March 1974

 
FTLComm - Tisdale - Monday, March 10 2003

As February 1974 came to an end our new single reflex camera arrived from Sears. The cost of this kind of camera had been out of reach to us but Sears began carrying the East German made Pracktica equipped with a 50mm lens using Pentax style screw on mounts. For my wife and I this was a new beginning in picture taking and introduced us to a much more enhanced level of picture taking. The pictures on this page were taken with the first roll of Kodak Tri-X that went through that camera, which by the way we wore
 
 

out.

The picture of the distant farm yard was taken on March 2, 1974 through the pickup windshield of the Lindenback farm using a very inexpensive manual telephoto lens. The frost at the top of the page was photographed the following day as was the falling snow in our yard that same cold March day.

Though we were shooting black and white this picture was taken with the telephoto lens of the sunset on March 4th while the dragons scale snow drifts were captured on the sixth. The storm had laid down a large amount of snow then changed directions and dug out holes in the drifts.
 
 

Frost had formed on the trees the night before and this picture of the maples was taken through the bedroom window.

For us it was an adventure living out in the country. My wife was expecting at the time and I drove into work each day with a little blue pickup that was one of the most fun and reliable vehicles I ever owned. That trip each morning and afternoon was six miles and only took a few minutes even when the weather was bad. These were the days of the CB radio and we had one in the truck and a base radio with a huge antenna at the farm house.

CB radio was amazing as our conversations between truck and house were often interrupted by things like "Breaker breaker one nine".

One night just West of Chelan I was talking to my wife the whole distance over to the farm house East of Weekes when a guy cut in from Texas. He thought my wife's radio name (handle) was "Turkey dressing" because at the time we were talking about stopping in Porcupine Plain to get some additional groceries. My mother was in the truck with me at the time and had been talking on the radio to my wife. The guy, the conversation and trying to explain turkey dressing sticks with me and every time I drive by Chelan I remember my mother and I laughing.
 
 

The picture above and this one were taken on March 6th and this image is looking East from Lindenback's toward the farm yard we were renting from a member of the family at the time. The early March storm had filled the road in but Mr. Lindenback had cleared it only to have it blow in again. Two weeks later the plowed sides on the road had risen to above the cab of the pickup.

The heavy snow fall that year melted in only weeks and on April 18th the Shand Creek which is hidden in the trees in this picture had overflowed its banks and they were blasting ice flows to let the water go through the bridge that had turned into a damn.

A week later we went from a one son family to a two son family and during the summer that year moved from the farm to the town as the young man we were renting the farm yard from married and needed a place to live.

Those three years we lived in Weekes were to be the foundation of a life long affection for the community and its good neighbour folks.
 

Timothy W. Shire

 

 

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Editor : Timothy W. Shire
Faster Than Light Communication
Box 1776, Tisdale, Saskatchewan, Canada, S0E 1T0
306 873 2004