News of the North
I’ve always wanted to write a column entitled “News of the North.” I live up in the Yukon Territory, where there are more bears than people and it snows six months of the year. It’s snowing now. In fact, it was thirty below last night. Very chilly for March.
But the reason I want to write News of the North isn’t to impress you with our heartiness–although we are a hearty crew up here. We take pride in surviving at fifty below. We show up for work, send the kids to school, and put the dogs outside no matter what the temperature. We also ski, snowmobile and dog mush in ridiculously chilly temperatures. And I’m sure you’re impressed by that. 
But why I really want to write the column is because of something called “The Colorful Five Percent.” The north attracts an interesting kind of person, a person slightly off the mainstream, slightly independent, you might even say marching to the beat of a drummer only they can hear.
Any given day of the week, there are stories on the street and articles in our local newspaper that would stun and amaze Outsiders. Like the sasquatch sighting in Teslin last year. Now I know there are sasquatch sightings all over the world. But this one was unique. The people sighting the sasquatch actually found and turned in hair samples. Yes, the very first physical evidence of sasquatch life was obtained here in the Yukon and sent out to university research labs.
Or the time the meteor fell to earth. It was in the dead of winter, pitch dark outside, and the sky lit up like there was a nuclear explosion. Which I thought there was. For a few seconds there, I waited for the boom and the end of all life. Happily that didn’t happen. But one of our intrepid and hearty locals found fragments of the meteor. He didn’t touch them. He was too smart for that. He had the presence of mind to seal them in Ziplock bags and keep them frozen until they could be shipped, pristine to NASA, where I’m sure they’re still being studied.
And last week, we held our annual Rendezvous festival. This is where the whole town comes out on the streets in the bitter cold of February to go into collective denial and pretend winter is ending. Ha! Talk to me again in May. But we flock to see snowshoe can-can dancing, the flour packing contest, the hairy legs contest and cardboard toboggan races. Oh, and the dog-howling contest and chainsaw chuck are not to be missed! There’s something for the whole family.
Since this is a writing blog, I’m sure I should somehow segue into my writing career. Let’s just say the north is the perfect place to keep your perspective. After all, when there are wolves eating the neighborhood pets, it’s hard to stress over a few editorial revisions.
Hope you are all having a wonderful spring!
Barbara
www.barbaradunlop.com
