The Page

Tribute to Seven Students

Seven young students
Happy as can be
Set out on a skiing trip
Away out in B.C.
They were so excited
On the slopes they could hardly wait
But on February the first
They not knowing their faith
They arrived on the slopes
On this beautiful day
When all of a sudden
The snow gave away
The snow was so swift
And as it came down
Bringing tragedy again
Close to Revelstoke town
When it was over
All the families did dread
When the news reached them
All seven students dead.
So here’s to Jeff, and Daniel
Michael, and Scott too
And Marissa, Alex and Ben
Your family and friends will miss you.
When the aftermath was over
And all said and done
The gates of Heaven opened
And welcomed each one.

God Bless
Veronica Lunn


Tribute to Seven Astronauts

On February the first
The year two thousand and three
When family and friends waited
But where can our astronauts be?
They waited and watched
On this beautiful day
Looking and praying
For them to come their way
But what ever happened
They all wondered why
When all the debris
Fell from the sky.
The debris was spread
And fell to the ground
The Space Shuttle is lost
And astronauts can’t be found
The family all waited
And the news they did dread
When NASA announced
All seven astronauts dead.
So when the day ended
And came the night
There’s seven more stars
Are shining so bright.
One January is over
And another one did start
We’ll miss you all
And hold you close to our heart.

God Bless.
Veronica Lunn
Those two poems of remembrance are by Slave Lake’s own Veronica Lunn.
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In case you missed the first one here’s another request for information from anyone who lived or worked at the Chisholm Mills/Swanson’s sawmill camp at the west end of Fawcett Lake during the war. If you did, Joe at The Leader wants to talk to you. He’s researching the prisoner of war camp that was there from late ’43 to ’46. We got one response from a lady in Westlock who taught school at Fawcett Lake in that period, but we haven’t heard back from her. The suspense is killing us! Give Joe a call at 849-4380 during business hours.
* * * * *
Well, what is a seizure? That’s the question so many people were asking us last week, after the question, but not the answer appeared in this space, along with a few other questions and alleged SAT test answers by 16-year-old students. The answer is “A Roman emperor.”
Q: What does ‘varicose’ mean?
A: Nearby
Q: What is a terminal illness?
A: Getting sick at the airport.
Q: Name the four seasons.
A: Salt, pepper, mustard, vinegar
* * * * *
And here, from a source about as reliable as a federal cabinet minister at an unscheduled news conference, are some examples of actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays (or so the e-mail said):
* She grew on him like e-coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.
* Her vocabulary was bad as, like, whatever.
* He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.
* The hailstones leapt up off the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
* She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.
* John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
* Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across a grassy field towards each other like two freight trains - one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.