{"id":9647,"date":"2021-07-10T09:06:28","date_gmt":"2021-07-10T13:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=9647"},"modified":"2021-09-09T07:26:18","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T11:26:18","slug":"episode-384-experiences-with-indigenous-people-ok-boys-pick-you-up-in-sault-ste-marie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=9647","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 384 EXPERIENCES WITH INDIGENOUS PEOPLE…”OK, BOYS, PICK YOU UP IN SAULT STE. MARIE.”"},"content":{"rendered":"
EPISODE 384     EXPERIENCES WITH INDIGENOUS PEOPLE…”OK, BOYS, PICK YOU UP IN SAULT STE. MARIE.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
July 2021<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
This story is too scattered\u2026I know that.  Originally much longer but I cut<\/div>\n
a lot.   Included is a small indigenous story\u2026an evening in a beer bar with <\/div>\n
our First Nations employees. The point of the story.  That evening was Warm and friendly\u2026<\/div>\n
as were most of my evenings with First Nations people in tiny communities across North<\/div>\n
America.<\/div>\n

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Please excuse the scattered story line.  No time to cut even more. If you<\/div>\n
need a theme then consider the story a bit of Canadiana.  This was a <\/div>\n
big year for Marjorie and me\u2026marriage.  The money I earned in the bush<\/div>\n
was invested in our honeymoon.   Three months labour spent in four days.<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n
AFERNOON SUN, LAKE SUPERIOR\u2026by Lawren Harris<\/div>\n

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\"\"<\/div>\n
PIC ISLAND, LAWREN HARRIS\u2026GROUP OF SEVEN<\/div>\n
Captures the hardness of some landscapes on Lake Superior\u2026near Marathon<\/div>\n

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This is the company town of Marathon looking out on to Lake Superior\u2026strikingly<\/div>\n
close to the paintings of Lawren Harris (i.e. Pic Island\u2026only  a few miles from<\/div>\n
the  town).  The town smelled bad\u2026air saturated with H2S\u2026hydrogen sulphide<\/div>\n
from the paper (cardboard) mill.  We set up camp in a gravel pit east of town.<\/div>\n

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Summer of 1963 is hard to forget.  We were married that year and, believe it or not,<\/div>\n
Marjorie was not sure I would make it to the wedding.  Dr. Paterson had sent me with<\/div>\n
a crew to check out the mineralization around Marathon, Ontario.  That\u2019s a long way<\/div>\n
from Toronto. I left all marriage arrangements to Marjorie.  <\/div>\n

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To ensure my return for the August 24 wedding, Marjorie, her guardian Phyllis Morgan and my<\/div>\n
mother decided to come to our bush camp and drive me back to Toronto. <\/div>\n

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 Everyone was in good<\/div>\n
spirits including the fellows in our crew.  <\/div>\n

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But there was one problem.  Our linecutting crew was First Nations people from Heron Bay, a reserve<\/div>\n
near Marathon.  It was getting late in August and the boys had planned a trip to Sault Ste Marie\u2026a drinking<\/div>\n
session in the bar at the Albert Hotel.  They had a ride down to the SAullt but no ride back to our camp.<\/div>\n

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\u201cDon\u2019t worry, boys, I\u2019ll drive down and pick you up;\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
There were two hitches in the plan.  <\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
HITCH #1:  The distance between Marathon and Sault Ste. Marie is 255 miles (411 km)\u2026.nearly<\/div>\n
a five hour drive.  A ten hour Drive there and back.  Not a big deal to residents of Northern Ontario.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
So away they went for the week-end .  Most of the time would be spent drinking beer and subsequent revelry.<\/div>\n

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HITCH #2:  Marjorie, aunt Phyllis and my mom were staying at the Albert Hotel the same evening.<\/div>\n
I was not too sure how they would react to the \u2018boys\u2019 in the beverage room. Now, in retrospect, I should<\/div>\n
have introduced them.  Stuffy of me not to do that.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Actually the whole experience was great.  I loved the lonely drive down to the Salt\u2026even stopped twice<\/div>\n
for a swim.   Did so when my eyes began to wander.  One swim at Batchawana Bay.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Meeting the \u2018boys\u2019 with all their friends was a great experience.   This was their turf\u2026their friends\u2026their week-end\u2026<\/div>\n
and they were being picked up by their boss.   The term boss is not nice. I wondered how it would work.  No need.  The moment I arrived<\/div>\n
in the bar room there was a great whoop and the boys hustled me to a seat and bought me a couple of<\/div>\n
draughts.   The glasses of beer were tiny in the 1960;\u2019s.  We socialized then the boys piled in the truck<\/div>\n
and we headed back to Marathon\u2026255 miles North west on Highway #17.    Arrived late at night.  Dropped<\/div>\n
the boys of at Heron Bay then hit the sack in our  tent camp.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Late the next afternoon the women arrived.     They loved the campsite and the Toronto crew.<\/div>\n
I think would hey have loved our Heron Bay crew,  Ojibwa First Nations, but they never met. My error.<\/div>\n

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HITCH #3    We got married right on time.  The Marathon gang sent us a card table\u2026good one,  lasted 40 years.<\/div>\n

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The beach near Marathon, Ontario\u2026with worn mountains in the distance.  The same mountains Lawren Harris saw and painted.<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EPISODE 384     EXPERIENCES WITH INDIGENOUS PEOPLE…”OK, BOYS, PICK YOU UP IN SAULT STE. MARIE.\u201d alan skeoch July 2021 This story is too scattered\u2026I know that.  Originally much longer but I cut a lot.   Included is a small indigenous story\u2026an evening in a beer bar with  our First Nations employees. The point of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9647\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}