Year In Review

http://www.chiefswood.com/

Historic Chiefswood, home of the poet Pauline Johnson, was extensively damaged by water ~ along with priceless artifacts. Sometime on Sunday, February 5 according to the TEKAWENNAKE newspaper, water pipes burst as a result of freezing temperatures. "It's the worst nightmare that could possibly happen," said curator Paula Whitlow, "short of the building being burned to the ground."
"Water was running down the stairs from the second floor like a cascade and the sound of water under pressure was loud and coming from the closet under the stairwell on the main level and pouring out from under the door, covering the main level floors with 2 to 3 inches of water." Difficulty in finding the main shut-off valve by Six Nations Public Works employees resulted in the flow of water for more than six hours from the time the bursts were first discovered.

Previous appeals to Band Council when the furnace no longer worked, went unheeded. Band councillors and Elected Chief Bill Montour were once again contacted for help after the disaster.

Source: TEKAWENNAKE Canada's Oldest Leading Native Weekly - since 1963. Wednesday, December 28, 2011 Issue. Photo: Lorna Walker

Note: The Neat Little BOOKSHOP is Closed for holidays. Returning Wednesday, January 4.


In a letter* to her friend, Al Purdy, Margaret Laurence wrote:

"I don't think you should worry unduly (maybe you aren't ~ hope not) re: the poems ... which you aren't crazy about. There are some good poems in the collection, and others which don't have as much reach as you would like them to have. So what?

"It seems to me we ought not to worry that all our work is not of the same (high) standard. . . for God's sake, whose is? Not even Shakespeare's."

Referring to her own work, Laurence writes, "...there are some okay things in them, but they're not true enough, not penetrating enough, or at least they don't speak as much of my own truth as I have sometimes been able to speak in novels. But I think this is a fact of life, and damn well better than not writing at all if it makes you miserable at that particular time not to be writing. The Nigerian book was a life saver for me ~ saved me from despair and booze, probably. So it's got a few decent parts, and that's all, but that's okay, I think. This doesn't mean a drop in standards ~ it only means that you don't operate at the same pitch or tempo or whatever it is, all the time."

~ MARGARET LAURENCE (1926 - Jan. 5, 1987) Margaret Laurence - Al Purdy: A Friendship in Letters, McClelland & Stewart Inc., 1993.
* September, 1969