HR9: Grounded in Nakina

Back to the North again!

Northern Ontario Wilderness

Source:  Wikipedia

In earlier posts this year, 
I began writing about 
my family's experiences in Northern Ontario.
I have been using my father's letters
as a primary source of material.

I'm picking up where I left off,
with my father grounded 
in the northern town of Nakina, Ontario 
in September, 1960.

Austin Airways and the Nakina Hotel

D.B. MacBeath, September 1960

Well Darling
wrote my father to my mother
on Sunday, September 11, 1960

Here I am still in Nakina.  I have not as yet had any contact with Mr. Gowan, the Indian Affairs man who is supposed to arrange my transportation to Lansdowne.  I expect that I will be going in tomorrow sometime though.  However I have not been bored or anything.  Friday night and all day Saturday I spent in the company of Jerry Costella an Indian Affair Department teacher at  Aroland which is a large reservation near Nakina.  There are two beverage rooms and the Legion Hall in Nakina, and we visited all three.  However I didn't drink too much, just enough to be sociable.

Well Darling, it has been a whole week since I left you and a long 42 or so more weeks before I will see you again.  I don't know how I will be able to stand it, I am so lonesome for you.  However I guess it won't be so bad for me as it will be for you, because at least I will be doing new things and meeting new people, and the winter will pass pretty quickly actually.  I hope I will be so busy that I don't get a chance to be too lonesome.

Sara and Don

There will be a two week or three week period sometime in November or December when there will be no mail because the planes will be fitted with skis instead of floats and we'll have to wait till the lakes freeze before they can resume their schedule.

I have discovered several good chess players in the telegraph office at Nakina and have had about 12 good games of which I have managed to win 7.   All in all I have had a very interesting weekend in Nakina.  I hope to fly into Lansdowne tomorrow if everything goes all right and I get in touch with Mr. Gowans.

Telegraph Office, Nakina

D.B. MacBeath, September 1960

On the way up to Nakina, I bought a book on chess, a book on reducing, and a book on bridge.  I plan to study all of these books and practice what they say, especially the book on reducing.

Well, I guess I better wind this up and get it mailed so it will catch the mail out this evening.  How about getting Louise and Roy to write to me.  It will be good practice for them, and I will love to hear from them.  Also Donnie as soon as she can print.  I miss Barbie also and wish she could write to me.  However, I realize that she is too young as yet.  However tell her I miss her and Roberta and think about them all the time.

Bye now, Darling
All my love
Don

P.S. Hurry up and borrow a camera so you can take pictures of all the children and yourself and send them to me.

Love
Don.




Dear Sally
wrote my father to my mother
on Monday, September 12, 1960

Still at Nakina, and I don't know if I will be getting out or not.  The day is beautiful for flying, but the pilot broke his leg playing baseball yesterday and Austin Airways is waiting for another pilot to come in from Sudbury.  They don't know if he will arrive in time to make a flight in today or not.  However he is sure to be here in time for a flight tomorrow,  It will be just my luck though that tomorrow the weather will close in again.  At the rate this is going, I may be in Nakina till Christmas.

Norseman ~  Canadian Single-Engine Bush Plane

Source:  Wikipedia

I wired you about a cheque I had to cash.  These expenses are killing me ~ especially this prolonged stay at Nakina.  However I will be able to claim for it all.  Phone the bank manager and ask him to honour it till the money arrives.

Well, I must sign off now and speak with Austin Airways and see if I am going in today or not.

Bye now, Darling,
Love Don

Dear Sally
wrote my father to my mother
on Monday, September 12, 1960

Just a short note to tell you that I am flying into Lansdowne House in about an hour or 5 p.m. local time.  This will be the last letter you will receive from me at Nakina.  After that there will be a period of about a week or so till I catch the next mail plane.  Mail runs go in and out ever Friday – however, I believe I explained this to you in one of my previous letters.

I was wrong about the race of Indians I will be teaching.  They will be Crees, not Ojibways.  I will have about 21 pupils in kindergarten and grades 1, 2, 3, and 4.

Well have to sign off now and get my baggage over to Austin Airways.

