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June 10, 2010 • Issue 751 • $1.00 Serving St. Joseph Island since 1995 “Your Island Newspaper” Visit us online at www.islandclippings.com Tel: 705-246-1635 email: [email protected] Fax: 705-246-7060 Richard Whitten Barnes returns that the rich history of St. Joseph Island might provide some of to St. Joe the background for his next project! We’ll hopefully hear more With summer once again caressing our about this in the near future. Island, the return to warm weather has also In the meantime, Richard has graciously shared one of his short brought noted novelist Richard Whitten stories, ‘A Sailing Lesson’ with the Island Clippings. Although Barnes and his wife Marg back to their we have not previously offered works of fiction to our readers, ‘A summer residence near Richards Landing. Sailing Lesson’ is a story worth sharing. Perhaps the lesson it Although they officially live near Charlotte, offers goes far beyond sailing! North Carolina, the Barnes’ have spent their summers on or around St. Joseph Island for more than 50 years! We’re pleased to bring Part One to you in this issue. Part Two will follow next week. The Island Clippings featured Richard and his writing in our October 15, 2009 issue. At that time, his exciting first action- ‘A Sailing Lesson’ captures some of the essence of ‘cottage life’ adventure novel ‘The Faircloth Reaction’ had just been here in the North. Although set on the southern shores of Lake published to rave reviews, with his second novel ‘The Corydon Superior, the story could easily take place in the waters around Snow’ about to follow. Both novels were written right here on St. St. Joe. We hope you like it as much as we did! Joe! Thank you, Richard, for taking us all aboard the sailboat with And it seems that Richard has been busy over the winter, with Steve and Tommy! some exciting new work approaching completion. Rumour has it A Sailing Lesson (Part 1) by Richard Whitten Barnes “T OMMY ! I’ VE CALLED YOU and her two children—Tommy and THREE TIMES , now!” his mother— younger sister, Martha—arrived at my daughter-in-law—admonished our summer cottage on the southern for the fourth time, actually. “I’m just shore of Lake Superior. finishing this game,” his answer. Looking back, I suppose a lot of the Sarah, my wife of forty-three years, tension was due to my disappoint - reached over to put a hand on my ment in, once again, my son Tom’s tensing hand, disabusing me of any absence from the summer’s activities. attempt at physically bouncing this Our times together at our northern fourteen-year-old’s rear end from the Michigan get-away were special. I sofa to the dinner table, where the was never so close to him as when we rest of us waited. It wasn’t the first were there. We communicated on a tense moment in the week since Kate different level there. And we sailed! Continued on page 2 David Nelson Sales Representative “Your Island Realtor” The Real Estate Stop 949-7867 • 246-2757 continued from page 1 A SAILING LESSON ... For the third year in a row, Tom was missing the summer. Two years earlier, he’d lost his job at a major bank, when it Hilton Beach was absorbed by a larger one. He’d spent the first summer looking for another job, then last year and this, getting his We hTaoveu wraxiswto rPmsa frokr the fledgling accounting firm solvent enough to support his family. Cisco season ahead! I watched my grandson now, the image of his father, as he We’re the place for ALL of your bait & tackle needs. took his seat and stared at his potatoes. “Can’t we have Open 9 am to 9 pm, 7 days a week. mashed? I don’t like fried,” he pouted. “Just eat your dinner,” his mother said in her serene alto. I had the urge to grab him 246-2586 by the ear and march him to his room. Never mind that at his young age, he was almost my weight and strength. Sarah’s sharp glance dissuaded me. Dinner was th Saturday, June 12 Starting at 7:30 pm. completed in relative peace, Tommy’s sister leading the conversation in a recap of her day with the kids down the Jay Aymar shore. The hot ‘new country’ singer on his Cross-Canada CD Release Tour! After the dishes were put away, I stepped past Tommy—again Our Whitefish and Perch ‘Fish Fry’ dinners will be available too. engrossed with