Monday, February 28, 2011

Remembering the past......

once there was a little girl who lived in the wilderness.... (seriously folks) and had a stellar few years as a free spirit.... so long ago.. i would think about 1955 or so... the wilderness was Knight Inlet on the British Columbia coast ... my parents were homesteaders of the coastal variety.... we lived in Sargent Pass and live in a float house which was attached to the shore with boom logs..... our water supply was a creek behind the house.... our heat was our cookstove and in the shed was a generator which ran an hour a day.....our house was tiny, consisting of kitchen/living room, small bathroom, one bedroom and my 'bedroom' which was the pantry/closet.....i have fond memories of using a blanket, which was held up by the canned goods, to cover my bed, and myself 'reading' books.... or just pretending with my teddy and 'nelly' the elephant.....i was either the nurse or the teacher... and of course teddy and nelly were either patients or students... my outdoor playmates were usually my stuffed animals or Squeaky the cat or sometimes the boys that lived further down the Pass....


such a life i think... my father made me a 'boat' with a wooden box, where i spent many hours... eventually i learned how to use the real dingy and spent a lot of time on the water... my lifejacket my mother made by hand... she used Kapok for the stuffing and i NEVER went outside without it being on... Squeaky the cat (in lower pic) doesn't appear to approve of being with me.. but i owe her my life... one time i was out on the float and was playing with 'princess hair' kelp and slipped on it... into the water i went..... i remember it only too well... as i was floating away, i wasn't concerned with drowning, i knew that i would end up on the shore nearby... mostly i was worried about being eaten by a whale... anyways back to the cat... i guess Squeaky knew that i wasn't supposed to be floating away because she went back in the house and wouldn't leave my mother alone, kept going to the door and eventually scratched my mother... my mother finally figuring out something wasn't right, went outside and saw me floating away... there was no dingy (it was with my dad who was logging) so she grabbed the pike pole and held it out to me.. after that i guess she watched more closely and Squeaky got well treated for the rest of her very long life....






































to be continued......

9 comments:

Out on the prairie said...

I'm trying to picture it, your home was built on a barge? The hill comes right down to the water so there wasn't much of a yard.

Roasted Garlicious said...

well not a barge, but logs tied together, then the house was built on that with a dock area around it.. the hill is behind the house.. the house being what now is referred to as a 'boathouse' or a 'floating house' such as what you would find at the Seattle waterfront or Vancouver waterfront.. most people who lived up there lived on floathouses...

Roasted Garlicious said...

to clarify, the only yard was the dock which surrounded the house.. the only way to land was 'to swim, row or walk on the logs when the tide was out.... i have another picture which i've not scanned yet, the house is sitting on shore getting some work done on the logs and dock and you can see the bottom of the house

dilli said...

really interesting... thats a wonderful fish too!

Mr. H. said...

Wow, what a life, living on a float house must have been quite the experience. Your dad was a logger, now that is a tough profession...especially back then. Thanks for sharing this.:)

Roasted Garlicious said...

dilli and Mr. H it was a very unique life .. i'm going to post more pics but need to scan them first... he was a hand logger Mr. H. an even tougher profession...

biobabbler said...

Wow. Delightful and super interesting story. SO glad you mother paid attention to your cat vs. getting angry. Looking forward to the next installment. =)

Geno said...

This is great! I love hearing about things like this, the memories one has and the impressions they leave. so very different than the modern childhood. I eagerly await the next installment!

Roasted Garlicious said...

thanks biobabbler and Geno... working on more today....