Letters from Frostpocket
These letters were written between 1973 and 1978 and cover a range of topics. Mostly they deal with the news. Beginning in the middle 1970s George and Colleen and Philip and Mary began working opposite each other. While George and Colleen were at Frostpocket, Philip and Mary were in Toronto. When Philip and Mary were at Frostpocket, George and Colleen were in Toronto. They very rarely spent much time together and very rarely worked together.
The houses at the Frostpocket never had telephones. The nearest telephone line was on Eagle Lake Road some ¾ of a mile away and cellular telephones did not yet exist. For this reason letters were passed back and forth with information about arrival times and mundane matters that ordinarily would not have required a letter.
Letters from the settlement at the Frostpocket January 1973 to 1978:
Philip Mullins
Cow Products Manufacturing Company
33 Baldwin Street
Toronto, Ontario M5T 1L1
January 3, 1973
Mr. George Mullins
PO Box 364
South River, Ontario
Dear George-
We will arrive there after the 10th of January. We will stay a week or longer depending on Randy’s desire to get back to his studies. There will be three of us arriving. We will need shoe snows. [There follows a long discussion of snow shoes.] I will try to bring some solid, wooden shoes for the thaw.
While we are there we will try to locate, cut and haul cedars for the pole-line for electricity. I have very specific information about the size, height, curvature, etc. of these poles. It will be quite a task to locate and pull them out of the swamp. I’ll bring some rope for pulling the poles out of the swamp.
OK, I think that is all. Philip Mullins
Mary Rauton
Cow Products Manufacturing Company
33 Baldwin Street
Toronto, Ontario M5T 1L1
January 3, 1973
Mr. George Mullins
PO Box 364
South River, Ontario
My dear people, whom I miss daily, I am sending, as of today, by bus: #1 George’s box of canvas, #2 Seth’s box of books for winter reading, #3 Skip’s box of teas and cardamom (there is no rosehip tea at present). The box should be at the Shell Station in South River, Friday, January 5.
I will bring up lots of cheese and winter treats for one and all. Write me if anyone needs more from Toronto.
Groan! I have to go to the dentist on January 10. My tooth fell out. I hope it doesn’t mean I can’t make the trip.
All is well here. My children called on New Year’s Eve. It was fine! We still have no news about the Redskins and our trek to the North.
George Mullins
PO Box 364
South River, Ontario P0A 1X0
December, 1973
Debbie Mullins
Pensacola, Florida 32507
Dear folks:
Now that we have a typewriter maybe I’ll write more often or, then, maybe I won’t. It might take a major change of personality to do that.
It snows nearly every day. The snow must be two feet deep but life goes on. The latest news is that we bought a used but workable sawmill recently. It took four of us plus the vender all day to dig it out of the snow and disassemble it enough to fit in the trucks. It took another day to get it down the hill to its resting place. Now everyone has deserted me and I’ve been trying to get it back together. I had to pick-axe through three inches of frozen dirt to dig a pit for the sawdust. Picking through frozen dirt is great fun.
The plan is to cut enough trees to build a workshop. As usual the planned building is bigger and grander than it should be but, if it is ever finished, it ought to be a good ‘un. It will have two stories with a leather workshop upstairs and other, dirty crafts (such as pottery, welding, mechanics, etc.) downstairs.
I don’t know if you are acquainted with Skip and Judy O’Dell. They plan to leave in the spring. I don’t think they can tolerate our Southern ways. Like all Southerners we are half-asleep all the time and do everything in our own good time whereas he is hurrying to the grave. He is a perfectionist, which is OK, but he is the only one around here, so…so, so, go to Mexico, as Seth would say.
Speaking of Mexico, Philip and Mary plan to go there in February but I think we will stay here. There is too much to do and too little money.
Colleen and Madelyn are “writing a novel”, they say. It is about a bunch of weirdoes, like us, who have a lot of interpersonal problems while trying to run a farm somewhere. I’m sure they will send you a signed copy when it is published and they are famous.
