Tuesday, July 21, 2009

The Road North/by Iris Woolcock

I am quite the bookworm. Nothing is more relaxing then finding a quite spot, sitting and reading a book.

My birthday was July,5 th. We where in North Dakota and on the way back to Wyoming stopped at Cabela's to get a hammock for my present. The perfect place for reading, on a warm summer day.

Checking our mailbox on the return trip, I had two packages. One from my sister Paula and one from my brother Joshua. Both of them had awesome books and bags in them.

Joshua's book "The Road North" one woman's adventure driving the Alaska highway 1947-1948 by Iris Woolcock.
Iris was a freelance photographer who pulled a 33 foot trailer behind a little Jeep through the states and up the Alaska highway. It's amazing, the people she met and things she did, quite the adventure.

I had to chuckle last night as I read about an indian lady Iris mrt who had just gotten back from her trial for shooting her husband. He was a mean man, who cuffed her around and she decided that was the last time, so shot him as he came back in the house.

(quoted from the book)
"I suppose you'll be much happier now without him" I said.
"Oh yes." she said, "I don't know why I ever put up with him for thirty years."
But men are a dime a dozen up in that country.
Another women killed a man with an ax. When the judge asked her why she did it, she said he backed his truck onto her clothsline and ran her nice white sheets into the mud after a hard days wash.
She picked up the nearest thing handy which happened to be an ax and let fly with it. "Dismissed, call the next case," said the judge.

"A thousand miles from nowhere,
A thousand miles to go
How long how long
Noboby seems to know."
Norman Rosten
"The big Road"
1946

3 comments:

Shelby said...

Now that sounds like my kinda book.. my parents are about to drive to Alaska. They bought a fifth wheel last year and have been planning and planning.. they're so excited. I think they've decided to go next month.

My dad's driven up there 2 times already. My mom went one time.

Paula said...

Well? A woman just can't put up with that kind of crap! Had the two boys who live her been home when I came home from work today to a very messy house, they may have been killed as well.

Josh said...

I am happy that you like the book, and it was just the perfect find without knowing what I was going to get you. We sure have amazing 'surprises' on every corner, shelve, sidewalk, creek here in New York City. I can't wait to hear of more of her adventures when I see you next week.