Transcript
Speaker: Welcome back to Tales from the French and Indian War. I'm your host, Jackson. And I'm your co-host, Matt. Yes, this is Matt, who has been the co-host this entire time for a year and a half.
Speaker: Nothing has changed. This is my real voice. I am Matt. I love Ohio State and my cats. Very convincing. If you know Matt, you you know that's him to a T. Ohio State and cats.
Speaker: No, clearly Matt is not joining us today. We've had some scheduling conflicts October, but we still wanted to get some kind of episode out so we can stick to our two episode a month goal this year.
Speaker: So similar to April Fools, and we did a little episode regarding ah a French and Indian War era story with that kind of element. Today, you know, we're going to be releasing this on Halloween, so we have found a spooky story.
Speaker: roughly in the in the period that we're excited to share. And so Matt couldn't make it, so I invited my lovely wife, Emily, who will be taking the role of Matt. And we'll just call her Emily from now on instead instead of Matt. I think the charade's up.
Speaker: Yes, hello. Thank you for having me on the podcast. Emily is the show's biggest fan, and she's listened to every episode. Only a few behind. Just a few.
Speaker: But before we get into the ghost story, the spooky story, I've got a few questions for her I thought would be fun. You know, this will be a special episode. It's outside of our normal programming.
Speaker: with the you know With the special episodes, we get a little looser, know shorter, a little more offbeat. So if this is your first episode you're listening to, it won't it won't be like this all the time. But if you love this kind of episode, then I'm sorry because it won't be like this every time.
Speaker: So we'll try do it to do our best for old and new fans alike for a fun little episode here. Now, before we get into the story, I have a few questions for Emily.
Speaker: First one was, what was it like seeing your husband slowly and suddenly, well, suddenly at first, and then continuously become obsessed with the French and Indian War?
Speaker: I guess it wasn't that crazy because you've liked history for as long as I've known you. So getting into local history was not that crazy. But there was a day where I was like, wow, he's really into this, which it was a couple years ago.
Speaker: um It was a Saturday morning. this was before we had our daughter, so I was sleeping in on a Saturday morning. It's been a while.
Speaker: um And I had just woken up, Jackson had been up a little bit before me. i was still laying in our bed and he came into the bedroom and he said, Emily, I'm going to Logstown.
Speaker: and I said, what? Okay, have fun. And he went to Logstown, which if you want to go to Logstown, perhaps reconsider. It is unfortunately just a plaque. Don't come in from out of town for it. You did an episode on that, didn't you? Were you there? I did go back there and I recorded a short little ah segment in one of our very first episodes. So if you've listened from the beginning, that might jog a few bells. Ring a few bells? Jog your memory? Jog a few bells.
Speaker: But yeah, it's it's just a plaque on a boulder, which is very sad. And I hope one day... One day they'll do something with that site, preserve it, or reconstruct, reinterpret. and kind of It's on like an industrial.
Speaker: It's on like an industrial. On one side of the street, it's a neighborhood. and On the other side, it's yeah some kind of, I don't know don't know if it's construction company. It's just like land in limbo. I don't know. No, I think it's nice. I think it's a good hobby. It gets you out and around the area. You went to Fort Necessity. You can't.
Speaker: He went to Ligonier. Did you do anything for the podcast for that? Or did you just go there? No. Oh, that was when was having phone troubles. So I didn't even take a picture, let alone like record anything. That was like last year. That around your birthday. Yeah.
Speaker: Wow. Yeah, so, no, I think it's great. um You're not as bad as my dad when you learn a fact about history or read a book about salt. With my dad, we don't hear the end of it for months. so I try to keep my enthusiasm for the topic in a reasonable level with...
Speaker: people other than Matt. So I'm glad that's working. All right. Next question. Can you name five significant figures of the French and Indian War?
Speaker: Five. I'm really qualified to be co-hosting this podcast. Okay. Well, George Washington. There's one. That's an easy one. Oh my God. The guy, one of the guys you're related to. He he did the run.
Speaker: the name of the town's near here.
