Tag Archives: Prairie winter roads

Train Whistles and Nightmares

January 1951, Shoal Lake, Manitoba, and a perfectly normal working day.  The crew had left for their work in the country.  Sheldon, now party chief, was in his office, located in a trailer near by. Everything was “near by”.  The crew house trailers and the crew equipment were all parked in the town’s vacant fair grounds.  I was in our trailer with Ralph, just over three, and his sister Lorna who was 11 months old.  The washing was frozen stiff on an outside line, and I was bringing in a few pieces at a time to dry over our heater.  Suddenly Sheldon was at the door, knocking the snow off his boots.  He was greeted with excited squeals from the kids, who did not often see Daddy mid-morning.  He laughed and scooped them up, looking over their heads, and said, “I got a call from head office.”  My heart started to race as I asked, “And what did they want?”  “I’ve been promoted and have to report to the Divisional Office in Peace River as soon as possible.”

So five and a half years after we joined the seismic crews as a couple of newlyweds, another big change was underway.  In the middle of a Prairie winter we found ourselves in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, glad to be off the snowy roads and in a warm hotel.  The trip from Shoal Lake had been taxing.  The provincial roads were not well graded or maintained.  We cheered when we finally made it to the TransCanada Highway.  This should be better!  Well, it was but only marginally. It was not graded up high as roads are today.  It wandered across the prairies following the contours of land, gravelled not paved.    Continue reading

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