CHASING RABBITS....

Verne, Another interesting little story about Lejac was the fall rabbit hunt. The boys would make all kinds of clubs and spears from whatever they could find. Apparently the rabbits go in cycles where once every 5 years or so there would be a great abundance of rabbits. At that time CN Rail was upgrading their tracks to 120 lb steel so the old tracks were being taken up and all the spikes that held the rails to the ties were being changed as well. The old spikes were left between the tracks to be picked up at a later date to be recycled. For the Lejac boys those spikes were weapons from heaven. The spikes were picked up by the boys and stuck in their belts like tomahawks. When a rabbit which by this time of year had turned white for the winter season was spotted the shout went up and 5 or ten boys would surround the rabbit and the spikes would fly. The poor rabbits did not have a chance against such an onslaught. On one Saturday I think they brought back about 70 rabbets which were skinned and cleaned and delivered to the cook who made rabbit stew for everyone. I bet the CNR is still trying to figure out why there were no spikes to be picked up for recycling for two miles either side of Lejac. To this day I'm sure you could walk through the bush around Lejac and still find all kinds of Rail Road spikes. Any grouse in the area also fell to the onslaught of the RR spikes. To this day I'm still amazed how no one ended up getting seriously hurt by a flying spike. There must have been thousands of spikes scattered throughout the bush. One of these days the area will be mistaken for an iron ore deposit. Happy days. Thanks to Jim Callanan for this story and photo

AND THEN THERE WAS MY RABBIT....

I remember those rabbits. At Two Mile Encombe there were rabbit trails running all over the place in the bush on the bank over-looking the railroad tracks. And in the fall once the leaves all fell you could see the rabbits so-o-o-o clearly in amongst the willows once their coats turned white. Even at some distance.

One day we were out bunch of us hunting rabbits there. Some of the boys starting one end of this bushy area and the rest of us would wait down the other end. Their job was to make lots of noise shouting as they walked through the bush toward us and hopefully scaring all the rabbits in our direction. And it worked because I was running along a rabbit trail when I spotted one some distance coming in my direction. The rabbit was running in a large arc along a trail toward a corner in the trail. Then it turned the corner and I figured if it kept going it was going to be heading in my direction for sure. I quickly checked around me and sure enough found a huge heavy stick maybe about 4 feet long lying in the bush next to the trail. The rabbit kept coming and turned my corner just as I lifted the stick up over my head planting one foot one side of the rabbit trial and the other foot the other side.

I COULDN’T BELIEVE IT! RABBIT JUST KEPT COMING!

All of a sudden the darn thing ran right under me as I brought the stick down hard as I could! Jesus! If I didn’t nail the ground with a thousand pounds of force!!!

Where....rabbit....I turned around quick as I could.....what the hell happened?!

The rabbit ran right through and under my legs and kept going. I thought I got it but it just kept going. But then....but then....all of a sudden one of the boys was hollering “I got it, I got it!”

The rabbit ran right by me then hit a tree some ten feet behind me. I’m pretty sure that’s what happened. It got so scared it never made the corner behind me instead running head-on into a tree on the corner. I just remember seeing him, it looked like he was just sitting there when one of the boys (I think it was Harvey Gunanoot) came running up grabbed the rabbit which was already dead!

Harvey Gunanoot was one of the boys in Intermediates with us in 1967-68. He was from Hagwilget at Hazelton. His older brother was Shubert and his sister, Elaine, was in my class at residential school.

IN THE BAND NOW....

When we all joined the marching Band in 1967, or after New Year in 1968, first thing starting that January we had to learn how to read music. That was the hardest thing. Almost like when we had to learn Latin for church. They gave us music sheets and explained all the different notes for us. This was upstairs in the Grade 8 classroom after school and sometimes in the evenings or Saturdays. And we stuck to it, all us boys, until we learned all the different songs like’ Red Wings’ or ‘Green Beret’. We learned some 10 different songs we played as we marched sometimes in parades or at events. Us in our red and white cadet uniforms.

And in the spring time, once we learned all that music we hit the pavement. And began to learn different formations as we played our music. Two formations we did were the ‘Wheel’ and ‘Musical Ride’. Some days we spent hours practicing the different formations. Each formation had to be right on cue, with the song. Sometimes you finished one formation at the end of a song, then, if you were going to be performing in an arena before crowds, you finished one formation and one song, then you went straight into another formation and another song.

At Kamloops, our entire performance took a full 15 minutes! With some 5 formations and maybe 5 songs back-to-back. We memorized every song, every formation, every step! It was awesome!

AT KAMLOOPS WE WERE AWESOME!

That was in 1969. That was us....we were the boys in the Band.

One year we had been outside our school quite some time practicing our entire 20 minute performance with half a dozen formations and at least as many songs. Every song, every formation, every step. And we weren’t getting it. There was one part which wouldn’t fit. And Brother McCormick, our Band Master, was getting extremely frustrated! Something wasn’t working.

He tried this, then that but for some reason we ended up off note! And our lines backwards.

We were just outside the workshop, all us boys and Brother McCormick. Then Father Sweeney and a couple of visitors stopped by to watch us practice. It was also at that point when Brother McCormick had become so frustrated he was beginning to raise his voice as he shouted out instructions to us. Then….he got so mad he just about swore. I remember Father Sweeney looked at us, then at his two guests, then they all wandered off. To leave us be.

Then....Brother tried something else.... and it worked. There would be days like that.....when nothing worked.....then you tried something entirely different....something new.....and somehow it worked.

That was Band.

GOING TO FORT....

