The Sun sets on the River



Sis ,summer before 1st Birthday

 Mum and Dad's life in Snake Creek was content and happy . Between Dad's job and Mum's home industry (selling hand knitted socks and blueberry pies to the store) life with their baby girl was good . They now had a bed for her , since she had grown too large for the bottom drawer of their bedroom dresser which had served as her bassinet for the first winter and spring .

 They had a Victrola and a hand operated wringer for the laundry . The future looked bright and shiny for them in a house that they loved . But news was travelling quickly that something big was coming up the line that would greatly change life as they knew it .

Caruso and Spaghetti

 After the Second World War , not just soldiers filled ships coming to Canada. When Mum came over after Dad , her ship was filled with war brides , children and immigrants from many different countries . CPR rail gangs often included men from Europe who were trying to make a place in Canada ...a place that they would be able to bring their families to once enough money was earned .

 During the summer of 1948 , a work gang was brought to the Northern run out of Mattawa to build new track . The gang cars were parked at the siding in Snake Creek . The men lived in these cars when they weren't working . A bunk car , a dining car , a kichen car and a wash car plus a row of freshly dug outhouses took care of their needs . If they wanted anything else , they would find that in Mattawa on the weekends . Most men came back on the last train on Sunday suffering from a 'wild' weekend and flat broke .

Dad noticed that there was one man who never went to town with the others . He spent the weekend alone and often on weekday evenings , he would walk the track or go sit near the river until

The Problem with Blackflies #1

Problem #1- Family Photos

Unwanted and Unloved Guests

Railroad gangs were brought in for building new track and for repairing old track during the good weather , which usually meant anytime after the frost left the ground until it returned in late October. This was hard work at the best of times but it was miserable work in Northern Ontario.

 May to June ...blackfly season . Blackflies rose from the high waters of spring melt and choked anyone outside , entering every oriface one could think possible . Every landing meant a piece of flesh disappeared . The warm , sweating bodies of gangs and section men alike were easier to bite . Their faces would be swollen from hundreds of bites . Eyes , ears and  hairlines bloodied by their pursuors . As long as it was daylight , there were blackflies . As long as a person was outside , there was a cloud of them contantly in motion around the head , relentless in their pursuit of flesh .

Hockey Night in Canada Snake Creek Style

A Little History

 The World knows that Canadians love hockey ('ice' hockey for those who don't realize that there is only one kind that counts). So much so that before TV and radio were invented , the third period of the 1896 Stanley Cup final was telegraphed as play by play messaging from a rink in Winnipeg to Toronto . The CPR had pushed through telegraph along with the railway which carried the results of games back and forth across the country in the fastest time ever . Special lines were put into the game site so the telegraph operator was at the actual game . Most definitely , hockey fans of the period would have stopped asking for the final score and wanted more...What is the score at this moment ? Who got the goal ? How are the crowds responding ? Some of those telegrams must have been exciting moments for fans crowded around the telegraph office in Toronto ...