Late summer in rural Southern Ontario is just about thebest place anywhere in the world to be. The days are stillwarm and the evenings are starting to cool off and thereis a smell in the air that says fall is just around the corner. It is asmall imperceptible change but it is there. It was this kind of dayin 1937 that found Dusty Jenkins guiding his father's beat-uptractor over the hilly fields of the family farm in King Township,just north of Toronto. The tractor was most often a piece ofmisery, stalling every pass or two over the field and needing tohave life breathed into it again with the trusty hand-crank. Iguess they were lucky to have any kind of a tractor to help workthe land. In this the depth of the depression, most people wereforced to use teams of horses.

The one good thing about riding the tractor and raking strawwas that it gave Dusty time to think about his life on the farmand about his real goals and ambitions. At the top of the list wasleaving this farm behind him as quickly as he could. Life hadnot been easy for the Jenkins' family. Dusty's father, Elmer, hadcome from a family of comfortable financial background and hisbrother had opted for the strange career of being an undertaker.He was doing well and not even the depression could stop peoplefrom dying. Elmer, on the other hand, with some financialhelp from his father had decided to live on the land and raisehis family on a 200-acre mixed farm. Normally, it was a way oflife which should not only work but be downright pleasant. Thedepression changed all that. Even the weather conspired againstthe farmers. The weather was either too wet to work the land ortoo hot and dry for the crops to mature. Even when the meagercrops were harvested, there was no one with any money to buythem. The only consolation was that you would never starvebecause there was always enough produce from the farm to feedthe family.

Things had gotten worse for the Jenkin's family the previousyear when Elmer had suffered a compound fracture of his legwhen his favorite horse, Doll, was spooked by a ground-hog whenElmer was adjusting her ploughing harness. To make mattersworse, the family physician, Doc Martin, had been more thana little inebriated, when he had set Elmer's leg. It mended verynicely the wrong way and Elmer had to undergo tricky remedialsurgery in a Toronto hospital to fix Doc. Martin's mistake.The lengthy period of convalescence left all the farm work toseventeen-year old Dusty and a farm-hand named Bob who wasabout three sandwiches short of a picnic.

Dusty blamed the farm for cheating him of his youth. Henever had time to play on sports' teams as after-school practiceswere pre-empted by his farm work and the week-ends were evenbusier. The only time that seemed to always be free was Sundaymorning when the Jenkin's clan—Elmer, his wife, Martha, Dustyand his younger sister, Rose, piled into the `29 Chevy to headoff to the Methodist Church. This was an activity that Dustyresolved to leave behind him along with the farm work as quicklyas possible.

Dusty had changed his name from his Christian name,Rolf, as soon as he was old enough to know the difference. Thename had come from Martha's family who were United EmpireLoyalists who had immigrated from a Pennsylvania Dutchcommunity in the U.S. in the 1800's. It is interesting to notethat the Pennsylvania Dutch were not Dutch at all but actually"Deutsch" or German. God love the Americans; they cananglicize anyone and anything. In any event, Dusty rationalizedthat with the winds of war blowing in Europe again, it was nota great idea to be walking around conservative Canada andespecially rural southern Ontario with a German name. Dustywas a fine specimen of a young man. He was solidly built, nearlysix feet tall with jet-black hair and awesome good looks. Manycompared him to a movie actor of the day, Richard Green, whogained fame at a later date as Robin Hood. Dusty's good lookswere somewhat amazing; while his father, Elmer, had earthy goodlooks, his mother, Martha was somewhat homely to say the leastbut had all the motherly traits to make up for her appearance.She doted on both her children and her husband, Elmer, withnever a complaint about their tough times.

Dusty blamed his poor social life on all his farm duties butthat maybe wasn't the whole story. Awesome good looks in a farmboy in 1936 was not exactly a great prize. The guys were jealous ofDusty's looks unless they were self-confident enough to rise aboveit which usually wasn't the case with teenage boys. The goodlooking girls were sometimes intimidated by the competition invying for a "hunk" and evenly the homely girls only giggled atthe thoughts of capturing a prize. Dusty mused that plain lookshad never stopped Martha from snaring his father. Actually,Elmer had been dating Martha's younger sister, Belle, in his lateteens when his parents sent him to work on an uncle's farm inSaskatchewan for a summer. Being homesick and lovesick, Elmersent many letters home to Belle. Well as it turned out, Marthaworked part-time in the post office and either through jealousyor cunning, she intercepted all of Elmer's letters home to hersister. Receiving no response from her many letters west but nevermaking it past the post office, Belle surmised that Elmer had lostinterest in her and she promptly fell for a soccer star in the areaand was married before Elmer returned home. So when Elmerarrived back, Martha became in effect a consolation prize and therest, as they say, became history. Who says "crime doesn't pay"!

