In addition to using the library, I enjoy foraging through the photo collections of public archives.

I had a wonderful experience several months ago examining images for my partner’s public art project, “Souvenirs“. We spent weeks at the City of Winnipeg’s archives going through hundreds of photographs and detailed large-format negatives trying to find the most evocative elements to tell her story.

Sometimes Googling just isn’t satisfying enough.

The Big Storm at Shoal Farm

Another excellent source is the Winnipeg Tribune archival photo collection at the University of Manitoba. While skimming through the thumbnails that I found an image that surprised me. It was of my mother standing beside our second family car – an AMC Hornet (our primary vehicle was an AMC Matador, no joke) – that had it’s rear end crushed by a tree felled during a horrendous summer wind storm in 1975. The shot was taken by Jeff DeBooey.

That day, dozens of trees were toppled, yet miraculously, none damaged the house. It got desperate enough that the trap door to our dirt-floor basement was opened in case we had to seek shelter.

The look of the yard had changed considerably. In time all the trees were cut to lengths that fit in our Franklin stove once time and air had cured them sufficiently.

I don’t think I was ever scared that day, but I was certainly excited.

My mom drove that Hornet, with it’s flattened back-end to Stonewall for repair and later, for several years more, that car ushered me throughout the south Interlake and into Winnipeg, eventually being sold for parts to a local mechanic.

In time, the Matador would be mine.

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I frequent the library – frequently. I’ll go on binges and end up reading multiple books by a single author. Lately, I’ve taken out several by Nick Hornby.

It took seven years before I started watching “Seinfeld” and I’m only now “getting into” Elvis.

It’s the same with Hornby.

I knew who who he was, sort of. A movie starring Hugh Grant was based on one of his books. But it wasn’t until I listened to an interview with him on “Q” on CBC radio that I decided to read what it was all about.

I had a job during the summer that allowed me to listen to the radio with frequency and pleasure while making me feel that the work I did was secondary (to what is for me to still figure out).

"Juliet, Naked" by Nick Hornby

Hornby was on and “Juliet, Naked” was the product.

After actually purchasing the book as a gift for my brother’s birthday, who just happens to be a book publisher himself, I queued up patiently for my turn online to read Nick’s latest work.

When reading books as a child the authors are invariably adults. Yet the characters might be similar in age (the Hardy Boys, Harry Potter, Alice In Wonderland) and you’re able to engage with the storyline while hoping something like what they’re experiencing might happen to you – even as a daydream.

Reading a Hornby novel or anything for that matter by someone who might share your birthday, one recognizes human traites and mores that very easily and uncomfortably apply to oneself – no daydreaming required. This is no fantasy, unless you’re in denial.

“Psychology for Dummies” or is Hornby able to tap into a frequency of human experience that speaks to us all? I expect the latter. We think about it, while reading. It’s admitting that’s critical.

Ironically, when I dog-ear the page, I usually have a good nights sleep.

Not.