Speaker: be Anyone else? Oh, that one. I've got to come back to that. Think about places around Pittsburgh. Think about the name Pittsburgh. It's William Pitt. That's right. He's a huge figure. A few episodes back, we did a whole episode on him and his work. I'm so No, this is it's great Okay.
Speaker: George Washington, William Pitt, Duquesne, Yeah, yep. Just before the war, he was the one who ordered the construction of forts into the Ohio country. Think of the native thinko not crazy words where we looked at a house very briefly.
Speaker: Well, they know I live near Pittsburgh. it was a little too in dust because too pollution. Yeah. um mannaka Yeah, so Manakitutha, also known as Skarawadi, was a Native of American actor in this time period. And that was the one is... We'll that's four. If you can get one more. The guy who got shot at the start of the war, that's driving me crazy that I can't think of the name. There's a whole Glen named after him.
Speaker: It's where they do that retreat. Yeah, there's a camp there. Five, four, give me the first letter J. Yes, Jumenville. God, that's five significant figures during the French meeting. You got them. All right.
Speaker: And last question is, just since you have lived your whole life in western Pennsylvania and a lot of this podcast has gone over events in western Pennsylvania, what are some of your favorite things about growing up and living here?
Speaker: Some of my favorite things. um I feel like you encapsulate it when we're deciding, when the Steelers aren't playing and we're trying to get to team your root for it. You just, you gotta root for the Rust Belt.
Speaker: um I don't know. I think Pittsburgh in particular, it's like, I hear sometimes about how the internet kind of kills like local culture because we're all just starting to like talk like influencers and like talk like each other more. And I feel like Pittsburgh still just has so much like unique character. Not that other places don't have unique character or unique history, but I feel like Pittsburgh is just such a proud, unique history with our own little accent and little language. um I think that is for sure part of it. And, you know, I think it's easy to think of Pittsburgh as just this rusty,
Speaker: dirty downtrodden place, which depending on the area is true. can be true. um But I think it also has a lot to offer and like people who've never been here probably don't realize that and they should continue to not realize that so that we can keep affording a house. um um But no, I think that's it. Like I,
Speaker: was thinking about this today, like my fourth grade teacher really tried to make us be proud of being from Pittsburgh. And he would always say, like, if anyone tells you Pittsburgh is dirty, they're very uneducated. This is a very clean place now, which Um, that's sometimes still to me with the air quality. Nothing can be worse than around 1900 when just soot rained from the skies 24 seven. The rivers were catching on fire then. It's absolutely better. It's absolutely better. It could be a lot worse. It's amazing. Neither one of my grandparents like have lung cancer. Like if I worked at a steel mill for decades.
Speaker: Um, but yeah, and so i think that just the local culture and the the pride for the history, although Not much pride for the French-Indian War history here. I think I've learned the most of it from you. That's not what people... Not in the school systems.
Speaker: Not really. No. That's really not what people talk about here. Like, we did Pennsylvania history, but that didn't really come up. Not that I remember. What a shame. Pennsylvania was so central to this entire war. We kind of talked about it from the beginning, from the end, all throughout the middle.
Speaker: right. Well, thank you for answering those questions. Let's ah get in. to our story. Now, I have picked a French-Canadian tale. Now, it was written down, the one I'll be referring to, in the 1800s, but, you know, the seeds of the story or basic forms of it would have been told and developing throughout the 1700s, so I still feel it's appropriate to bring up for a for the podcast and for this time period.
Speaker: It's a classic French-Canadian folk tale, spooky story. I think if you're going to learn or hear any of them, this is going to be one of like the top three you'll hear. So it's good for some cultural awareness here. I feel like Maybe it's similar in terms of like The Headless Horseman. like That's an early American spooky story that a lot of people are very familiar with, even if they haven't read it or not in many, many years.
Speaker: I feel like this one may occupy a similar place in the French-Canadian cultural mind. ah Could be over-speaking there, but it's a good one. So this story is called Chasse Galerie.
Speaker: which doesn't I don't think has a great direct translation, but we can we can think of it in English as like, the flying canoe or the devil's canoe or something like that. So Emily, are you ready to hear casual retelling of this spooky story? I don't know. I going able to sleep tonight? Yeah, it's not that bad. The stuff they make nowadays are way scarier than but these kind of things. Before we begin, if anyone has not seen The Visit, it's a 10-year-old movie, but you should watch The Visit.