We have 24 chickens in a new henhouse near our house. Fifteen are laying and we get around nine eggs a day even though it is below freezing in the henhouse. In the spring we will probably be flooded with eggs when the others begin laying eggs too. We will get some sheep and/or a beef calf in the spring and may be a pig or two again as well. Even though we bought all the pig’s feed this year, our total cost was 64¢ a pound (dressed weight).
Thanks for the books for Seth. He has a six-foot long shelf and is really ‘into’ them. I hope you and Jeff can get up here this coming fall. It has been a long time since we saw you. You could even rest and you would not have to work all day.
Love, George and Colleen.
Philip Mullins
33 Baldwin Street
Toronto, Ontario M5T 1L1
May 3, 1976
‘Poor house’
Jeff and Debbie Mullins
C/o Mr. George M. Mullins, Jr.
General Delivery
Burkeville, Texas, USA
Dear folks,
Enclosed is a few dollars for Jeff. We still owe him about three dollars but will keep that on the books for any small expense that may come in. Business is mostly all sandals now but things are not so busy that I can’t sit down and write a short note to you Texas folks.
Mary and I are in Toronto with Randy and his girlfriend, Bie. Bie is involved in a play as co-director and actor. The play opens in a few days so she is busy with that. Randy comes in for a few hours each day and we fight over who makes better sandals. He wants to have a contest to settle the matter. We go through this every year. Both of us try to grab as many sandal orders as possible since the pay is better for sandals than for most of the other things we make. Some years I give up and Randy ends up doing most of the sandals. Some years I make a lot of sandals because I work faster than Randy does and can get a pair started while he is still rolling a cigarette. The other day he stole a bunch of sandals that I had 2/3 finished and I have to give him 1/3 of the labour share after he had finished them.
We have had one letter from George and family by way of his scribe, Colleen. Their daughter is beginning to get into everything and sometimes does herself damage. Colleen says she fell into the little stream and turned blue before Colleen could get her home. Then she walked her chair off the kitchen table and ended up with a big knot on her head. Then she pulled a quart or so of maple syrup onto her head. Their chickens are laying well. The chickens are one-year old hens that were given to us by a neighborhood kid who did not have the heart to kill them. George had a little trouble with a raccoon the first night but that problem apparently solved itself.
There is some possibility that Randy and Bie will go to the Dominican Republic for two years to teach leather craft. It idea is to start a tourist-oriented industry there. Mary and I would have applied if we spoke Spanish. Randy’s Spanish is good but he lacks any formal training and is a little young for the job. If he gets the job he will likely begin within two months. We wish him luck.
Four of Mary’s children and another child from the neighborhood are supposed to be coming in June or July. We don’t know if they re coming just for the summer or for good. They will likely go to South River with Mary and I will stay in Toronto a good part of the summer to work in the leather shop.
I know that the kids did something for you on Mother’s Day. I too am working on a Mother’s Day gift but it won’t be ready until Christmas or thereabouts.
That’s all the news that is fit to print.
See you soon, Phil
Philip Mullins
PO Box 364
South River, Ontario P0A 1X0
July 15, 1976
Mr. George M. Mullins, Jr.
General Delivery
Burkeville, Texas, USA
Dear folks;
Hello! We are in South River for a few months. George and Colleen were in Toronto during June. Randy was on the farm during that month and working on his house. I am finishing the upstairs room to which Mary wants to move our bed. I completed a wood shed for the fire wood. I installed an electric water pump and ran the piping to the kitchen. I have one leak but I can’t plug it up. Anyway it’s a small one.
Mary and I will be in Toronto again during October. George and Colleen will be in Toronto during November, January and December. This means we will come south again. I don’t want to stay here during January (it is too cold for me) and there is no room in Toronto. If Jeff and Debbie locate in Florida we might go see them provided that I can get a supply of Mexican sandals from somewhere. We also want some Panama hats from Mexico which we might be able to get with the help of some Mexican friends. If necessary we will go to Mexico again. One way or the other we will likely see you again this winter, however briefly.
