Pretty Catty part three by John Fisher 1949

 LIKE A BALLET DANCER

That serves to introduce a former Maritimer Bob Matchett .  They say he is a “Pretty Catty”. He only weighs 160 pounds, but, if you could see him jumping  like a ballet dancer up there at Lake Helen at the mouth of the Nipigon River you’d see why he is “Catty” and strong a little bull. Lake Helen is a long way from Thunder Bay mill where I tried to see the Sleeping Giant … but, it’d that distance that gives colour to our story of being “Pretty Catty”. The Abitibi men of Thunder Bay use the familiar boom to move their logs.  A boom is a great enclosure made by chaining giant boomlogs together. Just like freight cars are coupled together.   The wood floats within this great frame of linked big timber….  The book is towed by a boat…. A boom is really a huge catwalk which bobs behind the boat …just like a cat that’s afraid of  getting wet… just like a cat… as sure footed, as agile,  with the miraculous control of muscle,  Bob Matchett came to this tremendous Superior country looking for work  in 1937.  Today, he is foreman down at Lake Helen.  Quick on their feet these men, and they do their job  just as quietly and as unobtrusively as the  famous Black Cat in the black room.  They are partners in the People’s Paper.

If you ever have the occasion to fly over Lake Superior in the summer, you can look down and see these floating giant golden islands of logs or rafts towed by tubby chubby tugs.

Continued in part four  Guts and Grace