Bye now,

Love

Don

Austin Airways Sea Plane Base

Nakina, Ontario
D.B. MacBeath, September 1960

Hello Again Darling
wrote my father to my mother
on Monday, September 12, 1960

Well, here I am still aboard the Nakina Hotel instead of aboard the aircraft bound for Lansdowne House.  My baggage is all aboard the plane, but the weather closed in at Lansdowne, and we couldn't fly in there today as planned.  As far as I know now, we are scheduled to take off at 0630 hours tomorrow, 13 Sept. 60.  It's a good job that my lucky number happens to be 13 eh, otherwise I might be too superstitious to take off in the morning.  

There is not much more to tell you about Nakina.  After being here for several days and writing several letters about the place, I have sort of exhausted the subject.  I have met and talked with a few more Indians, but I still have not succeeded in seeing Mr. Gowans, the Indian Agent at Nakina.

I was afraid that there was going to be no electricity and I was going to have to use outside plumbing (at the Catholic Mission in Lansdowne House), but from what I can find out, the Catholic Mission has a Delco Electric Plant and its own running water system.

Was I telling you that if I stay with the fathers at the mission I will be commuting by canoe?  The department hires the canoe, and I operate it.  I guess I will have to learn to "paddle my own canoe" eh?  Those lessons that Father gave me on paddling in St. Peter's Bay (Prince Edward Island) are going to come in handy after all.

From what I have been able to find out, Lansdowne House is about 1½ hours flying time from Nakina.  However it is still in the forest area.  At least it isn't in the muskeg.  However they tell me that the black flies and mosquitoes are fierce in the late spring and fall.  But at least I won't have to worry about them this fall.

Boreal Forest or Taïga

Source:  Wikimedia

Mosquito

Source:  healthycanadians

Well, Darling, I must sign off now and get this in the mail and get to bed.  0630 hours comes mighty quickly in the morning.

Give my love to Louise, Roy, Donnie, Barbara, and Roberta and tell them I miss them, love them, and think about them all the time.
All my love,
Don.

To Be Continued ...

Links to other northern posts:

Human Refuse 1

Human Refuse 2:  Lansdowne House

Human Refuse 3:  A Northern Teacher Departs

HR4: Indoctrination

HR5:  Heading Out

HR6:  Maps, Arrgghhh!

HR7:  Nakina

HR8: What My Father Didn't Tell My Mother

A Mini-Break

I'm taking a mini-break!

Terry came down with a bad cold,
and now I have it too!

Anonymous Grumpy Cat (Terry)
Source:  complex.com

Terry is at work, 

but almost every moment that he is home,

he's sacked out on the couch or bed.

  Real Grumpy Cat (Me)
Source:  Can't remember where I originally found this!

As for me,

I'm under the covers

as much as I can handle it ~

being more than a little ADHD!

I'll be back as soon as

I'm feeling more energetic ~

Sooner rather than later, I hope!

Here' a song I've been playing a lot ~
It just makes me feel happy:
"Sugarland" by Sugarland.

Source:  You Tube:  Kassi Gray

Album:  Enjoy the Ride by Sugarland

Source:  Amazon

"Sweet skies of Sugarland

Doin the best we can

Holdin hands stayin up all night

Swinging stars from satelittes

Down in Sugarland

Doin the best we can 

Fallin in love again

Down in Sugarland"

Lyrics Source:  You Tube:  Kassi Gray

Sugarland Duo:  Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush

Source:  Wikimedia

Fundy Does the movies: Gravity

I have just two words 
for the movie Gravity:  See it!

Source:  Wikipedia

For once the Ever-Patient Terry 

did not have to be dragged to a space drama.

He, who never goes to a movie 

without checking the reviews,

knew that Rotten Tomatoes 

gave it a whopping 98% rating.
The E-P was good to go!

I, who loves space dramas and
who never looks at a review
before seeing a movie,
was rearing to go!

Gravity did not disappoint!
It grabbed us in the opening seconds
and carried us on a thrilling ride
to the harrowing closing scene.
It was as if we had lived it.

For the first time ever,
Terry said, "I could see that movie again."

Briefly, the plot is this:
Three astronauts take a routine spacewalk
to service the Hubble Space Telescope.

