Comments on: Ruby’s Right - You Can’t Trust That Internet.

By: Where the Walls are Soft… » Blog Archive » You Want Fries with that Burger…?

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 22:33:15 +0000

[...] think we were on Cockburn Island (stop laughing, Suzi), but it could have been one of a myriad of other islands in the North Channel [...]

By: Where the Walls are Soft… » Blog Archive » …Like a Woman Scorned.

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 05:59:33 +0000

[...] Ferguson is still stalking me.I was telling Ruby tonight about posting my Dad’s harrowing experience on the ice in 1938. I had been about to add that I thought he was jealous of all the attention she [...]

By: BeckEye

BeckEye — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:16:05 +0000

It might be kind of nice to live somewhere with a population of 2. If the 2 were me and John Travolta.

Les Says: Meh… I’ll bet even John Travolta would get boring eventually. That “one of two people….?” The first wife that died….? She got so bored that she “loaned” me a car once over there… I was 14. I ditched it. Then I hit a tree. Really, really, hard. Turns out it wasn’t even her car. And she told my dad I stole it. She was bored.

By: Aimee

Aimee — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:00:36 +0000

this story is great. But since you mentioned it…I cannot think of another way to pronounce the island so COCK Burn it is. Co burn does not seem to fit like cock does.
I’m an arse!
Also, just wondering how the names (Sandtrampers) came from? Is there a story behind these names or are they insults from the other Island?
I thought I was from a small town. We have 80 kids in each graduating class here. That’s like a big city!!!!!

Les Says: ROTFL!! The Manitoulin Islanders are named “Haweaters” because of all the Hawberries that grow there. “Sandtrampers” may have come from “Sand Bay” which the name of the beach that stretches along one end of Cockburn - I think they were probably nicknamed by each other years ago. I’ll see if I can’t find a little more info.

Oooh! Cockburn has a “SwampSaugen”, though! Sort of like a Loch Ness Monster, except - well, yeah - lives in a swamp.

By: cardiogirl

cardiogirl — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 13:16:00 +0000

Um, so COCK-burn is pronounced CO-burn, eh? So to say that’s just cockamame is to say that’s CO-amame?

Les Says: Um… yeah.

By: Suzi

Suzi — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 06:34:23 +0000

Yikes. This is why, even though we are Minnesotans, we McDonoughs abide by a strict policy against placing ourselves on frozen water. Freaks me right out, even on a small lake.

And really, do we have to pronounce Cockburn, co-burn? Because that’s lame. Cockburn is a fabulous name, and then when you add in PEACOCKS on COCKBURN, well. That’s just too wonderful for words.

Les Says: Well, I suppose you could get away with it as long as you’re not ON Cockburn when you say it. I’m pretty sure you’d get beat up by a bunch of
Sandtrampers.

By: Mushy

Mushy — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 02:42:07 +0000

So, is this how the “ice truckers” got started?!

Man (lady in your case) that sounds so freakin’ dangerous that it makes me shiver just thinking about it. When there’s demand, there’s people the will do most anything for enough reward, but I’ve always been too analytical to take one anything with more than 20% probability of dying!

You tell that Ruby…that the worse thing that could happen if you post a snapshot is that it would wind up on a porn site, in which case she’d get lots of email!

Les Says: “Ice Truckers”? Would those be the guys that sawed ice blocks out of the lake to fill the ice house? I’ll have to see what Ruby and my dad know about that…

And yes, crossing the North Channel was VERY dangerous - more so back then, I guess, but it could get pretty hairy even when I was a kid. There were always three huge cracks in the ice that we’d have to gun the snowmachines over… I just remember putting my head down and hoping like hell…

If I mention “porn site” to Ruby, she’ll make me take her parents’ wedding photo down. No. Way.

By: OldGuy

OldGuy — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 01:30:37 +0000

Just catching up here and the last couple of posts are wonderful Les. I can picture your dad and his “buddies” out on the ice, scrambling to get to safety before it broke. That is such a wonderfully, typically Canadian story.

So when does the book come out ?

Les Says: Argh, OldGuy! do you know how many books there are now, waiting to be written?! I don’t think I can mix my dad in with Ruby between the same covers. He was upset enough over the co-ed hospital rooms…