C Ihe Ladies c cu. V'VVAN - History and Classics, Department of

(4 OutWe nee de d all 0 U r wit s abo u t us during the four days we spent inEdmonton procuring steamer tickets, information and outfits. However muchhearsay or book-knowledge one may absorb about any planned adventure, theactual transition from daydream to reality will always come as a shock. Hithertowe had enjoyed our timetable journey by land and sea. Now we began to feel likepioneers about to set foot on an unknown road. Until now we had done nothingbut read and dream and provide ourselves with clothes that might or might notprove suitable for our undertaking, but at Edmonton we had come to an end ofspoon-fed travel and had to begin making our own decisions.The first thing that shocked us into realising that we must now depend onourselves was a telephone call. We were unpacking our bags in a large expensiveroom at a large expensive hotel. How we had landed there I do not nowremember, it was not our natural milieu-perhaps our Winnipeg friends hadrecommended it. We were greatly surprised by this call because we had only beenin Edmonton half an hour, our introductions were still in our pockets and weknew not a single person in the town. I answered the call and, putting my handover the mouthpiece, said to Gwen: "A reporter, a woman, asking questionsabout our trip. You answer her."Gwen advanced to the telephone. "Who are you? Miss Moon did you say?" Apause. "Time enough to interview us when we've done something," and shebanged down the receiver. Had Miss Moon been present, Gwen would have givenher what Tennyson described as "a stony British stare." She always preferredaction to words.