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NORTHERN
_ LIGHTS
~ COLLEGE

Sra Annual Stikine

Sponsored by:

Northern Lights College

Ministry of Municipal Affairs
Recreation and Culture

Overture Concerts

School District #87

Cassiar Community Club

MOOTHILIS BRASS

Wednesday Nov. 21 1990

other performers in the series
will be:

JACK —-GLATZE
Gate and times TBA

TICKET PRICES:

$30.00 - for series

$12.00 - individual performances
So OO fon students

For further ainformation and to
purchase tickets please contact
Northern Lights College.

SO

ANNOUNCEMENT 2 !

"'FiOw To Save The
Eemvironment Om Your
Lheisure Time"

THE MESS Wi ARE IN! ?

Are you concerned about the
environment.

Have you been wondering what we can do
as a community.

Learn more about the 3rs: reduce,..

BECyVele meus en.

MONDAY NOVEMBER 19, i530

F200 CCG 3200) Gem.

Cassiar Secondary School

Workshop Leaders:
Henning von Krogh
Susan Crichton - from Lucerne
Elementary/Secondary School, New
IMEI 5 AEE

Sponsored by Northern Lights College
and Cassiar Secondary School.

These qualified workshop leaders will
help us as a community discover what we
can do to save our environment. You
will be led through a series of steps
to set up an action plan to implement
in your home and workplace. Work
towards a developed "Green Program".

Serving Northern British Columbi

STIKINE LEARNING CENTRES
Be SEES o peaunigtoo
Telephone (604) 778-7878 ¢ FAX (604) 778-7850

Page 4 Cassiar Courier November 19390

The Cassiar Curling Club is
in full swing for the 1990/91
season, and Club President Hill
Pratt says the Club has a lot
Planned for this year.

The annttal Curling Sacial
happened an October 20 where 76
people turned out, which welcames
new members ta jain.

So far alli the draws and
teams have been made up with the
League play happening on Mondays
with the teams drawn out of the
hat.

On Tuesays the Ladies own
the ice for their League cam—
petition, and the Men get the ice
on Wednesdays for their League.

Thrusdays and Fridays are
normal League play.

Although it is too late to
join a team the spares list is
always op,Pratt says a new draw
and new teams will be made up in
the New Year.

The first big event is the
Grey Cup Bonspiel which will take
place en the weekend af Navember
24-26.

(These photos were taken
during the Curling Social.3

Pi a

CASSIAR
HOSPITAL :
REPORT

When our regular physician
is absent far the community a-
locum replacement physician is
obtained. they are usually phy-
Sicians who have a regular prac—
tice in a larger center such as
Vancouver. The following poem
and article is written by one af
the physicians wha now has done
two locums in the north and his
feelings and fears about coming
"North. "

The City Sawbones in Cassiar

He had been to the town a couple
af times

Why, he did not know

Each time he went he was scared
ta death

But he wanted to see the snow

Sao he packed his bag and said
gondbye

To his pretty little downtown
nurse

Boarded a plane in the pouring
rain

To confront the northern curse.

They landed in snow, God did it
blow

Snow drifted under the wheels

He stopped for tea in a small
cafe

Where the truckers ate their
meals.

"Ghe'’s slippery teaniqht,” they
said between bites,

"There’s black ice under the
snow. "

They’d bothered to say, and since
they usually dan’t

He drove to Cassiar — slaw!

As he came ta town the full,
bright mcaan

Did a light show on the snow

The mountains were bright and the
sensuous night

Made his spirits glow.

But when he came ta the hospital
He felt a kind of chill

The first ane he met as he came
up the step

Was a staff nurse, name of Lil.

He had met her before in the
summer

When he’d came toa try and heip
cat

The town had no doc for a caupie
of weeks

sa they’d given him a shout.

The first was the staff nurse an
duty

The first day he had gane

He arrived ta find that a taurist
man

Had “stroked cut” an, the lawn.
Helicopters, lear jets later

They had sent the ald man away
And the poor littie city-mouse
dactar

Had thought about learning ta
pray.

fil had been there aio hundred
years

She smiled as she made some tea
ied guess youv’re just unlucky
taday,

It gets better, son, you’ll see.”
Emergencies, chaos still

And smiling in the kitchen
Was the staff murse, name of Lil.

5

o imagine-his

Cassiar Courier

When he met her yet again

As she smiled and said, hi, he
looked at the sky

And his chest felt a little pain.

Next morning was bright in the
snaw white light

Sc he said, "don’t be a fool.

Lil ain’t bad luck, you big dumb
cluck,

And besides you’ ve been ta
schoanl."

Things were all right for a day
and a night

And he said, "See you've been
wrang,

Lil’s gat a smile you can see for
a mile”,

And he sang a little sang.

