Chilcotin’s gates of hell

BIG CREEK — A news report from hell, where the press
has seat some of its best reporters, informs us that a
Chilcotin rancher’s old wife has taken out immigrant

papers there.

When she died, she went to St.
Peter at the pearly gates, who was
quite prepared to accept her, but
she said she couldn’t face one
more gate to open.

Not opening gates any more
was what made death worth while.
So she said thank you Pete, but
went to hell, which is apparently
still only half full and accepts all
applicants, even the sinless.

Anybody who has spent time in
the ranch country will understand
that poor woman's feelings. There
is no more beautiful! structure
than a pole gate, all four metres
of it.

There are few structures of
more practical design. They are
the stuff of pure craftsmanship.

Further, and much more impor-
tant, the opening and closing of
gates is a ritual almost holy in the
ranching country.

It used to oe said ‘Here, you
can do anything you like as long
as it doesn’t startle the horses."’

That's not the whole story.
Don’t leave gates open either.
Ever. Not even once. Not even for
five minutes.

Apart from horses and bankers,
gates are one‘of the most impor-
tant objects in life on a ranch.

Gates keep rank, uncut studs
from good mares.

They keep cows from straying
to the far back of beyond and
prevent horses from suiciding
under logging trucks.

When a gate that should be
kept closed is feft open, it can eas-
ily cost the rancher two days of
work and riding to repair the
damage.

Almost all ranch meadows have
at least two gates, one to go one
place and one to go another with
a piece of road connecting them.

A lone motorist must stop,
open it, get back in the car, drive
through, stop the car, close the
gate and return to the car.

Ifitis an old, awkward,
woreout, sagging gate that groans
and sways, fe should also say his
rosary.

When there are two people ina
vehicle, usually the rancher and
his wife, she on the passenger side
must get out and open the gate,
no matter how heavy it be, no
matter that it has scraped a deep
quarter circle rut in the ground.

Passengers always do the gate
opening in this couniry. It is the
custom. More than custom, it is

Ancient Rome
brought to life

in free lecture

DRAWING FROM the past
to enlighten the ' present,
Professor Alan Watson of
the University of Georgia’s
School of Law will speak
on Religion and War in
Ancient Rome: Lessons for
Modern Conflict at the
University of British Col-
umbia on Saturday, Oct.
24.

A superb linguist, Watson is
considered a_ stimulating public
speaker, an entertaining raconteur
and a world authority on Roman
and comparative legal studies. His
interests range across centuries
and continents.

Watson will speak in Lecture
Hali Two of UBC's Instructiona!
Resources Centre beginning at
8:15 p.m.

A Cecil and Ida Green Lecture,
the evening is part of the Van-
couver [Institute lecture series.
Admission is free. For more in-
formation call 822-3131.

Paul
St. Pierre

PAULITICS & PERSPECTIVES

the law. Everybody knows it to be
the law,

Should Her Majesty Queen
Elizabeth be driven across these
stony acres by her royal chauffeur
in her royal Rolls, be assured he
would just sit there behind the
wheei while Elizabeth Windsor
went out to wrestle 90 kilos of
poles.

She would understand, of
course. The Royal Family knows
about traditions. But she wouldn't
like it.

If she had to do it often
cnough, she, too, might shy at the
sight of the pearly gates.

Yet the gate is a faultless cre-
ation, and it exists just about ev-
erywhere in western North
America where the Lodgepole
Pine can be had.

There is a tail, four or five
metre high pole at the gate hinge,

Firefighters

THE NORTH Vancouver City
Fire Department’s seventh an-
nual Halloween dance will be
held on Friday, Oct. 30, from
7:30 p.m. to just past midnight
at the Fraternal! Order of
Eagles Hali, 170 West Third
St., North Vancouver.

The popular event has been
sold out each year.

Tickets for the dance are $10
each and can be picked up

and another towering pole beside
it to hold it.

The second pole may be held
upright by long, thin tie poles
angled down toward the fence.
Sometimes it is anchored in a crib
of racks.

The gates are made with brace
and augur, the peeled pine sticks
being fitted into the two end
uprights.

A good man can cut the sticks,
peel them and build a gate in two
days. A very good man could do
it in one, although such a man has
not yet been hired here.

In the case of the Russell Fence,
another feature of the landscape,
we know who originated the
design — Mr. Russell of
Hamilton, Ontario, back in the
long, long ago.

Who originated the pole gate is
not known, but he, too, was an
engineer. (An engincer is a nan
who does for one dollar what any
damn fool can do for two
dollars.)

Trouble is, pole gates get old.
They can jast half a century, some
say 75 years even, but after the
first five or 10 of those years they
begin to sag.

When they sag they must be
half carried, half dragged to open
and the locking pole no longer
reaches the hole bored for it in the
post.

The iron cup that forms the
base for the 1. 'l pole Fills with ice
in winter, and when the gate is
swung the wood splinters and later
decays.

Eventually, all gates become
groaning, moaning, screeching
horrors, invitations to vile pro-
fanity and painful hernias.

In spite of this Chilcotin is a
nice country. It is to be hoped
that this unhappy subject will not
have to be raised again.

host dance

from the North Vancouver City
Fire Department, 165 East 13th
St. Party-goers will also be
asked to donate a can of food
to get into the dance.

All proceeds from the dance
this year will go to the fire
department’s scholarship fund
and to the North Shore Food
Bank.

Costumes are a must for the
event.

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Friday, October 16. 1992 - North Shore News - 2

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MS 1016

Tony has jus?
returned from a
buying trip where
hs purchased a
fabulous selection
of Italian fabrics.
This purchase has
given us the
opportunity to
pass on the
saving ina

CUSTOM
MADE
SUIT
SALE

Reg. $1200 to $1800
FOR ONLY

Oh what a feeling!

xe

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G

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