RECONNECTING

Photo: Basketball team some fifty years later.

In the morning I had coffee with a wonderful woman, Ethel, with whom I went to school in kindergarden and grades 1 through seven. Then we reconnected again in university. Although throughout the years we haven't seen much of each other, I have always kept her in my thoughts. I wasn't a very happy kid in school, and at times, got into fights with other kids. Ethel was always so nice to me. She was kind and intelligent; one of my favourite people in school. I liked her a lot and always felt safe with her. Now, more than sixty years after we first met, we sat on the sofa and talked with each other about our lives and caught up just a bit - not nearly enough though. I also got to visit with her cousin Donna whom I remember from the 1950's. What a pleasure the morning was! It's visits like this that make writing the book and doing these book tours more than worth any effort.

The afternoon was spent with my old basketball team. What a cool reunion that was. We talked about the time we travelled to Edmonton by train to play basketball, and while on the train, perhaps had a tad too much to drink, kidnapped the conductor, locked him in our room and took his pants off. Susan walked around the train wearing his cap, waving his pants over her head. He was not amused, but we certainly were. Then there was the Vancouver trip, where we lowered bedsheets out the second story window of the hotel to hoist up rocks to hide in a girl's suitcase. It was a mean trick. We almost broke a huge plate glass window at the Sylvia hotel in the process. And then Susan, always it was Susan, never me - I was innocent, Susan threw all my clothes out the hotel window onto the lawn. Oh yeah, we did manage to play the odd basketball game as well.

A few of the women brought photos from those days. They were wonderful to look at! The other night at the book reading some of the women actually remembered their basketball number, but I couldn't remember mine. Then I saw it on my uniform in an old photo - I was number 33. Not that it ever got much action on the floor. At night and getting into trouble, yep, 33 was always there. The neatest thing now about my old basketball team is that many of the women now enjoy talking about their grandchildren. I love that. And I love how we can reconnect in such a profoundly personal way, really, after not having seen each other (some of us) for fifty years.

At night, I reconnected with some wonderful cousins who made a marvelous dinner party for me. It was a perfect evening - beautiful home, excellent food, fantastic company and conversation. I'm so grateful to everyone for making me feel so welcome on this tour. And it is only just beginning.

And what a beginning it is becoming. I got a congratulatory email from McNally Robinson Booksellers with their list of Winnipeg Bestsellers for the week of September 12 - and there under paperback non-fiction, in the number five position, was The Jagged Years of Ruthie J, by me. I was blown away - I've never been on a bestsellers list before, and it was quite the high. Even to be mentioned on the same page as Lisbeth Salander was a great high. For those of you unfamiliar with her - I am a huge fan of Stieg Larsson's trilogy of wonderful novels, of which Lisbeth is one of the main characters. But I digress. I'm sure the sales at the reading put me onto this list, and that's fine - it's a wonderful feeling to see my name on that list of bestsellers.