Winnipeg was no more more than a gas station stop for us. Beside fuel there was no real reason to stop, where we wanted to be was up the road somewhere and Emil already had food aboard in his coolers. Oven roasted chicken and potato salad. "Made up my mind to do most of my own cooking after Lena passed away. The instructions were all there in her dovetailed recipe box. Cooking's all about taking your time and doing it right. When a teaspoon of salt is called for, measure one out. Life lesson I guess."
Once north of the big city even a kid like me could see this was hardscrabble country not meant for agriculture. The farms grew smaller by the mile, the woods bigger. Gone were the crisp white silos of North Dakota and southern Manitoba. At first glance most of the houses we passed appeared well kept but a closer look said they'd been hammered by Mother Nature by hurricaned snow and minus forty degree temperatures. It was hard to tell if those white clapboard walls were actually painted or still covered with winter ice.
And not a sliding hill to be seen anywhere. Made me think the kids up here played hockey 'cause there wasn't anyplace to go in the winter except neck deep in snow or out on the ice. And once outdoors, if you didn't keep moving you'd freeze to death. That left hockey as the game of choice 'til you were old enough to hoist a few then it was curling. Yeah, no doubt about it, this country was built around winter.
Uncle Emil wasn't always off on a weird tangent. More often than not he'd simply voice his thoughts. When you're sitting next to a kid it's left to the old guy to get the conversation going. Around the time my feet grew to size tens, I tended to clam up in front of men. Didn't know how to deal with them. There was no need to tell me to be seen and not heard, no sir. Top that off with the new things entering and dominating my mind. I didn't always think about sex, only when I was awake. And half the time I was sleeping.
Back in those days, and particularly since I was going to a parochial school where all of my teachers were nuns, I figured I had to be some kind of pervert. That's not a joke. The nuns would never come right out and say thinking about sex was sinful and sick since they didn't like to mention such things but they came close enough to give me the idea. I came to see myself as someone who was clean on the outside and a pit of depravity - their words - inside. Made me a little edgy speaking to adults. Had to be extra careful what I might say. Something might slip out.
So Emil did most of the talking,
"You know I wasn't always like this. Laid back and mellow. No sir. In fact I even lived down in the cities for a while. Had my own company after the War. But it was the War made it possible. Maybe it was 'cause I was so much older than the other dog soldiers, even the officers, they looked to me for advice. It was there I grew comfortable with the way other people saw me and learned it was okay to give men direction. All that helped when peace finally came."
"Don't go off thinking my business was big or anything. But we did okay. Things were booming what with the country gearing up to move into good times after all the misery back in the Depression and the War."
"Didn't hurt there was some change in my pockets when I was discharged. There was no place to spend money in a combat zone. Cigarettes, food, clothes, all the necessities were free. Even the bullets and artillery coming our way was free of charge. Sent nearly all my pay home to Lena. She had a good job down in the Cities at the Arsenal and banked most of what I sent. In '46 I went to school to learn heating and air conditioning. Breezed through in a few months. Apprenticed, mastered, bought a truck, put my name on the side, did good work, expanded, hired men, then dumped the whole shebang when runnin' a business started to cut into my time on the water. That and the stock we had was enough to last us for the rest of our lives."
"Me and Lena weren't all that fond of the Cities so we moved back near our roots outside of Gopher Prairie next door to Sinclair Lewis. Bought a house, a couple of acres and settled in. We were supposed to spend the rest of our lives together there. Didn't work out. Some things you never see coming 'til they've moved in and made themselves to home. Doesn't take long for tomorrow to turn into yesterday. Yeah, when life says it's time to change that's what you do. Happens in a heartbeat but takes a man a while to catch up. Been better than a year and I'm still runnin' behind."
I kind of knew what he was saying but I had too many tomorrows ahead of me for it to really sink in.
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