Extra-vehicular Activity

Source:  Wikipedia

Houston Mission Control warns the astronauts
that a Russian anti-satellite test has caused 
a chain-reaction of destruction,
sending deadly orbital debris their way.
(Kessler syndrome).

NASA Debris Plot

of Current Orbital Debris

Source:  Wikipedia

They need to abort their Extra-vehicular activity 
and return to the space shuttle Explorer immediately.
The debris hits before they can, 
and only two astronauts survive the onslaught.

Dr. Ryan Stone is untethered 
and tumbling out of control in space.
Astronaut Matt Kowalski must retrieve Stone
with his thruster pack (MMU),
and together they must find a way 
to survive alone in space 
and cut off from communications with Mission Control.

Thruster Pack or Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU)

Source:  Wikipedia

While George Clooney gives a great performance 
as veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski,
Sandra Bullock makes the movie
with her outstanding performance
as medical engineer Ryan Stone.

I have followed the exploration of space
since I was a small child.
I would dearly love to orbit the Earth
and travel to the moon and beyond.
This movie made me feel like I was in space.
The stunning 3D images 
highlighted the fragile beauty of the Earth
and the dangerous beauty of black space.

Earth and Space

Source:  Wikimedia

  
I can hardly begin to imagine the technology
involved in making this movie look so real,
especially the way the actors moved in zero-gravity.

The work began with mapping out the entire movie 
using computer-generated animation.
This previsualization determined how the actors performed.

For some scenes, the actors swam through 
their movements underwater.

For others, they were suspended from wires
and filmed while puppeteers moved their bodies.

The filmmakers Emmanuel Lubezki and Tim Webber 
created a light box 
where the actors were suspended 
and moved as little as possible.
Meanwhile the set, the lighting, and the cameras
moved around the actors. 

In postproduction the live action and
computer-generated animation were combined,
the wires and other apparatus digitally removed,
and more special effects added.
The end result was so real,
I felt I was there too,
weightless in space and fighting for my life.
(Source:  NBC News Science)

Source:  You Tube:  Gravity Official Trailer - Detached

Just see it!

Rocky Mountain High ~ Colorado!

We spent the weekend at the Ameristar

in Black Hawk, Colorado.

The weather was spectacular!

Here are a few pictures

taken from our room on the 32nd floor.

I was looking from historic Black Hawk

up the slope to Central City and beyond.

Historic Black Hawk and Central City

Hills Beyond Black Hawk

The earliest snow dusted the higher peaks,

as gold began to tinge the green aspen.

Snowdusted Peaks
Beyond Black Hawk and Central City 

A Tinge of Gold on the Hills

Ephemeral Snow Dust 

Beauty everywhere ~

and a special song running through my mind:

All the times I listened to it a lifetime ago in Nova Scotia,

never suspecting I would live in Colorado

and experience my own, very real

Rocky Mountain High!

Source:  You Tube ~ EssentialDegnities

Rocky Mountain High

Raining Fire in the Sky

Note:  If anyone can identify the mountain peaks above Black Hawk and Central City,
           I would appreciate it! 

September 2013 Scavenger Hunt: Nova Scotia

I wish I could say I had been in Nova Scotia 
this September!  No such luck!

A 500 Year Rain Event in My City

With all that has happened in Colorado in recent weeks, 
I've had to search through my photo collection!

I hope that you enjoy my photos of 
a place that will always be home to me!

Smith's Cove, Digby County, Nova Scotia

Thanks to Jill 

and her Made with Love blog
for setting up the hunt.

Blog:  http://suzzie43.blogspot.com/

Hunt:  http://suzzie43.blogspot.com/p/scaerngera.html

September 2013 Scavenger Hunt:

Nova Scotia

Location of Nova Scotia
Source:  Wikimedia


1.  White

Fisherman's Wharf in Digby, Nova Scotia

Apple Blossom Princesses, Digby, Nova Scotia

2.  One

Fishing Boat, Bay of Fundy, 
Out of Westport, Brier Island

3.  Graffiti

Graffiti, Point Prim, Nova Scotia

4.  Ears

Whale, Bay of Fundy

A whale's middle and inner ear are located inside its lower jaw.
Auditory information enters a whale's head straight-on
and travels through its jawbone to the bulla (middle and inner ear).

