The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The Reminder is pleased to reprint this article, written by Julian Kolt, from the January-February 2012 edition of our sister magazine, Cottage North. **** It is often a sad fact of life, but a fact nonetheless, that over time our friends from high school and early adulthood drift away to parts unknown. It's a common occurrence in this age of speedy travel, specialized jobs and a greater emphasis on higher education. It's almost expected now that at some point in your life, you'll cross thousands of kilometres of terrain for a new opportunity. Still, technology has allowed for quick communication, and there are some who can maintain these relationships over long spans of time or even rekindle friendships that were lost to distance. Back in 1992, a group of former Flin Flon friends managed to do just that. Marlene (Smale) Poirier, still a resident of Flin Flon, joined with 12 others who had disappeared to the far reaches of Canada and the United States to meet once again. The group included Irene (Berry) Wolden, who left for Kelowna, B.C., in 1987; Ila (Musselman) Konik, who left for Minneapolis in 1960; Eileen (Judd) Hogan, who left for Winnipeg in 1960 and is now in Wasaga Beach, Ont.; Bunny (Johanason) Hutchanson, who left in 1957 for Winnipeg, then went on to Kelowna, B.C.; Arlene (Nicol) Luksay, who left in 1969 for Nanaimo, B.C.; Joan (McKagne) Davies, who left in 1961 for Winnipeg and is now in Texas; Phyllis (Oliver) Pfohl, who left in 1959 for Walkerton, Ont.; Elaine (Qualie) Warttig, who left in 1960 to Fort St. John and who is now in Williams Lake, B.C.; Glenda (Wood) Rithaler, who left in 1957 for B.C. and now lives in Banff, Alta.; and Gail (Leask) Wuotila, who left in 1957 for Prince Albert, and is now in Calgary. Ruby (Reid) Pearson and Kaey Ann (Laing) Willey were also part of this group, until their deaths in 2000 and 2001, respectively. The group of women, who refer to themselves as the Flin Flon Friends, were all former school chums during their formative years in this northern community. 'We went to hockey games, school activities, socials, teen canteens, ball gamesÉwe just met everywhere,' explains Marlene Poirier. 'Certain girls chummed closer in bunches of two and three, but we were all direct friends over the years in some way or other.' Between 1957 and 1987, gradually these friends parted ways, and eventually Marlene was the last of the group to remain in Flin Flon. 'Then one day, two of the girls got together and said, 'Wouldn't it be nice if we met somewhere? All of us?'' says Marlene. The answer to the question was an emphatic yes as the two quickly sat down to make a list of names and started making phone calls and sending letters. The first meeting of the 13 women was in Clear Lake, Manitoba. 'It was really exciting,' recalls Marlene. 'Half of us didn't recognize each otherÉit'd been so long since we'd been together.' They met during the long weekend in September so as to avoid the influx of travel caused by families returning home to cart their children off to school. The group was quick to fall into a pattern that would become routine in subsequent meetings. 'For the first 24 hours, we don't stop talking,' says Marlene. 'On the second day, we go around the area where we're visiting and get to know what it's like. Some of the girls like to get into golfing, so they check the area for somewhere nearby, but mostly they haven't been able to golf. See 'Remin...' on pg. Continued from pg. 'Otherwise, we go on short boat trips or typically just take a couple of vehicles out to the nearest community and walk around, visiting shops and seeing the sights. We go out for dinner and pass the time with an odd game or two.' During their stay together, the women form groups and take turns making meals, because they don't want to be eating out every day. However, most of the group's time together is spent sitting and talking about old times, or otherwise reminiscing about Flin Flon. They talk about when they were young, the things they used to do, the people they know, who's left, who's passed away and who's married. A favourite line to use during the gathering is 'do you remember whenÉ' _ which almost always ends in peals of laughter from everyone involved. Everyone tends to come away from the weekend happy, reminding each other to stay well so that they can get to the next one. The group meets nearly every three years, travelling to a new location each time, though they are often in or near B.C. because most of the group lives in that area. They typically find lodges or rent condos for their stay. Often, locations don't want to rent space to the large group of women, but once they hear that they're all in their 60s, they acquiesce, on the basis that they likely wouldn't be capable of doing much harm. The Flin Flon Friends held their second meeting in 1995 at Wasaga Beach, Ont., producing a moment everyone still remembers. 'Eileen Hogan had just built a nice new home, so we said 'Let's put the lawn chairs in the garage because it's so nice out,' says Marlene. 'As we were sitting and talking, Elaine Warttig came in carrying a veggie pizza and wearing this towel [the towel was long and had a print over top of a youthful body in a bikini]. We laughed so hard that one of the girls (Ila) fell out of her chair, knocking it over. The neighbours heard our commotion from across the street and came out of their back yard to come and see what had happened.' In 1999 the Flin Flon Friends travelled to Canmore, Alta., and paid Banff a visit from there, visiting local stores and purchasing matching shirts. Though they often tried to book events and activities for their trips, more often than not the plans fell through, though they always enjoyed their wanderings about the communities they went to. In 2002, their trip took a turn for the odd when they rented a condo high up in the hills of Salt Spring Island, B.C. After eating a delicious meal cooked by a local chef they had hired for that purpose, they soon discovered that someone was trying to call them. 'It sort of spooked us,' Marlene recalls. 'Nobody knew that we were there, and we don't give our phone numbers out to anybody, but this phone call kept coming.' The man on the other end of the line was asking for the different women in the house because he said he knew them, but refused to properly identify himself. Each time a different lady would pick up the phone and would tell him to stop calling, after he eerily named the speaker correctly. 'It got kind of spooky in the house that night,' Marlene says. 'We were in an isolated spot right at the top of the hill. There were deer all around, making the leaves rustle, and we started to scare ourselves. Two of the girls scared themselves so badly they nearly fell off the banister. 'The deck had been built with plexiglas below the rail, rather than boards, and as the two women were walking along one of them caught sight of her own reflected legs and yelled, 'Oh my God, there's someone there!', which prompted them both to scramble inside. 'Later the next day, we found out it was one of the girls' husbands who was pranking us. He'd apparently found out what the number was and decided to start calling us, using his son's nickname as a cover.' Somehow, his wife hadn't heard the name used, and it wasn't until the next day that she suddenly realized that it was her husband. 'He definitely had us going. We like to laugh about that,' says Marlene. Often, the group likes to bring back old memories by behaving like their old selves. 'When we were little kids, we loved licorice cigars, so one time I bought a box from the store and brought it down to one of our meetings,' says Marlene. 'Everyone put one in their mouths for a picture, each one of us in our 60s, and someone piped up and said, 'Yuck! Did we really eat these things? They taste just terrible!'' At other times, they would share their northern spirit by wearing matching babushkas out into the mild September weather, as they used to when they were warding off 40-below winters in Flin Flon. 'At one particular restaurant, they had huge napkins, and we suddenly decided to start wearing them on our heads,' says Marlene. 'Someone came by later and asked us where we were from!' The group has travelled to Sooke, B.C., in 2005, to Kelowna (where they rented a million-dollar condo!) in 2008, and to Parksville, B.C. in 2011. They've often met people from their hometown on their travels and have found themselves in some very beautiful places. As Marlene has a way of saying, it's something that they've done for a long time, and, God willing, they hope to keep going.
