B4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 27, 2002 SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN | _ SKEENA ANGLER. — ROB BROWN Train Song o come, good men who toil and tire, ' Who smoke and sip the kindly cup, Ring round about the tavern fire Ere yet you drink your liquor up;" I looked away from the flickering television set perched on high, past filled and partly filled bottles of liquor made more exotic by the jumi- nous shelves upon which they were set. I looked to the right, toward the verse, “And hear my simple songs of earth, Of youth and truth and living things; Of poverty and proper mirth, Of rags and rich imaginings...” The last line trailed off and turned into a wet chortle that sounded as if it had been roughed up with a hack saw blade. I examined the barroom bard. He was old, in his late seventies I guessed. His voice, like his Jong, rough fingers, was dark, stained by tobac- co tar. His gray hair, combed straight back and plastered down with cream of some kind, had the severe look an ald woman has when pulled rearward and tied in a bun. This, combined with an aquiline nose, a heavy brow, furrowed leath- ery skin, and a strong jaw gave the old boy a ferocious aspect. He hunched over his drink, not scotch or rum, but some cocktail in a shallow glass with a ridiculous twisted stem. “Alfred Lord Tennyson?” 1 guessed. The ald fellow flinched like he’d been prod- ded by a stick and turned bearlike to see who had invaded his gin soaked reverie. He leaned, narrowed his gray red rimmed, eyes, and grabbed -my left forearm with his right vise grip and picked up the refrain. “Of cock-a-haop, blue-heavened days, Of hearts elate and eager breath, Of wonder, worship, pity, praise, Of sorrow, sacrifice and death...not Tennyson, sir, Robert W. Service.” - _ “] didn’t know Service had written anything like that,” I said. The old man’s grip loosened a bit. “I knew * Service, heard him read three times, I wanted to - be famous then, when I was young and stupid. I wanted to write poems. Mustered up the courage to talk to him. ‘How do I become a poet?’ J ’ asked. ‘Write about what you know,’ said he. So I wrote about logging, because it was what I knew, but it wasn’t what I knew best.” “Can you recite some of our poetry?” I asked. “It’s forgettable and best forgotten, but my one song will live on after I'm gone.” “You're a composer?" The cid man picked his cigarette out of the ashtray. “You ever listen carefully to a train horn?” heard them on Burrard Inlet as a boy; heard them along the Fraser and the Thompson when | fished there, and hear them when I fish the Skeena.” “Yes, but can you tell an AirChime and Na- than N3 from a Hexatone H5? Did you know that the MS used by most of the U.S. trains is a five horn work of art that plays an A major do- minant seventh chord with its third in its root? That's the chord of the bluesmen, the chord you play when the station’s in sight and you’re near- ing home. There are other Yankee horns, some play diminished chords, all roots yet rootless at the same time. All of them are nice, but none of them are suited to rugged wilderness of B,C.” “T had friends in high places. I convinced them that the American horas weren’t right for us, and that the British Models were too gentle, beller suited to the pastoral settings of the old country. 1 was awarded the job.” The cigarette had burned down to the filter, He dropped it on the rug and continued. “I built prototypes and tried them all over the land. Then, one day, on the Sabbath it was, I was on the tracks near the Yale tunnel deep in the Fraser Canyon. It was a misty November day and ] realized then that these places are the grandest Cathedrals in all of creation, That made me think of pipe organs. And that, made me think of the great Toccata and Fugue in D minor by Bach the elder, and { knew I had the formula: a minor triad, in root position, simple, sad, yet profound, 1 raised the key a semitone because the extra air made the brass resonate so profoundly.” He smiled at his accomplishment. “All the trains carry them now. They all sing a D# minor triad, it’s the law, written in the Ca- nadian Railway Act.” “So, you must be famous,” I suggested. “Qne song was enough. It was my one chord masterpiece. Since then, well...” There’s a race of men that don’t fit in, A race that can't stay still; So they break the hearts of kith and kin, And they roam the world at will.” mM Ready...fight! se RAR .DOZENS of martial artists packed the gym at Veritas school Feb, 23 as “the Battle -of Shogun’ karate tournament’ got-under way. Shogun’ brought athletes from Its Terrace, Smithers and Houston dojos here for a day of competition. Smithers fighter Brannan Bishop (above) prepares himself for a point fighting match. SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO. Sports Scope Francophones frolic IT WAS A chance to celebrate French culture and hit the slopes for 29 Terrace students Feb. 22 when the local chapter of Canadian Parents for French held the Sugar Shack Ski Blitz at Shames Mountain. French immersion students from Grade 2 to seven stepped into skies and strapped on the boards to raise awareness about French immersion programs in our area and to have some old fashioned fun while they enjoyed a non-instructional day away from schaol, Students were encouraged to speak French throughout the day. They also joined parent volun- teers in hosting a toffee pull and an appearance was made by Bonhormme Carnivale. This weekend two teams of French immersion stu- dents and parents are taking part in Mr. Mike's 3rd annual corporate challenge at the