Standing Into Danger: 2017

Wednesday, December 6, 2017

IWSG: Wednesday, December 6, 2017 ~ Hello from Surprise!

It's the first Wednesday of the month:
the day when members of the
Insecure Writer's Support Group
share their writing struggles
and writing successes
and offer their encouragement
and support to fellow writers.

To visit the IWSG website, click here.

To become a member of the IWSG, click here.

Our wonderful co-hosts who are volunteering today,
along with IWSG founder Alex Cavanaugh are:
Julie Flanders, Shannon Lawrence, Funny Blue (that's me), and Heather Gardner,.

I hope you have a chance to visit today's hosts and thank them for co-hosting.
I'm sure they would appreciate a visit and an encouraging comment.

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Every month the IWSG poses a question
that members can answer with advice, insight,
a personal experience, or a story in their IWSG posts.

Or, the question can inspire members
if they aren't sure what to write about on IWSG Day.

Remember the question is optional.
This month's featured question is:

As you look back on 2017, with all its successes/failures, if you could backtrack, what would you do differently?

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2017 has been an odd year, from beginning to end.
I'll be happy to turn the calendar to 2018.

About to Enter an Ice Fog

Walsenburg, Colorado, USA

November 28, 2017

I'll finish it where I started, in Arizona,
with lots of places between Bullhead City and Surprise.

Back in the Sonoran Desert

Land of the Saguaro

New River, Arizona, USA

November 29, 2017

2017: Great people, fun, experiences, and learning ~
one serious health challenge and one new eye.
Not nearly enough writing.
If I could backtrack, I'd be less anxious.

Near the Summit of Raton Pass

(7,834 ft/ 2388 m) Mountain Pass on the Colorado-New Mexico Border

November 28, 2017

My life fell into disarray near the end of July,

and everything came tumbling down:

health, order, blogging, writing.

I couldn't get back on top of it.

Navajo Nation

Near Gallup, New Mexico, USA

November 28, 2017

In the last month, I gave up and let it all collapse.

In the last week we drove to Arizona skirting the Colorado Plateau

from Denver to Sante Fe, to Albuquerque, to Flagstaff, to Surprise

through some of the loneliest real estate in the country,

especially when dressed in its late November browns and grays.

Aurora to Surprise

Google 2017

My kind of country,

restorative and soul-filling!

Big Rock Country

Lupton, Arizona, USA

November 29, 2017

Drawing Near Flagstaff

Flagstaff, Arizona, USA

November 29, 2017

Despite all my anxious worrying, the world did not stop turning.

I'm ready to jump in again.

Happy holidays with your family and friends!

And happy writing in December!

Here's to Good Friends and New Adventures!

Jon, Terry, Louise (Me), and Cindy

Surprise, Arizona, USA

November 30, 2017

P.S. My apologies if you visited my post earlier in the day.

Somehow I managed to post an incomplete draft.

This is my story of 2017:

If something can go wrong with technology, it will.

Fortunately, I was able to quickly rewrite the rest.

I will not be anxious. I will not be anxious.

I'm going on a hike in the White Tank Mountains

this morning for some restoration and soul-filling.

If the world stops turning, you can blame me!

Friday, November 24, 2017

The Lansdowne Letters: Happy Thanksgiving

This is the Thanksgiving weekend in America,

and it is my favorite of all the American holidays.

It's a time for family and friends to get together,

share a bountiful meal, and reflect on the blessings in life.

Today I am especially grateful for the gift of sight.

Terry and I had cataract surgery on Monday,

and we are both recovering well.

I didn't realize that my eyes were that bad!

I can't believe how sharp and vibrant the world is

after having just one eye fixed!

Eye surgery has made it difficult to write this week.
Consequently, I am sharing parts of two previous posts
about my father's Canadian Thanksgiving
shortly after he arrived in the North in the fall of 1960.

Flying was on my father's mind as the holiday weekend arrived.
Until he flew into Lansdowne House from Nakina,
my father had never flown on a bush plane.
The small sturdy workhorses of the North fascinated my father,
and he enjoyed watching them land and take off.
Even more, my father loved talking with the pilots.

The View from a Norseman

on the Way to Lansdowne House

Photo by Don MacBeath

September 13, 1960

Have you ever flown on a small plane?

I have a number of times.

It's a noisy, vibrating, raw experience,

and the trees, rocks, and water sliding below

look starkly, solidly real.

