The Lansdowne Letters: Friday the Thirteenth

I have to smile when I remember how superstitious

my intelligent and well-educated father was.

My earliest memories of him date from when he served
in the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps
in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

At that time my father was a towering, almost godlike, presence in my life,
with his huge size, his parade marshal voice, and marksman skills.

I was in awe of him when we spent Saturday mornings
at the indoor firing range at Alexandra Point Range,
or sometimes even the outdoor shooting range near Tea Hill.

I used to love picking up bullet shells from the floor of the indoor range for him,
something really cool that none of my friends ever got to do
and way more fun than the ballet lessons I had to attend
before going to the range with him.

Big Soldier ~ Kitche Shemaganish

(The Nickname the Ojibwa People Gave My Father in Lansdowne House)

Most Likely Prince Edward Island, Circa:  1952

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved 

It wasn't until a few years later that I began to feel the 

the incongruity between his size, intelligence, and education
and some of his superstitions,
like his dislike of broken mirrors or walking under ladders,
of black cats crossing his path and Friday the Thirteenth.

He spooked easily, and I have many memories of him
peeking through his fingers at scary shows on television.
The intensity was simply too much for his sensitive nature.
And guaranteed, you wouldn't have caught him whistling past a graveyard!

I suspect he sensed things that no big strong man of that time would have admitted to.

So I smile whenever I read the opening of this letter
and I remember fondly all his Friday the Thirteenth admonishments
to be extra careful and to watch out for black cats and ladders,
and for God's sake, not to break a mirror!
The amusing thing was he was serious! 


On Friday, January 13, 1961 
My father wrote to our extended family:

Hi There, Everyone:
Today was a bad day to get up, and to put it in the words
of that unknown Brooklynite, "I should have stood in bed."  

However I guess as Friday the Thirteenth goes,
this wasn't the worst or the best that I have spent.

We held a health clinic in my school today
and inoculated over one hundred Indians of all ages
against a variety of communicable diseases.

Needles!  Nobody Wants One!

This is a four-year old child in the Philippines receiving a measles vaccination.

Wikimedia

I was there all day helping Mike check the records
to determine just who had had what.  

Gorsh, but I had a rip snorter of a headache before the whole thing was over.
I don't think that I have ever heard such a variety of cries
as I heard from the Indian children that day.
They cried in every pitch from A sharp to G minor,
or whatever the two extremes of the scale are.

Bill Guinn, one of the pilots for Austin Airways, was in all night,
and we spent the evening playing pool over at the hall.

Playing Pool

Wikimedia

Bill is from Cape Breton, so Bill and I
represented the Maritimes against the world.  
The world did much better than the Maritimes,
as neither Bill or myself is too good at pool.  

We had a good night though.
Bill slaughtered me at checkers several times,
and I took the Brother's measure at chess twice.
I also took Duncan to the cleaners twice at chess.

The Battleground!

Wikimedia

Maureen and Baby Duncan are back from Winnipeg,
after having the cyst removed from the baby's neck.
It wasn't a dangerous type of cyst.

They may have taken the cyst from his neck,
but they sure didn't take any of the devilment from his makeup.
He is still as full of hell as ever.

A Bundle of Devilment on the Lam from Uno

Lansdowne House, Northern Ontario, 1960

Photo by Don MacBeath

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved 

I'll sure be glad when Sara finally gets that cottonpickin' typewriter up to me.  
Uno is starting to do more typing, and it is not always to easy to get at the machine.
I shouldn't complain too much though, because I really have used it much more than him.

Things are going better than ever in school these days.
My campaign to get the Indian children to speak
more English seems finally to be bearing fruit.
They actually use English occasionally when talking among themselves.

A Teacher Ahead of His Time

with Flexible, Changeable Seating

and Activities to Promote Conversation

Photo by Don MacBeath

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved 

Making It Fun ~ Bobbing for Apples and Conversation

Photo by Don MacBeath

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved 

Because of the unaccustomed social activity,
and because of the strenuous week I put in (Foss),
I think I'll call it a day and pack her up.

Bye for now,
Love, Don.

Dad with Brother Bernier

on Another Social Evening in the Mission Kitchen

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

I don't share many of my father's superstitions;
in fact I make a point of walking under ladders
and crossing paths with black cats.

My only worries about mirrors are all those wrinkles
that are increasingly reflected back at me,
and Friday the Thirteenth is usually a great day for me.

But I peek through my fingers at scary shows,
and you won't catch me whistling past a graveyard either!

Till next time ~
Fundy Blue


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

All Rights Reserved

Notes:  

1.  Alexandra Point Range and Tea Hill:  
      I can't be positive that it was the indoor firing range at Alexandra Point Range Military Base
      that my father and I went to weekly.  However, it's my best guess, because that's where
      the army trained shooters and my dad was a marksman and shooting instructor on Saturdays.
      I am certain about the outdoor range near Tea Hill, because I clearly remember Tea Hill and
      have vivid memories of lying prone in the grass next to my father as he shot his rifle and
      of "army crawling" with him from position to position to shoot.  Bet that wouldn't happen now!

2.  Mike Flaherty:
     Mike was the nurse at the nursing station in Lansdowne House.  He provided basic medical
     services for the white and Ojibwa people who lived in the community.  He was also responsible
     for assessing the health of the Indians and for carrying out government health programs such as
     inoculating them against infectious diseases.  The health clinics were usually held in my father's
     and Uno's schools.

3.  The Hall:  
     The Hall was located in the Roman Catholic mission on the Father's Island.  Father Ouimet
     showed movies there on Saturday nights and sometimes on Wednesday nights too ~ providing
     the films arrived on the mail plane.  I don't remember pool tables, but obviously there was at
     least one.

4.  Brother Raoul Bernier:
     Brother Bernier was a member of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate,
     a missionary religious congregation in the Roman Catholic Church.
     Father Ouimet was a priest in the same congregation.

5.  Duncan and Maureen McRae:  
     Duncan worked for the Department of Transport, and one of his duties was running the weather
     station in Lansdowne House.  He and Maureen were the parents of Baby Duncan.

6.  Uno Manilla:  

     Uno was the teacher at the Roman Catholic Day School at the mission.
     He shared a two-room shack with my father.
     Although Dad didn't mention it, Uno did return to Lansdowne House to finish the school year.

7.   Mr. F. Foss:  
      Mr. Foss was the Indian Schools Inspector.  Earlier that week he spent a day observing my father
      in his school and another day observing Uno in his.  It was a stressful time for both Uno
      and my father.  Mr. Foss would visit each of his various schools two or three times a year.
      Mr. Foss was stranded in Lansdowne House by bad flying weather for an extra day.  He
      probably spent both nights as Father Ouimet's guest, which meant he also shared his meals with
      Dad and Uno.



For Map Lovers Like Me:

Location of Lansdowne House in Northern Ontario

Wikipedia

Location of the Maritimes

New Brunswick (Orange), Prince Edward Island (Pink), Nova Scotia (Red)

Note:  Cape Breton is the Island Part of Nova Scotia, Located to the NE of the Peninsula Part.

Flickr:  Opus Penguin   License

Location of Charlottetown, P.E.I.

Wikipedia