1933: Premium on good stories as old timers gather in Similkameen
Once again many thanks to our friend Alex Code, for sharing another fun clipping from a newspaper that’s given us several of them.
The 2nd annual meeting of the Similkameen Historical Association, in 1933, featured southern BC pioneers (non-Natives by definition) showing off their Chinuk Wawa skills.
Some notable participants who we already knew from the Jargon world included Mrs. “Carah” (Susan, according to a correct pencil correction on the copy below) Allison, and shopkeeper A.E. Howse.
One scene from the meeting almost looks like cussin’, because it substitutes punctuation marks for words, but I believe instead that that just shows the ignorance of the reporter about the Jargon at the late post-frontier date of 1933.
S.R. Gibson, who presided, briefly outlined the significance of the occasion, creating an appropriate atmosphere with an old-time anecdote. The principals were Dr. Sherm [a pencil correction says something like Schord] and “Judge” Murphy, and they were sitting in the little old Jackson hotel, pioneer Princeton hostel. The “judge” was striving to communicate the eccentricities of the Chinook [Jargon] dialect, an indispensible vehicle in those days. “You see that man go down the street?” The Dr. nodded assent. “Well, in Chinook he’s (**!). Now suppose he’s no good. Then in Chinook he’s (**!!) — see the difference?”
— from the Princeton (BC) Star of August 24, 1933, page 1
The article continues on page 2 and 3, where we have “Podunk”/”Punk” (William Albert) Davis calling himself a cheechako (chxi chaku, newly arrived):
He denied that he had any right to be called anything but a checackow, as he only came in ’87.
— page 3
Far from surprising is the following observance, very common at old-timers’ gatherings:
The Lord’s Prayer was repeated in Chinook, following which odl [old] timers enjoyed a social hour, renewing old acquaintances.
— page 3
You can see that we don’t get much Chinuk Wawa from this article, but we sure do hear a depiction of the position it occupied in community memory!
