I now know an amazing amount of Canadian history compared to when I started - and I'm extraordinarily frustrated by how little I knew to begin with. When I took Canadian History in college (as part of a BA in History), I was pretty excited. I thought it would be great to know more about where my family had come from and since my grandfather (Pepere) was born there, we weren't that removed from the "old" country. The first class was all about the course syllabus and papers we would have to write and that sort of junk. The second class is where I knew I was int trouble. The instructor (who I had before and was actually pretty good) rolled an old reel to reel movie projector into the class and proceeded to start a movie on Canadian history - a black and white movie narrated by a man who dress clearly placed the film in the 1950s. It was 45 minutes long, we had a brief discussion and class was over. Until the next time, when we saw another movie - and another. That was it for the entire semester. The whole class was old movies.

It sucked so bad.

I complained loud and long to my department who whined about how no one really knew Canadian History and the movies were approved in place of class lectures and blah blah blah. The pathetic part of all this is that I went to school in Alaska which is pretty closely tied to Canada history-wise, but still, nobody knew anything or wanted to learn anything or thought it was odd that they were teaching a college course with grade school movies.

Did I mention how bad it sucked?

So today I finished Book 1 of the Canadian history series. I don't have the second book, about the French & Indian Wars, but I do have the third about the War of 1812. I'll keep you posted on that volume, but won't be starting it right away. (Time for fun reading!) Today I learned that La Salle was murdered by his own men as he tried to find the mouth of the Mississippi from the Gulf of Mexico. He didn't find it and died alone, his body abandoned, even his clothing stripped as a trophy. He was only 43. After him two of the Le Moynes brothers (who I never heard of but pretty much participated in every significant battle of the period), did find the MS and ended up building forts in modern day Mobile and Biloxi. The younger brother was also responsible for building the early city of New Orleans and serving as its first governor although in his lifetime France gave it up to Spain (with all of Louisiana), thinking it was a desolate spot that would never amount to anything.

The French Kings weren't all that smart sometimes.

Thomas Costain included a very cool story at the end of the book, about 14 year old Marie Madeleine Jarret de Vercheres. She saved her brothers and their home from an Iroquois attack in 1692 by rallying the neighbors and few scared soldiers in their fort when her parents were away and a war party showed up to kill them all. It's the sort of small history that is usually left out of books, particularly since it involves a young girl, but Costain clearly thought all of Canada's history was fascinating, even the bits that most historians would ignore. His interest in seeking out the small stories is a large part of why I enjoyed this book so much, and why I look forward to reading others in the series.

So that is all about Canadian history for awhile. My birthday is Monday and I'm sure I will get books, books and more books, and I'm looking forward to that. I'm also hoping there is some Louis Armstrong or Sam Cooke in there - we'll see if I get lucky. (And Season 3 of American Chopper! I love that show!) It's been a rainy day and promises to be a cold and rainy weekend. Lots of time for writing hopefully, and watching our newest DVD - Year Without a Santa Claus. Life is good.