The Lansdowne Letters: The Space Traveller

During freeze-up in the late fall and early winter of 1960,
our family did not hear from my father in Lansdowne House.
When you lived in an isolated fly-in community 
in the wilderness of Northern Ontario, you were cut off
from the Outside twice a year during freeze-up and break-up.
We all had to wait for news of my father, 
just as he had to wait for news of us.

Winter in Northern Ontario

Flickr ~ J.H.   License

On Saturday, January 7, 1961 
My father wrote to our extended family:

Hi There Everyone:
Well, your favourite northern reporter is back on the job again.
It is nice to be able to relate to you all my adventures,
and in some cases, my misadventures.

It’s been a quiet weekend so far,
so I guess that I will devote most of today’s edition
to telling you about some of the things that happened to me
during the time that I was without a typewriter.

Uno's Typewriter in the Father's Shack

Lansdowne House, Northern Ontario, 1960

Photo by Donald MacBeath

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

This is where my father usually typed in the bedroom of the two-room shack that

he and Uno rented from Father Ouimet at the Roman Catholic Mission on the Father's Island.

Let’s see now, with the exception of yesterday’s edition,
I have not “gone to press” since the beginning of freeze-up,
so I have an ample supply of adventures on which to draw.
I guess to preserve some sort of continuity,
I’ll start with those things that happened first
and gradually work myself to the present.

Freeze-up was quite an adventure in itself.
It was a rather unique, and I must admit, not all-together
unpleasant experience being cut off from the outside world.

Granted, I was terribly lonely and missed getting my weekly letters from all of you,
but along with being cut off from all news of the outside world,
I was also cut off from all worries having to do with things of the outside world.

It’s strange, but instead of being worked up and worried about
not knowing what was happening to my friends and loved ones,
I was never more relaxed or felt better in my life.

Oh, I could have driven myself crazy with worry and anxiety,
if I had so desired, but I adopted the attitude that whatever happens,
I can’t do anything about it, so why worry about it.

If a terrible disaster struck any of you, I would be notified by wire,
and if it wasn’t important enough to merit a wire,
it would either wait till after freeze-up,
or and which is more probable,
would have solved itself before freeze-up ended.

I hope that you don’t think that I am too heartless or selfish,
but that was my way of dealing with a unique situation.
I found out later, to my great surprise,
that that is precisely how most of the people who spend
prolonged periods alone in the bush react to the situation.

Uno, on the other hand, couldn’t adopt this attitude
and went almost foolish with worry, loneliness, and nerves.

Uno and Dad with Baby Duncan

Lansdowne House, Northern Ontario, 1960

Photo by Duncan McRae

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

They are sitting on Uno's bed on the other side of the bedroom in the two-room shack 

they rented from Father Ouimet at the Roman Catholic Mission on the Father's Island.

As I said before, it is the queerest sensation to realize that you are almost
completely cut off from civilization, except for wireless, which is erratic at the best up here,
and to know that the only way out is a 150-mile trip by dog team.

Flickr ~ Sue Lowndes    license

I have some idea, now, of the feeling that a space traveller might experience
on a prolonged voyage when he could conceivably be cut off
from the world for several weeks or even months.

The Blue Marble

Wikimedia

  

I think that the best way to describe it is to call it a sort of emotional hibernation.
You don’t exactly forget about your loved ones and your responsibilities,
but you cease to actively worry about them
or to be stimulated to worry or anxiety by thoughts of them.

Well, enough about my personal philosophy about living in isolation,
and let’s call a halt to my rambling for today.
I’ll be back at the same old stand tomorrow night,
just as sure as death and taxes.
Till then, I’ll be seeing you all.

All my love, 
Don.

I, too, have experienced what it is like to be cut off from the outside world;
but I was a girl, and it was an exciting adventure for me.
I never even thought of the potential dangers.

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

One time during break-up,
in April 1961,
my brother Roy and I decided
to climb a tall wooden tower behind
the Hudson's Bay Company post.






We were having great fun running around on the flat top 
and peering over the open sides until Mike Flaherty, the community nurse, 
came flying out of the nursing station yelling up at us:
"Get down!  Get down right now!
What do you expect me to do if one of you falls and busts yourself up? 
I haven't got enough morphine to stop your pain,  
let alone a plane to fly you out if I can't handle your injuries."

Chastened, we hurriedly climbed down.
Not satisfied that we grasped the gravity of the situation yet,
Mike told us a horror story or two about northern nurses 
having to operate on patients on their kitchen tables during freeze-up or break-up
while following directions from a doctor over a shortwave radio.  
We slunk away.

It was not the first time, nor the last, that Mike chewed us out
for doing stupid kid stuff. 

Till next time ~
Fundy Blue


Bay of Fundy out of Westport, Brier Island
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

Notes:  

1.  The Blue Marble:
     This is one of my favorite photographs of the Earth captured on December 7, 1972, by the crew
     of  the Apollo 17 on its way to the Moon at a distance of about 18,000 miles (29,000 kilometers).
     The Arabian Peninsula, Africa, and Antarctica are visible in the photograph.

2.  A Personal Note:
      I will be without internet access in the near future.  I have several northern posts written and
      scheduled to post automatically.  If I can get online, I will reply to any comments and try to
      visit as many blogs as I can.  Sorry about that, but at least I've gotten some blog writing done 
      in advance.

For Map Lovers Like Me:

Lansdowne House, Ontario

Wikimedia