Speaker: spoilers for the 10-year-old movie. Just saw it for the first time. No, it should not be as bad as creepy grandmothers crawling around. Remind us of our cat in bed. So the story takes place. The events open in the remote wilds of Canada.
Speaker: Now, Canada today still has lots and lots of remote wilderness, but in the early 1800s or perhaps 1700s, as maybe the origins of this story might be from, it was even more remote.
Speaker: So this is taking place north of Gatineau. Gatineau is right across the river from Ottawa, the capital. But even Ottawa is kind of out there a bit. Like even today, if you look on the map north of Ottawa along the Gatineau River, it's pretty remote still. So you can imagine 200 years maybe even 250 years ago,
Speaker: how much more remote it's going to be. it's For our listeners, we talk about the pays d'en eau, the common term for like the upper Great Lakes, the remote wilderness in that area of North America.
Speaker: So this tale is set pretty much in that same area. Yes. In the dead of winter, too. Oh, no. The sunlight's not around for very long. Oh, my God.
Speaker: Yeah, clocks are changing. You know, like electricity, you really got to think. It must have been like... Yeah. I don't know how many hours a day like they would have had a day. Not much. Yes, that far north too.
Speaker: Yeah. that's No wonder they're seeing flying canoes. Yeah. Long, long nights. ah So it's taking place with a logging camp way up north in Canada.
Speaker: So these workers, they would go out. It would take weeks and weeks, potentially even months to get out to these work sites. They would work for months. And then I believe they would... often float the logs back down the river in in the warmer months. But either way, it's the dead of winter. It's New Year's Eve, as a matter of fact.
Speaker: And these workers are stuck out in the middle of nowhere on their camp right before the biggest holiday of the year. Because New Year's Eve was actually bigger than Christmas in French-Canadian culture. I don't know if it still is. It might still be. But I know at least... ah You know why?
Speaker: I... Don't know why. That's a good question. I feel like I heard about it years ago in a YouTube video or something. But there's a lot of songs about le jour d'allon, you know, New Year's Day. And it's referred to a lot. And then this story takes place on the eve of New Year's Day.
Speaker: Oh, so the eve of New Year's Day. Oh, yeah. Sorry. New Year's Eve. Wait. Because New Year's Day would be January 1st. Okay, so the 31st. Yes. I just phrased that off. A different 31st. Yes. Ooh.
Speaker: So our main character is Joe, Joseph. He is a kind of a young worker on this site. And you know everyone's a little bit, you know, they're they're drinking, they're you know celebrating. They're a little sad because they're very far away from their homes, their loved ones. you know Joe has a girl he's sweet on back in Lavaltrie, which is a town just east of Montreal down the St. Lawrence River.
Speaker: But in the dead of winter, there's no trails going back. The rivers, if they're not frozen, then you know it's still an extremely deadly experience trying to navigate that.
Speaker: So there's absolutely no chance it would take months to get back. Probably two months, the account says. as I thought my commute was bad. Yeah. No, and I looked at today from like a little north of Gatineau to La Valtrie. By car today, it's two and a half hours.
Speaker: Wow. So not not far today, but back then, 200 years ago, these distances, especially with how unsafe or the lack of roads, just impossible to overcome. So...
Speaker: Joseph, Joe, he's a little sad that he can't, you know, so far away from home. But one of the older workers, by the name of Baptiste, comes up to him, kind of an ah i i ah an ironic name, considering what he's about to offer Joe. But he asks Joe if he wants to swing by Lavaterie and then be back for work in the morning.
Speaker: And, of course, Joe is like, ah it would take us two months. The snow is like... 10 feet high right now and that there's no road. Like, what are you talking You've been drinking too much.
Speaker: But Baptiste says, no, no, no. I've done this several times. All you got to do is just make a little deal with the devil and we can get there. I've done it several times, me and the boys. Yeah.