Source:  Science Blogs

5.  Repetition

My Sister Bertie Shells Peas from the Garden

Lobster Feast

6.  Disney

An Escapee from Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean?
No ~ A Baker at the Annapolis Royal Farmers Market

7.  Lace

A Field of Queen Anne's Lace
Mavillette Beach, French Shore, Nova Scotia

Queen Anne's Lace

8.  New

New Apples Ripening on a Tree

 New Pie Crusts Out of the Oven

9.  Door Handle

New Door Handle on an Old Door
Bedroom in My Grandmother's House

The House That Jack Built
Smith's Cove, Nova Scotia
(My Grandfather)

10.  Beach Life

Jellyfish, Grand Passage, Brier Island

Ducks, Grand Passage, Brier Island

11.  Tree

My Great Aunt Nan's Basket
Smith's Cove Museum

There is nothing stranger than to go to a museum  

to see artifacts that were part of your childhood.

This basket was given to my Great Aunt Nan 

by Chief John Pictou of the Bear River Mi'kmaq .

It is made of bark from the white, red, yellow, and weeping birch trees.

Chief Greg McEwan of the Bear River Mi'kmaq

Working with Strips of Ash Tree, 2010

12.  Tatoo

 Waiting Outside the Tatoo Parlor


Of course Nova Scotia is famous for
a much different kind of tattoo:

The Royal Nova Scotia International Tatoo 

Source:  You Tube:  RNSIT

October's List:

Orange, 2, Flower, Rubbish, Emotion, Flight, Home Made, Black and White, Coffee Time, Balloon, Weather Cock, Fridge Magnet 

Denver Center's "Death of a Saleman" ~ A Play for Our Times

My spontaneous bid in the last minutes of a silent auction
landed Terry and me at Death of a Salesman last weekend.

Tickets for a Great Production, 2013

We hopped the light rail 
and headed downtown to the Space Theatre in  
The Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

Light Rail at Nine Mile Station

The "DCPA"  or "Denver Center" is the second largest 
performing art center in the world.
Only New York's Lincoln Center is bigger.

The Soaring Glass Roof

of The Denver Center for the Performing Arts

Denver Center has ten performance spaces
and more than 10,000 seats for theatre,
touring broadway productions, contemporary dance, ballet, 
chorales, opera, and a symphony orchestra.
Source:  Wikipedia

The Space Theatre at The Denver Center for the Performing Arts

I was really excited because there is nothing like live theatre!

Playbill:  The Denver Center for the Performing Arts

I studied this American classic a long time ago

in the fall of my first year at Acadia University,

but I had never seen the play staged.

Over the decades that have raced by, 
I never forgot Arthur Miller's compelling drama
of Willy Loman and his family.

Willy Loman is the protagonist of the play,
a 63-year-old traveling salesman,
who strove for the American Dream
and failed in his attempt.

Lee J. Cobb (Willy ~ seated )

Arthur Kennedy (Biff ~ left)

Cameron Mitchell (Happy ~ right)

Acting in the 1949 Broadway Production of 
Death of a Salesman

Source:  Wikipedia

Death of a Salesman opened at the Morosco Theatre

on Broadway on February 10, 1949.

Throughout its many productions since then, 
on broadway, on television, and in the movies,
the drama has received critical acclaim and many awards,
including the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama,
and an unprecedented four Tonys for
Best Broadway Production.

Original Playbill, Willy Loman, 1949

Source:  Wikipedia

I first studied this play in 1967,
at a time when anything seemed possible.
Yes, there were many difficult and troubling things
happening in the world then,
but we Baby Boomers believed 
that we would change the world for the better.

The play resonated with me then 
because Willy and Linda Loman made me think
of my parents and their struggle 
to provide a good education and a better future 
for my four siblings and myself.

At that time I was bubbling over with optimism 
and a sense of my world opening up and expanding.
I truly did not understand then
what it meant to work long and hard 
and to have unrealized dreams.

In Willy Loman's character, 
I glimpsed my father's darkness
and his lifelong battle to overcome
mental and physical illnesses.

In Linda, Willy's supportive wife,
I sensed my mother's deep love 
for her husband and children
and her determination to hold our family together.