Mary had hoped to see all of her children this summer but her ex-husband changed his mind at the last minute. He seemed to feel that Mary was not sympathetic to his new marriage. As you may recall he divorced his second wife and is to marry again soon. As a result only Mary’s third oldest child, a boy named Bill, has come to visit. It looks like he will stay all summer. He and I have been working together here and at the McLaren farm. Chris Risk’s son is staying with Chris while his mother is in Europe. Davin is the same age as Seth and they get along fine. Katie is still not speaking or walking. She is a jolly little elf. George is building an outhouse with a window and a block basement. It will be the finest toilet on the property. He still doesn’t have a well. He earned over $1,000 making sandals during June so he’s fixed for money for a while.
I am enclosing some sheets of genealogical information for your perusal. I want to give Dian and you a nice, leather-bound notebook next Christmas with this information in it. This could be the beginning of a genealogy for the family. On mom’s side of the family I have three sheets of charts. Much of the information is the same as that you gave Dian. If you have additions or corrections, please let me know.
Love, Phil
Jeff and Debbie Mullins
C/o Mr. George M. Mullins, Jr.
General Delivery
Burkeville, Texas, USA
December 26, 1976
George and Colleen Mullins
Uplands Manufacturing Company
33 Baldwin Street
Toronto, Ontario M5T 1L1
Dear Folks:
We had a pretty good Christmas season in the leather shop. We had Christmas dinner at Madelyn’s house. There must have been 30 people there, falling all over each other in their ardor and hunger. It was fun though. We had the present opening spectacle in the leather shop where Katie finally caught on to the pleasures of gift opening.
Enclosed is a picture of us taken by Madelyn’s man, Fletcher Starbuck. We are trading ‘kids’ with Philip and Mary for about a month this winter. Mary’s son, Bill, is going to school in South River and since we will be the only family up here in January, he will stay with us. Seth will continue in school in Toronto with Mary and Phil to watch over him. It is too upsetting for him to switch back to the South River School for only a month. We will be back in February in plenty of time for Colleen to be delivered of the new child. Colleen went to the hospital and had a sonar gram (a new type of X-ray device) and learned that the baby is normal but she couldn’t tell its sex yet. I don’t really want to know although it would make name-choosing easier.
We had a good Christmas selling season in the leather shop. We also sold Christmas trees this year. We sold almost 100 trees at a profit of $321. We will try it again next year on a little bigger scale.
We wish we could be here when you come to Toronto (and we hope that you will come) but we won’t. We want you to come see us at Frostpocket. You will not have to stay in the workshop apartment. Colleen’s divorce is now final so we will be getting hitched some day soon. We haven’t decided when.
Love, George
We thought of you all on Christmas Eve and again on Christmas Day so often. I wish we could have been together. But we all had a nice time anyway. The big neighborhood feast at Madelyn’s was wonderful, lots of good food, turkey, ham, a real English plum pudding with hard sauce. Philip found the words to all the Christmas carols and had them copied so everyone sang. It was beautiful.
Philip says that he is making you presents but they will be a little late.
We are looking forward to going home to Frostpocket for a month. It ought to be very peaceful and quiet with lots of snow and warm fires. I want to read a lot, do some sewing and a lot of baking and play with Katie. We are too busy here at the leather shop to really enjoy her funny ways and little tricks. Everyone loves her though. I hope she won’t be too jealous of the new baby. She loves any baby she sees so maybe she’ll love this one too. We’ll write more later but we want to get this photograph in the mail.
Happy New Year. I hope we can get together this year.
Love, Colleen.
George Mullins
PO Box 364
South River, Ontario P0A 1X0
1978?
