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IN THIS ISSUE

• Dixie Augustjein concludes her colourful account of a trip
• Jack Peaker has happy memories of years spent in Vancouver
• Jean Sterling comments on some of the articles in last week's issue
• Bill Murphy suggests a solution to the problem of unwanted queries
• Catherine Green tells us what PMS stands for
• Burke Dykes forwards a story of an older woman's unusual request
• Don Henderson points out some interesting parallels in two years
• Gerrit de Leuuw's story is about an intercontinental train ride
• Know what to do if you have a heart attack when alone

Dixie Augusteijn wraps up the story of their

ALASKA/YUKON TRIP

I forget where I left off on the trip so may be repeating myself. We passed into the Yukon with a a river on our right called Windy Arm - picturesque names abound - while some distance away on our left was the long slender Lake Bennett. Where these two waters meet was the small settlement of Carcross, originally called Caribou Crossing, because of the large herds of caribou crossing between Bennet and Nares Lakes. As Alaska and British Colombia also had Caribou Crossings, in 1916 it was changed to Carcross.

Beside the railway station a cairn marks the site where crews building the White Pass and Yukon railway met the building crew from Whitehorse in July, 1900, and the last rail was set in place with a golden spike. The railway that had its start 27 May, 1898, was finished. The gold stampede was over but Carcross became a major stopping point until 1982, when the railroad ceased operations. Passengers and freight would transfer here to steam-driven stern-wheelers for the trip up to Dawson.

Carcross has the world's smallest desert - something you would not expect in this part of the world. Comprising only 260 hectares, this desert is the bottom of a glacial lake left from the ice age. The dry climate and winds from the nearby lake are what cause the dunes and allow little vegetation to grow. There is an effort to preserve this unique and fragile habitat and there are strong objections to proposals by the Tagish to build a hotel just above the dunes. We did not have time to visit the small town - the same complaint - but understand there are many crafts done here - and there are one or two outstanding photographers.

Just off the road on this last lap to Whitehorse was an Indian village important in gold rush days. Now called Tagish, it was then known as Fort Simpson and had become a tent city flooded with gold seekers. In early 1897 the North-West Mounted Police built one of their most important posts here to register every person passing through - and according to Pierre Berton, there were more than 28,000.

Shortly before Carcross, we had passed Emerald Lake, correctly named from the vivid emerald colour of the water. The colour is due to the marl bottom of the lake, which in some light conditions gives a rainbow effect. It is a beautiful spot, almost too perfect to be real. We were now nearing Whitehorse, right on time for the last morning's cleaning of the van before delivery. The park was equipped with lots of cleaning equipment, necessary to get rid of all the mud and dust. Elizabeth was equally busy inside, and as she is an immaculate housekeeper, the van was delivered promptly on time - shining clean.

That done, we got a taxi to take all our baggage to the airport and had it checked in early as we were not leaving until the evening. They were most helpful with the walker and wheelchair, which had to have special packaging.

We spent our last day roaming Whitehorse, since 1953 capital of the Yukon. It is not large, about 23,000 people, but it has everything a family could want, including good education and health facilities. It has a dry climate with temperatures ranging from a January low of -22C to a July average high of 21C. "Surprisingly, despite its relative cold, Whitehorse was ranked among Canada's cities with the most comfortable climate." Granted, we were not there in mosquito season, but I think if I were a young person, I would seriously think of heading to the Yukon.

I am going to attach a few pictures taken during our trip.

ED. NOTE: To see Dixie's pictures, go to Jay's website at http://members.shaw.ca/vjsansum/ and check out the links in her story.

Jack Peaker has happy memories of a time when he lived in

VANCOUVER

The years from 1952 until 1955, when we lived at 1519 Beach Avenue in Vancouver, left many memories, even though I was only there half the time, with my territory stretching from Thunder Bay to Victoria.

The $75 monthly apartment overlooked English Bay. Stanley Park was at the end of the street, and Crystal Pool and an aquarium were on the beach across from the apartment.

Vancouver was a quiet city with low costs, and ongoing strikes of either fishermen or lumbermen kept the economy at a low ebb.

It had snowed during my three years there but I never saw it as at those times I was in temperatures of -40F in Edmonton or -50 in Regina. One evening in Regina, with nothing better to do, I went to the curling rink and on walking back to the Saskatchewan Hotel, noticed cars with flat tires. The reclaimed-rubber wartime tires had frozen, flattened, and the cars were immobile.

As the youngest tenants in "The Barrington," we were welcomed warmly by fascinating folks such as the Farmers, the Holmes, and the Pughs. Oldest were the Holmes, though Tillie was much younger and more sprightly than Jimmy, who was probably 40 years older than ourselves.

Jimmy was interesting. He had worked with Marconi on Signal Hill in Newfoundland at the period around 1901 when the first wireless transmissions formed the basis for radio. He was a Morse code operater for those history-making overseas messages.

The Farmers were intriguing. Ernie represented a company that supplied bakers. He would call on these bread bakers beginning at 4 a.m., and his work was completed by 11 a.m., which allowed him to golf daily at the exclusive Capilano Golf and Country Club.

