October 31, 2020 . . .

I made a mistake on the way to RCAF Station Sioux Lookout. The train I was on stopped for half an hour, for a break, at a little northern Ontario town called Swastica. I walked out onto the train depot platform, and took a deep breath. It was instantly as if a thousand knives hit my throat! I learned right then how to breathe in the northern winter, and quickly got back on the train. That was my introduction to winter in northern Ontario.
The first day I went into town, a couple of buddies and I were walking on the sidewalk and an Indian woman was walking towards us. She and her children stepped off into the muddy street to let us pass. Something was very wrong about that! 
There were two restaurants in town. They each had lots of coffee and juke box remotes. With little else to do, we’d spend hours just sitting, drinking coffee, and feeding quarters int the juke box. I would sit in one of them for hours, drinking I don’t know how many cups of coffee – there wasn’t much else to do.
In the summer, all three weeks of it, we would go down to the lake, where a single engine Beaver was all loaded and ready to take off. I would watch as they tied her down the pilot would gun the engine. Then the man with an axe would chop the rope and the plane would take off. A motor boat would go back and forth to make waves, and that together with the rather unique rope trick launch, would get the seaplane up off the lake, just. In 1962, that lake in Sioux Lookout, was the busiest airport in the world!
That summer, I encountered deer flies, no-seeums, blackflies, etc., with a vengeance! They just wouldn’t leave me alone! However, when the next summer arrived – nothing. It seems I was immune to all manner of insects!
I was due in court on a charge for a prank I and a couple of buddies played. We let the air out of all four tires of a Police car. We got to the hall where the district court was sitting in Dryden, for 9:00 AM. We sat through case after case, waiting for ours to come up. We waited until almost three o’clock, and then the Judge threw our case out because no one showed up from the police. Every time an Indian was on trial, the Judge gave that person a jail sentence. Every time a non-Indian was on trial, the Judge either sentenced that person to a fine, or a slap on the wrist! Wow! That really stayed with me!
Well, that was what it was like in the RCAF in 1963.
Please be careful . . .
Stay safe, stay well, remember your mask, stay physically distanced, wash your hands frequently, get some fresh air if you can, and keep smiling . . .
Hang in there – the Pandemic won’t last forever . . .
‘til we meet again . . .