Clap your hands! Clap your hands if you believe in fairies! Don't let Tink die!

Last week, I meant to write about Tinkerbell, I really did. David and I had gone to Peter Pan at the Hale, and so that was on my mind...but then the story was hijacked by the CBC and I am not really sure how that happened. So, today for Tinkerbell!

Marnie loved to listen to records on the record player. Mommy taught her to oh-so-carefully move the needle so it would not scratch the records, although sometimes Marnie would hear the horrible sound that told her she had not been successful.  "Be careful, Marnie!" Mommy would say.

Marnie had some favorite records. One of them was Peter Pan. It was weird, but Mommy told her that the person in green flying above the heads of the others that she could see on the album cover was not really Peter Pan. It was not even a boy! It was Mary Martin, a famous actress.  (It looked like Peter Pan to Marnie.) The record album was pink, and showed all of the Darling children sprawled on the bed with their dog Nana, and Peter Pan flying in the air above them, Tinkerbell by his side.  It did NOT look like this album cover, but was the same performance:

Marnie would listen to the story of Peter Pan and Wendy and all of the children in Neverland. She would beat her tomtom with the Indian children, and feel the fear of both Captain Hook and the crocodile who was always after Hook.

But the worst part for Marnie was when Tinkerbell drank the poison. That was when Peter Pan would implore, "Clap your hands! Clap your hands if you believe in fairies! Don't let Tink die!"  With tears flowing--flowing!--down her cheeks, Marnie would clap and clap her hands. She would run throughout the house to whoever was home, and beg them to clap their hands, too!  Everyone needed to clap or Tink would die.

One time, as Marnie was running through the house crying, she came upon her brother Brian, who was reading a book. "Clap your hands! Clap your hands if you believe in fairies! Don't let Tink die!" Marnie cried through her tears.

"Marnie, how many times have you listened to that record?" asked Brian.

"I dunno," Marnie sniffled, "Lots."

"And everytime, Tink lives, right?" Brian said, "That means it doesn't matter if you clap your hand or not. Tink is going to live. Even if nobody claps, she will still live."

Marnie looked at Brian in shock, and ran out of the room calling, "Clap your hands! Clap your hands if you believe in fairies! Don't let Tink die!"

She just knew that Brian was wrong! She saved Tinkerbell's life EVERY TIME she listened to that record. Nobody clapped longer or harder than Marnie. And Tinkerbell lived.  It was a miracle. A miracle of clapping.

Marnie entertains herself with the CBC

Sometimes Marnie and Arwen had little tiffs, and sometimes they had big fights, but at least they had each other to play with. That all changed when Arwen started school.  Marnie could not ever remember having Collette or Brian at home, but Arwen had always been there. Now she was gone ALL DAY.  The school bus came at 8 AM and didn't drop the kids off until 4 PM. That was a long time for Marnie to entertain herself with only boring old Mommy in the house.

Sometimes Marnie watched television, but the CBC, Canada's only network, didn't even sign on until ten AM (and signed off at ten PM, but Marnie was not usually awake or trying to watch TV at that time). Sometimes Marnie would ask to turn on the TV early just so she could see the Indian Chief, the test pattern the network used:

Then at preciselty 10 AM they would play "Oh, Canada" and then the children's programming for the day would start. (If Marnie happened to be up when CBC signed off the air, they would play "God save the Queen.")

There were two 15-minute shows back to back that Marnie loved! First, a harp glissando would introduce the theme music for "The Friendly Giant."  (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Vm2-JUldNw) Eventually Marnie learned the words to the song and could sing along:

Early one morning just a the sun was rising,
I heard a maid singing in the valley below.
Sweet was that melody, softly it came to me:
Ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo.

The Friendly Giant would open the gates of the drawbridge and invite the children into the castle. He would say, "One little chair for one of you, and a bigger chair for two more to curl up in, and for someone who likes to rock, a rocking chair in the middle," and he would move the tiny chairs around with his great big fingers.
 
And then we would see his foot, and he would say, "Look up...look waaaayyy up" and we would see his smiling face. He would call Rusty the Rooster out of hiding by whistling, and then call out the window for Jerome the giraffe.


The Friendly Giant might have a story to tell, and always songs to play and sing, and oh how Marnie loved it!  Sometimes it was just the three of them--Friendly, Jerome and Rusty--using just the recorder and harp (so many sizes of recorders!) And other times, the cats of the jazz combo, Angie and Fiddle, would be there, or Paddy and Polly, the raccoons.