Speaker: So at first, Joe is not interested, but eventually with enough convincing and then thinking about, you know, the girl he's sweet on. Her name was Lisa Gambette back at La Vautrie. Would you make a deal with the devil to come visit me on New Year's Eve?
Speaker: No. I wouldn't mess around with that stuff. um And we'll see if Joe will live to regret this, but he's he's still wavering, but you know they have seven men, they need even amounts to man this canoe that they're going to take.
Speaker: And he's like, what do you mean the canoe? Well, it's going to fly as part of this pact. The devil like even numbers? I guess something about manning the canoe while it's flying requires you know people on both sides, just like a normal canoe, you want even numbers. um nude I think I did way His family had that canoe race you always talk about, but... Oh, yeah. You didn't know me then.
Speaker: No, unfortunately, no. That was fun. But, um so they got seven people, and they're all itching to get back. They've done this route before. They've said the oath, and Joe, he just kind of finds himself in the canoe. They've got their eight, and then before he knows it, they have everyone repeat the pact, which has two rules.
Speaker: So according to this pact with the devil, the devil will give them the the ability of this magic flying canoe, which can, you know, basically like a plane, it can move very, very fast across ah these impassable winter distances.
Speaker: Can I guess the two rules? go ahead. Guess the two rules. Rule number one, do not talk about canoe club.
Speaker: Rule number two is I need your firstborn. You're a little bit closer on the second one. So the two rules are you cannot mention or say the name of God and you cannot touch a cross.
Speaker: As long as you don't do those two things, the devil will grant you this power to fly across the skies and then you can get you can hang out at the New Year's party with your with your friends and loved ones and then come back via the same route in time for work the next day before anyone's the wiser.
Speaker: And with that, with everyone repeating those words, they shout, acabri acabra arabram which I can only assume is their form of abracadabra, alakazam, kind of parallels that.
Speaker: And then the line, make us fly above the mountains. make us fly above the mountains And with that, the canoe instantly lurches into the air.
Speaker: Baptiste, who has done this before, he's the main navigator, you know, directing the rowers as however that would work where you're rowing in the air. I don't know. just' fair for sure. It kind of sucks. The devil's like,
Speaker: Making them still labor to... Well, he's never going to give you a good deal. I guess that's fair. But they're they're moving quickly, way up in the air.
Speaker: Quickly, they can you can see the the river beneath them. the The moon is shining very bright. And before they know it, they are approaching the city lights of Montreal. They can use that to guide them along the St. Lawrence River. They know where to turn and follow it.
Speaker: And then they come down and touch down... at laout sleep They quickly find where all of their friends are hanging out. You know, there's house parties going on all throughout the night. It's New Year's, a New Year's Eve, going to New Year's Day.
Speaker: They find the party. Everyone is delighted and surprised to see them. And they're just like, out I thought you were out the middle of nowhere. Cutting the wood. What the heck? And, ah you know, Baptiste told everyone, like, you know, we've got to be in.
Speaker: Don't. Don't tell anything. What do you think they said? So, actually, I think I could find it. There's a couple... What excuse were they making? Yeah, let's see if I can find... So, there's, ah you know, when they arrive, everyone's asking them, like, where'd you come from? i thought you were in the, you know, the workshop, the the logging fields. Oh, you're very late. And then, come have a glass. So, I think it was... Everyone's just wrong Everyone's drunk and just like, oh, what a what a nice she surprise. Come on, party. Okay, so no one questioned it. Yeah.
Speaker: So Baptiste, you know, the kind of the ringleader of this whole this whole trip, he's like, all right, you know, come in here, dance, hang out with our friends. Don't touch a drink because we got to have our wits about us. You know, if we want make it back, we don't want accidentally say the name of God. you drive drunk? No, you can't.
Speaker: need a thing up in the air. They don't want get a DUI on their feedback. Or plummet hundreds of feet to their death in the icy winter. and the As long as you avoid the ticket. Yeah, I mean, the fine's got to be worse. yeah So Baptiste is saying, you know, keep your wits about you.
Speaker: hang out dance, don't talk about how we got here. And then, you know, around four o'clock in the morning or so, we gotta start filing out, get back to the canoe and we'll make it back in time for, you know, when the next shift at work wakes up and they'll be wondering why we're going and everything.