Taking off isn't the hard part for me.
It's the landing!

Two skis on ice, two floats on water, or in the belly of a seaplane,

it's mesmerizing to watch the ice or water racing at you

as the plane closes in to land.

Oh thank you, God! always flashes through my mind

when the plane slows in a splash of water or in a rooster tail of snow.

Austin Airways Norseman CF-BSC

canavbooks

Bush flying can be treacherous,

and I have never forgotten my father's 1960 Thanksgiving letter.

I think of it every time I fly in a small plane.

Friday, October 7, 1960

My father wrote:

Hi Everyone:

Here we go on another Lansdowne Letter.

I hope that it will be more interesting than the last one.

I had a very bountiful mail this week:
five letters from Mother, five from Sara,

two from Louise (daughter), and one from Grammie.

I had a wonderful time reading and answering them.

I am greedy, perhaps next week I’ll do even better.

Today was wonderful, a veritable Indian summer!!

I went about all day in shirtsleeves.

The lake was just like glass, not a ripple on it.

I was amazed when I talked to the Austin Airways pilot

and found out that it is very dangerous to land

on the lake when it is as smooth as it was today.

When it is real glassy,

it is almost impossible to tell

where the air ends and the water begins.

After I was talking to the Austin pilot,

I watched Harry Evens,

a pilot for Superior Airways, landing.

He glided just about two miles

about three feet above the surface of the lake.

Even after a long glide like this,

he misjudged and landed

about 2½ feet above the surface.

This may sound strange,

but it actually happens.

Norseman Taxiing

Wikimedia edited

The pilot does everything he would do on landing,

except actually touching down.

After he has cut down the motor, etc.,

the plane just drops like a brick

and bounces several times before it really lands.

This can really jar your back teeth,

if the pilot lands about ten or twelve feet above the surface.

Touchdown!

Wikimedia

They had a bad accident last year at Armstrong

when one of Superior’s pilots misjudged the water level

and tried to land about ten feet below the surface.

He went right in!!

Two days later they managed to get his body

out of the plane which was at the bottom of the lake.

Northern Ontario Lake

northernontario.travel/sunset-country

Some more of our furniture arrived yesterday:

a nice large bookcase.

Our little cottage is beginning to look quite homelike.

I would not mind living here with Sara for the winter,

but it would be pretty crowded if I had the whole tribe up with me.

This is the start of the long Thanksgiving weekend.

Three whole lovely days with no Indian children to worry about.

As I said in one of my previous epistles,

I love them all, but at times it is nice to love them from a distance.

I don’t know if I told you

about Maureen making curtains for us, or not;

but she did,

and it is the most wonderful thing to have curtains,

especially in our bedroom.

She made café curtains for our bedroom,

and now she is making full- length curtains for our front room.

We just bought some printed material from the Bay,

and she whipped them up on her electric sewing machine.

Dad and Uno's Bedroom

Photo by Don MacBeath

The reason that we wanted the curtains

is because of the insatiable curiosity of the Indians.

They are always looking in the window,

and this begins to bug you after a couple of weeks.

Considerable difficulty was encountered

when I tried to explain to the children

why there was going to be no school Monday.

They just could not seem to grasp the idea of Thanksgiving.

The First Thanksgiving in America ~ 1621

Wikimedia

I took over some of my books
and spent most of this afternoon

reading them stories and poems about Thanksgiving.

I told them about the first Thanksgiving in the New World.

I suppose it is ironic for the poor creatures

to have to talk and think about Thanksgiving,
because the poor creatures have so little to be thankful for.

The First Thanksgiving in Canada ~ 1578

Martin Frobisher in Frobisher Bay

filmatidmare

Well, I guess that just about ties her up for today.

Will be back again tomorrow.

Dad Typing His Nightly Lansdowne Letter

Photo by Uno Manila, Fall 1960

When my father my father went north in 1960,
he made some wonderful friends.

One of his closest, Father Ouimet, might seem unusual
for someone with strong Baptist roots nurtured in a Green Gables world.

A Prince Edward Island Boy

My Father, circa 1930

(most likely his grandfather's home in St. Peter's Bay)

St. Peter's Bay

Prince Edward Island, Canada

flickr ~ Steve Elgersma license

The teacherage for Dad's school had burned down,

leaving him with only two options for a place to live

in tiny Lansdowne House.

He could live alone on the mainland

in an empty forestry building,

or he could share a two-room cabin

at the Roman Catholic Mission

on a small island nearby.

