The Lansdowne Letters: C'est la Guerre

Have you ever experienced dental pain so bad
that you wanted to grab a pair of pliers and rip the tooth out of your jaw?

I have.  Nothing makes me crazier than dental pain.

I recently had to abandon a flight from Calgary to Halifax
and fly home to Aurora because of a sudden and serious dental abscess.
I was lucky.  I accessed expert dental care very quickly.

We take such things for granted today,
but a half century ago in remote parts of Canada people couldn't.

A Last View of Calgary

as I head for Denver instead of Halifax

July 23, 2017

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Photo by Louise Barbour 

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

Dental care was a concern and a real problem for people
in isolated communities like Lansdowne House back then,
especially during freeze-up and break-up
when there was no way to get out to a dentist.

When my mother wrote to her mother-in-law
shortly before break-up about Milt MacMahon's dental woes,
it's fortunate she couldn't see into her own future.


On April 20, 1961 she had written:
Milt's teeth were bothering him so much, 
he had to get Mike to pull five of them out.

Mike froze his teeth and pulled them,
and then Milt went over to visit Duncan and then home.
When he got home he passed out.

He had a bad reaction to the needle.
It happens in one case in a million I guess.
He was unconscious for half an hour.

Poor Mike, at one point he thought he couldn't save him.
Milt went into shock, his blood pressure shot up, 
and I guess his heart missed a beat.

However Mike saved him.


My mother had no inkling of her own dental future.

The Only Way in and Out:  by Bush Plane

A Norseman on Skis

Flickr ~ NOAA:  Rear Admiral Harley D. Nygren   License 

On Monday, April 24, 1961
My father wrote:

Hi There Everyone:
As far as can be determined, the last plane
before break-up will be in tomorrow morning.
The ice is still good up here,
but it is getting pretty bad down south in Nakina and Armstrong.

Just in case tomorrow’s plane is the last one,
I thought I would get another note off to you all, in spite of the fact that
my last effort is still reposing in the mail sack down in Mitchell’s office.
Because of this, you lucky people will have to suffer through
two of my efforts, instead of the usual one.

The last of our freeze-up----damn it, I mean break-up order arrived today.
I can’t ever remember having so much food in the house at one time.
We have enough to last for four or five weeks and even for six in a pinch,
although we will hope that we aren’t pinched.

The Hudson's Bay Post

where the departing mail waited and food could be bought.
Clerk Brian Booth
Lansdowne House, Northern Ontario
Winter 1960-61

Photo by Don MacBeath

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

I was a bit horrified when I got to see the bills
and discovered that the bills for the break-up order came to $195.00;
but actually, that’s not bad, when you consider that we bought a whole month’s supplies.

We usually have to spend at least this every month on food,
but it is divided over four weeks and doesn’t look so bad.
I’m just not used to buying everything in one swell swoop like this. 

I have lost about half of my pupils for a while.
They have all gone out trapping muskrat.
They won’t be back till after break-up.

 

Muskrat Tracks:  Wikimedia          Muskrat on Ice:  Wikimedia          Three Muskrats:  Flickr ~ Eric Bégin   License

I was worried that this would reflect on me, and I was wondering,

if I had made my school a little more interesting, they might have stayed.

Bill Mitchell and Sara put my mind at rest on this matter though.

Sara surmised, and Bill definitely stated, that this is an annual occurrence

and the Indians have been doing it for generations.

I can’t see why the men don’t go out for the three weeks alone

and leave the mothers and children home,
so the kids could go to school;
but I have found out that Indian fathers are more interested
in their sons becoming good trappers than good scholars
and that their daughters become proficient in curing the pelts.

I suppose when you look at it from the point of view of the Indian,
it is a practical way of looking at things.
After all, this is the way that a great majority of them
will be making their living when they grow to be adults.

Into the Bush, James Bay Area

Flickr: Peupleloup   Licence

Poor Sara had to get a tooth pulled today.
It was causing her a lot of agony,
and the dentist won’t be in till June or July.
A dentist could probably have saved the tooth,
while the best Mike could do for her was to take it out.

This is one of the greatest drawbacks to living in the north.
It is so hard to get dental care when you need it.  

Bill Mitchell was saying that if your teeth won’t last
one or two years between overhauls,
then, if you are going to live in the north for any length of time,
you are just as well off without them.
He had his all out a long time ago.

I am lucky.  Mine haven’t caused me any trouble since I came up here,
and the last time I had any work done to them, except for cleaning them,
was before I got out of the Air Force.
Now Sara, on the other hand, had her last dental appointment
just before she came up here.

Mom (Sara)

Before Five Kids and Dental Woes

Dating Dad at Acadia University

Fifteen Years Earlier ~ 1946

Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

I was just looking at the amount that I said I spent for food every month,
and I realize that the food we have on hand is a five weeks’ supply;
and actually this works out just right,
for Sara has just told me that we usually spend about $35.00 a week for food up here.
The actual cost of the food is not very much, if any higher than in the Cove.