If the cats were there, then the music would be a bit more jazzy. If the raccoons were there, the music was all about the bassoon. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOr3NvNcez0 But it didn't matter to Marnie. She loved ALL the music! Classical, jazz, folk songs all brought to life by The Friendly Giant and his puppet friends.

The next 15 minutes were spent Chez Hélène, This show had three characters.Hélène spoke only French. Suzie, the mouse, spoke only English with the occasional French word thrown in, and Louise was bilingual.

Suzie and Louise both got into all sorts of trouble, and would need some help from their older and wiser friend.  Everyone in the cast understood both languages, even those who weren't functionally bilingual as Louise was. Marnie learned to understand spoken French quite well from this show. She was like Suzie  the mouse: she could only speak English, but French made sense.

It was after Marnie started school that a CBC show called Butternut Square introduced a character named Mr. Dress-up. From 1964 to 1967, if Marnie did not have school, she would watch Butternut Square after The Friendly Giant and Chez Hélène. In 1967, Mr. Dress-up had his ownshow, and it would run until 1996. So Marnie's children all got the chance to enjoy the Mr. Dress-up show, with Mr. Dress-up, his pal Casey, and Finnegan the dog!


On Saturdays, Marnie and Arwen and their cousins Maggie and Melanie enjoyed a French television show called Thierry la Fronde. The girls liked to assign themselves characters and act out events of the show as they played on the old airplane, the old combine and other old equipment in the farm yard. Marnie felt like all she had to do was whistle the theme song from the show, and the next thing she would see her cousins walking into the yard, or riding their bikes into the yard, for a few hours of play-acting.

Theme song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAYnSk8X0yQ

And on to Grassy Lake

We didn't want to mess with Stony Trail again, and we were already in the north, so it was logical to head east on the Trans-Canada. It was easy even for an easily confused person like me.  It was snowy and blowy and cold. Josie went to sleep and missed looking out the window at all the snow coming down.  We stopped for gas in Vauxhall, and I did have a bit of a scare on one bridge that took "slippery when wet" quite literally. Yikes. Worst nightmare for me would be sliding off a bridge into the water!

Then Josie and I kept a look-out for the Conrad family farms.  Going north to south, Uncle Clyde's was first.

It looks like a young family lives there because they have quite a nice play area in front of the house, though you can't see it in this picture. 

Then a quarter of a mile away, my dad's farmstead. I wanted to drive right into the yard, but I chickened out because the driveway was so very muddy.  But it was the trees that really amazed me. The pine trees were taller than the poplars, or at least as tall. We used to run down the lawn jumping OVER those trees, people!  Can't do that anymore!  Here is the driveway:

The new thing I noticed in Alberta was that addresses are posted on all the farms! That must make it easier for delivery and emergency people!

Because of the weather, it was kind of freaking me out that I would have to drive down the gravel road to the Torrie farm. I knew that Colleen would be in Taber helping at a wedding reception, and the thought crossed my mind to crash it, because if all the family were at the reception, one of the guys could drive my car down the gravel road instead of me. But I had not asked who the reception was for, and Colleen did not tell me. So Josie and I drove to the farm. I took the gravel road at a faster clip than I should have. But we made it. I was afraid to drive slow and get stuck in the mud, and afraid to drive fast and go off the road. Scary, white knuckle driving!

It was that the ground was thoroughly soaked with rain and snow on top of it that terrified me. It is not THAT snowy. It is just my wimpiness that is the main problem!

And when we got there, no one was home. We drove over to Michael and Craig's house via the back way--that was a mistake!! No one was home there either. So we drove back to Colleen's (on the gravel, NOT in the mud!) to wait.  I debated getting out of the car and wading to the back door...but if it wasn't unlocked, then I would have to get all that mud in the car. So we opted to wait it out.  We looked at pictures and stuff on Josie's Ipad, and in got darker and darker.

We heard a noise and...

this! You can see for yourself, it was 9:43 PM, and out of the dark, dark, night, the cat jumped up and scared us. Josie got out of the car to pet the cat, and it disappeared. Seriously. We had no idea where it went. It was on the car, it was gone. Poof.