I’m not entirely sure but that may be the little church overlooking Stuart Lake at Fort St. James in the first photo above. The church below St. Maria Goretti School in the far right corner of the picture with the Lejac Boys Band in this early 1960s picture. The Band often travelled to such northern towns throughout the 1960s and 70s to perform for the crowds. Sometimes family showed up to these events giving the boys’ an opportunity to spend a few precious moments with their parents as demonstrated in the 2nd photo with Benny Joseph and his two younger brothers. I’m guessing that is their parents standing behind them. This photo ca. 1964

photo courtesy of Jim Callanan, uploaded by verne solonas

Selling Xmas Cards....

We made our own Christmas cards, and then sold them for our Band trips. We had a contest one year, maybe in about 1968, to see who could design our Christmas cards. We were told when designing the cards that it had to be fairly simple so our designs can be used when we make the Christmas cards using paint and screening. They explained it all for us and of course, we were all confused.

Until we actually got to do the screening ourselves then we could see what they were saying when they explained to us how the ‘screening’ works.

They picked maybe a half dozen designs from all the students from all the classes at Lejac. They even picked one of mine which was about three Wise Men in a Canoe following the North star.

Once they made the selection they then made a number of screens at the Scout Hall and all us students and supervisors (and our Band Master, Brother McCormick) began making the cards. It involved a lot of paint which we poured onto the screens and then hung these cards onto lines of string across the hall for them to dry. We had to run some of these cards through the screens more than once depending on how many colors in the picture. All the boys and girls chipped in and helped.

Once the Christmas cards were all done we travelled to the local towns and sold them door-to-door. They sent me and another intermediate boy with a senior and we sold cards at Vanderhoof one weekend. I remember knocking on a fellow’s door that Saturday afternoon. And he was watching television. We each took turns asking people if they would like to buy the Xmas cards. And we had to be ‘polite and courteous’.

The fellow had a color television. And none of us had ever seen a color television before. And we took turns poking our head in his door and watching his color TV while the third boy talked to him.

In 1969 we went to Prince George and sold cards at a table we set up at the Hudson Bay store downtown. Me, Victor West and two other boys took turns sitting at the table selling cards. It was a lot of fun but a lot of work. photo courtesy of 'flickr'.

IN THE BEGINNING....

I spent my first four months at Lejac beginning in September until Christmas when me and my older brother, Andy, were told by our supervisors we were going home early. All the other students were scheduled to leave for the holidays maybe about 5 days before Xmas except me and Andy left a week before them. I guess that was because Mom wanted us home early. At least that was what we were told.

And, also we were going to Fort St. James. I guess Mom and Dad moved to Fort, so that was where we were going instead of McLeod Lake where we really live.

All I remember was riding a bus, the one Brother Poulliot he drives, to Vanderhoof early one morning before Xmas in 1963. I was only seven years old then. I sit near the front and after we leave Lejac, the bus stop all along the way to Vanderhoof picking up all these white kids. I never....I never....okay....they must be....they must students. Too.

And our bus the more it stop, the more full it get. And then....and then....a young white girl maybe almost my age she get on....and there are no more....there are no more seats. And then....and then she sit beside me. And me I just look....I just look out the window. And I never even look around or nothing. Except my window you can hardly even see through it, it’s all frozen and stuff.

Me and Andy got off at the Priests’ residence in Vanderhoof. It was a nice little house and that’s where we stayed until our bus left for Fort St. James that afternoon. And it wasn’t a bus. It was just a van which I guess they use to take passengers from Vanderhoof to Fort St. James. At Fort Mom met us at the bus station downtown and then we had to check her mail at the post office. I never been in a post office before. And I ask Mom what you’re supposed to do. And she say you have to ask for your mail. Oh.

St. Maria Gorretti was a public school at Fort St. James 45 miles north of Vanderhoof, BC in the 1960s. Both Native and non-native students from all over town attended the school. At the end of the day, all students went home after school.

Mom registered me and my sister, Sharon, at St. Maria Gorretti after Xmas and so that’s where I went until Easter. I was top of my class at Indian residential school. At Lejac. But the arithmetic book at Fort was way different. I try and keep up. I even stay in class during lunch hour, and try and figure out their text book, but I didn’t recognize anything. My teacher told me to just start where all the other students were. I never ever did figure out their text book.

First day at St. Maria Gorretti, all the students left for lunch. I just sat in my desk all through the lunch hour. I was so scared to even go outside! After lunch my teacher came in and couldn’t believe I sat at my desk the whole hour. She gave me a snack because I guess I never eat that day. Next day she told me it was okay to go home for lunch. We lived in a small house just below the school and so after that I told Mom my teacher told us we were supposed to go home for lunch. And that’s when she started making me lunch at home each day.

I even used to play with Kevin Austin. He was a boy my age. We lived in that small house below the school and next to the church. Kevin and them lived in a small house on the other side of the church. He was my best friend at Fort. We even used their yard for street hockey. A bunch of us boys including my older brother, Andy, and Kevin his older brother, Stewart. One time we were playing and one of us hit the ball too hard and it went bouncing and then bounced off their window. And Stewart’s sister banged on the window and hollered at us to ‘watch the window’. Stewart hollered back and said it was just an accident!

That was the best time at Fort. When we all got outside with our sticks and played street hockey in Kevin their yard springtime.

Fort was way different than Lejac. I returned to Lejac after Easter, me and Sharon. Sharon she’s my older sister. And I had to catch up all over again. But at least I finish top of my class that year. That was in 1963.

The photo above, courtesy of 'fortstjameschamber.com ' I'm sure is the church on Stuart Lake at Fort St. James. In the 1960s there were houses on the south side of the church and Mom and us lived in a house on the north side of the church, below the school.

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