National Adult Literacy Database

February 14, 2005

This story was written by Art Boudreau. Art is 47 years old and he was born in Nova Scotia. He started work at a young age in fishing, trapping and construction. He moved to BC 25 years ago. Art started fishing, then worked in a warehouse. He then lived on the streets and moved to a beach. Then he went tree planting on the West Coast and the interior of BC. He moved to Nelson, built a cabin in the woods, and lived there for three years. Then he moved back to the coast and lived in a cabin on the beach. He met his wife and moved in to town. He got a job in a tree nursery that grew nine million seedlings a year. Then he had a work accident and injured his leg. He could not work, so WCB would not pay him unless he went to school and learned to read and write. Art is happily married with a lovely wife and three lovely girls.

 

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The Giant Squirrel

by Art Boudreau

One day when I lived Nelson a friend gave me a kangaroo hide. I took it to my cabin five miles out of town along the railroad tracks. The next day some hikers came by my cabin. They asked if there were animals, like bears, cougars, deer, squirrels, and coyotes. I said, “Yes, there is lots of animals.” Then I showed them the kangaroo hide and said it was a squirrel hide. Their eyes came big. It was the biggest squirrel they had ever seen. After they were gone, I began rolling on the ground and laughed so much that I almost wet myself.

That night just before nightfall I went down to the railroad tracks with my kangaroo/squirrel hide. Then I put the hide over me. I looked pretty funny. When the train came close enough to see me, I began to hop over the tracks and up the hill into the woods. The train stopped when it came to where I had hopped over the tracks and up the hill. I could see them looking and pointing up to the woods where I had hopped to. What a laugh I had. I laughed myself to sleep that night. The next I could hear a work crew working on the rail tracks. walked down with my coffee to have a talk. They asked if had seen an animal a long tail and hopped. I said, Yes, I seen something that a long tail, but I did not know what it was because my was running after it. It hopped so fast that the dog could keep up with it as it hopped away up the hill. I walked back to my cabin. I laugh so much in the two days I played with that kangaroo/squirrel I had many good laughs with that old hide.