But then Craig drove over and let us inside. (And told us that the back door was unlocked all along!) And we went to bed.  Craig said we would be leaving for church at 7:30 AM for choir practice, which he conducts, so we sent him home and put ourselves to bed.

Sunday morning the choir would be singing. Craig is the chorister, so Colleen said, "Sing with us!" And so we did.  We had a fine time, sitting up at the front on display, so that people from my growing up years would see me and come talk to me. It totally worked!

Home and a quiet visit and some hymn singing around the piano, and the day was over!

Abra and the Bakers Three

After driving around High River to see all the flood damage (the downtown area is still all boarded up, with few businesses open; the road along the south end of town which we drove to the church on and which leads to where Spackmans lived is closed--not sure how people get around. Well, they weave in and out like we did, I suppose...) we thought it was late enough in the day (9 AM) that we could stop in and say hello to the Thompsons. And so we did.

They were very happy to see us, and Donna was plying us with mandarin oranges. We had a really good chat. The themes were damage in High River, funerals and politics.  Donna said that one contractor stood by a garage in a home in the part of High River where we lived, over by Joe Clark School, and raised his arm above his head to point to a water mark on the garage. That was how high the water was.  Many of the houses look okay on the outside, but inside they are just an empty, uninhabitable shell.  Funerals: Leroy Rasmussen died, and his burial and after ceremony were slated for Saturday. Jim T. is convinced that funerals are NOT for the dead person, so their wishes are not important! Funerals are for the living. Some people need to see the dead body to make the death real; others don't. So Jim thinks the viewing is really important, and if you don't want to see the dead body, don't look at it. But that option needs to be available.  He talked about a lady he home taught: few people in the ward knew her because she has been a longtime inactive member. She lost everything in the flood of 1995, because she lived on the golf course. So she moved to a safer part of town--actually to a place where it would supposedly NEVER flood. And lost everything again during the flood of 2013. By now in her seventies, she could not face starting over again, and took an overdose and killed herself. The bishop did not even want to do a funeral, but Jim insisted to him that he do a funeral for her. It was just small, held in the RS room. But she had friends in a community book club, and her brother and a few other family members, and they really NEEDED that funeral.  The bishop (a certain cow man we know well) sidled up to Jim and said, "I hate to admit it, but you were right. This was the right thing to do."  And politics: Alison Redford is not a very honest politician! Good thing she resigned as premier of the province.

Jim and Donna suggested we drive out of town via the back way so we could see the damage out that direction, which we did, stopping for gas at FasGas and having the miraculous blessing of the check engine light going off. The roads are all completely changed and there is a new Stony Trail and it circles the outside of the city so you can completely miss downtown Calgary congestion. If you don't make a mistake, I am sure it is great.

I don't know HOW we ended up in Priddis, honestly I don't. It is a mystery to me.  We were heading for the Eastern edge of Calgary, but ended up on the southwest side.  Mind boggling.  As it got more mountainous and less flat...I knew something was wrong.  And then when I saw signs for Priddis and Red Deer Lake School and Spruce Meadows...I was so confused.  Somehow, we ended up getting to the Northeast, but we left Thompsons at 10:05 AM and got to Abra's at about 1:05.  Not the best travel time!

We all piled in the car to pick up Piper from school. She was not on Spring break, but Deklan and Malachi were. Somehow, the many feet in the back seat managed to tip over the package of grits I had brought for Abra.  How was it not sealed better? Oh well, it cleaned up pretty easily.

I think this was the only picture taken at Abra's house on Friday:

The boys photobombing the Abra/Josie selfie

Abra made chicken tacos. We visited and the three cats snuck shyly out to look at us. Piper was wearing leggings and sat on an upholstered chair and when she stood up there was so much cat hair on her bottom and the back of her legs that she had to go and change her clothes. We all piled in the car to run to the store to buy some ingredient needed for the chicken tacos. Then, Deklan and I did another store run to buy some ricotta cheese.  Dusty is terribly allergic to eggs, so for dessert, Abra made a pie-ish crust, and mixed ricotta cheese and icing sugar for the filling, with sliced strawberries on top. An eggless dessert. Dusty got home, we met him, we ate. We sang happy birthday to Malachi and ate the dessert. We visited some more, and then we needed to leave. It was 8 pm, and I wanted to find my way to my cousin Perry's house in the daylight, because I was taking Stony Trail again, and who knows where I would end up! And the kids had to be up early for swimming in the morning.

