Subject: Danis first trip to Uganda
Dear Olivia
in 1965 when Dani was only 1 year old I took a teaching job in Kampala Uganda. It was very scary as there were no books about that country except by a man and woman who were nearly eaten by lions while sleeping in their tent. The news here was about white people being massacred in the Congo. But we decided to go.
Baby Dani and Grandma Geraldine waited in Montreal while I went to school to learn about living in the tropics. Then we flew with ten other teachers and families to Paris. We taxied around Paris for a day then got on a plane. In the Rome airport Dani had had enough of this travelling and screamed. One teacher, Bill Carter (later to become Rods god father) gave Dani a drink of wine. Dani was plastered and fun for everyone except his mother. When we got on the plane for Entebbe, Dani was asleep.
Next morning we landed on the blue shore of Lake Victoria with red soil surrounded by lush green forest. Black men wearing white overalls pushed a stairway out to our plane and we were on African soil.
We lived in the Kampala Hotel 2 weeks before getting a house I think I showed you some movies of Dani and your Mom playing in the backyard. We loved to take weekend trips like the one you will take this weekend with Dani and Rod to Murchison Falls Park. Dani used to laugh when I drove off the road to chase bush pigs. (bad!) I think this is why a few years ago he and my dog chased the sheep through a fence. Have fun at Murchison this weekend. Hope they sill have elephants and other animals feeding under th lights at night. Hold onto Danis hand so he doesnt chase the pigs. Love Grampa larry
White people being massacred... no one tells the Christmas Classics like Grampa Larry...Rod
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Friday, December 14, 2007
Karma threatened by Dogma
Dear NDs
I believe we must find a sensible position on the nuclear power issue. While I try to use less energy (I walk my dog rather than drive a car for sheep roundup) and am subscribed to produce more wind power, the reality seems more energy demands coming from all sources including nuclear. As a layman I have tried to get information on this issue from 2 experts whom I know personally as honourable people, a nuclear medicine specialist and a geologist from this ND caucus. Both sources scoff when I pose a question on information from the other's assertions re nuclear plants. Last week the Doc dismissed the Geologist's letter as poor writing and then sent me a map showing no the active fault lines in Alberta, except along the Rockies. I sent the reference for the map to geologist. His reaction, "stick to ranching, something I know something about." (In fact my dog knows more about that than me). Like my honourable friends I am a grandfather concerned about the world I leave to my off spring. If I am left confused with dogmatic response to either believe me or get lost, what about the population our party hopes to convince?
We in the NDP need to debate this issue of nuclear power before making credible policy . So far I am putting my trust in the Pembina Institute for information. I request our next convention debate the issue, not, as in past, inviting only people who agree with the party. As the old Buddhist says our carma (sic) may be run over by our dogma
best in 08
larry
I believe we must find a sensible position on the nuclear power issue. While I try to use less energy (I walk my dog rather than drive a car for sheep roundup) and am subscribed to produce more wind power, the reality seems more energy demands coming from all sources including nuclear. As a layman I have tried to get information on this issue from 2 experts whom I know personally as honourable people, a nuclear medicine specialist and a geologist from this ND caucus. Both sources scoff when I pose a question on information from the other's assertions re nuclear plants. Last week the Doc dismissed the Geologist's letter as poor writing and then sent me a map showing no the active fault lines in Alberta, except along the Rockies. I sent the reference for the map to geologist. His reaction, "stick to ranching, something I know something about." (In fact my dog knows more about that than me). Like my honourable friends I am a grandfather concerned about the world I leave to my off spring. If I am left confused with dogmatic response to either believe me or get lost, what about the population our party hopes to convince?
