Now Let’s Invite (Tell) Grandpa

the_berserker has started a story of the fugitive Duncan Anderson, and so most of my characters played off him being a missing child. I found a RCMP survey on missing children and their characteristics, and I was quite surprised at how well they fit the way the_berserker has been playing Duncan all year with constantly missing school, or sleeping all day in his bedroom and the like. I must say, a masterful characterization by the_berserker to put all that into play before Duncan runs off. I tried in vain to find Ojibway missing children statistics and oddly enough found only a few situations where Ojibway children, who had been sent to the big city for education, and didn’t come back. My guess is that either no one has collected the information specifically for Ojibway, or this is not as big a problem as it is for non-Natives. In any case, the statistics were interesting. The vast majority of missing children in Ontario are runaways and the vast majority of them are girls, which I found a little surprising. the_berserker posted about doing squeegie work for money, and I found a number of references to the Squeegie Kids as a uniquely Canadian term. The squeegiers I have run into from time to time in the States, although not in Tucson, have by and large been adults and usually your windshield is dirtier after they are done than before they started. They work on the “pay me money so I will go away” method. I do not know the quality of the work of the Squeegie Kids, so I just guessed it was about the same.

In the meantime, Elly put the pressure on grandpa Jim to go to his final rest with her, and he relents and also asks for a spot for ½ Iris, which Elly did not mention in her original request, and I find it interesting that she did not. I have never been really sure why Iris or her family has not been accepted by Jim and the Patterson clan. I have a step-mom, my dad married while I was in university; so there was no bond of having her as a parent. Nevertheless, I have met her ex-husband, her ex-husband’s wife, her brother, her sister and all their kids. I had met her mom and dad on several occasions before they both passed away last year. I don’t understand why the Pattersons are portrayed as being so separated and not able to get along with other people. It is very confusing to me. It does not match my own experience.