Living at the mission cabin

had advantages over the forestry building:

electricity, cold-running water,

and meals at the rectory;

but, it required commuting

back and forth to the mainland

in a canoe or on snowshoes.

My father chose the cabin

because he couldn't bear

the thought of living alone.

The Father's Island with Roman Catholic Mission

Lansdowne House, Northern Ontario, Canada

Dad's cabin is below the wind charger between the church and the rectory (right).

Photo by Father Maurice Ouimet, Probably 1960

So this Prince Edward Island Baptist

suddenly found himself sharing daily meals

with a French Canadian Oblate priest,

a French Canadian Oblate brother,

and his Finnish-Ojibway roommate Uno.

The Kitchen in the Rectory

Lansdowne House, Northern Ontario, Canada

Father Ouimet (center), A Sleepy Uno and Brother Bernier (upper left and right)

Chicago Bill (pilot) and Mr. Baker (prospector)

Photo by Donald MacBeath, Fall 1960

Father Ouimet and Brother Bernier belonged

to a Roman Catholic religious community called

the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate,

and they welcomed Dad into their home and lives.

The Oblates have been serving in Canada since 1841,

dedicating themselves to working among the poor.

Many, like Father Ouimet and Brother Bernier,

lived in the north among the Aboriginal people.

source

The steamboat St. Emile: an Oblate Order Mission Ship

on the Lesser Slave Lake

Wikimedia

Dad quickly became good friends

with Uno and Brother Bernier,

but the friendship he struck up

with Father Ouimet was especially close,

and Father Ouimet remained friends

with him and our family over the decades.

Father Ouimet was known and respected

throughout Northern Ontario and beyond.

Pilots, prospectors, scientists,

surveyors, stranded travelers, and others

visited or stayed at his rectory

during his decades in Lansdowne House.

In my research I have tracked down information

about Father Ouimet's hospitality and work,

but it's had to find much about him as a person.

Occasionally my father shared little stories

that showed the human side of this dedicated priest:

his humor, his interests, and his personal challenges.

Here are several anecdotes written by my father:

10/7/60:

I have my Bible up here; in fact, I have two with me,

a King James Version and a Catholic Bible.

The Father was over to our house the other day

and spotted it right away.

He was quite surprised to see

a Protestant with a Catholic Bible.

I told him that I was thinking once

of being a Baptist minister and thought at the time

that I should know something about the opposition.

He got quite a laugh out of this term.

He also was quite amused when I told him

how I cornered the Bishop at Rotary

and asked him where I could get one.

10/17/60:

We had a rather unusual Thanksgiving dinner at the Father’s.

We had fish and chips,

but they were well done and were very tasty.

The fish was deep fried in batter.

The other day we had goose.

The Father was out hunting

and shot a huge wild goose.

It was delicious.

The Father made some rice dressing

for it from an old French Canadian recipe.

He has a cook, but the Indians don’t know
and won’t learn how to make dressing.

Canada Goose

flickr ~ Heather Paul license

He has an awful time with this cook and her tea.

The cook insists on boiling the tea

and won’t listen to the Father.

Whenever the Father tries to tell her

how to make tea correctly,

she gets real huffy

and tells him that she is older

and has been making tea longer than him

and therefore knows more about how to make it.

Things have now reached the stage

that there are two pots of tea made for each meal,

one for her and one for us.

9/29/60:

Father Ouimet was laughing at my worrying

about the mail being one or two days late.

He was telling me that

when he went to the bush

the first time in 1940,

he was at a mission on Hudson’s Bay

and received his mail twice a year;

once in February by dog team

and once in the summer,

about August, by steamer.

The first year his mail missed the dog team run,

and he had to wait till August for his Christmas mail,

including a Christmas cake that his mother sent him.

The cake was in fine shape though,

because she had used lots of fruit and wine

when she was making the cake.

Long after my family left the the North,

Father Ouimet and I exchanged occasional letters.

It has always amazed me that this

French Canadian, Roman Catholic priest

took time from his heavy duties to write to me.
I wish I had been able to share a Thanksgiving dinner with him.

For Map Lovers Like Me:

Lansdowne House, Ontario, Canada

Wikimedia

Lansdowne House

Surrounded by Water

Credit: Lansdowne House and the Father's Island, 1935,
Credit: Canada. Dept. of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Library and Archives Canada / PA-094992