Yellowknife, N.W.T.
July 12th, 1939
Dear Mother:
I have been meaning to write for a long time but have delayed so long that not only has your birthday past [sic] but Dick’s also. I expect you held them together after the tournament and I hope you accept my very belated greetings. I have got the Courier giving the tournaments results up to Wednesday when only Mary and Dick upheld Kelowna’s honor in the closed tournament. The closed tournament did not seem to attract nearly the number of coast stars that you expected. There were more outside players last year, weren’t there.
The theatre has been completely redecorated and now has proper seats with an inclined floor etc. and best of all, two projectors so that we don’t have to wait while the reels a re-wound. The last show I saw was the “Cowboy and the Lady” which was as good as I remembered you said it was. The next good one advertised is “Drums” which I have already seen.
Last Sunday was about the first since breakup that we did no sailing. Instead we went up to Frame Lake taking a .22 for a little target practice on the way but by the time we got there the sun had gone and it seemed too cold for swimming.
The Doctor took a lot of movie pictures of his holidays which he showed at the recreation hall. They were mostly in colour and depicted such places as the N.Y. World’s Fair and Bermuda so were very interesting. He had even tried some Tuna fishing but when he hauled the fish in all but the head had been eaten by sharks.
An odd thing happened to one of my friends. He graduated in mining engineering this spring and joined the company some six weeks ago. He was on the exploration staff and in charge of a small camp and while there he was poisoned in some way—ptomaine perhaps. He says he was ill about three days before he was brought into the hospital but the odd thing is he has lost his memory of nearly everything that happened since he left Edmonton 6 weeks ago. He has no memory of passing through Con—does not recognize some of the people he had recently met—has no idea who was out at the camp or what he himself had done while there or even where the camp was. It is a bad break for him just as he was getting started and the Doctor wants him to go out to Edmonton. He will probably leave tomorrow as Page is on his way north now.
Page is bringing in some of the “brains” from Trail on an inspection trip and for some days both mine and surface crews have been cleaning up so that everything will be in readiness.
There was a lot of laughter at supper tonight when two of the miners walked in with the [sic] heads completely shaved. Many of the men have their hair clipped short in the spring but never shaved as well.
Just before supper the beer barge passed here on its way to town so there will probably be a great celebration tomorrow night. The advent of the liquor store has not made the town any more wild or disorderly.
Most of our commissary stock is in now but it seems impossible to get enough. I bought one pair of trousers and liked them so much I went back for another pair but already there were none in my size left. And this is supposed to ba a year’s supply.
Well this will have to be all for now as I want to catch the commissary which closes in ten minutes.
With love from
Tony