The Mad Trapper
Trip Start
Aug 22, 2008
1
9
58
Trip End
Jul 2009
Inuvik,
Northwest Territories,
Canada
Friday, August 29, 2008
My lunch was spent buying a timer for the room (so I won't be rushing at the end of each class) at Home Hardware, paying my rent at Northern Properties, buying a tiny bottle of ameretto in case of company, and looking for a desk chair at Wrangling River. Lorne (the VP) and I scoured the school for a chair for me as the one in the room is totally trashed. I've heard the former tenant of Room 206 was a big guy. I have a temporary one from the library that doesn't have casters, but Lorne told me to go shopping for one at Wrangling River. I was to see Judy, but when I got there the store wasn't open. I heard something around back and saw a truck unloading so went to check it out. Turns out it is the bottle depot. So I backtracked and a truck came screaming around the corner. It was Mike - an EA from the high school. When he found out why I was there he took my in the back way via the bottle depot and looked aorund for chairs. He has 7 jobs. He was thrilled that he could load bottles, make a sale, AND make the delivery to the school all on his lunch. Sadly, there were no chairs to look at. Lorne figured I'd have to check out a catalogue with Judy so I didn't have any expectations. Mike was heading back to school so he asked if I wanted to take the shortcut. He used a term I didn't know and said it's what the kids call it -- "cutback trail". I'm game for anything new and ended up jumping a ditch and rolling over a utilidor and scrambling up an embankment. He shared some of his onion rings and fries. Knowing the price of fries and onion rings from the "snack truck" in a parking lot I would have refused until he told me he got them for free. I think it's about $6 for a small fries. Mike works at the Trapper (job #4) in the back bar and said I should come at 11 and check it out so I promised I would. We got back in time for........a meeting.
I spent the rest of the time cleaning my room and going through some new books and program materials with Paula, the Program Support Teacher (PST) and wife of the VP, Lorne. A little after 5 I headed for "the dome" to pick up my Bingo cards. The dome is a converted radar installation and the home of the cable company. My friend Rob did work for the company years ago and told me all about it. The owner, Tom, thought it would make a unique headquarters and he had it turned into a three-story office. A section of the bottom floor is used to sell Bingo cards and I am not sure from where they do the actual transmission. Cards are sold until 7 and then the game is shown on TV. In Tasiujaq you had to listen over the radio and now and then people would call in to ask them to repeat the numbers (and it really slowed down your evening!). Here, you can see the tray the balls go into after they are called so you can doublecheck on your own.
When I got home I started a stir fry and left a message for Dan to stop in if he wanted. When he came over I was still chopping and cooking and the game was about to start. Dan took over the cooking duties and I played and then he hit a snag so I told him to play for me. He'd never played Bingo before! BTW, now he loves it and can't wait for the next chance to play. I think around here it's every night but Sunday!! We ate and watched and used a pen to circle the numbers as I couldn't find my dabber. I was waiting on one number for the last game ($500) when someone called in. Darn! So close. I asked if he wanted to go to the Trapper and he was game - if he could have a nap. So off he went to his room for a nap and I worked and cleaned and had a shower. He called when he was up and I went down the hall. We listened to Johnny Cash tunes on his laptop and chatted and then took off. We froze our butts walking at 11PM and I swore I was going to add my fleece liner to my jacket tomorrow.
The Mad Trapper is probably a typical bar. I've not been in that many so I don't have much fodder for comparisons. It was dark and there was a band playing. No one was on the dance floor so we crossed it to the "back bar". Personally, I would have deeked around and between tables rather than cross the empty dance floor. I felt so exposed. Dan was oblivious and as he was in front I would have felt weirder branching off on my own. Mike was where he said he would be and I had hardly got my bum on a stool before there were two shooters in front of me. I leaned over the shooter glass and slurped a bit and it wasn't bad -- something fruity like raspberry jello and lemonade. Dan told Mike that I really didn't drink much and he put that together with my attempt to sip a shooter and poured it into a glass filled with ice. Good plan! Dan took the shot that I was never going to drink. We all chatted and people stopped by and introduced themselves. The guy on the next stool works at the school as a custodian and talked about his trip on the Dempster and what he had done this summer. At one point he mentioned he had gone whaling. Dan was fascinated and when the guy (Ron) talked about the meat (muktuk) Dan wanted to know if he could get some to try. We watched pool, talked to Mike when he wasn't busy, and had a good time. At one point I asked Mike what drink he was making and was told that I had interrupted so the guy he was making them for said that meant I had to have one. Uck! It was really sour! And of course I didn't shoot it so sipping was painful. I asked Mike for some 7-Up and that helped a lot. I also asked if he was serious about bar ettiquette and interrupting and he laughed and said it was a bar joke for "getting girls to have a drink". Dan was getting sleepy so a couple hours later we were freezing our butts in the other direction. Not a bad intro to the Mad Trapper.