We followed Dusty's directions (which exactly matched google's, actually) and got to the exit for Perry's house. And the street he lives on went on and on and on and on and on. Seriously. Winding around this direction and that direction, but finally we arrived. It was 8:30. Not too shabby! Perry was home alone, his wife Ellisa being in Lethbridge for her daughter's birthday celebration.  He gave us a tour of their lovely home, and then we settled down for a chat.  Perry has lots of good stories to tell about icebergs and oil platforms in the Atlantic, about being detained in Equatorial Guinea on his last day of work there, about building ice bridges in the far north, traveling to Switzerland for surgery--super interesting. He would tell a story and say in his calm voice, about something super dramatic that happened, "That was interesting." Josie wrote some of his stories down in her journal. And took a picture of he and I looking at the map of Africa he brought to show us where he worked.

In the morning, Perry had breakfast all ready for Josie and I. The pears were delicious--just what to expect from someone named Perry!

We headed over to meet Abra and her kids at the pool. The pool is at Village Square, the library branch that I worked at while employed by CPL.  They were eating breakfast at MacDonald's by the time we got there, because we were late leaving Perry's because we did not get up as early as we should have. His spare room was wonderful and the bed was super comfortable!

We had wanted to have an outdoor adventure, but it was raining/snowing so we stayed indoors. David had sent a copy of the game Dixit for Abra with us, so we played that a couple of times.

Josie was the slow bunny on this game.  But still...Abra won every game, so it didn't really matter if you were the slow bunny or up at the top with Abra, she is super competitive and was destined to be the winner.

Me and the always lovely Piper after the Dixit game.

I told the kids I would take them out for lunch. They unanimously wanted to go to their mom's work for lunch, Buffalo Wild Wings.  We needed to take Abra to work anyways, so we headed out to lunch there.  Buffalo Wild Wings is one busy place! There are TVs everywhere, playing all the sports you can think of and then some.  It is a bit noisy for my liking, so I am glad that I don't have to work there. But the food was good, and the staff members were really nice.  We played a trivia game, and Abra won that, too!

Then we wanted to take some pictures, but it was wet and snowy and cold out, so we headed to the nearby mall. Which was really busy, and no one wanted to embarrass themselves taking pictures in front of all the people.  But we did take a few, and here are some:

Me and my Canadian grandkids. Abra and Josie are both too cool to be in photos in the mall!

Deklan, Malachi and Piper are entirely cool!

We had to go outside for the coolest people to decide it was okay to be in a photo.

But there was no way that Malachi would be in any of the outdoor pictures!

Then, we dropped Abra off at work, gave her a hug and told her we loved her, and took the kids home. Where we took some more pictures and hung out for awhile being goofy, and then Josie and I left! That was the end of our quick trip. Short and sweet--too short, but plenty sweet.

Piper is such a funny person! Gotta love her poses!

I just like this one of the four of them just chilling: Deklan, Malachi, Piper and Josie.

Deklan towering over his Auntie.

Me and my wonderful grandchildren.

Let's go to Canada! Let's leave today! Canada, oh Canada! Let's get away!

Bruce and I have been planning a trip to Alberta. We thought we would go in August, the first week, when there is that Monday holiday. We thought we would take Rosie and Alexia, who both have not been to Canada for eleven years, since my mom died in 2003. I started talking to Jenna about the plan...and then Eric got engaged! I wondered if we would need to change our plans, but no, he conveniently planned his wedding exactly when we want to go. Perfect!

But not so perfect for Josie. She will be in Wales working hard at her internship in early August. "Can I please go to Canada sometime?" she asked me. Well...since I am moving to a faculty position (started May 1) I had to use or lose some vacation time.  It was just awkward between finals and stuff I need to do before I start the new job...but we decided that if we left on Thursday April 24 (graduation day, which is a short day at work anyway) and came back on Monday April 28, because I had to be back for an appointment with Marv Gardner and Vanja Watkins on April 29...it would work!

So, April 23, I took the car in for an oil change, tire rotation, and all the rest of the work they told me I needed. (I always spend over $100 every time I go in there!) And then at 5:30 AM on Thursday morning, we were off.

