PFRO ML/0001
Open fileThe Family That Thanked the Lake Wrong
- Region
- The Interior
- Series
- Marrow Lake Historical Society deposit
- Classification
- Correspondence, General
- Document date
- c. 1961
- Received from
- Marrow Lake Historical Society (duplicate deposit)
- Location
- Field sheet ML-2, sq. 7 (approx.)
- Opened to reading room
Incident summary
A four-page letter, unanswered as far as the record shows, from a woman at Marrow Lake to a former neighbour who had moved away. It describes the year the household's autumn custom of "thanking" the lake before freeze-up was carried out by someone other than the man who always did it. The writer reports a late knock at the kitchen door after the ice would bear weight, which the household did not answer, and two things found in the morning. She asks a single question and wants an answer before the ice thickens. The envelope carries no return address. The postmark cannot be read.
Correspondent's statement (excerpt)
I said what I thought was close enough. It felt close enough.
Three nights later, somebody knocked at the kitchen door. Late. Past when anybody
answers. I didn't answer. In the morning, there was a mark scratched into the wood.
About the height of a man's knuckles. Not deep. Almost polite about it.
Is there a way to say it right, the time?
Writer of the letter, name on file
Artifacts
MLHS Deposit SlipArt. 1
Item0001
FormatLetter, four pages, handwritten
Found inBox: Correspondence, General
Return addressNone
PostmarkSmudged, illegible
Reply recoveredNo
DUPLICATERECEIVED
PFRO Index CardArt. 2
Form 11-B filedNo
Copy held because
Related customThanking (autumn, before freeze-up)
Door mark photographedNot attempted
Household entry, parish register: see .
NOT OTHERWISE CLASSIFIED
Related media
- BroadcastWatch on YouTube
- AudioThe Small Hours podcast: Apple Podcasts · RSS feed
Other files, The Interior
- PFRO ML/0002 The Bell Has Not Cracked Since
- PFRO ML/0003 Eleven Seconds of Dead Air (pending)
- PFRO ML/0004 Still Warm to the Touch (pending)
- PFRO ML/0005 Four Messages for Enid (pending)