Day In Revelstoke

In my quest to distribut my book, I drove to Revelstoke a couple of days ago with my friend, Dave Harper. What a glorious day it was, too ... a little cooler with a refreshing breeze. Ah, the freedom of being on the road. 

As I drew closer to the land of dramatic mountains and tall dark trees, I began to feel small as the magic of the place began to work on me. The closer to Revelstoke we got, the more I revelled in the feeling. Ancient memories. Beyond memory, even. An imprint on my psyche, if not my soul, and the birth place of so many of my relatives, as well as my mother, myself, and all my siblings, except one. 

We left when I was six years old or so but I returned when I was fifteen and couldn't stand living at home another moment. I stayed with my aunt and uncle, Jean and Dick (so different from my partents and I adorded them for that), for a summer and worked in the Chuckwagon Drive-In, a hamburger joint, which isn't there any more. I was quite stunned when I was that age. Don't know how I survived those years.

After stopping at the Railroad Museum, Dave and I stopped at Grizzly Books and Serendipity Shop on the main street, Mackenzie Avenue. I hadn't been there a moment before the owner, Vanessa, came through the back entrance with her bear of a dog, Basil. We had a great time chatting and she took two of my books and two of Deanna's and I bought a book from her. "12 Mile Remembered: Our Lives Before They Burned Our Homesteads" has a photo of my grandmother (Irene English), my mother (Marion), and my aunt Margery in front of Twelve Mile School, where grandma taught in a two-room teacherage. 
I have a wisp of a memory of staying there with her, which I wrote about in my memoir "A Raven in My Heart."

I knew it was going to be a good day when we stopped at the Anglican Heritage Church, where Deanna Kawatski's partner Eric Procunier's great great grandfather was the minister for a lengthy period of time.

Stepping out of the car, I heard a raven and was drawn to a tall fir tree across the street, where he sat telling his story. Dave wandered over to the church. 

Oh, raven was telling a great tale all right! He was a joy to listen to. I heard sounds that I've never heard before. The expressions in his vocal variations held me, a woman rooted to the sidewalk, head tilted back, staring up into the tree top, absorbing, revelling, applauding. I even laughed out loud serveral times!

Kinship with that black bird, who sounds almost human, makes a believer out of me. Sure, scoff you non-believers, but until you've heard a bird like raven telling a story you haven't allowed the magic of creation to touch your heart. You haven't allowed yourself to know deep inside yourself that we are all connected.

Next, I so enjoyed meeting cousin Ken's wife, Cathy English, curator of the Revelstole Museum. In another instance of serendipity (as the day seemed so full of it), cousin Don English was in the museum, visiting from Winnipeg! The friend with him happens to be the systems and acquisitions librarian for Okanagan University, Kelowna. We exchanged information. He wants to order my book for the library! And cousin Ken came to the museum to say hello, so it was quite a wonderful day. 

As a bonus, Cathy ordered six of my books for the museum!

Thanks, Dave!

Thanks for your comments, Dave. And thanks for all your help!
I'm overwhelmed by the response I've been getting to my recently published book "A Raven in My Heart: Reflections of a Bookseller." There's a lot of work to do to publicize the book now but I'm working on it.
I think forming Gracespring Collective was the best thing any of us (Deanna Kawatski, Alex Forbes, and Caroline Woodward) did in the last year and a half. Four brains are definitely better than one! I love those guys.

Kay