National Adult Literacy Database

June 2, 1997

The following story was written by Lena Williams from Babine Lake, British Columbia. Lena likes listening to music, taking nature walks with her children, and keeping busy. She is a single mother of three who hopes to become a business manager. The village of Old Fort, the subject of her story, is the most isolated of the communities in the Lake Babine band.

Candlelight

by Lena Williams

Collecting driftwood and dry twigs, we are building a fire at the Noranda Landing about five miles past Granisle, on Babine Lake, hoping that someone in Old Fort will see us. Usually someone keeps watch for a smoke signal. If they see a smoke signal, someone will run across in a boat and pick up visitors, tourists and whomever. It takes about 20 minutes to half an hour by boat to get from Noranda Landing to Old Fort.

Just close to the shoreline the waves can get pretty angry in the evening, with big giant waves, white tops, wind and sometimes rain. Old Fort is on a hill, with the church right on top overlooking the village. This village is very well taken care of. The lawn is mowed from one end of the ancient village to the other. No garbage anywhere.

This village has ancient houses. Some of them have antiques that have been left from long ago. The old church on the hill is in good shape with a bell and chimes that you never hear nowadays. When we step off the boat, we feel as if we have gone back in time. Walking around we see outhouses, a graveyard with a green fence, sheds, and smokehouses. Clothes are hanging out on clotheslines. A lot of kids and adults are playing football, soccer, baseball, swimming, fishing, or else they are hard at work.

At 6 p.m. we start to set the net for the evening. We gather up big rocks, floaters, and the net that needs to be set. Once the net is set we all gather to play games or just sit back and relax. We have a wiener and marshmallow roast while others are doing something else like telling stories, singing, and enjoying the scenery. As the evening chill sneaks up, off to bed everyone goes.

Getting up at 6 a.m. we pull the net and count the fish. Depending on how many fish are caught, we bring all the fish to shore but keep them in the water just enough so they don't float away. The salmon are usually tangled in the net. We have to struggle with it to take it apart. The ladies gather and get ready to gut the fish, wash them, and hang them to dry. Once the fish are all cleaned and hung in the open, we wait until after lunch to get them ready for the smokehouse. Once in the smokehouse, we keep the smoke strong to keep flies away.

Everybody is always doing something like looking after the kids, fishing, smoking moose meat, and looking after the fire in the smokehouse. Getting firewood and packing water is the hardest, I think.

After the day's work is done we get the lantern or the candles going and we rest in our ancient homes. If we catch only a little bit of fish then we have something else to do like go up to the big old hayfields. The trail up that way is a beautiful one, with the scenery overlooking the lake. This isolated village of Old Fort is a heavenly place.

[This story was taken with permission from "In This Country", a publication by the Northern Literacy Readers, College of New Caledonia, BC ].