Philip Mullins
33 Baldwin Street
Toronto, Ontario M5T 1L1
Dear Phil and Mary,
I have begun to purchase the building materials for the house. I have to go to Katrine for the South River Discount stuff. I will send the estimate and application (for proof that the Ontario Home Renewal Program (OHRP) will pay) to Paul Wolf with your telephone number in the event that they have questions.
Enclosed is the IOU from Golden Temple Foods for maple syrup. Chris Risk, you will notice, is bringing you more maple syrup candy. Maybe the maple-leaf shaped ones will please the buyer at Baldwin Street Natural Foods. Try to sell them for 17 cents each even though they are a good deal lighter in weight (about 2/3 oz.).
The reason I wrote you and requested that you get the labels, rather than me writing for them, is that I figured that you could walk your butt to Bay and Bloor Streets and purchase some since you don’t have enough for the bottles you have in the leather shop. Also I couldn’t find their address until I got here and found the membership card.
Jeff and Debbie are carefully scrutinizing a 65-acre lot that Mel McLaren has for sale just behind (east) of his place. It has a year-round road (recently abandoned but legally still open) and a Hydro (electric) pole-line running past the property (although it has been disconnected). It is two lots west of the entrance road that has the hawthorn tree that is covered with hop vines. About five acres are cleared (with lots of beautiful spruce Christmas trees) but the soil is not too fertile looking. The soil looks exactly like the ground around your house where nothing has been done to it. The clearing is on a south-facing hill with the north end of the lot covered with hardwood trees with gullies here and there with cedar, spruce, etc. The lot has been recently logged but not too heavily.
Mel McClaren wants $16,000 for the lot. Jeff and Debbie looked at several lots. It seems that $100 per acre will purchase a bush lot with no year-round road and no Hydro nearby. For $200 per acre you can get Hydro, a road and some high land mixed with lots of swamp. They don’t think that the price is out of line.
Colleen says we are getting ripe tomatoes and are keeping up with harvesting the vegetables for the freezer.
Cover letter for ‘Energetics’
The following is the text of a letter to George and Colleen in the Frostpocket (South River) from Philip in Toronto dated March 1978. The letter reported news from the leather shop. It was written on the reverse side of the proposal for a new business that is found in Appendix Chapter 4-1.
Wednesday, March 1978
Philip
Dear George and family-
We ordered and have received the bottles for maple syrup. We will keep the receipt here and mark sales of sugar against it to pay the shop back for the expense, $87.24.
I have been going to some trouble lately to see about getting money from the Government to go back to school. So far the only think positive is a loan program but even the details of that are sketchy and will not be available until May. Canada Manpower will sponsor some training and I am presently involved in trying to ferret that out.
The shop is slow as usual this time of year. The week we have been putting what small cash we have into the bank to pay the rent. A couple of big bills came due during the month and pretty much wiped out the bank account. However, things are really not too bad, business is slow but reasonable. Actually when I was here by myself I was busy twelve hours a day and able to take only two nights off a week. Mary and I have both been quite busy lately.
I tried to get Jeff (Jeff Mullins) a job with us. I put a notice with Canada Manpower and had some people coming here for interviews, the whole bit. Actually I don’t regret doing that since I learned a lot about what people think about us and how much people like ourselves are supposed to be earning. I was amazed to find that we should be making about $4.50 an hour. $3.00 an hour gets you a trainee that does not know anything. Amazing.
Then finally after all that Manpower refused to issue the Job Order for Jeff. They claimed that they would rather pay for us to train someone then to do that. Also the lady told me in no uncertain terms that they would find a person to fill the job even if they had to go to Prince Rupert to find someone. Well, anyway, I was fed up with all that interviewing by then. It was a lot of trouble for nothing.
Well, the latest thing is that we might have to sell the business to Jeff. If he buys a business that employs at least five persons then they will issue him a work permit or land him. I have written Jeff about that. At least this time most of the work will have to be done by him. He has to get in touch with the Canadian Consulate in Atlanta, Georgia and get the scoop.
