ARTS/ENTERTAINMENT

Rita Moir: exotic Nova Scotia?

So what does a freelance writ-
er do for a change of pace? Well,
take a trip to an exotic location
perhaps! Would you believe
“exotic” Nova Scotia?

And what did she do when she
got there? Well, the visit was
pee repabelre Wipes ty

Upon her return, she wrote a
book about her Nova Scotian
sojourn and the characters she
met there.

Survival Gear, published by
Polestar Press, is just that—a
remarkable collage of down-
home characters anda I

propeaieey mags fom ade

often h array of experi-
ences. How does a Westerner

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experience lobster ing, for
example? How does a Koote-
nayite relate to the simple life
elsewhere? It's all there in this
book written by Slocan Valley
writer, Rita Moir.

It begins simply enough as a
kind of travel book. It is Moir's
version of”
Steinbeck's
Travels with
Charley, a
book he wrote
depicting back-
country Ameri-
ca as he
traveled from

people indicate she has “used
them good.” My sense is she has
done so.

As she is telling their stories,
Moir realizes
that cach person
has his or her
own survival

tune, and even

place to place
with his dog, Charley. In Moir’s
case, the dog is Connor and the
search is for the nature of Nova
Scotians. In the process of travel-
ing from Vallican, B.C. to
Freeport, N.S. and back—and liv-
ing in Nova Scotia for nearly a
year—Moir also discovers herself.
As a journalist, Moir is com-
fortable interviewing people she
meets. She hardly misses a ges-
ture, a change in voice tone, or an
attitude of the people ‘she meets.
Indeed, in several character
sketches, Moir begins by outlining
the situation where she meets
someone, but soon the voice of the
other character takes over.

y-

Moir’s excuse for going to
Nova Scotia was to spend some
time with her brother, but it
quickly becomes apparent that
the writer Moir realizes an oppor-
tunity to write about a unique
group of people—from failed
fishermen to midwives to loggers

Black Diamond Band

Bob's Open Stage Jam Session
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

real danger.
Sometimes this survival gear is
viewed as the family around one,
or perhaps tradition, but for oth-
ers survival gear is made up of

friendships.

At the beginning of the book,
she notes that “sometimes flight
is survival.” That's why she
leaves B.C.

After a year in Nova Scotia,
she flees again in order to sur-
vive, but this time she's running
from a good situation. Survival
gear is often a feature of the mind
which clicks in to protect us
when we get in over our heads—
thus, the title of the book.

Throughout the book, Moir
leaps back and forth between
small-town Nova Scotia and rural
West Kootenay. The stories are
mostly about Nova Scotians and
her coming to know them. But it
is also pointing out that some of
the same values and down-to-
earth qualities exist in both of
these out-of-the-way spots.

One chapter, for example, dis-

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SUN STAFF PHOTO / Karen Kerkhof

Rita Moir reading last week at Selkirk College.

cusses her two friends, Caroline
(from the West Kootenays) and
Edwina (from Nova Scotia). It's
mostly about Edwina, but Caro-
line is a kind of familiar ground
she keeps reminding herself
about.

In some ways, the travel story
to a new (even alien) land is sim-
ply a vehicle for a love story.
Enmeshed in the pictures of
Freeport characters is one man
the author falls in love with,
moves in with, and then leaves
behind. The final chapters of the
book are quite touching as the
reader notes Moir torn between
her love for friends in the West
Koetemays and the love of a good
man in Nova Scotia.

In fact, these final chapters act
as a kind of apology to the lover
left behind. Several passages shift
away from the objective viewer
and address “you"—the man she
left behind but still longs for.
These passages also justify why
she left. To survive as a person,
she had to leave. Historically, she
writes, various women in her fam-
ily have left their men in order to
discover what they could be.

But the chief reason she left

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Nova Scotia was her desire to
continue to work at her profes-
sion as a wniter.

One remarkable chapter

dd d to the lover d

an analogy between the Nova
Scotian lover's need to fish and
Moir's need to write. She states
she would be lost without writ-
ing just as he would be lost
without being able to fish. So
she bids farewell to him and to
great personal joy. And Moir
lets us in on her internal debate
regarding leaving.

It takes a lot of courage to
wear one’s heart on one's sleeve
in this way. It makes for an hon-
est book, a depiction of character
that we believe in.

To remain in Nova Scotia
would have meant living at the
centre of a measure of i
In coming home, she realizes
that, as a writer, she must be con-
tent to leave things behind, to
function from the edge.

In this book, we learn much
about Nova Scotia, but we learn
more about one young woman,
namely Rita Moir. She and her
host of characters are worth read-
ing about.

The
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has a good selection
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314 - 10th Ave.
365-2213

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appreciation draw during December.

