strictly
personal

WHEN I was !6 years old, I
headed east from Winnipeg
on a Greyhound bus in
January, equipped with
only a summer sieeping bag
and some cheap Boy Scout

_’ camping gear, intent on

. experiencing the Tom
, Thomson-like ecstasy of
being alone in the Canadian
: wilderness i in winter.

I got. ‘the driver to let me off
shortly: after crossing the border
‘into Ontario. As the bus disap-
peared down the highway, a ring-
~ ing silence closed in, broken only
by the cawing of crows.

‘[-was alone in the second
“largest boreal forest.in the world, :
surrounded by dark coniferous

trees stooped under huge cones of

“Sow. ;,

ve. had gone “winter camping”

. before, but only: for daytime: trips.

“This was to be my first ~

évernighter. And despite the ”

famous Scouting motto, | was
most definitely not prepared.

_o| | snowshoed maybe a mile into
the woods, checking my compass
and chipping the bark of every
third or fourth tree so 1 would be

able to find my way back.

But when I decided to stop and
make a fire, | discovered that my
atchet wasn’t biting very far into

‘the frozen wood. Only the thinnest

igs could be broken off. .

-This was going-to be a daunt-

ing task, keeping a big fire going

-m and that’s what} had counted

on to stay alive.” .

Darkness fel! early and swiftly.

"| could feel.the ‘sthal atumos-

here around me closing like a

“fist. It-was too late to try to find
my way back to the highway, and
‘my. stack of wood, acquired at the
‘cost of more sweat than was good

© for me:in the cold, was barely”

more than kindling.

The possibility of freezing to
: death was suddenly in the cards,

It was almost pitch black when
“a voice boomed at me out of the
* shadows: “You're on my proper-

tyr

: A brown-skinned man wearing
thick furs and real moccasins.

with long black hair held in place
by a headband, snowshoed into
view, cradling a three-ought-three,

I stammered out an explanation
of how 1 dida't know [was on
anybody's property, and how it
wails too kite to go back now, and
how | was getting kind of worried
because it wis turning so cold,
and how ft was having trouble
gathering enough woud.

His eyes took in my gear.

“No tent?” he asked.

i“ didn't think Ud need it”

“1's gonna get plenty cold.” he
observed, and then, with a shrug.
leaned his gun against a tree,
unslung a saw, and starting taking
down branches.

Within minutes, he had a big
pile ready. A few more minutes
and a fire was crackling.

As E unpacked my cooking
stuff, he walked off into the bush,
returning some 10 minutes later
with a freshly snared rabbit.

He skinned it, gutted it, and
soon had it turning on a spit. He
showed me how to cook it until
you could break a bone and the
marrow would bubble.

“That's when it's ready.” .

It so happened | had brought
along a bottle of port. The moon
had sailed clear of the treetops by
then. ;

My savior told me he was a
pure-blood Huron, which ran
against everything | had been
taught in school. The Hurons were
supposed to be extinct, felled by

' smallpox and Iroquois. But he was

adamant.
And who was | to argue with

‘this very real Indian squatting

across the fire from me? We fin-
ished the rabbit, cleaned out a can
of beans and another of fruit, and

- polished off the port.

The air seemed to have drained

‘from the sky and stuck to the

snowdrifts around us, and the
deadly chill of space pressed
down. -

It was only a reflection of the
moon, but a light seemed to be
coming out of the ground itself, a
blue-green light being beamed up
from below, shining through the
moulded glass of the ice glazing .
everything. . :
~ “Before he crunched on his.

: snowshoes away into the night.

my-Huron friend told me what to
do to stay alive until dawn. First,

‘we heaped the fire up until it was

roaring and spread it out over.the
flat glacial moraine.

He instructed me to wait for.
the flames to burn down com-

pletely, then place my sleeping
’ bag.in the ashes. It wouldn't be

very comfortable, but the rock
would hold the heat of the fire,
releasing it as the hours went by
into’my sleeping bag.

As long as 1 remembered to
keep turning over, I should

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It went down to something like
14 below zero that nighl, By
rights. morning should have found
me huddled stiffly ina sleeping
bag turned body bag. my mole.
cules adhering to the rock, fusing
ine to the planet :

Thad been saved hy a tip from
a man whose almost-extinct tribe
tad been surviving on Us
scoured rockfuce since the last
glacier had melted away.

The odds against his stumbling
across ne when he did in the
midst of that vast winter so-mian’s
land were astronomical.

Come dawn, | was giddy from
exhaustion and frozen fron the
knees down.

Many decades later, after 1 had
finished writing a history of
Canada from the native point of
view, a book tided Occupied
Canada, | learned that my great-
great-grandmother on my moth-
er’s side, the French side of my
family, had been a Huron.

She had married a man named
Gauvreau from Quebec and
canoed with him west to Rupert's
Land, where they settled in what
became southern Manitoba.

After a couple of generations.
their grandchildren moved to St.
Boniface, at the juncture of the

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Red und Assiniboine rivers, where
they were accepted as regular
Freneh- Canadians.

In defiance of her father, just
before the Second World War, my
nother mierried sma front sot
ancient Scottish tribe called the
Hunter clan. And Chere Twas, at
the tender age of 16, being saved
trot personal extinction by aman
from another ancient ibe. a real
hunter who was probably a distam
tnele of mine. our paths crossing
in the immensity of the Canadian
Shield for a brief critical moment,
as our bloodlines had anee, long
ago inthe immensity of time. also
crossed.

Lucky tor me the Hurons
hadn't gone extinet. after all,

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SKINNER _

“Buyer’s Remorse”?
When you sign a purchase agreement ona
hew home, you'll almost certainly feel an
attick of incredibly intense panic and
anxiety. Did | pay too much’? Is it really
the right onc’? How can Fever pay those
enormous mortgage payments? How can t
get out of 17 This is a completely normal
response called “buyer's remorse”,

When you feel it coming on, there are 8
caugle of things you can,do ~ i) call a
friend who's owned a home for a few
years. While their mortgage payments
seemed high at first. now they'te probably |
less than they"d be paying to rent a smaller
place. Then there's pride|of ownership,
they will have worked to enhance the

‘| value of their property. How did they feel

when they first signed on the dated line?
Just as anxious as you are, but now they're
really glad they went through with it. ii)
Share your emotions with your realtor - a
goed realtor will empathize, knowing that
everyone experiences these feeling to-a
greater or lesser extent. Indeed, this
tealtor will undoubtedly at some ‘time
have personally felt just the same,

So when you experience buyer's remorse,
just hang in there — these feelings will
pass! .

Pam und Alan Skinner are Beene séaltons with
REMAX Crest Reatty 988-7368

Apan from their pouled educational qualifications
MBA, CGA, B.Sc, BA, B.Comm, Pain has an extensive | '
background in Wills and Estatex“with a major trust
company and Alan was fornierly’s senior banker with

Lune of the major chartered bunks,

A&B GEM JEWELLERS

UTNE SCT ato sa ty