Red Cap Service

The months passed as usual in a section house : lots of scrubbing and cleaning , working the garden ( although with less wildlife to chase) , picking berries and pie making and preserving ...and evenings filled with knitting .

Mom was asked by the storekeeper if she would make men's dress socks because there was a need . Men heading into town (Mattawa) on weekends were looking to him to carry socks that weren't worksocks . Going to town was an escape from their hard , spirit-breaking work  and just changing your style of sock was a lift to their mental health . Besides , they looked a lot better with their one and only suit for going to town , church , weddings and funerals . So it was arranged that he would bring in several colours of  fine wool for her to produce argyle-patterned dress socks for 75 cents a pair .  They were extremely popular and Mum continued this little home industry for the duration of life in Snake Creek .

 With her earnings , she purchased wool to make baby items like bonnets , dresses , leggings and booties for her baby's birth . On one trip to Mattawa , she bought what she could in the way of diaper flannelette , fabric dye and others needs with the money she had saved .

A New Paint Job

One of the first things Mum wanted to do in the new home at Snake Creek was give the rooms a fresh coat of paint . The colours were worn from the endless scrubbing that was required to rid the house of the soot that coated everything . Locomotives spewed a thick gummy black smoke that infiltrated every nook and cranny .The walls grew stained from a combination of soot and woodsmoke so were spot cleaned weekly . The scour marks showed that the previous homemaker had tried hard to stay ahead of the grime .

 A walk along the track trailed the soot into the house . But , the floors faired better than the walls . A weekly scrub with lye water made from the woodashes kept them bleached white . Mum always put a coat of paste wax over the top. When the wax was set , she would put on a pair of Dad's worksocks and skate around the house , buffing the floors to a glass finish . This made washing the floors easier since the soot could not lodge in the shiny surface .

Interior paint came in only two CPR colours:white and green . Even if Mum had wanted

Antoine's Moose-yard

This is an article written about a moose hunt in Mattawa in 1889 or 1890 . Two americans from New York (writer Julian Ralph and artist Frederic Remington) headed into the forest around Mattawa to get a moose . There are descriptions of the area and the people that are interesting . The depiction of the devastation of lumbering in Mattawa itself is telling . The effects of 'development' on the Aboriginal population apparent as well as the attitude of these visitors . The picture of the HBC store is accurate to the time . It's worth a read . The article was in Harper's Magazine in 1890 .

Section House-Snake Creek

 The possessions seen onto a freight train at Tabarette were duely delivered outside the 'new' house at Snake Creek , by the time Mum and Dad arrived . This of course meant that everyone at this stop on the CPR knew that they would be on the next passenger train coming south .

The locals would also know everything that they owned ; that Mum was pregnant ; that she was ' d'Angleterre' ; that she and Dad had just come through a rough time in their marriage ; that she could knit, embroider, preserve and garden ; and that she had already tangled with a moose, bears, skunks and a roadmaster (and survived) , so she was someone to be respected . Everyone of the few who lived in Snake Creek at the time was present to see the person attached to the stories...she was news ...an oddity ...a little bit scary .

When Dad stepped off the train , laughing and greeting those at the side of the track waiting near the store , he helped Mum down to the ground . She wore her best blouse for the trip -the sugarbag one with embroidered flowers- to make a good 'first impression' . People greeted her warmly , but shyly . She in turn thanked them for the welcome and smiled her appreciation , although she was embarrassed that she was getting so much attention . After being introduced to all present , she and Dad headed down the track toward the section house .The locals lingered to determine the first impression , and a couple of children followed my parents at a polite distance .

Section houses were always located away from the business of passengers and parcels , so they had to walk a bit before they came their new home . What greeted Mum ( Dad had already seen the house in passing many times ) lifted her out of any lingering worry and concern . At the front , there were flowers ...beautiful colourful blooms that a sectionman's wife had lovingly planted and maintained to beautify her home ...a woman's touch ... saying 'welcome to your new home . I loved my garden and now I pass it to you .'  She took the time to examine every plant , naming them aloud for Dad before finally turning her attention to the house .

Compared to the Tabarette house , this one was a big step up .As with all section houses , it must have been built for some minor official back when the new line to the north was being built . At that time , Snake Creek would have been an important location .

