Kitchen at the Roman Catholic Mission

Photo by Donald MacBeath

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue  

All Rights Reserved

The next stag (to be held some time next month) 
will be held at either Duncan’s or the Father’s.  
If it turns out to be as successful as ours did, 
stags are apt to become a regular fixture on the social timetable.  

We stopped playing bridge about eleven; 
and after we had lunch, 
I played the Father a couple of games of chess.  
The Father won the first one, and I took the next one.
  
I would have liked to play the rubber game, 
but it was getting late, 
and tomorrow being a holy day (All Saints), 
the Father has to get up early in the morning for a special Mass.

It just poured rain all night up here.  
I kept wondering if my pets got wet 
when they went out for Halloween Night.
  
If my memory is correct, 
it seems they have gotten wet 
quite a few Halloween nights 
in their short lives.

Love,
Don.

Dad and His Pets ~ Pre Bertie
Donnie, Me, Dad with Barbie, and Roy

Alymer, Ontario, Fall 1958
Photo by Sara (MacDonald) MacBeath
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved  

I never got to attend any of the stag parties in Lansdowne House,
but I saw many games of bridge, cribbage, and chess among the adults,
fueled by coffee, cigarettes, and laughter.

Intense games!
Make no mistake, these were hard-fought battles, 
and a stinging defeat guaranteed a good-natured ribbing!

As for Halloween and Dad's pets ... 
The previous year a torrential rain had hammered 
Greenwood Air Base, Nova Scotia
where we were living in military housing.

Donnie, Roy, and I went trick-or-treating with pillow cases
which Mom said wouldn't break in the rain;
but no Halloween masks. 
They might make it hard to see in the downpour.

Nine year old me and eight year old Roy
quickly gave up because we were drenched,
and we retreated home with few treats in our pillow cases.

Five year old Donnie soldiered on 
by herself in the cold rain and dark
determined to collect Halloween treats. 

She came home later 
proudly dragging a wet pillow case
stuffed with all kinds of goodies.

Donnie, Greenwood, 1959
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue  
All Rights Reserved

Roy and I demanded a cut of the booty.
Probably three year old Barbie did too.

Donnie balked and Dad backed her up.
He told us that if we had wanted candy,
then we should have stuck it out like Donnie.
He was proud of his "Dutchess" aka "The Scrapper." 

Till next time ~
Fundy Blue


The Brier Island Nature Reserve 
Bay of Fundy
Photo by Roy MacBeath
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

Links to Earlier Posts:

TLL: To the Rescue

TLL: The Ups and Downs of Teaching


Notes:

1.  Uno:  Dad's roommate and teacher at the Catholic school

2.  Mike Flaherty:  The nurse at the nursing station.
   
3.  Father Ouimet and Brother Bernier:  
     They were members of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate,
     a missionary religious congregation in the Roman Catholic Church.
  
4.  Brian Booth:  The clerk at the Hudson Bay Post.

5.  Bill Mitchell:  The Manager of the Hudson Bay Post.  

6.  Duncan MacRae:
     Duncan worked for the Department of Transport,
     and his duties included running the DOT Weather Station.

7.  Milt MacMahon:
     Milt was the other DOT employee in Lansdowne House.

8.  Trick-or-treating:
      Yes we went out on our own, unthinkable now.
      And yes, our parents were upset when Roy and I returned without Donnie.
      Dad went looking for her, but Donnie was moving fast,
      and he couldn't find her in the warren of PMQs.
   
      I can't remember who got home first, nor do I remember my parents' relief.
      I remember the pillow case stuffed with forbidden goodies.
   
   
And for Map Lovers Like Me:
(Of course this is now; there was no airport or road then).
You can see the long peninsula or "mainland"
where Dad lived and the Father's Island off its tip).

Lansdowne House google map

Bill Mitchell Talking with an Ojibway Man

in the Hudson Bay Post at Lansdowne House

Photo by Donald MacBeath

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved