A Happy Day In NB!

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Did you know that it was a happy day in N.B. when I came across the book ‘This Is New Brunswick' (Published May 1951) at a book-sale! I have a lot of books about New Brunswick and was glad to find it to add to my collection!

However, I was a tad perturbed at some of the first chapter ‘Introduction' comments about "What Is New Brunswick"! "What is New Brunswick - The runt of the litter - the little fellow with the big complaint - "! "New Brunswick? Sometimes called the most illliterate Province - noted as Canada's exporter of brains." "New Brunswick? Descendants of those stubborn Acadians who either hid in the woods during the Expulsion, or ... . Descendants of the cream of the Loyalists - high officials and wealthy, cultured New Englanders, who ... "! Thank goodness chapter 2 was titled ‘Welcome'! Taberduker!

The book was a travelogue going basically all around N.B.! It mentioned "The Main John", being Senator John Glasier, and also suggested that Paul Bunyan "was born of French speaking parents, somewhere on the Upper St. John River", a real person also, whose feats of strength spread with the moving lumberjacks to Ontario, Wisconsin, the Western States, and wherever such men went to find the next "tall trees"! It told how the Bay of Fundy was named by a Portuguese, Estavan Gomez, as Baye Fondo (Deep Bay) who named the St. John River as Rio de Vuelta (River of the return (Reversing Falls!)) long before 1604 and Champlain!

I read how Painless Parker from Tynemouth Creek had his first name legally changed to Painless, and how Petiticodiac was Pettycoatjeck! Dipper Harbour was named after a duck, the dipper, and the Waterford Ice Caves were (Are?) near Sussex Corner, and the Underground Lake was (Is?) about 7 miles from Hillsborough around Demoiselle Creek! Dark Sunday was Nov 7, 1819 and Cold Friday was Feb 8, 1861and the "Flat Stone" near Albert which says "1882. May. To the North 1505." has never been understood (At least up to 1951)! There was mention of our "Come all ye's!" that usually started with, "Come all ye people and listen to my song." All great stuff - but them first remarks still bothered me!

However, it was a happy day in N.B. when I neared the end and found, "You have seen, surely, the real Canadian here: the Loyalist who believed no price was too high, to keep his nationality - the Acadian whose love of home brought him, through great trials, back to a position of solidarity on the land his fathers tilled. And, largely, these two make up the people of New Brunswick - each stiff-necked with ancient pride and loyalty - and in that ancient pride and loyalty finding a common ground and understanding." And, I have to admit it, I can be a tad stiff-necked, even too stiff-necked at times! Taberduker! So, I'll share a few "secret" lines (No pun intended!) with all!

Secrets

I pick fiddleheads in my secret patch

And hook fish in my secret pool

And I hope to be a millionaire

When I patent my secret tool,

I plant my seeds in a secret place

For food when the season's done

I cut my wood in my secret stand

And hunt with my secret gun,

I hide my hoard in my secret spot

Protected by my secret potion

I stash my money in a secret cache

Swipe sores with my secret lotion,

I feed my dog my secret mix

And my cat gets my secret catch

My belly gets my secret meal

Prepared as my secret batch,

And if my enemy comes after me

I escape through my secret door

And if famine finds my humble home

I survive from my secret store,

I sing the birds my secret song

As I travel life's secret road

The soft wind whispers my secret wish

Secrets, secrets - you'll never decode,

Secrets, secrets - clandestine

Private, hidden, and out-of-the-way

I keep my secrets all to myself

While I live and work and play,

And though you search, and long enough

There may be material things to find

But you'll never know my secret wars

Nor ... the secrets of my mind!

D.C. Butterfield

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Anyways, I saw how, in a far corner of China "people can survive here, sheltered, warm, and well fed"! Such as it was in pioneer New Brunswick! My 87 years of age mother tells me how that when she was born in Bristol on a stormy December day her father had to hitch up a horse and sled and travel clear up and out to Moose Mountain to get my grandmother's sister to come and help! ‘Pon my soul! Today we complain about having (Ideally!) to drive to a big modern hospital on a four-lane highway that's plowed as the first flakes of snow descend! Granted, it's not always ideal! Life's like that! Taberduker!

Times change - I now read how actual "Academics" have nothing better to do than to travel great distances to meet to examine topics like ‘The Abject Female Celebrity In Postemotional Society'! Duh, and Double-duh! I now read how the effects of the alcohol one may have consumed before committing a crime might be considered as a loophole in getting a conviction reduced! Shouldn't one be considered responsible for their actions, regardless! Then, I wonder how if natural gas is so economical that we, the taxpayers, have to support a ‘brokered" deal to support it's use for home heating! It'll be a happy day in N.B. if a truely cheap means of winter heating is ever realized!

***************

We have to adapt, to each other, and the world around us! I sometimes ask myself, "Is it the world - or is it me!" You choose! Times change! Mark my words! None other than Dr. Edward U. Condon, past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science reportly stated "In my view, publishers who publish or teachers who teach any of the pseudosciences as established truth should, on being found guilty, be publicly horsewhipped, and forever banned from further activity in the usually honorable professions". Think about it! Great way to "advance" anything! Shades of "in existence" versus "left in existence"! The proverbial ‘Chart Attach Hack'! A Happy Day in N.B.! A Happy New Brunswick Day! This ... is New Brunswick!

***************

Have Pen - Will Write.