02 – EARLY DAYS : Arrival

from Prologue

“This part of the story came from my mother’s memories. She

told them to me. I was there but too little to remember.

My dad and his partner, George Delbridge had staked a claim

in Northern Ontario. It was a mile to the mine, Little Long Lac.

They worked there and built homes on the claim for their families.

T he homes were two log cabins built end to end with a wood

and storage shed in between.They were a short distance from the

railway and a mile from the mine.

            Mom and I stepped down from the train in the summer of

1932. The only thing beside my father and the station agent was

an old box car, sitting on ties, with a sign ‘The Station’. Back in

the trees she could see a small log cabin. On the south side, a short

distance away there was a little clearing in the bush.That was the

beginning of a dog sled trail that led to the mine.

            Dad put our extra baggage in the station. He picked up two

suitcases, Mom picked me up and we started down the track the

way our train had gone.We came to a trail and turned into the

bush. After a ten minute walk we arrived at our cabin, the first

one.The door was at the north end, stovepipe on the south end

and two windows on the west side. Inside a rough kitchen table,

three chairs, a highchair for me and bunk beds along the walls. The

walls were finished in tree bark. When they built the cabins they

had to hurry to finish for winter. Mom had lived in the city [of Port Arthur].”

            The second page of the Prologue describes Mother unpacking supplies and finding a frozen pig. A neighbour advised her how to make headcheese. Another surprise was lifting the lid of a steaming pot and finding two eyes staring at her. She learned how to make nice headcheese.

            During the summer of 1933, the family lived in two tents at Hardrock siding while Father built a new home of peeled logs.

DO YOU REMEMBER . . .

a) your first day in Geraldton?

b) what surprised you about Geraldton?