by Hoaitiet Fisigesund

vt ei

Nes first ‘glance I naturally. assumed a Widget + was ‘another of ‘those nasty little. pests devouring: our forests, and that Widgetville was _aclever device designed by some ingenious mind to catch all these murderous little Widgets, like a-roach motel. This made perfect sense. I. was reading Tod Strachan’s Feb. 28: Forestry - Insights column “Introducing t the Widgets". If not a tree, what else could a 2 Widget possibly. . be? 7 I immediately envisioned an army of 12- legged. beasties sporting nasty. smiles full of - .yazor-sharp teeth as they hungrily sized up yet another helpless tree. ‘Suddenly, somewhere _.. off to the left, a flashing neon sign flared into. life, and what. appeared to be a shapely lady . Widget beckoned from an. -opéen doorway, promising untold pleasures to all who ‘entered “Widgetville". The flashing neon sent ripples of light dancing: seductively across: cher sleek body; I could practically see: Widget eyeballs popping right out of their little sockote at ‘this - luscious sight. | - Salivating in eager anticipation, the Widgets siampeded, fighting amongst themselves SE to get through the door. And then... a large and rather satisfied burp rumbled through, the moe 4 forest. Obviously Widgets are not terribly bright. --.... [thought it was cute the way ‘Tod managed to give ‘these pesky insects a human slant: ane obviously only a skilled writer could achieve such a dramatic effect. Feeling just a twinge of envy, I vowed to re-read the article in depth at a later date. The only thing I can say in my defense is that I must have overdosed on caffeine that. day, and all my brain cells were too busy dogpaddling to take much notice of the messages: my eyes were sending on up the line. I later learned that Widgets are not insects after all, they are'a family, or rather six families, founded by Swedish immigrant, Lars Henry Widget on March 10, 1934. Widgetville, population 22, is the small community where they all. live. vo I also discovered that the Widgets are a continuing weekly saga. ce - The more I read about Lars, the more I liked him. He secretly dreamed of one day owning - “his own logging company, put unlike others who simply raped the land, Lars firmly believed in working within nature’s boundaries. He was described as "having an uncanny understanding of how the forest and its creatures co-existed", Each weekly installment brought me closer to Lars and his family.

But. were these real people? The directions to Widgetville were somewhat vague... somewhere west of Beam Station Road. But maybe Widgets liked their privacy,,and had asked Tod to be purposely vague, Could Tod himself secretly be a Widget? I was intrigued.

se One day I was in an adventuresome mood and thought I might like to go and. find these

; Widgets. I wanted to see for myself the hill Lars had climbed so many. years before to survey.

“+. his little kingdom. I wanted to see Smedjebacken Lake and its unofficial 90-acre wildlife

“.. reserye, Noah’s Park. I was determined to, walk through Widget’s Woods, and drop i in: for a

, . coffee ‘at Dot’s Diner, where the gossip is friendly but often misguided. I wanted to pat the

-- “old Belgian horses, Maggie and Jiggs, that still play an important role in a bit of horse logging now.and then, .

_ But in ‘the end I decided to stay home. Some things 2 are best left: undiscovered. rm still

not sure about Tod, though. Now I’m almost certain he’s a: a Widget in disguise. | ;

Terrace Review — May 15, 1992

18 tare MA EUATTS ee ED ent Oreos as ag ata