This house was set back from the track more and lay near the creek .It had a front veranda . Attached to the back door was a closed-in porch and there was a small shed outback near the outhouse ( a double seater ) . The inside of the house was worn , but immaculately clean and the windows sparkled like jewels . Out back ,  there was a real clothesline , not just a rope tied from tree to tree , and a washstand to accomodate the laundry tub for washing clothes outside during the summer . To the side of the yard Mum and Dad saw a vegetable garden plot already turned and hoed into rows ready for planting ...the final surprise gift left by the former homemaker that shouted to her , " You still have enough time to plant this year's garden ."

It didn't take long for Dad and Mom to locate their bits of furniture since they were familiar with the floorplan . Soon , all was in it's place including the embroidered flourbag curtains on the kitchen windows . Together , they found the seeds Mum had left from last year and placed them into the waiting rows .
Then a few bucketfuls of water completed the planting task . The other work , could wait until tomorrow . Mum was content to sit with Dad and a cup of fresh tea sharing hopes and plans for their new home before the usual work beckoned . She could already see that would be a little lighter , the location a little less lonely and that it would be a good place for their first child to grow .

Snake Creek

In early June 1947 , my parents disembarked one of the two southbound passenger trains in Snake Creek , PQ . Mum was three months pregnant for her first child and this stop on the northern line was only half an hour's train ride from Mattawa . In an emergency , there would be someone around to help . When Mom's time came ,  near or about the beginning of November , she would have more options available for a trip to Mattawa Hospital . It all depended on timing...with lead up time, the passenger train ; in times between , one of the freight trains ; if no train was available , at home with a neighbour's help .

Snake Creek had always been an inviting stop for hundreds , perhaps thousands of years along the Ottawa River . The flow of the creek had filled a canyon bottom with fine sand and silt , which widened into flats where it emptied into Kichiziibii , the Great River . The creek carved its way through these flats in a path that was its name . In the far past , the creek would have been the adit for trapping beaver and hunting moose up the canyon in habitats created by it .

When the CPR line was built in the late 1800's , the North line crossed the bridge that spanned the Ottawa at Mattawa and traced the River's east bank north to Temiscaming . Snake Creek was a scheduled stop on the line from that time the railroad construction raced forward .

When passenger trains began moving soon after the first freight trains , Snake Creek was a welcome break from the  sooty smoke that seeped into the coachcars from locomotive exhaust . Riders would disembark for walkabout to clear their lungs and chat with the locals . Every passenger train that stopped attracted local inhabitants to the track ...men , women , children and the dogs raced excitedly into position when they heard the steam whistle signal its slowing . When the locomotive gushed to a stop in a great burst of steam , everyone was in place to see who was getting off ; who was getting on ; what had been unloaded and loaded ; and what news was there from up and down the line . Any news was contact with a bigger world and every morsel was vital nourishment .

 A continual ringing of the engineer's brass bell and the ensuant 'All aboar-rrd' sent passengers scuttling with small packages and messages to forward up or down the line . The three quick blasts of the steam whistle pushed local people back from the track...the signal that the train was ready to pull out . The waving party shouted farewells to one and all until the locomotive built up enough steam to move the huge crankarms that slowly forced the wheels and the train into motion .

Children excitedly raced forward alongside the tracks to be in a place where their waves would be noticed . They were thrilled when such exotic personages as engineers , firemen , and conductors happily waved goodbye with great beaming smiles on their faces , too . Every so often , one engineer would give a little toot to acknowledge them and the children would cheer his passing . This entourage waited in the middle of the track waving to the conductor until the train was out of sight or he entered the caboose . Children stayed until the last long blast from the whistle announced that the train had cleared the yard and was at speed . Then they raced home to add the final tidbit of news that measured the trainmen's character on the quality of their smiles and the time they spent waving goodbye to the children .

This continued until well after WW II . When it was my generation's turn ( 1950's,60's) the locals , with the exception of those who had business at the station , had abandoned the habit . But the children of sectionmen and other families who lived along the track never failed to respond to that first long whistle .

And they were all there when the last steam locomotive made its last stop before the CPR switched to diesel in 1963 .