What costs up here is having it brought in by plane at ten cents a pound.
This is what really hurts.

Well, here I am with a nice clean white page in front of me,
and all of a sudden, I can’t think of anything else to say.

Oh yes, it’s Duncan’s birthday tomorrow, Duncan senior that is,
and we are going over to help him celebrate.
Mike and Anne are also coming over,
so I guess there will be no bridge, but just a nice gabfest.
Oh well, I always did like a good gossip session occasionally.

Dad and Duncan

Northern Ontario, Canada, 1960

Photo by Don MacBeath

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

I have been doing considerable painting lately.
I painted a lovely large picture of the Father’s Island,
18 inches by 24 inches, and I gave it to him for his birthday,

I did another one of the Anglican Church up here and sent it to Mother for Mother’s Day.

I did another one of a small wooded island out in the lake in front of our house,
and Duncan asked me if he could have it, so I am giving it to him for his birthday.

It is a winter scene, and I think it is a pretty good one.
I almost get a chill from looking at it.
I find that painting is a great way of relaxing.

I did another painting of the same island that I did for Duncan,
although it is a different view,
and I believe that it is the best that I have ever done yet.
Sara liked it so well that she claimed it for a birthday gift,
before I got a chance to give it away to someone else.

It’s a funny thing, but once I have finished a picture,
I am no longer interested in it
and can only think of what I am going to paint next.

Well, it is getting late, and I was up late last night trying to beat the break-up deadline,
which I thought was going to be today, so I think I’ll sign off now.

Will be seeing you all via the printed page after break-up.

Bye now, love, Don.

The Father's Island

Lansdowne House, Northern Ontario, Circa 1960

Photo by Father Maurice Ouimet

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

My mother's dental ordeal was not over.  
Break-up arrived and so did more difficulties for my mother.

My father discussed the situation in his unpublished handbook
The Northern School Teacher:

"Medical and dental care is a problem in the bush,
for anything serious always entails a trip out by aeroplane.
The government pays the cost of all such emergency transportation
for medical and dental treatment, it is true,
but there are periods when it is just not possible to get out.

I refer especially to the freeze-up and break-up periods,
which usually average about a month each,
but can last as long as seven or eight weeks.

During the break-up at Lansdowne House,
Sara came down with a horrible toothache.
She just could not bear it.

Mike O'Flaherty, the nurse, whose enthusiasm
frequently exceeded his ability,
said he could pull the tooth out for Sara.
Since anything was preferable to the agony of the toothache,
Sara consented.

I accompanied her to the nursing station,
where Mike sat her down on an ordinary kitchen chair
and proceeded to pull the tooth.

After much wincing and crying, swearing and cursing,
and prying and pulling, the tooth was successfully extracted.

Unfortunately, it was the wrong tooth,
and the whole agonizing process had to be repeated.

Once outside we had to get a partial plate to fill the gap in Sara's mouth.
As the French say, "C'est la Guerre."

"C'est la Guerre," indeed!

Till next time ~
Fundy Blue


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

All Rights Reserved

Notes:
1.  Milt MacMahon:
     Milt was one of the two Department of Transport employees in Lansdowne House,
     and his duties included running the weather station.

2.  Mike O'Flaherty:  
     Mike was the nurse at the nursing station and had to handle whatever came up,
     especially when planes could not fly in or out of Lansdowne House. 
     He and his wife Anne had a baby daughter Kathie who was about 5 months old.

3.  Brian Booth:  
     The clerk at the Hudson Bay Post.  He was seventeen when he first arrived at the Bay
     in Lansdowne House.

4.  Break-up Order:
     Typically white families in Lansdowne House ordered most of their food and
     and supplies once a year and had them delivered by tractor train.  The tractor trains
     (sometimes called cat trains) delivered the orders during the winter when it was
     possible to travel over the frozen land, muskeg, and water.

     My parents arrived too late to put in their annual order, so they had to fly everything
     in by bush plane.

A cat train on the move to Tigvariak Island

 Alaska North Slope, Spring 1949

Wikipedia 

A cat train on the move across the tundra 

carrying equipment and supplies for the construction of the DEW Line.

Alaska North Slope, Spring 1949

Wikimedia

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

6.  Duncan and Maureen McRae:

    Duncan was the other Department of Transport employee.
     He and his wife Maureen were good friends with my parents.

7.  Unpublished Handbook:
     Recorded in Dad's unpublished The Northern School Teacher:  A Hand Book To Be Issued To All
     New Entrants To The Teaching Profession In The Indian Schools In The Sioux Lookout Indian
     Agency, 1966, page 25.

For Map Lovers Like Me:

Location of Lansdowne House

Known Today as Neskantaga

Hudson Bay Lowlands (green)

Wikipedia

Lansdowne House Lies in the Wilderness

West of James and Hudson Bays

Flickr:  Stuart Rankin   License

Lansdowne House, Armstrong, and Nakina 
Northern Ontario, Canada

Wikimedia

To see a map that shows the northern limit of connecting all-weather roads or rain lines, Click Here.