Like the presence of the rink and the inspiration it created, music was part of everyone’s life. Nothing better epitomized the “mustang” spirit just below the surface in the community than the remarkable New Year’s Eve dance.
When Knowledge Came with a Knock
Encyclopedias, a cultural icon of the 20th century, were in almost every home. With the post-millennial generation, they silently slipped into obscurity and the dustbin of history. Encyclopedias touched our lives in many ways, whether it was to...
The Heartbeat of Reconciliation: “Your Dad and Auntie were such good friends”
My dad, Stefan Sigurdson, passed away in 2012. Our close collaboration in the years prior to his death was invaluable to me in writing Vikings On a Prairie Ocean, published in 2014. It enabled me to ground the book confident in its detail and...
Sigurdson Island
“Sigurdson Island “ at the mouth of the Berens River, was a magical place for a young boy. As a little guy in the early 50’s each summer we would “Go North” to join Dad at the station for summer fishing. Sigurdson Fisheries had a long association...
Black bear
Now we are on an expedition. We are going to go from black bear to rabbit point. It is about 4 miles. If there is any hint of a wind coming up I am reluctant to take our small boat across the lake.
“Freezing Out” – The Fishermens’ Fishermen
As a boy when I heard that Afi Malli and Uncle Grimsi were “freezing out “it always sounded to my young ears as a mysterious adventure. I would soon learn that they were one of the lonely breeds of fishermen who would stay North in their camps...
Snapshots of a Heritage
Life day to day on Lake Winnipeg in my life – but a world that few know of then, or today, but even less so in a history that reaches back into the 1880s. The emergence of a commercial fishery in 1882 and following was the cornerstone of...
Where Have All The Whitefish Gone… A Long Time Passing
This article was first published in Logberg Heimskringla. Billy Valgardson, my longtime friend, once a teacher and often a mentor, has a gift for pressing hot buttons in my emotional library. Recently, on Facebook, he managed to do so again with...
The Power of Human Connection
As I was writing Vikings on a Prairie Ocean, several pieces that I had written as fictionalized accounts based on historical facts did not find their way into the final manuscript and I now publish them on this web site as a mini-series sequel...
“I’ll just go back fishing in Hecla”
As I was writing Vikings on a Prairie Ocean, several pieces that I had written as fictionalized accounts based on historical facts did not find their way into the final manuscript and I now publish them on this web site as a mini-series sequel...
Thank God for the Fish
As I was writing Vikings on a Prairie Ocean, several pieces that I had written as fictionalized accounts based on historical facts did not find their way into the final manuscript and I now publish them on this web site as a mini-series sequel. …...