4 - Sunday, September 29, 1991 - North Shore News Looking for Tom Thomson’s ghost MY FIRST and stil! favorite hero was Tom Thomson, the Group of Seven artist who brought the splendor of places like Georgian Bay and Algonquin Park to life on a canvas in a way no other artist has ever done. One of the few regular pilgrimages I have made through my life is to Ottawa a dozen ar so times fo visit the Tom Thomson paintings in first the old leaking National Art Gallery, and now the triumphant new building across the Rideau from Parliament Hill. If I have a ‘*Canadian”’ identi- ty, Thomson's canvases would be the best visualization of it. Born in Manitoba, | was familiar with the evergreen forests of the Laurentian Shield as they spilled out onto the Prairie. First as a boy scout and later as a solitary teenager camper, 1 would find myself quite mesmer- ized when I got out in that kind of wild nature. I felt psychologically ‘‘at home” in some peculiar way that 1 never did back in my real home in the city. it was as though I was intended to be out in the bush, much more so than locked up in an urban birdcage. The reader will recognize herein the ravings of a hopeless roman- tic. But that’s what the bush br- ings out, whether a guy is out there hunting, taking pictures, or just hiking or canoeing about: a romantic (i.e., larger-than-life) sense of one’s role in relation to the world. There, you are out from behind the walls that normally protect you. You are down on the actual ground on your own two feet. The slabs of concrete, windows of shatterproof glass, metal floorplates and bolted and chained doors that normally separate you from any physical contact with earth, wind or rain, are gone. Your ears ring for the longest time. Now, while 1 had not gone camping purely and simply for the sake of camping, for 29 years, at least | had vivid memories of what it was like. Bob STRICTLY PERSONAL My son Will, a {2-year-old Nintendo-era savant, had no framework to fall back on, except perhaps the two Tom Thomson prints I long ago tacked up on his bedroom wall: Northern River and Spring Ice. Otherwise, Will is a B.C. boy for whom a forest is the Carmanah, not Temagami. The destination I had selected on the map of Algonquin was a small lake that led into a series of meandering tributaries in the midst of which was a cairn honor- ing none other than Tom Thom- son, who drowned under mysterious circumstances near there in the 1920s. Alas, either my boy scout in- Stincts had atrophied or the print was too damn small on the map for my reading glasses to pick up the key signals, but within an hour of paddling we were lost. (Me, former leader of the Coyote Patrol, 4th Winnipeg Boy Scouts. The shame!) Darkness was falling. It was starting to rain. The kid thought it was great. “Who wants to go to a desig- Windshield? SEUQTESTED LC.B.C. Claims — repairs & replacement OCT. 1- NOV. 1i91 ONLY | With Every Windshield Replacement: Interior/Exterior Clean & Power Polish* (* Mos’ Cars) g New Wiper Blades We are the Pros! 20 Years on the North Shore Dan Wada Glass Ltd. as we yoo’ CYA OFZ } NOATH SHORE AUTO GLASS 980-757 1 407 Mountain Hwy. = SRE REE nated camping spot anyway. Dad?" So we went ashore on an island, pitched the tent and vot a fire go- ing. Expecting to be busted in the morning for illegal camping. 1 Prepared my exeuse: a fife or death situation, Mr. Parks Of- ficer. We had no choice. A couple of hours later, it oc- curred to me how quainty urban that kind of thinking was; worry- ing about what to say to an of- ficial, when, in fact, the real thing to be concerned about was... Bears. Ah, yes. Bears. Back when | was paying for our camping per- mit, the young woman at the counter had pointed out on the map where most of the bear sightings had been in the last week. The bulk of the campers who had gone out in the last few days were accordingly huddled together down at the south end of the fake, where there hadn’t been any sightings at all. Crazy with machismo, 1 had decided to head north, figuring it was worth the risk of spotting a bear or two in the distance in order to avoid running into other human beings. My, how ‘‘distance’’ shrinks in utter duikness! The island we were on was only 20 or 30 feet from the shore, and the water between was just knee- deep. [ hung all our food up ina tree to discourage nocturnal visits by hungry omnivores, yet the thought would net go away: all the food was up in a tree except... Will and me. The kid adapted to nature with no trouble at all. “This is totally cool, Dad’? he announced as he slipped into his sleeping bag, nodding off within minutes. Leaving Dad listening with bat- like intensity to every liule crun- ching and snapping sound in the enveloping blockness, remember- ing such long-forgotten nuggets as Jack London’s Law of Meat, and the historical, footnote suggesting that Tom Thomson might in the end have been attacked by a bear. Just half a mile or a mile or two froin here. Stay tuned for astonishing con- clusion to this saga of father-son bonding. If Tom Thomson had been with us, he might have painted some new masterpieces with titles like Air Mattress Leak and Melted Styrofoam. North Shore drivers guilty of drinking RECENT CONVICTIONS in North Shore courts have resulted in fines and penalties, including a driving suspension, for drinking and driving related offences: NORTH VANCOUVER: Karl Heinz Rolke, 29, ¢/o 123 East Third St... North Vancouver (over .08, $1,000 fine, two-year driver’s licence suspension); a: ; . All remaining: be liquidated at sthe-fali-ot Christine Louise Smith, 28, 1766 Evelyn St... North Van- couver (impaired, 21 days jail, 18-month driver's licence suspension). WEST VANCOUVER: Mathew Steven Brent, 37, 9080 Desmond Rd., Richmond (breathalyser refusal, $425 fine, one year driver’s licence suspension). HUNDREDS OF FINE QUALITY Your Honda In Shape For Fall & Winter When your Honda needs a Helle tender loving care, don’t trust your pride and joy with anything less than genuine Honda Parts & Service. © Factory trained technicians. © We fix it right the first time. ¢ Dollar for dollar you won’t get better value anywhere. * Open 6 days a week. "725 MARINE DRIVE _ NORTH VANCOUVER 984.0331 UNRESERVED “ GENUINE HAND KNOTTED PERSIAN CARPETS Room size, area rugs and runners of all sizes in wool and silk-and-wool blend -—~ all must be liquidated. If you visited UNITED COLLECTION AGENCIES INC. at w. Broadway in the past and saw carpets you wished you could afford, now is the time to take advantage of the EXTRA SAVINGS available at this hetd over unresetved auction. Auction will be held at the HOLIDAY iNN 711 West Broadway (at Heather) 737-9958 Sun. Sept. 29 Viewing 12 noon Mon. Sept. 30 Viewing 5 p.m. Auction starts 2 p.m. Auction starts 7 p.m. EO mn meno «