But wher at lunch when most af
the bunch

Had gone out to the cafe

He saw a guy fram the side af his
eye

Who kind of looked "that way”.
"My heart’s kinda fast, don’t
think I can last."

And the dac was inclined toa agree
He yelled at Lil who was smilin’
still

Let’s get an ECG!

And sure enough, things gat roaugh
The lear jet came again

But a jet’s too slow when you
just dan’t Enaw

And the doc had real chest pain.
The plane was late, it tack til
eight

So til made a little more tea
"Good Lard,” she said, "you look
near dead \

You’re unlucky as a man can be."

Now we all know aA nurse can’?s
Jinx you

ntact lere tig Cree atte, cel cat hae
pill

But when dac drove his car aut of
lassiar

He was glad ta see the last, Of
Geplve

CHith apologies ta Lil, who is
really a good friend, and €0 the
Bard of the North for my Goby tous
BISS~USE oF the “PY EuRON
Pentaweter”)

My first northern locum came
under duress. The &.C. Chapter
of the CCFP operates a remote
clinic at Dease Lake Cin nerthern
B.C.) in cea-operation with the
B.C. Ministry of Health. Locum
physicians faften fram urban
areas) do stints of ane manth ar
more servicing an isolated com—
munity of around five hundred
pecple. In addition te cavering

the base cammunity an a full-time
basis the dactors make bi-weekly
trips to nursing stations at Is-
kut and Telegraph Creek. We pra-
Vide basic family practice care
out af a well-equipped clinic and
organise referrals or medivacs
for mare camplicated or serious
cases. We alsa help the doctor
in Cassiar on occasion thence my
love affair with Lil).

During my year as chapter pres-
ident the August locum had ta
withdraw at the last minute. Sa
all eyes were on our Executive
and, mainly, me. The chapter
theught it would be a gqaod "ex-—
perience” far the president ta

go. My family Cwho are flown up
vat clinic expensed) thought it —

ould be an equally good ex
serience for them. Even the dag

Oh

m -
.
M

=

November 1990 Page 'S
came my fear of leaving the
sheltered workshop of the city.
IT agree to goa and set off three
weeks before my family, all al-

one, to my first encounter with
the North.

First the North seduces yau. I
landed at Watson Lake ¢Yukon) and
drove into a setting August sun.
Silently evergreens and curious
deer watched, rabbits scampered
out of the way. Trout jumped in

mirrar—-smooth lakes, quiet at
dusk. Seductive, northern soal-
itude.

Then the Narth Scares you. I

arrived at the Dease Lake clinic
ta find a kid sitting on the
steps with a big fish-hoaok stick—
ing out of his forearm. When he
flexed his fingers it moved.
Terrific! The kid’s father help-
ed me get the thing out and gave
me far more gratitude than I de-
served. I crept into the Dac
tor’s residence and sat staring
out the windew till the pub
closed at 1:00 AM. Fortunately,
no more mishaps that night. For
the first several days every case
was a cardiac arrest until proven
otherwise. I dreamed in aliga-
rithms. Late at night TI sneak
aut ante the treatment room and
discharge the defibrillator inta
itself. Defibrillating dragons,
psychiatrists would call it.

Next, the Merth watches you. Yet
anather new dactoar in tewn, kind
af like another travelling sales-—
man. Northern people know ta be
of wary af itinerants, especially
fram the city. I make an early
mistake. L elect ta just watch «a
two omoanth baby with a linear

Skull fracture. My neurcsurgean
friend an VYVanemuver agrees; the
townsfolk ant. The haby stays
weld. But I need toa recaup my
Losses. We cand the baby cut.
Fumers make the yrounds, and far
the dmeecter "sandsa” became the

yumors. I hear case reports that
the baby has been medivac’d from
the regional hespital ta Van-
couveyr for opurouirgery and “damn
near died". IT phone the regianal
hospital in & panic. The head
nurse in pediatrics chuckles and
fells me that the baby is in her
arms having a bottle and will be
back up ta see me in a few days.
Sa much for rumear "“reunds"”. I've
learned samething.

The North accepts oyu, if yes
hang in there. No-one was
“"yight” about the baby. We were
northern peaple, alone, making
decisions about life and (maybe?
death under a different set af
odds. The city doc and his city
neurasurgean friend didn’t un-
derstand that. More humble, I ga
"out front” and start doctaring.
And I discover that there aren't
any more cardiac arrests in the
Nerth than there are in town. In
fact, pecple with bad hearts
aren’t inclined ta be in the
North. But there are lots of
pecple with ulcers, Gczemza, mis-
sed periads, sadness, hemor --
rhoeids, or headaches, just like
anywhere else. I’ve been a G.FP.
for lang time. When I get over
my hang-ups about cardiac arrests
and began honoring my own ex-
perience I’m surprised te learn
that my experience af practice

Fa

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