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Admission: 25¢ ¢ Games: 25¢
Cake Walk ¢ Hockey Shoot ¢ Ring Toss etc.
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hast drop off newepaper coupon at the Castingar Sun - 485 Cotumtte Ave,

Wednesday, December 7, 1994

The Castlegar Sun

Child Care Worker Chery! Greep shows model of
proposed playground equipment to Canada World
Youth students Hendra Widoyoko (left) and Paul Paul
Parsons.

Setting a healthy goal

‘Submitted hens is “tr is boped that parents,

friends, and local businesses
will help the school community
with this project,” says Audet.

Valley Vista School is the
only play area in the neighbor-
hood. Children and families
from the whole Dumont Subdi-
vision use the school play-
ground after school and on the
weekends. “Tt is a very popular
play area as the present equip-
ment on the field is dated, lim-
ited in its and does not
offer the fitness components
that are provided by other
climbing apparatus,” Audet
points out.

However, he said the main
focus of the project is to pro-
vide good recreational equip-
ment for the students attending
Valley Vista School.

“The students need suitable
recreation equipment that fos-
ters the development of muscu-
lar strength, balance, agility
and cardio-vascular endurance.

The Healthy School Steering
Committee wants to hear from
anyone who wishes to help in
any way.

The committee has over
$2,000 saved at this time and
has various fund-raising ideas
that have been set in motion,
but help from the community is
needed in order to make this
project a reality.

The students, parents, and
staff of Valley Vista School

equipment.
For the past two years the
school community has been

Program
to promote health in the
schools. Grants area available
for schools that get students,
parents, and the community
involved in goal setting as
developing an action plan to
achieve their health goals.

This year Valley Vista's pro-
ject is to buy and erect a new
piece of playground equipment.
Companies have sent in their
Suggestions and proposals and
the school committee is look-
ing at the designs.

“One company has sent in a
model of their proposal and it has
everyone really excited about
what could be built at the school,”
Says vice-principal Pat Audet.

The school hopes that the
adventure playground-type
structure would be built by
June, 1995. A target figure for
the structure has been set at
$5,000 but this does not
include the labor and other
materials that will be provided

CULTURED &
NATURAL TREES
AVAILABLE
ALL B.C. GROWN
Shop early for your
Ch tree

DAILY

10 AM -7 PM
(while stocks last)

Save the forests

& help your community by
buying your tree from Rotary.

She’s back at the helm

Deb McIntosh of the Castle-

gar and District ,
Heritage Society
is once again A Step
back at the helm. in ‘me
Kathy Sperling
have voluntarily Fitz-Gerald
kept the CP Rail

They deserve a vote of thanks
for thei loyal efforts.

Craft fairs began Nov. 26 and

moet De b

As always,
vice-president
Bob Switzer and

Station Museum open for the
coffee club in the mornings,
tours, and whenever possible.

from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

If you have not attended any
of these wonderful opportunities
to find unique and special gifts,
do so! The quality and imagina-
tion of the merchandise is
ex! J.

Tables booked at the time of
this writing include beeswax
candles, wheat weaving,
Doukhobor cuisine, hand
Christmas tree ornaments, and
baking. The coffee pot and tea
kettle are always on.

Volunteers are needed for the
Chapel House —or any area, the
CP Rail Station or Zuckerberg
Island - where your talents could
be put to good use.

Elections will be coming up in
January and a nominating com-
mittee will be required.

Me: ips need a recruiter.
As well, there is a beautiful old

Fstopping Safari tol
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Stay
at the I

“Reservations r
1-800-989-9399 j

(after Nov.15)
Valid thru April 30/95

chaise lounge in the

ter's quarters
which has been
refinished but
needs uphol-
stering, and
someone with
ideas for rais-
ing money or
researching
grants would
be welcomed with open arms.
Well, you get the idea.

For more information about the
Castlegar and District Heritage
Society, the CP Rail Station
Museum, Zuckerberg Island Her-
itage Park/Chapel House, call
365-6440.

Meetings are now open to
everyone. They are held every

second y of the month
at 7:30 p.m. at the CP Rail
Station Museum.

Memberships are $5 per year,
$10 for families. Hours of opera-
tion for the museum 9 a.m.-5

A Kootenay vay Christmas Story |

Dennis looked

. Out of sight, out of mind, was no longer true.

cautiously about the room...

Budding writers ages 10 and up are invited to write a story, up to 250 words,
starting with "Dennis looked cautiously about the room...” and finishing with
"Out of sight, out of mind, was no longer true.“

Please submit your stories to:

The Castlegar Sun, 465 Columbia Ave. Castlegar, BC, VIN 1G8
by Wednesday December 14, 1994 and they will appear

in our December 21st issue.

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