Honeymoon - Wahooo!

I planned for weeks for the big day. I was getting married and what happened next was just as important… the Honeymoon! Oh Yah!

It was a little over three months before I traveled to Saskatchewan for our Wedding that I began laying plans for the Honeymoon that we would have together. Alida was in Regina dealing with her final exams in Nursing and the Wedding….and I was in Trois Rivieres, Quebec dealing with computers and business machines in the heart of Quebec.

One of my customers was a famous Hunting, Fishing and Outdoors store in Cap de la Madeleine, Que… just across from Trois Rivieres. The guys were great in the store and very helpful.

I bought the camp stove – a three burner Coleman, sleeping bags – warm and fuzzy, and the tent that we would be tucked into each night. As well I got the needed cooking pots and accessories were in the same store.

On September 5th I packed the car full of all the camping stuff and drove to the Montreal Dorval Airport – where I parked it and climbed aboard the plane to Regina.

On September 9, 1967 we flew out of Regina, Sask. for Toronto and then Montreal.

Everything was seamless – except for a few draw backs… and that was where this story begins.

Exiting the Reception Hall at the church in our new Honeymoon clothes we headed to the airport in Regina.

Alida’s nursing friends wanted to get one more photo of us outside the terminal – so we headed that way. That was really about not only a photo but also a complete baptism in confetti. One her dear friends grabbed the collar of my white shirt and huge hand full of confetti inside my shirt, which went into my trousers and into my under-shorts. Both Alida and I got plastered!

(I picked up her sewing machine and went inside… oh forgot to tell that part. The Singer Sewing machine was traveling with us to its new home in Quebec.)

We arrived at the ticket counter to check in… The two gals behind the ticket processing part took my tickets and looked at them seriously… One then slowly said.. “I am sorry sir there seems to be a problem… your tickets have been cancelled. You are not able to fly today… there may be room on a flight leaving tomorrow… but nothing more today…”

I was stunned. To say that I was exasperated would be putting it mildly. I had looked at my watch all day… and had it all times to be there when we had to be.. with time to spare. How could this happen???!!!!????

I looked at Alida and the panic had to show by then. Then I looked back to the Air Canada Ticket counter person… and one was grinning slowly – trying to suppress the out right laughter… and then she said suddenly – “Oh, I think we have room after all…”

A few of my cousins and also another friend stood to the side busting themselves with laughter. The girl behind the counter said, “They made me do it!” pointing to the guys that were laughing so hard.

(These cousins were positively cruel… to another cousin they had broke into the house trailer that they were using for their Honeymoon and made a complete mess of everything including honey on the door knobs etc… and all their clothing dumped into the center of the trailer floor… THEY WERE DANGEROUS. My vow to get out of town without them “getting” me was real… but they did get me!!!)

We arrived in Toronto about 6 PM. (Last night we were in Toronto again at exactly 6 PM – 42 years later – visiting a friend in the hospital.)

The first night was in our own apartment in Trois Rivieres – then in the morning we headed to the Gaspe of Quebec.

The second night was a camping adventure along the St. Lawrence River – high up above the water with rain impending… and river far below us – clouds rolling in and the new sheet of plastic over the entire tent. The plastic rattled incessantly – ALL NIGHT LONG!

Every night we tented all the way around Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. What a beautiful trip it was! There was nothing but sunshine – every day for two weeks! Then on the last day as we drove back into Quebec it started to rain.

Both of us were prairie chickens… and had never been East – EVER! It was the greatest thing in the world to see so much beauty with the one that you love so much. We were young and full of life… and nothing mattered back then.

The Honeymoon ended in Quebec about a month and half later… I became very ill with a flu bug of some sort. Man was I sick. Then a week later Alida came down with the same sickness. She was very ill.

We had purchased a little pup that I had to take back to the breeder… Alida was far too ill to take care of it… and she was not getting better.

With no health insurance and no doctor and not so good French… where do you go to get help? I had lived here for over a year but did not know where or what to do… Not a good feeling to be caught in this predicament.

We did get to a doctor that had not so good English… and tried to tell me what the problem was… “Your woman is sick… and it should get better in a few months… you are going to be how should I say… a father. Congratulations!”

“Do you understand… my English is not very good… you know a Father… with kids… not a priest…”

I wasn’t saying anything at all… kind of dumb struck I guess.

That was the day that I found out our daughter Dana was going to make her way into this world… in July of 1968… and my world was changing big time… and would change like never before.

In November of 1967 – three months after getting married my company asked me to move to Fredericton, New Brunswick – where Dana would be born the next summer.

So why tell you all that? Did you need to know…?

Nope but some day my grand kids will read about their grandpa… and I want to tell them how it all happened… and if they every travel to Quebec, and New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia they will be able to say “My grandpa was here… let me tell you a story..”

Tonight I hope to Honeymoon in our backyard with my Bride of 42 years… I have planned it all… hopefully there will be no rain… and well… it is almost like Quebec….!

~ Murray Lincoln ~
www.murraylincoln.com