We in the NDP need to debate this issue of nuclear power before making credible policy . So far I am putting my trust in the Pembina Institute for information. I request our next convention debate the issue, not, as in past, inviting only people who agree with the party. As the old Buddhist says our carma (sic) may be run over by our dogma
best in 08
larry
Monday, December 3, 2007
70 years ago
70 YEARS AGO MY PARENTS MARRIED IN NANTON
Mom said she first saw Dad hanging around the Sun Prairie Social Circle. He had come to Alberta from Cape Breton on a 1926 harvest excursion train ($50 plus half a cent per mile, he would say in his later years). It was a wet fall and his cousins and buddies rode the rods back to CB that winter. Because Dad had worked with horses he drove teams and that winter was hired to look after horses belonging to, Lougheed, a wealthy man. ("No loss when he died ," Dad would say) During a Dirty Thirties duststorm Dad found his way into Nanton by hanging onto a barbed wire fence. Meanwhile Mom, unable to become a teacher as she wished, met Dad at the Sun Prairie Social Circle . "I saw him alone and hanging around." she would tell us. Their first date was to see "Trail of the Lonesome Pine" at the Broxy Theatre in Nanton. They were married Dec 1 1937 in St Cecelia's Catholic Church annex since Dad would not convert. Mom was hurt since her father, who committed suicide when she was 11, had named both her and the church for his favourite saint. Adding salt in later years, Dad would say, "Worst thing I did was marry a Catholic." They honeymooned in B.C. and when Mom moved into the old Sun Prairie school house, a pile of dirty dishes awaited her. After Mom and Dad were gone, Uncle Barney showed me the Tapp house, a little shack near Grandma Kinney's farm where my parents and I spent my first winter in ‘38 as the school house was too hard to heat. Today going out to cut some wood for our stove I think of Dad making an overnight trip by horse and wagon to Timber Ridge. (He stayed the night with some fellow who played the fiddle). In his last year, I took Dad to the Carmengay Nursing Home 30 miles to the east of here. "I came here for coal," he remarked. "You must've gone to my grandfather's pit," the matron replied. ("Broken Victories," my story in Grain Magazine chronicles the difficult ending to Dad's life and the effort my siblings and I made to keep him at home after Mom decided, despite a risk to her heart, to allow him back home since the local nursing home was keeping him unconscious on strong drugs. After he broke his tailbone, we moved him to Carmengay and it was here Marilyn saw Mom kiss the top of his head and proclaim " I always did love you , you know," Soon she was dead and he would follow her in just 3 weeks. Seemed to me he had no reason to live without their long struggle to keep him going. They were the last of a breed, surviving and sacrificing so much for the 10 kids they produced. As I gather wood, I hear a wailing sound and look up at a V of geese heading south. I think of Grandma Kinney coming one spring from Illinois and upon seeing geese arriving deciding this must be a nice place. What did she think after the man she married killed himself and left her with 4 children to raise?
Mom said she first saw Dad hanging around the Sun Prairie Social Circle. He had come to Alberta from Cape Breton on a 1926 harvest excursion train ($50 plus half a cent per mile, he would say in his later years). It was a wet fall and his cousins and buddies rode the rods back to CB that winter. Because Dad had worked with horses he drove teams and that winter was hired to look after horses belonging to, Lougheed, a wealthy man. ("No loss when he died ," Dad would say) During a Dirty Thirties duststorm Dad found his way into Nanton by hanging onto a barbed wire fence. Meanwhile Mom, unable to become a teacher as she wished, met Dad at the Sun Prairie Social Circle . "I saw him alone and hanging around." she would tell us. Their first date was to see "Trail of the Lonesome Pine" at the Broxy Theatre in Nanton. They were married Dec 1 1937 in St Cecelia's Catholic Church annex since Dad would not convert. Mom was hurt since her father, who committed suicide when she was 11, had named both her and the church for his favourite saint. Adding salt in later years, Dad would say, "Worst thing I did was marry a Catholic." They honeymooned in B.C. and when Mom moved into the old Sun Prairie school house, a pile of dirty dishes awaited her. After Mom and Dad were gone, Uncle Barney showed me the Tapp house, a little shack near Grandma Kinney's farm where my parents and I spent my first winter in ‘38 as the school house was too hard to heat. Today going out to cut some wood for our stove I think of Dad making an overnight trip by horse and wagon to Timber Ridge. (He stayed the night with some fellow who played the fiddle). In his last year, I took Dad to the Carmengay Nursing Home 30 miles to the east of here. "I came here for coal," he remarked. "You must've gone to my grandfather's pit," the matron replied. ("Broken Victories," my story in Grain Magazine chronicles the difficult ending to Dad's life and the effort my siblings and I made to keep him at home after Mom decided, despite a risk to her heart, to allow him back home since the local nursing home was keeping him unconscious on strong drugs. After he broke his tailbone, we moved him to Carmengay and it was here Marilyn saw Mom kiss the top of his head and proclaim " I always did love you , you know," Soon she was dead and he would follow her in just 3 weeks. Seemed to me he had no reason to live without their long struggle to keep him going. They were the last of a breed, surviving and sacrificing so much for the 10 kids they produced. As I gather wood, I hear a wailing sound and look up at a V of geese heading south. I think of Grandma Kinney coming one spring from Illinois and upon seeing geese arriving deciding this must be a nice place. What did she think after the man she married killed himself and left her with 4 children to raise?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)