The Lansdowne Letters: A Narking Situation

My father resumed his northern Lansdowne Letters to our extended
Nova Scotian and Prince Edward Islander family in early January,




Wednesday, January 11, 1961 
My father wrote to our extended family:

Here we go again Folks:
The cottonpickin’ weather closed in on us, and Mr. Foss is in for an extra day.  Thank goodness, though, that he spent all his time with Uno.  I don’t think that I could have stood another day with him in my room.  I do know, though, that it is a good sign for me that he elected to spend his time in Uno’s room.  It shows that he saw nothing in my room that he wanted changed, or he would have been over advising me.  It shows that he was pretty well satisfied with what he found.

Well, I finally unraveled a mixed up situation that had me up in the air for quite a spell.  Previous to today, whenever I saw a kid not doing anything, I’d ask him:  “You’re not through with your work, are you?”  Most of the time the kid would say:  “Yes.”  Then I’d tell him to put away his books and read a magazine or a storybook.  In a very short time I’d have most of the kids in, say grade three, reading magazines; and when this happened, I’d tell them to take out their books, and we’d start to correct the work.  Always, as soon as I started to correct the work, I’d discover that no one had anything done.  Of course, I’d be understandably narked about the whole thing, and relations would be a bit strained for a while in the classroom.  The funny part of the whole thing was that the Indian children would be just as narked as I would, and after I had given them Hell, they wouldn’t be a bit repentant, merely righteously indignant.

Well, as I said earlier, it finally untangled itself today and turned out to be a language problem.  Whenever I asked a kid, “You haven’t got your work done, have you?” and he’d answer, “Yes,” I’d assume he meant yes he had it done.  The Indian, on the other hand, was only confirming that he didn’t have it done.  In other words, his “yes” ment “Yes, I haven’t got it done.”

As it turned out, the Indians were just as puzzled and upset about the whole thing as I was.  They couldn’t figure out why I would tell them to put away their work right after they had told me that they weren’t finished with it; and, if you think this confused them, just imagine what a crazy white man they must have thought me when I’d bawl Hell out of them for not having their work done.  Anyway, it’s all sorted out now, and we all had a great laugh over it when we finally discovered each other’s confusion.

I bought a nice new Harris Tweed sport coat today for $15.00.  Uno had this coat that he had bought last summer and had only worn two or three times.  It was in perfect condition.  The nap had not been worn a bit.  He didn’t like the color, and it was too large for him.  It fitted me perfectly, and the color looked good on me.  Harris Tweed sport coats usually cost from $35.00 up.

This is just about it for tonight, as I am very tired, because I hardly got any sleep last night.  Uno was all worked up worrying about Foss, and he was up wandering around and smoking all night, with the result that I got no sleep either.

Bye now,
Love, Don..

Don traditional
Baptist background
had ever experienced!

I, too, had the chance to attend an Anglican service!






Till next time ~
Fundy Blue


Bay of Fundy out of Westport, Brier Island
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue





Notes:  

1.  The Anglican Church in Lansdowne House:
      I'm not sure if the church was named St. Benedicts, but the Parish was.  dioceseofkeewatin
      The parish belonged to the Diocese of Keewatin.
      As of July 31, 2014 the Diocese of Keewatin ceased to exist
      after the creation of the Indigenous Spiritual Ministry of Mishamikoweesh,
      This is the first self-determining, self-sustaining Indigenous church within
      the Anglican Church of Canada.  anglican.ca

2.  St. Paul's Sunday School:
     I have no idea why my father attended Sunday school at St. Paul's Church,
     an Anglican church in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada.  Google
     We, as children and Baptists, attended whatever church was available
     in some of the small communities we lived in (And, yes, we behaved!).

3.  C. B. DeMille:
     He was a famous American filmmaker and considered a founding father
     of the Hollywood film industry.  He produced films known for their epic scale and
     cinematography.  Wikipedia 

4.  Fort Hope Indians:
     Fort Hope is located about 45 miles (73 kilometers) south of Lansdowne House
     on the Albany River.  At one time the Oji-Cree in the two communities both belonged
     to the Fort Hope Band.


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