Thanksgiving 1996

Kelowna (S.Woods)

 "The rising sun blazes through the misty air like a conflagration. A filmy mist lies like a silver lining on the sky. The wind soft and low...."  -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

 I remember many Falls. Many autumns where the grass turned to straw. Back east in Ontario. Where the leaves turned red. And the wind actually did blow soft and low.

 I remember a Thanksgiving day in St. Albert, Alberta. In 1996. I loved St. Albert. It was so beautiful. The people were geniune. From green to gold canola fields.  Thanksgiving always lands  around October 10th, give or take.  Leaves  basically at the end of their lives. A hint of winter.  Fall stretched forever.

 We rushed down to Lacombe Lake   to take a  photo.You know the type. The family photo for the yearly Christmas card.  It was freezing. There was a lot of green still at the lake.  Shiver shiver. Teeth chattered. We hopped up and down. Just one photo, I said.

It wafts to us the odour of forest leaves, that hang wilted on the dripping branches, or drop into the stream....

 Here in B.C.  Fall is kind of drippy, kind of soggy. Ragged coastlines with the incomparable pomp or clouds billowing here and there.

 Green and misty. Declining splendour that I find very appealing.

 With cats ,like Cordelia, sitting on  scratched fences. She, watching spiders spin and birds race to get away.

Kelowna ( S. Woods)

 Orange, yellow and scarlet , all are changed to one melancholy russet hue..... 

 I remember that same  Fall 1996. That same year we rushed down to Lacombe Lake. We were posted from Kingston to Edmonton ( St. Albert). I remember we drove the long drive in Ontario.   With a car that was slowly clunking it's way to the bitter end. It sounded dreadful. We had no way of knowing if we were going to make it. Two cats. Two kids. Two adults. Two boxes of crackers left.

Then we hit Marathon . The top of  nowhere. North Shore of Lake Superior, north of Pukaskwa Provincial Park. The heart of the Canadian Shield. In the Fall. Beautiful. 

But the car  limped.

 And with it, we limped. Almost winter up there. A car laden with everything that would not fit on the moving truck. Two adults. Two Kids. Two Cats. Stamp collection. Books. Two Boxes of crackers. 

 And all of a sudden. At Marathon. That Fall. The car died. In the middle of nowhere. Sometime after the rain had ceased. Before autumn frost would start in  dark of night. Two cats. Two kids. One box of crackers left.
 The tow truck came.  When dark had descended. It had trouble finding us.  I had borrowed the phone at the corner drugstore. Rest of town was shut down for the night, by 5pm. Of course . And the mist socked in. Like some sort of Stephen King novel. Two cats. Two kids. One box of crackers.Oh and two adults.  This was before cell phones, mind you. The lady on the phone couldn't find us on the map. Said we'd have to spend the night in the car. With two cats. Two kids and one box of crackers between us. Eventually, the drugstore owner called his friend, the Local tow truck driver. He came. About three hours after we broke down. Apparently, the guy had been at the local hangout eating his dinner. He wasn't in any hurry. Patience. Patience.Our phone call interrupted his repast. On the way back, he made a pit stop. He had to finish his dinner. With  Two cats. Two kids. And the box of crackers  in tow. Oh, and us....drenched by the rain, and snow coming down.

 The local hangout wouldn't let us in ,with two kids, or two cats, or the crackers, for that matter.  We had to wait outside in the dark. We were allowed to use the bathroom. Then were booted outside Cold. Snow starting to trickle down. Starting to worry about the cats, and our very young children.The owner came out and yelled at the  tow truck guy  to hurry up and finish his dinner. He was eating a steak dinner with boiled potatoes and coffee. It looked a  lot better than crackers.

We piled into his cab. He hauled up the car with the two cats. And off we hurtled down the highway towards the next town. Some 100 kilometres away. After midnight.  It was pitch black.. Snow  piling down. Mist and fog. There was a lake close by  we were told. Which would ice over soon.Tow Truck man said we should come back in January and do a little ice fishing. I declined .

We came across a moose shuffling along the side of the road, in the gully. Tow truck man said he'd encountered one  the week before. Had wrecked his other truck.Totalled it.  The car bopped and  shuffled behind us. Two cats stood in the back of the car swinging merrily from the chains.  Save us. They said. We made it to the next town.  With the snow. I the early morning hours.Two cats. Two kids. An empty box of crackers. Oh, and us.  The broken car was fixed next day.  A day later, we toddled on to Edmonton , some three days away. Leaves falling. Wind whooshing.  And that was the Thanksgiving we took that photo at Lacombe Lake. Two Kids. And Us. With the Two cats at home.  Have never eaten crackers after that trip.  But we were thankful to be there  for Thanksgiving 1996.

 The birds, too, have taken wing, and have left their roofless dwellings.....

Quotes from "Indian Summer" by H. W. Longfellow (from 1000 Beautiful Things, 1948)