Mary went down South as you know and had a good time. Of course, she spent far too much money. She did not go down to Florida but stayed in Atlanta.
On the back of this letter is a proposal for you to consider. It is really only so much of the same. I have been looking into taking a heating technician course at George Brown College. They have one for two years and one for one year. The one year course might be paid for by Manpower and that is what I am working on now. The two-year course will have to be paid for by myself but with a possible Student Loan (which I hope is mostly a grant). I am considering going to school there as well as to the U of T (University of Toronto) and who knows where else.
I have an application in to the U of T but last week I changed it to part-time since it is obvious to me that I can’t afford four years of full-time study. Besides I feel a certain obligation to Ragnarokr and I won’t be able to do anything going to school all the time.
Morley (Morley Yan) is also trying to get into a Manpower program. We went down this morning for an interview and had a great time as he tried to get a new social insurance card. He took down a big case full of documents but none of them agreed with the others. One said he was born on the 24th, one said he was born on the 26th, one said his name as Morley, one said his name was Chack Mo. Finally the women there all agreed that he had to get some of them changed so that at least two of them would agree. Now Morley is trying to decide which name he wants. Big hassle for him.
Plus he is trying to get into this retraining course and they keep making it difficult for him. They will not accept him into a retraining course until he goes around town and interviews five or ten potential employers and they tell him that they will hire him if he gets retrained. We would have to do the same thing if we wanted to get Manpower money for retraining. Actually that would not be difficult. In our case they would not want to retrain us as heating techs because we are skilled leatherworkers and there is no shortage of jobs for such skilled people. So I’ll have to invent a whole new job history for myself. I can’t go up to the leather work section at Manpower anyway because I was just up there last month as an employer. They might begin to wonder if I show up now as an unemployed unskilled leatherworker. So I’ll likely have to become an unskilled construction worker. Just like what ol’ Roosevelt said “Life is just a stage” and so I’ll just rewrite the script a little.
I went to see the Ballet Swan Lake with Brenda (Brenda Matthias). Mary is now Brenda’s business manager. Brenda claims to be serious about starting a school for ballet here. They have been negotiating with the City for space at the Chinese Community Centre for practice. I am supposed to look into funding to buy a building for a combination ballet studio and leather shop.
Mary has decided to buy Janice Spellerberg’s VW. It has certain problems like it jumps out of reverse, it only runs on three cylinders, the heater boxes are rusted out, it used a little oil, also it is starting to get rusty. I though that I would drive it up there sometime whenever Janice gets tired of driving it around town and George could fix it up, like new. Eh? Good idea, eh? Janice wants $150.
Speaking of VWs, Randy (Randy Rauton) tells me that he left the battery in his car. Is it too late to ask you to take it our and put it somewhere where it will not freeze?
We got a letter from them yesterday. Randy arrived all right. It sounds like Bie (Elizabeth Engelen) is going to the school after all since the fees are cheap. No mention of the amount of money she is looking for. Also no mention of whether or not Randy will be coming back or not. Probably we will just have to wait on that one.
We haven’t heard from the aged P’s (George Jr. and Hazel Mullins) but I’ll try to write them soon. There is some talk of us going down in May when you guys are here (?). Brenda and Ruth (Ruth Ruston) both said that they wanted to go as well. But you know how those things are. Probably by that time we will all be flat broke.
There is a good possibility that the Federal Government will take our manufacturer license away. In fat I received a letter some time ago saying that they would be doing just that. However I have not heard anything else about it yet. If that happens we will save about $600 yearly on taxes and will not need a bookkeeper anymore. Is a pink slip in the future for Dr. Burdick (Steven Burdick)? Let us all hope so since we give him $500 a year which would equal a total savings of over $1100 annually.
Well, that’s all the news that is in the news. Hello Seth. Hope you make all As this year.
Bye, Bye Uncle Philip