Dusty had a good friend on the next farm, actually his onlyfriend, Chuck Williams. Chuck's parents, Bob and Nancy, wereabout as opposite to Dusty's parents as you could get. They werefun-loving, enjoyed parties, curling in the winter and not toosurprisingly their cup always seemed to be half full rather thanhalf empty. Everyone thought of them as being "lucky" and noone seemed to credit their positive attitude for their seeminglyendless success. God seemed to smile on them and it wouldappear that nothing bad could ever happen to them. Chuck was abig burly, fellow and not especially good looking. He hoped thatif he hung around Dusty long enough, a good looking girl or twomight come his way. So far, lady luck hadn't been working verywell for either of them. One thing that Chuck and Dusty had incommon was an intense desire to leave their family farms.

One day when Chuck and Dusty were sitting on the linefence for a break in their farmwork, Chuck had a brainstorm.

"Let's head north and make our fortune in the gold fields".

"What do either of us know about gold mining?" counteredDusty.

"Nothing until we take the mining engineers' course inHaileybury—all we need is a year's training and the $100.tuition", continued Chuck, getting more excited all the time.It actually made some good sense. Going to Haileybury wouldget them both off the farms. Some large gold veins had beendiscovered in northern Ontario and the whole world was on thegold standard in currency so gold should never go out of style.Moreover, while the average wage on the street was $5. to $10.per week, mining engineers with only a year's training werehauling in $50 or more per week—a veritable fortune.

Chuck and Dusty talked to both sets of parents abouttheir idea. Chuck's parents seemed relieved that theirson had given any thought to a productive future; hehad managed to stretch four years of high school into six andhis major seemed to be after-school activities and the pool hall.Chuck figured he had worked too hard if he got higher marksthan anyone else in his class. Elmer and Martha, on the otherhand, had some serious concerns about the mining idea. Marthaworried that it was dangerous, it was a long way from homeand quite frankly they needed Dusty at home to help with thefarm. On the flip side though, Elmer and Martha realized thatthey couldn't hang in on the farm much longer and without thefarm Dusty would not have any exemption from the war whichseemed to be more imminent each day. Maybe if he were workingin an industry like mining, building the country's gold reserves,it would get him the exemption that Martha, like every dotingmother, wanted for her good-looking son. Of course, there wasthe matter of the $100. tuition but in the end Martha's brotherand Dusty's favorite uncle, Elwood, was doing very well in thecorporate world in Toronto and the $100. would not be a bigproblem for him.

So six months later, on a snowy morning in mid-February,Dusty and Chuck boarded the Ontario Northland train to begintheir adventure. There were many tears from both sets of parents,even a few from the boys, before the steam engine blew its whistleand slowly chugged out of the little old station in King City. Thetrain trip to the north promised to be a blast. Dusty, now freefrom the Methodist, tea-totalling traditions of home, revealedhis prize to his buddy, Chuck. From the steamer trunk holdingall his worldly possessions, he proudly unveiled a 26 oz. bottle ofSchenley whiskey which he had managed to buy for a $1.25 fromthe extra money he got from his uncle, even though he was a yearand one half under the legal twenty-one year drinking age. Chuck,who was older, must have had similar plans because out came hiswinter flu shots, a 26 oz. bottle of Captain Morgan's rum.

After a few shots from the bottle, the young guys felt likeworld-beater explorers and the train conductor wondered whothese superstars were. The drinks had to be poured very discreetlysince drinking in public was strictly illegal and to give them theirdue for what senses they had left, Chuck and Dusty did not wantto be hoofed off the train about Gravenhurst and have to endtheir adventure by hitch-hiking home. The twenty-two hour tripto Haileybury didn't exactly fly by but the booze and sandwichesfrom home did ease the kinks in the neck and warm the colddrafts in the coach-class car.

"God, is it my imagination or is it getting a whole lot colderinside and out?" complained Chuck.

"Boy are you ever a brain surgeon, Chuck. Do you realize thatHaileybury is not all that far from James Bay and the eskimoslive there!" replied Dusty. "I don't think I've seen any pictures ofeskimos wearing Bermuda shorts."

The train was pulling into the little community of Haileyburyand the conductor announced that the temperature outside wasminus 20 degrees.

"Christ, Dusty, I don't think this is the end of the world butyou can sure see it from here!" moaned Chuck as they loadedtheir steamer trunks onto the open horse-drawn sleigh to takethem to their pre-booked boarding house.

