A pilgrimage is required....

Here we go...

As my regular readers are aware I've been going through a rough time lately... damn this being an emotional being!

For the past several months I've been feeling the call of Lake Superior. I lived on the north shore from 1981-86 (ages 7-11.5) and did quite a bit of growing up there. The town in question was Schreiber, about 1/2 way between Thunder Bay and Wawa. Not the middle of nowhere, but you could see it from there. A great place to be a kid... I think we left a just the right time though, I wouldn't want to be a teenager there though. Everyone I spoke to after I left had issues with alcohol, drugs and teen pregnancies.

Moving to and from Schreiber was major culture shock... this is a Northern Ontario Railway town, 9 miles from a Mill town. Most of the men in Schreiber worked at the Kimberly Clark mill in Terrace bay, the rest worked for the CPR (I was, at least partially, raised by the CPR). Nearly all the local businesses were run by Italians... the Figlomenis, Costas, Cebrarios, Spadonis and Cacamos ("The Five Families of Schreiber"). There are, of course, exceptions to this but in general it's the way of things.

I hadn't thought much about the place in years, I haven't been closer than Sudbury (unless you count flying over) since '86, but recently it's really come back to me. In the past 10 years I've re-visited nearly every site from my childhood, except this one. As I exorcise demons I have fewer and fewer to deal with, so the same ones come up more frequently. If you've read ,y earlier posts you know that the biggest has been/is being dealt with right now. All that really leaves is Schreiber and its demons.

I need to go... I need to go soon, but I'll have to wait until spring. Winter is not a good season for tourism there, besides, at least two major spots I need to go to are in the bush... the snow's deeper there.

Until then, I'll just keep hanging on.