All was well. Kind of hard with only one driver who is getting old and tired, but it was okay. It was really fun to travel with Josie. She and I used to do that a lot, but in recent years, we have not, as she has gotten older and had to work and was in plays or films or whatever. It was fun to listen to the old CDs we used to listen to. We really appreciated David's skills in putting together a good playlist, because we listened to a lot of CDs he compiled. Josie was really nice about waiting quietly and patiently (busy on her ipad) if I needed to stop and sleep. Which I did need to do, both directions.

At about mile 300 in Montana (so after Great Falls and before Shelby) the "check engine" light came on.  I called dad, he called the mechanic...we drove on. Stopped in Lethbridge at Canadian Tire. I asked how much to run the diagnostics...the clerk said, "One hundred and fifteen dollars." I said, "Thank you" and left because yikes!!!  Dad had said that the garage said that it might just be flukey because of just being worked on and then the long (unusually long) drive.  In the morning...still on. But when we stopped for gas in High River, after that, the light went off and stayed off and is still off. (The gas we bought in Shelby had made no difference.)

Okay...photo dump...with some descriptions.

To Josie, Alberta means Grain Elevators. She took lots of pictures of them. These are in Milk River.

To me, Alberta means SKY. I love Alberta's sky.  I am not sure of the order in which Josie took these sky pictures. But I love, love, love Alberta's sky. So here are a bunch of sky pictures.

 

See what I mean? Beautiful sky, yes? Yes.

Josie and I were headed to Donna (Golbeck) Clark's home to stay overnight, because my eyes were so ready for a break.  We arrived at her house at 7 pm, and could probably have pressed on to Calgary, but seriously, thanks, but no thanks.

On our way into Lethbridge, we passed all these houses on the south of the highway that didn't used to be there. And in the parking lot of the church that didn't used to be there, a game of hockey was well under way, so Josie took a picture of it.

Donna was a PoCo friend. She was our Primary president when Josie was born.  After my nice lovely long Canadian maternity leave, when I was ready to go back to work, I wondered who I would get to babysit.  Midori across the street had babysat Patrick, but now she also had a new baby, since Chandler was born a week after Josie. So I prayed about it, and I felt that I should ask Sister Golbeck. So I did, and she was so happy to accept.  I paid her pretty well for that time and place, and she basically only tended one day a week. She would walk Patrick to school, and sometimes if it was raining, she would have her husband come and drive Patrick to school. Nancy would then be in charge of walking Patrick home after.  So...Donna and Josie had a close and loving relationship for several months of Josie's life, but they have not seen each other for nearly 20 years!

I will add a picture of Donna taken on Irish Lilburn's phone. He sent it to Josie, but I have not seen it yet. Because we went with Donna to her ward party, and as Josie and I were sitting and eating, we saw the kids running around at the other end of the gym, and there was one dad in there playing hard with them, and Josie said, "Mom, isn't that Irish?" And then she nodded in the direction of a pregnant pretty lady and said, "and there is Karley..." So we had a nice visit with them! And then I met Kirsten Hironaka, whose uncle Robert Ellingson is my age from Taber, and whose Aunt Shelley we knew in Burnaby ward. And just as we were about to leave, this girl walked past who looked a lot like Virginia Ackroyd but wasn't, and I realized it was Carmen Ackroyd. So we talked...it was good.

In the morning, on our way again...more photos with captions...

Nanton Grain Elevators -- means only about a half hour to High River.

Happy Face Barn means only about ten minutes to High River. And who doesn't love the Happy Face Barn? Josie took many good pictures of it, despite the grayness of the day.

We drove past our former home, 908 16th Street NE. Still flood debris in the front yard. Many of the yards nearby showed that they had been less well cared for than was usual. Poor Jack with the perfect lawn across the street--how he must have hated what the flood did to his yard!

The corner park that the kids played at now is fenced.

The library remains closed due to flood damage. This is a year later, people. They have a temporary library set up elsewhere, but I am guessing that many of the books were ruined.

Joe Clark School, which David attended for Grade Seven, before Senator Riley Middle School was finished. And where Nancy worked in the library with Janet Honeyman one day a week.

Spitzee School.  Remind me what Spitzee means? I should know this. Nancy, Patrick, and Josie all attended Spitzee, and so did Abra's children. Used as the school in the original Superman movie with Christopher Reeve.

The Superman House from the original Christopher Reeve movie.