MARGARET SPEIRS ENA ANGLER ROB BROWN Refuse | t- was late i in the afternoon by the time I re- turned to the Old Bridge after a walk along the River Trail. I’d taken the rod with me but had only made a few casts, enough to hook a few Dolly Varden-where the river spills into the Twin Towers Run. ‘I'd had enough time to swim a fly through the rest of the run, and through Blackie’s too, with a reason- able chance of provoking a rise from steelhead in one or both runs, but the river was up and slightly off colour.. The fishing would have been awkward - and repetitive. I’d been happy to return to the trail. I'd. followed the path across a small. sheltered creek that not so many. years ago was home to chum and coho every fall and, hopefully, would be again, then I’d climbed the side hill overlooking a cobbled, high water channel of the river. Below me I'd noticed a trio of cedar stumps, notched and cut in the days when falling one and taking it to the mill: was a day’s work. © Later I’d stopped at the site of Baxter’s Mill, _ easily identified by the rusted metal remnants. In a hollow at the edge of the clearing lay what had “obviously been the place where the mill workers ° tossed their trash. ; Most of it consisted of cans, their labels erased by rust. Of those still legible I’d made out one that once contained a‘can of Spam: a sawyer’s lunch, perhaps, fried along with eggs in a cast iron pan during some lunch break some 70 years distant when only cardiologists knew of cholesterol. .I’d pictured him, sawdust sticking’ to-his grey Stanfield tops, sitting down to lunch with his fel- lows, tucking into meat and eggs and black coffee followed by a cigarette made from Vogue tobacco from one of the tins in the same aged trash heap. A few old jars were strewn among the rusted tins. I poked around with the tip of my wading staff cum walking stick, hoping to find some other dis- tinguishable artifacts, but found none. After realizing it was getting late, I’d left my amateur archaeological excavations and hiked back to the truck. The dog arrived before me, as usual. She was busy snuffling in something on the far side of the embankment. I walked over. and found her in’ the midst of a dozen bags of garbage: not regular. black plastic garbage bags but the white Copperside bags that one finds strewn all over the landscape in this area, each filled with waste and tied up so that the han- dles formed ears. The scene made me recall the time when a con- servation officer and I had come across a similar ~ mess on the Beam Station Road. The officer had ’ plucked a phone bill from the trash and had assured me that he would be paying a call to the people whose listing it was. . I set down my rod, jabbed at. the garbage with my staff. There were cigarette packages bearing pictures of blackened lungs, processed pizza pack- ages, empty blister packs, plastic coke bottles, beer , cans, sanitary napkins, condom wrappers and their used contents along with all manner of plastic pack- . ing and paper waste. l.was about to give up in disgust and revulsion when | noticed some shredded paper. 1 gingerly picked them up. They were photo- graphs that had been ripped in two. I fitted the piec- es of one together. A couple and a kid stared out at me. The man had his arm around the woman. He had a mustache, dark hair and appeared to be quite tall. He was wearing a gray woolen top. The woman was small and pretty. The child was about 10. There was a canyon in the background that reminded me of the grand canyon of the Sti- _ kine. All three of them were:beaming. The woman appeared to be laughing. | The other shredded snap showed the : same cou- ple, inside this time, captured in another happy mo- ment. I was staring into someone’s life, looking at their happiness and their sorrow. How much bit- .terness and pain, how much jealousy. and hurt had gone into those torn edges? There was another piece of paper still on the ground near where I’d discovered the snapshots. I ‘picked it up. It was an.envelope return addressed to . a local union office and addressed to a woman who lived in town. I took the pictures and the envelope with thei inten- ‘ tion of paying her a Visit. After asking her if she was OK, I intended to tell her that leaving her garbage in ‘a public place, or entrusting it to someone who did, she risked exposing her private life to someone who really doesn’t want to know what she eats or if she ’ smokes or what kind of birth control she uses. Finally I decided that there was a good chance that hers might well be a sad and complicated life I wanted no part of. i left the pictures and the envelope with the con- servation officers. The next time I returned to the Old Bridge the garbage was gone. Oe ie ee ey ee 0 a Se Siete i a a rf. i. ee es , | JACQUELINE, left, and Julianne Lenuik, the only two competitive skaters in the Terrace Skating Club, display confidence and poise c onand - off the i ice. The sisters have impressed their new W coach with their aa and dedication. e eiskeyto _ MARGARET SPEIRS PHOTO ~ skating sisters’ success By MARGARET SPEIRS JACQUELINE and Julianne Lenuik resemble ‘ing for a reason not expected from girls so young: ' each other like most sisters and also share a love of the same sport. They both love skating and show a remarkably mature confidence in their ability while still re- maining humble. | Despite their tender ages ‘of 13 and 11, the pair moved from non-competitive to competitive skat- the challenge it offered. “I wanted to see. what it was like, how different it was,” Julianne says. They discovered several differences between the two types of skating: they practice separately and more often, skate against more opponents at - competitions and travel to different events. All of which they enjoy to the maximum. At this year’s Sectionals, which are the BC/ Yukon provincials for competitive skaters, Jac- queline skated to 10th place out of 63 participants in the pre-novice category, her third year in the event and third time in the-top 10. Julianne travelled to sectionals for her first time and finished 26th out of 32 pre-juvenile skaters. Despite the high number of competitors, the sisters say they never feel nervous. The pair began skating at ages three and four when their mom put them into the sport and nei- © ther wanted to quit. , They agree that the jumps are their favourite part of skating. Julianne says she also really enjoys spins. But they say falling can be fun too. If you fall fast enough, you slide and don’t get hurt, they say. In addition to skating, Julianne swims, J acque- line skis and the pair compete in track and field. and ballet, all of which help them with their fa-. vourite sport. - Their dedication keeps them moving forward. _ “Treally enjoy it,” Julianne says: a “Right now it’s pretty much all I do,” Jacque- line says. Their only dislike.is not getting enough free skate time. One 45-minute session per day i isn’t enough to satisfy their skating craving. Jacqueline says she travelled down to Parks- ville on Vancouver Island in October where she could enjoy three times as much free skating time. Coach Barb Kubik, who began coaching the sisters this year, says both are dedicated athletes. Julianne is new to competition and shows a re- ally positive attitude, Kubik says. Her experience at sectionals will help her know MARGARET COPELAND marks the spot for a teammate to land the next tock at the Totem Mixed Bonspiel Nov. 27. The Copeland rink won the C ‘event at the three- -day ‘spiel. The Simpson rink won the A event and the Bakker rink scored victory in the B event. . MARGARET SPEIRS PHOTO § ert what to expect next year. ; - Kubik says Jacqueline becomes very quiet and focused before competing and comes out of her shell on the ice. . Julianne shows the same confidence and laid- back personality on the ice as off the ice. Kubik says the pair has a combination of natu- ral ability and work ethic, which is important for " competitive skaters, and both love to skate. To move up to the novice level from pre-nov- - ice, Jacqueline must complete her double Axel, which is a possibility this year, Kubik says. “She’s almost got it,” Kubik says. “She? sa springboard.” : Kubik says Julianne’s goal is to improve and aim for the top 10 in pre-juvenile at sectionals. ‘She’s currently landing her single Axel, double Salchow, double toe loop and all her other double -. jumps. Since Julianne i is just in her. first year of com- petitive skating, it’s too early to know if she’ll move on to nationals, but Jacqueline has the po- tential to get there, Kubik says. And don’t forget the Olympics... “2010 is not unrealistic,” Kubik says. But whatever comes along in these sisters’ fu- ture, they'll be sure to do it with confidence and . grace on and off the ice.