mountain. Spiel hits it on the button THE ANNUAL Ladies Valentines Bonspiel Feb. 9- 10 was a big success this year despite a drop in teams showing up for the event. The Terrace Curling Association's bonspiel usually draws about 32 teams from the Kitimat, Terrace and Prince Rupert. But this year no Prince Rupert teams registered. Nonetheless there was plenty of exciting action between Terrace and Kitimal. The A event went to Terrace’s Kathy Simpson tink, The B Event was won by Kitimat’s Ethel Scherr rink while the C event belonged to Helen Joseph’s rink. And in the D event Kitimat’s Barb Opheim rink defeated Terrace’s Jacquie Munson rink. They’ve got medals THE SHAMES Mountain ski team came back from the Purden Mountain Slalom races in Prince George with a little extra hardware last week. The event saw racers take part in two races Feb, 16 and @ two-run combined race the next day. Sheena Leclerc picked up silver and bronze me- dals and a 4th place finish in the K1 {ages 11-12) di- vision. Tatum Wood took a seventh place finish. The K1 boys division saw Bruce Hamilton come home with two fourth place finishes and a bronze medal. Our, . “['ve heard trains all my life,” I said. “I, Season winds down with White on top AT THE ARENA: TYLER NOBLE CRUNCH TIME began in the, second to last week of Midget House Hockey, as Team White and Team Red continuc their battle for top spot in regular sea- son standings. In the Monday night match up, these two teams faced off once again. Sitting in front of Red by only 2 points, White considered this game a must-win situation, and played the game accordingly. Team White opened the scoring 19 sec- onds into the game on a goal from Ken Eyjolfson. The lead only lasted until 12:07 when Sean Ca- sper scored for Red to heat things up, and at 9:41, Jon Sarsiat scored his 29th of the season to put his team in front 2-1. Nevertheless, White re- sponded with three goals to end the period staying in control with a score of 4-2, Play settled down in the first part of the second per- iod, but at 7:31 the goals kept coming for Team White, this time on a suot from Jeff Myers. Less than a minute later, Red’s Kelly Steel scored to make the score 5-3. A killer of a goal for Red came with seven sec- onds to go in the period, when Ken Eyjolfson got a hat trick giving White a 6- 3 lead going into the third. In the third, Dan Mat- thews picked up his 19th of the year for White at 11:26, and Ken Eyjolfson got yet another goal, this time with 5:15 to po. Tyler Sheashy added one for Red with 1:43 left but it wasn’t near enough as Team Red’s winning streak ended with an 8-4 defeat to White. With the win, White Team Red Team Blue 38 751 Minor Hockey Midget House League Standings GP GF GA W oL Team White 38 166 149 #19 #18 «#6 44 38 174 168 #+(17 #170 «64 = «(38 187) 14 2004 32 Goal Scoring Leaders Tysen Lebland White 47 Ken Eyjolfson White 37 Jon Sarsiat Red 30 Devon Mercer Blue 27 Sean Mahoney Red 23 Branden Green Blue 21 T PTS gains a very valuable two points in the league stand- ings. White returned to the ice in the Tuesday night match up attempting a win against Blue. The game was tied 4-4 midway through the third period, but with 2:57 left, White’s Chris England scored a lucky one from outside the blue line to Cont'd Page B10 Kermodes on a roll CALEDONIA’S girls basketball tearm is going full steam ahead as they gear up for the -AAA provincia! championships in Vancouver Mar. 6-9, As the only AAA team in our zone, the Caledonia Kermodes have an automatic berth to the provincial championships. Getting game play before next month's tournament is essential for petting the girls prepared for the biggest high schoo! basketball competition of the year. “Any games we have are good,” said coach Bill Gook. “Certainly the teams we will play against in the lower mainland will have many more games than we have.” The team continues to rack up the wins, taking three straight games on the hard wood last weekend. The girls won a | close one against Prince Rupert Senior Secondary in Hazelton Friday, Feb. 15 by a score of 55-53, The next day they were off ta Smithers for a play day. The first game saw the Kermodes defeat Smithers Senior Sec- ondary 57-33. And just to add one more win to their collection the Kermodes de- feated Hazelton Senior Secondary 44-33. Women’s hockey team scores TERRACE’S women’s hockey team is making their mark on the ice after pick- ing up three wins and one loss at Hazel- ton’s Kermodei Classics tournament last week. The Terrace squad generally plays pick-up hockey once a week here, Coming together as a team at tourna- ments is something of a challenge given the lack of regular inter-city play, But the Terrace women rose to the .oc- casion ‘In Hazelton Feb. 16-17 defeating Smithers, Burns Lake and Houston by large margins. Smithers went down to Terrace 6-2 in the women’s first match up. And it was deja vu for the women when they took on Burns Lake and took that game also by a margin of 6-2, Next up was Houston’s team which was trounced by the Terrace squad by a lop-sided score of 8-0, But the local team met their match when they took on Houston very strong squad, . That team just wouldn’t let the Terrace women get a single puck in their goal and Terrace lost 4-0, a m Dye-ing to win DARRYL BJORGAARD poses with "Dye- Anne", his dummy that took top spot for get- ting the biggest air at Shames Mountain's an- nual Dummy Downhill Fab. 17, The longest jump want to the “Allan” dummy, while “Hormy Beer" was voted best crash and "Miss Piggy" won for most durable dummy. The best look-. Ing dummy went to the octopus, “Spancer".