his hand-held game—to the deck. The weather had been wonderful all summer and tonight, the lake Don’t miss it! below me was like glass. My thirty-five-year-old Snipe sailboat swung slowly around its mooring like a patient pony, nodding now and then at the wake of someone’s distant boat. In the Hilton Beach Inn 246-0063 I’d bought her new, the year before I competed in the Snipe nationals, coming in a respectable fifth overall, with son Tom as crew, and was still in love with the feisty little boat. The cottage was built in the late 1930s, and purchased by my parents shortly after WWII . Growing up, there was hardly a year that we didn’t spend our vacation there, and I learned to sail on dad’s venerable Lightning. Then, when Sarah and I married, I was delighted when she, too, fell in love with our annual trek up north. Sarah was a willing crew and we competed in loosely organ - ized racing on Superior’s south shore. But when our young son Tom first got in a sailboat, I knew he was a natural. He was six when I bought the Snipe, and by then, already sailing his own pram. This year, I’d been sailing just a few times. The Snipe is a two man boat, and not safe to handle alone in anything but benign weather, at least for the older gentleman I’ve become. Lake Superior is rarely benign. It just wasn’t the same without Tom here. I stood on the deck, taking in the beauty of the lake for several minutes before returning inside to find Sarah, Kate, and Martha deeply engaged in a jigsaw puzzle; Tommy still at his game, thumbs working in rapid, practiced coordination. “That your exercise for the next two weeks?” I was immediately sorry I’d said it. Sarcasm with kids rarely has a positive outcome, I’d learned the hard way. “I guess.” was his predictable reply. He didn’t look up. His game emitted an infuriating, inane melody. I tried a different approach. “What are your plans for tomorrow?” “Nothing, really.” Page 2 “Well it’s your vacation. I suppose you can do what you want. ” That ought to get him. “Okay. ” The Power of Spring ! I retired to my chair and picked up my book, but it was no use. The Power of Spring ! Over the top of the book, I glared at my grandson who, obliv - The Power of Spring ! ious to my frustration, thumbed away at his game. “Tommy!” I waited until he looked up. He didn’t. “Yeah?” still engaged in • 60% reduced emi ssio ns • 20% reduced fuel con su m ptio n the game. “How is it that you never learned to sail?” I asked. • 60T% reducedhe emi ss io Pns ower of Spring ! • 19% mo re power whe n you n ee d i t • 20% reduced fuel consum ptio n • 60% reduced emi ssio ns T• 19% h mo ree power wPhe n youo n ewe d i t er of Spring! The question requiring more than a one or two word answer • 20% reduced fuel con su m ptio n • 19% mo re power whe n you n ee d i t caused him to stop, and consider. “I don’t know.” Three words. The Power of Spring ! Kate said from the puzzle table “We were never able to spend • 60% reduced emi ssio ns • 20% reduced fuel consum ptio n enough time here, dad.” Kate calls me dad. I liked it because I • 19% mo re power whe n you n ee d i t like Kate. “Leave the boy alone, Steve.” Sarah, this time. “I’m The Power of Spring ! • 60% reduced emi ssio ns just asking,” I gruffed. “Tommy, it’s time you learned.” He • 20% reduced fuel con su m ptio n shrugged. • 19% mo re power whe n you n ee d i t “It would be nice if you let grandpa teach you, Tom,” his • 60% reduced emi ssio ns mother chided. I’m pretty sure that translated as humor the old • 20% reduced fuel con su m ptio n • 19% mo re power whe n you n ee d i t guy . Tommy rolled his eyes at her. “I guess.” I was not deterred. I’d show this kid a thing or two. I grabbed a pencil and pad from my chair side table, plopped down on the sofa next to him and began scribbling. “Okay, the first thing is to learn is Husqvarna 235 34.4cm 3/16” MRSP 299.99$ $249.99 nomenclature, then the points of sailing, then….” Husqvarna 240e 40.0cm 3/16” MRSP 379.99$ $299.99 And so it went, with me showing off how much I knew to this Husqvarna 440e 40.0cm 3/16” MRSP 439.99$ $399.99 fourteen year-old, all the while pontificating on the virtue and Husqvarna 455 Rancher 55.0cm 3/18” MRSP 499.99$ $449.99 purity of sail over power.

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