National Adult Literacy Database

April 1, 1996

This week's story comes to us from British Columbia, where Michael Johnny has written a vivid account of his childhood in northern British Columbia. Mr. Johnny likes drawing, painting, horseback riding, fishing, and skiing. He wrote Happy Times while attending an adult education program at the Nechako Learning Centre in Vanderhoof. He is single and hopes to work with his band in future.

Happy Times

by Michael Johnny

When I was about four or five years old, I lived in a village called Blue River, near the Yukon border in B.C. It was a very small village of about 50 people. This was the home of our Indian reservation, called Kaska Dena. I visited the village every summer because it was the home of my grandparents.

One nice, bright, sunny day in the summer, my grandma and grandpa took me for a leisurely walk to the green forests behind our reservation. We walked on the dirt road looking for berries to pick. My grandma had a large pail and grandpa had his big rifle in case we saw a deer, moose, or rabbit to hunt. Everywhere we looked on the sides of the road we saw lots of blackberries. Grandma wanted blackberries to make jam and we needed soapberries to make Indian ice cream. I helped them gather berries, but I didn't put the berries in the pail. All I did was put them in my mouth. That's what all kids do. When I got bored with picking berries, I sauntered down the road to look at the wild flowers and the insects flitting about. That's when I saw butterflies all over the small bushes in the centre of the dirt road. I ran and stared at them. I caught one of the purple butterflies. It was in my hands. I ran to show it to my grandparents. I yelled at them, "Grandpa, Grandma, look!" They looked. I put my hand right in their faces and opened it. As I did so, the butterfly flew away.

My grandparents smiled at me and said, "It's good to let the butterfly go free." I was so happy, I ran to get another one. This was a happy memory I will never forget.

[Used with permission, from the collection of personal stories In This Country: Personal Stories About Northern B.C., published by the B.C. Ministry of Skills, Training and Labour and the National Literacy Secretariat, 1994, page 127, and as excerpted in The Literacy Materials Bulletin, published by the Adult Literacy Contact Centre, Vancouver, B.C., Fall 1995, page 11.]