I waited in the theater with such anticipation!
I wanted to see how the play would impact me
more than four decades and a lifetime later.

It seemed to take forever 
for the 450 seats 
in the Space Theatre to fill up ~
but fill up it did.

This cozy theatre-in-the-round 
with its center stage
and simple set 
provides its audience with 
an intimate experience of  
Death of a Salesman.

During the production
it feels like you can reach out
and touch the actors 
as they move about 
the almost bare stage.






The lights go down, 
the spotlight comes up,
and an exhausted Willy 
trudges in with two suitcases.

He is beaten down, and returning from 
a canceled business trip to New England.

For thirty-four years,
Willy has worked as a salesman
for the same company
pursuing the American Dream.

Throughout his long career, 
Willy has relied on
dressing right,
being well-liked,
and working hard 
to be successful.

However, 
Willy's career
is on a downhill slide.

He vacillates
between
recognizing his harsh reality
and hiding from the truth 
in delusions about his success
as a husband, 
a father, 
and a salesman.


Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, 1966 TV Movie
Source:  Wikipedia

Neither he nor his sons have succeeded socially or in business.
In fact, Biff steals, and Happy chases chippies.

Linda, wife and mother, loves her family
despite the weaknesses of her husband and sons.
She worries about what will happen to them all.
She worries about Willy committing suicide.

This tragedy of the common man 
builds to a gritty and climatic family argument 
and Willy's suicide in a car accident.

Playwright Arthur Miller

Source:  Wikipedia

Back in the late 1960s,

when anything seemed possible,

I could appreciate Willy's trials on an abstract level.

Certainly my extended generations of family

shared stories of how they had survived the Great Depression.
It's effects lingered in my Great Aunt Nan's 
drying and reusing paper towels
and in the sugar-rationed recipes she still baked with.

Today, five years out from the near collapse
of the financial system and the housing market, 
Death of a Salesman resonates ~
it has a relevance today 
that it didn't have when I first read it.

For so many the American Dream is slipping away.
And for many more it seems unreachable.

Income inequality in the United States,
which is a measure of the gap,
between the rich and the poor in a society,
has increased greatly in recent decades.
The US is now has the largest income gap
of any developed country, 
especially English-speaking ones.
In fact, the US ranks just below Nigeria,
a country with some of the worst political corruption in the world,
and one which experienced a nationwide strike and protests
over income inequality last year.
Source:  The Washington Post 9/27/2013

An important part of the American Dream
are the beliefs that by working hard
you can climb higher up the economic ladder in your lifetime 
and that your children can achieve a higher standard of living
than you did during their lifetimes.

Upward mobility in the US is changing.
It no longer seems to be the land of opportunity
with exceptional mobility rates that it once was.
It now ranks with Britain in inter-generational mobility
and lags many of the twenty countries in the OECD
(Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development).
Source:  Brookings 9/23/2013


Willy Loman's struggles are the reality 
for too many Americans today.
They reach for the American Dream
but it remains an illusion,
as they contend with unemployment,
stagnated or decreasing wages,
foreclosure, student debt,
and downward mobility.

First Edition Cover

Source:  Wikipedia

My parents sacrificed so much 
to give my three sisters, my brother, and me
an education which propelled each of us to successful careers 
and into stable, loving family relationships.

But we worry that no matter how much
we have loved, supported, and encouraged our next generation,
and no matter how hard these talented young men and women
study, work, and pursue their dreams,
they face much more challenging economic and social times 
than we ever did.

The Denver Theatre Company's production 
of Death of a Salesman is excellent.
The audience that watched this drama with us last Saturday
sat barely breathing through many riveting scenes.

Under Anthony Powell's direction, the talented actors
Mike Hartman (Willy Loman),
Laura Klein (Linda Loman)
John Patrick Hayden (Biff Loman)
and M. Scott McLean (Happy Loman),
brought this Brooklyn family's 
delusions and conflicts vividly alive.
They made it a drama for our time.

Attend this production if you can!
If you can't, consider reading this relevant classic.
It is as much about today 
as it was about the America of over sixty years ago.

For some photos of the 
The Denver Theatre Company's production click here.