In My Life

If you’ve ever heard Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion radio show you will have some idea of this little town of Havre. Early this morning we walked the length of the long main street and several side streets taking photos with everyone watching ‘suspiciously’. We dropped into the Lunch Box Café for coffee and came across a bunch of old men who meet there each weekday for coffee and a chat – as they do at the Chatterbox Café in Lake Woebegone. They were happy to let me photograph them and eager to talk about Australia. When I came back to my coffee a woman, working in the natural gas industry, was chatting with Glenys about going to the mission field. It’s that kind of town. In the café they have a sign saying “NO WHINING” and it seemed apt – because there would be nothing to whinge about in such company. Later we went to a shoe repair store and got talking with the cobbler who is fascinated with Ayres Rock. Everyone seems to be driving a monster pick-up truck – even though petrol (gas) is $4+ per gallon.

At lunch time a man asked, “Are you the fella that was taking photos in our town this morning?” He and his mate were also attracted to Australia. It turns out two Australians work in Havre – one as basketball player and coach at the local Tech College, the other as a physiotherapist.

Can you imagine 9 months of winter – temperatures 40 below freezing and 12 feet of snow? That’s Havre’s lot each year. We wondered how anything could grow – seems they plant the wheat before the snow comes so that when it melts in July the seeds are moist and ready to sprout. It’s short wheat – not very abundant – but not bad for here. We could never have imagined we would enjoy this place – off the beaten track – so much.

One other thing: there was a busload of older Aussies in a 30-seater bus at the same motel for breakfast. They’ve just come down through Canada from the Arctic Circle. They looked a bit worn out – and maybe starved for fresh company because they were keen to chat. One man was thinking of catching our train because they’re going too slow and stopping too often on his bus.
This has far exceeded our expectations.

This entry was posted on September 18, 2012 at 1:14 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.