We’ve moved on from Swift Current after a series of shows – nothing massively exciting, one group of children screams and freaks out much the same as the last. Today at one of the schools they discouraged clapping to accommodate some deaf students that are part of the group. Instead they clap as deaf people clap, by waving their hands in the air. It was nice because we were able to wave our hands back at them and all clap together.

Having broken out of our initial loop we are now making our way north. I’m writing this from Eston, where the water is hard, the combines are busy and every few hours between wake up and bedtime an air raid siren mounted on the firehall goes off to let the locals know what time it is. The thing whoops at breakfast and lunch and schools out and at ten pm for bed time. There is a lot of open space around here for kids to run around in so an effective means of long distance communication is a handy thing. The proprietress of our hotel told us it has been wailing for a hundred years.

   

On the way here we stopped in the decrepit community of White Bear, population few. We saw their abandoned grain elevator from kilometers away. We knew it was disused because of the pronounced slant. Naturally we had to check it out – Bill and I explored while Dan engaged the owner. There was also a nearby building that had once been the town’s recreation hall, abandoned since the early eighties. Ceiling tiles had fallen in and sprouted greenery and random bits of stuff were strewn everywhere.

Tomorrow we make our way to Kindersley and over the weekend we may get to exploring some ghost towns. The next few weeks after Kindersley are on a whole other panel of the map.