The Northland Prince leaving Ocean Falls in Cousin's Inlet
The Northland Prince plying rough waters in the Queen Charlotte Sound north of Vancouver Island.I had always assumed that when Christmas came, I would simply get out of town. It was not that easy as many others had the same idea. There were other employees to consider and schedules to set with earned holidays to take into consideration. I had no seniority at that point but somehow managed to get the powers in the front office to release me for a few days. Flying out was risky at best because the flights were day to day due to bad weather in the winter months. The journey was much quicker, but one could wait four or five days for a flight. I opted to sail out of town on the Northland Prince. It was a passenger/freighter ship that was built in 1963 at the Burrard Shipyards whose sole purpose was to service communities on the north coast of British Columbia. It came into town twice a week, once on its way to Prince Rupert and then again on its way home. So catching a ride home was only possible on one day of the week. I booked my passage and was very excited to go home. I was fortunate that first trip because the seas were calm. This was unusual for December in the Queen Charlotte Straight. The trip was 17 hours and I had arranged for a friend to come to the docks to give me a ride home.
I remember suffering culture shock on my arrival back to civilization. The hustle and bustle, the traffic, and the noise were something I had grown unaccustomed to. It was great 'catching up' with my friend on the one hour drive home, but I was certainly in another world, a world I was not sure I liked. I was already having second thoughts about my plan to go AWOL on my job.
5 comments:
Interesting story thus far, Terry. I'm eager to read more!
Funny thing how memories can be influenced and how the human mind can be swayed by bits of information. When I went off from home for the first time, I too thought that my Christmas homecoming would be a celebration of return...forever! I had had enough of Bible School. Good story....
One thing I remember about the hospital is the antiquated elevator that took mothers in labour from the main floor to the second floor. I pushed the stretcher into the elevator and then ran downstairs to turn on the water valve so that the pressure would raise the elevator to the second floor. Then the reverse to allow the elevator to descent to the main floor again. Sort of scary in the middle of the night when a woman was ready to deliver her twins, like right now! It turned out that I just got her on the upstairs bed, when she delivered her first little boy into my gloveless hands. (The doctor was taking his time to get there) Talk about an adrenaline rush! She and I cried together. When the approaching doctor heard his cry, he came running and delivered the second one.
Wow! You don't ever forget something like that! Was that before or after Steph was born?
It was after she was born. I worked PT.
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