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The Lansdowne Letters: An Unexpected Journey and Unexpected Woolies
Sometimes, when you lived in the North a half century ago,you had to step up and take on unexpected tasks.It was part of pulling together in an isolated community,like Lansdowne House in northern...
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The Lansdowne Letters: Disappointing News
Letters were flying back and forth among my familymembers as 1960 turned into 1961.My mother and father were each struggling with lonelinessand with isolation.Dad may have been cut off from the Outside...
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IWSG: Wednesday, May 4, 2016 ~ "Uncle!" She Cried.
Happy May to all the IWSG membersmaking the rounds today!It's the first Wednesday of the month ~ the day when members of theInsecure Writer's Support Groupshare their writing strugglesand offer their...
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The Lansdowne Letters: Take Me to Church
My father resumed his northern Lansdowne Letters to our extendedNova Scotian and Prince Edward Islander family in early January, 1961.In his first edition he wrote about his experience attendingan...
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The Lansdowne Letters: The Space Traveller
During freeze-up in the late fall and early winter of 1960,our family did not hear from my father in Lansdowne House.When you lived in an isolated fly-in community in the wilderness of Northern...
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The Lansdowne Letters: Freeze-up Clarified
At home in Nova Scotia, my mother and we older kidswere very curious about the phenomenon of freeze-up,and we anxiously waited out the period over which freeze-uptook place and we were cut off from all...
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The Lansdowne Letters: A New Year's Day Feast
I have no memory of how my mother and we five kidsspent New Year's Day 1961 in Smith's Cove, Nova Scotia.But from the time I first heard my mother readmy father's letter describing his New Year's Day...
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IWSG: Wednesday, June 1, 2016 ~ Chasing Dreams!
Happy June to all the IWSG membersmaking the rounds today!It's the first Wednesday of the month ~ the day when members of theInsecure Writer's Support Groupshare their writing strugglesand offer their...
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The Lansdowne Letters: A Narking Situation
My father resumed his northern Lansdowne Letters to our extendedNova Scotian and Prince Edward Islander family in early January,Wednesday, January 11, 1961 My father wrote to our extended family:Here...
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The Lansdowne Letters: The Inspection
Does anyone enjoy being observed as a teacher?I certainly didn't.When I read the following letter of my father's,I had to laugh at how similar our reactions to being observed were: from the high energy...
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The Lansdowne Letters: A Narking Situation
The day after Mr. Foss, Dad's boss, spent the dayobserving him in his one-room northern classroom,my father solved an ongoing and perplexing problemcausing contention between his Indian students and...
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The Lansdowne Letters: Requisitions ~ Argh!
Teaching Indian children in the remote village of Lansdowne Housein the wilderness of Northern Ontario over fifty years agowas a challenging undertaking for my father.During the time I have been...
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The Lansdowne Letters: Difficult Times and Not Just for My Father
Don MacBeath, Circa 1950© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy BlueAll Rights ReservedWhen I read my father's lettersfrom over a half century ago,I find it intriguing to see whatmy father shared with...
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IWSG: Wednesday, July 6, 2016: What Am I Doing?
Happy July to all the IWSG membersmaking the rounds today!It's the first Wednesday of the month ~ the day when members of theInsecure Writer's Support Groupshare their writing strugglesand offer their...
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The Lansdowne Letters: Friday the Thirteenth
I have to smile when I remember how superstitiousmy intelligent and well-educated father was.My earliest memories of him date from when he servedin the Royal Canadian Armoured Corpsin Charlottetown,...
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The Lansdowne Letters: Laundry and Levity
When my father arrived in Lansdowne House to teach in 1960the white population rose to a total of fourteen. With the departure of nurse Margaret Kelly and the arrivalof nurse Mike Flaherty, his wife...
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Taking a Short Break
Things have beena little hectic around here! SourceMy apologies: I wasn't able to...
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IWSG: Wednesday, August 3, 2016
It's the first Wednesday of the month ~ the day when members of theInsecure Writer's Support Groupshare their writing strugglesand offer their encouragementand support to other members.To visit the...
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The Lansdowne Letters: Forerunners
I'm sure that when my father wrote this letter in January 1961he couldn't possibly imagine what was to happento the people of Lansdowne House in the coming decades.I don't think anyone could have...
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The Lansdowne Letters: Dogs and Death
Whenever my mother, Sara MacBeath, opened the latest letterfrom my father in Lansdowne House, we never knew what to expect.The contents could be funny, shocking, poignant,or alien; but to me, they were...
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