One morning he was back to the apartment before noon, accompanied by four of a renowned singing group. The Mills Brothers were entertaining at the Cave in Vancouver and decided to fill in a morning golfing. Alas, in 1953, no coloured folk were allowed in that exclusive club. Ernie brought them to the Barrington and his wife, Jessie, invited my wife, Iris, to join them for breakfast. She had prepared an English-type breakfast complete with steak and kidneys. Iris enjoyed talking with them, and Harry Mills gave her one of his recent records, which included their popular hits, "Paper Doll" and "Daddy's Little Girl".

Yes, Vancouver had many, many happy memories. We thought we might retire there, but after seeing what a different city it is now, it will remain only a happy memory.

Jean Sterling comments on last week's issue:

About the rebate conspiracy Dick Monaghan described - I find these rebates very annoying too. Maybe they just want to help out the post office? I bought a digital album as a Christmas gift for my middle son and wife as they are expecting their first child. It came with a rebate coupon. However, in this case it wasn't merely a matter of my forgetting to send it in; they made it impossible for me to send it in as the rebate coupon was inside the package and had to be postmarked by December 18. I had no desire to open the package of what was to be a very nice Christmas gift, so I had to forego the rebate.

About hard-to-pronounce Indian names - In Central Florida we have Kissimmee. You can always tell the tourists as they will stress the first syllable, pronouncing it KISS-i-mee. Locals stress the second "I". About Chocolate Sings - A French bakery here has a sign which says, "Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first." About my birthday - Hard to believe! You seem much younger to me!

ED. NOTE: Thank you, Jean, for that endorsement.

UNNECESSARY AND ANNOYING QUESTION MARKS

Bill Murphy answered Kate Brookfield's question about the mysterious queries that have been turning up in the Tale Spinner. For people using Outlook Express, Bill suggests that they go to "View", and then to "Encoding" in that file. Under Encoding, hit "Unicode (UTF-8)". This should remove the superfluous queries.

We are indebted to Catherine Green for these acronyms:

THIRTEEN THINGS PMS STANDS FOR...

1 Pass My Shotgun

2 Psychotic Mood Shift

3 Perpetual Munching Spree

4 Puffy Mid-Section

5 People Make me Sick

6 Provide Me with Sweets

7 Pardon My Sobbing

8 Pimples May Surface

9 Pass My Sweat pants

10. Pissy Mood Syndrome

11. Plainly; Men Suck

12. Pack My Stuff

and my favourite one.

13. Potential Murder Suspect

Pass this on to all of your hormonal friends and those who might need a good laugh ... or men who need a warning. And remember: Money talks ... but Chocolate SINGS!

Burke Dykes forwards this story about

AN UNUSUAL REQUEST

A nice, calm, and respectable lady went into the pharmacy right up to the pharmacist, looked straight into his eyes, and said, "I would like to buy some cyanide."

The pharmacist asked, "Why in the world do you need cyanide?"

The lady replied, "I need it to poison my husband."

The pharmacist's eyes got big, and he exclaimed, "Lord, have mercy! I can't give you cyanide to kill your husband! That's against the law! I'll lose my license! They'll throw both of us in jail! All kinds of bad things will happen! Absolutely not! You CANNOT have any cyanide!"

The lady reached into her purse and pulled out a picture of her husband in bed with the pharmacist's wife. The pharmacist looked at the picture and replied, "Well, now. That's different. You didn't tell me you had a prescription."

Don Henderson points out a little-known fact:

INTERESTING YEARS, 1981 AND 2005

Interesting Year 1981

1. Prince Charles got married
2. Liverpool crowned soccer Champions of Europe
3. Australia lost the Ashes tournament
4. Pope Died

Interesting Year 2005

1. Prince Charles got married
2. Liverpool crowned soccer Champions of Europe
3. Australia lost the Ashes tournament
4. Pope Died

Lesson Learned? - The next time Charles gets married, someone warn the Pope.

Gerrit de Leeuw tells this romantic story of

THE MARRIED COUPLE

A man and a woman, who have never met before, but are both married to other people, found themselves assigned to the same sleeping room on a transcontinental train. Though initially embarrassed and uneasy over sharing a room, they were both very tired and fell asleep quickly, he in the upper bunk and she in the lower.

At 1:00 a.m. the man leaned over and gently woke the woman saying, "Ma'am, I'm sorry to bother you, but would you be willing to reach into the closet to get me a second blanket? I'm awfully cold." "I have a better idea," she replied. "Just for tonight, let's pretend that we're married."

"Wow! That's a great idea!" he exclaimed.

"Good," she replied. "Get your own darned blanket!"

This information is taken from a .pps file about what to do if you are alone when you suffer a

HEART ATTACK

Let's say it's 6:15 and you're driving home (alone, of course) after an unusually hard day on the job. You're really tired, and frustrated....

Suddenly you start experiencing severe pain in your chest that starts to radiate out into your arm and up into your jaw. You are only five miles from the hospital nearest your home. Unfortunately, you don't know if you'll be able to make it that far.

You have been trained in CPR, but the guy who conducted the course did not tell you how to perform it on yourself.

Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack, without help, the person whose heart is beating improperly and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left before losing consciousness.

Do not panic, but start coughing repeatedly and very vigorously.

A deep breath should be taken before each cough. The cough must be deep and prolonged, as when producing sputum from deep inside the chest.

A breath and a cough must be repeated about every two seconds without let-up until help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be beating normally again.

Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack victims can get to a hospital.

- Journal of General Hospital, Rochester

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"A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country." - Texas Guinan