"Welcome to bloody Northern Ontario!" comforted Dusty.Our two adventurers had been very thorough in checking outthe mining school but hadn't investigated the weather patternsvery well. In fact the winter temperature could drop to 50 belowzero fahrenheit when even your breath would descend from yourmouth in ice crystals.

The mining school was small but remarkably good. It waseven using a semester system which was away ahead of its time.This, of course, allowed our King City heroes to join the programpart way through one of the coldest and snowiest winters onrecord. What a bonus that was!

The mining itself was centred in Kirkland Lake andboasted no fewer than seven active mines. The town, whilelocated beside the lake of the same name was actually officiallyknown as the Township of Teck and the lake for which it wasnamed gradually disappeared due to mine tailings. Clearlythe environmental program was conspicuous by its absence atthat time. The main players in the gold-mining industry werethe Lakeshore, Teck-Hughes and Wright-Hargreaves mines. Aproblem common to all of them was a phenomenon known as"rock-bursts". The school was busy trying to find a solution forthis very dangerous problem. As the tunnels descended lowerand lower some with very steep rates of descent, the stress builtup in the surrounding rock formations. When it let go withseismic force, the earth would tremble like an earth-quake andthe rock rubble, like water from a burst pipe, would fill everyopening it could find, inevitably trapping the miners in totaldarkness on the wrong side of the rubble and blocking theirescape route.

From testing, the school determined that the rock-burstscould be predicted from a sort of seismic meter like a geiger-counter.The meter could predict when, but unfortunately, notwhere the rock-bursts would occur. The other problem was thatthe meters emitted warning noises but in the living hell at a halfmile or more below the surface, with drilling and blasting, themeter warnings could not be heard. Chuck and Dusty workedon a very useful project in their class, which was a paper readoutfrom the meters so the impending danger could be visuallymonitored instead of the previous sound system.

Amazingly, both Chuck and Dusty applied themselves to thelearning as they never had before. Maybe because after school,they knew they didn't have to milk cows or shovel manure.Going to the pub after class was a lot more pleasant and both ofour heroes were able to pick up part-time jobs so they actuallyhad a little money to spend.

Summer comes late in the north country but it is verywelcome as winter tends to hang in until about the end ofApril. Two great things happened for Dusty this first summerin the north. First, his uncle Weldon bought him a car forhis birthday and not just any car, it was a brand new Desotoconvertible. It was clearly the finest car in all the northcountry—a maroon colour with a tan leather interior. Clearly,it was sex on wheels. Speaking of that, the second great thingthat came with the car was a cute dark-haired young Frenchgal, originally from the Malarctic, Quebec area by the name ofDenise. Imagine the delight of Chuck to find out that Denisehad a girl friend living with her in their boarding house only ablock from Chuck and Dusty. She was French and also good-lookingby the name of Yvonne. Little did they know it butthis would be the last great summer of fun for a long time but,boy, did they enjoy it.

There was only one movie house in town but there werethree great dance pavilions on Lake Timiskaming, one playingcountry music and the other two the great swing band musicof the period with live bands and some surprisingly great localtalent featured. The police quietly looked the other way when theyoung folks smuggled in their brown bags to the dances. Mostly,they were responsible with their drinking but occasionally itgot out of hand. On one beautiful summer evening after thedance, Chuck, Dusty and their girl friends were not feelingany pain and headed down to a popular parking spot besidethe lake. Chuck was driving with Yvonne beside him. Chuckloved the chance to drive the Desoto even though he was jealousthat Dusty was making out like sin in the back seat. On thisoccasion, Chuck was driving a rather weavy course over thehilly and gravel road on the way to the lake. Just over a smallknoll, they ran smack into the back of a Chevy Sedan stoppedright in the middle of the road with no lights. Some older guy,drunker than they were, had stopped to fix a flat tire and hadnot pulled off to the side of the road. Luckily, he was beside thecar when the Desoto hit his car squarely in the back, knockedit off the jack and sent it fifty yards or more down the road.He was still twisting non-existent wheel nuts with his tire ironwhen Chuck came to his senses. Luckily, no one was seriouslyinjured except for Dusty who was inverted on top of Denise atthe time. His back would not be right for months but Deniserather enjoyed the whole episode. The Desoto was built like aSherman tank and the Chevy a little less so and since no onethere could explain this properly to police and there really wasn'tmuch damage, they mutually decided not to report it.

In the second half of their course, Chuck and Dusty got towork part-time at a mine they were assigned to. It was theLakeland Mine, the deepest one in the Kirkland Lake area.The main shaft was approaching a depth of 1500 meters andLakeland had the dubious honour of having the worst record forrock bursts and loss of life. The engineers' job was to follow theblasting into new tunnels to support them with six-by-six timbersand install some lighting, albeit poor, and air vents before themining crews were assigned to the area.