Day 25 was to be
a rest day and it marked a special day for Nonie and me. It has been 45 years since
we first met in the small northern BC town of Fort Nelson. I had arrived in the
spring to work at the gas processing plant located just outside the town.
Nonie arrived in August as a newly minted teacher, fresh from university and starting
her first teaching assignment.
It was Friday night, November 30th 1973 and the
town was buzzing as Santa had arrived and was making a list. Nonie and her
friends all hopped up on Christmas Spirit decided to spend the evening drinking
and dancing at the local cabaret, the Trappers Rendezvous.
My supervisor had told me to get a haircut as my long,
flowing locks were interfering with the breathing apparatus that would save my
life in the event of a deadly gas leak at the plant. It was my freshly shorn
hair and my being dumped by my current girlfriend at the Trappers Rendezvous that
night that put Nonie and I on a collision course for this moment.
The story’s plot line when told by Nonie tends to diverge
from mine so to be fair, I will jump over the details of that night but the rest
is history.
It was on the May long weekend of 1974 that I proposed to
Nonie while we soaked in the Liard River hot springs, 350 kilometres north of
Fort Nelson. If you haven't already guessed it, she said YES.
We were married March 29, 1975 at the Hillside United Church in
Fort Nelson.
45 years later, December 1, 2018, 13,500 kilometres from
Fort Nelson, it was bubbly and some shrimp on the barbie in Noosa Head, Queensland,
Australia. (Please note that it was still November 30th in Canada.)
Our chill day had started with a bus ride to the town of
Eumundi to check out the Eumundi Artisan Market. Their motto is “make it, bake,
grow or sew it’ we sell it here.”
Nonie
discovered “Eco Wraps” an environmentally friendly replacement for
plastic food wrap and has added it to her environmentally friendly fabric shopping
bags that she has been making and handing out to family, friends and complete
strangers for the last 15 years or so.
Photo: experienceeumundi.com
Tomorrow we are off on a trip to the zoo.