Speaker: So everyone starts enjoying themselves. Joe is, you know, having a ball with his his blonde, his girl of interest.
Speaker: ah And then, you know, time passes. Joe starts to look over at Baptiste. He thinks like, oh, is he? He thinks, oh my God. as long as he doesn't say it. ah He thinks he sees him like, go and get some drinks. And he's like, uh-oh.
Speaker: But then he you know he gets pulled back into another dance. There's a a rival suitor kind of interested in his girl, someone who isn't traveling for months out of the year to work in these remote fields. So he's just, he's like, no, got to focus on my girl.
Speaker: So they dance, they're fun. He has a great time. But then, as it's you know starting to be time to leave, the people are he's gathering the people. They're filing out, you know Irish exiting.
Speaker: Just kind of slipping out. Your fave. in the In the past. I've overcome that, mostly. most Somewhat. um But then they notice, like where's Baptiste? Where's Baptiste?
Speaker: And they find him, and he is just drunk. He is drunk. praying you clicking crosses go no not yet so he is in no capacity to navigate and you know he's the one who knows the way the landmarks he's the know one who knows when they have to make a turn but he is in no condition and they're trying to get him back in the canoe so that they can leave and make it back in time but because he's drunk he's just like i'm gonna i'm gonna keep partying i'm gonna keep drinking you know i screw you guys
Speaker: But, you know, they need to get going. Time is running out. So what they end up doing, because he is just obstinate, he's not going to go back in the canoe. They basically tackle him and tie him up.
Speaker: ah And, you know, starting to curse. And Emily, what do you know about French Canadian curses? They're like all related to Catholicism. Like all related Catholicism. Oh God. They're all religious terms for the most part, you know, like tabernacle, chalice, host, like all these kinds of things are used as often as used as swear words and in Canadian French.
Speaker: So they're like, oh no, any moment now he could just say like, oh my God, or know, whatever. So they can basically like gag him essentially and tie him up and shove him in the canoe and they take off. And now it's Joe's turn to try to navigate.
Speaker: Of the moon, you know, there's some clouds coming now, so it's not as bright and picturesque as it was when they took off into the airs originally. And then he's just, you know, they're having a tough time. They end up flying just feet, mere feet away from the cross on top of a church in Montreal on top of the mountain. Super close call there.
Speaker: They eventually, you know, stabilize. They make their way back north along the Ottawa River. And then they're getting close, getting close. But Baptiste, he works ah works out his gag.
Speaker: ah And he starts cussing up with storm again. And, like, picking up one of the oars and waving it around, trying to like, hit people. I feel like we're all what
Speaker: And he's just the frat guy, college. You're just like, oh. Two rules, Baptiste. You're the one. This your idea, Baptiste. You were the who said don't drink. Yeah. ah So eventually, as Baptiste is kind of going crazy, swinging the oar around, they lose control of the flight. And they just as they're approaching the camp, they crash down into the woods. They hit like a tree. They're all like thrown That's kind of so yes So they just barely manage to to avoid either saying the name of God or touching a cross, and they they kind of all sprawl into the deep snow.
Speaker: No one's hurt, just some injuries. No one's hurt, just some injuries. No one's dead, but just some injuries. Good catch.
Speaker: No one's hurt, they just got hurt. They're just like really hurt. And the were they you know like kind of all pass out, lose consciousness. And the workers of the next shift wake up and they see them out there.
Speaker: And they're just like, oh, you guys snuck off. and We're just getting wasted. And so just barely, just barely, they make it back. But that scares Joe straight. He takes God. He takes religion seriously at that point. He never runs the Chasse Galerie again. He's the one narrating the story. Oh, so there's really not many consequences. Yeah. so there's variations of this story. And another variation has you know, sometimes the terms differ usually, you know, so, sometimes it might be the same or it might be like you're not allowed to like kiss one of your ladies back home or you know you can't get too cozy whatever but there are some variations where they do fail and then they are condemned so one of the the tales is that every new year's eve you can spot this flying canoe in the skies as they're eternally like doomed to wander above looking down at all their loved ones and then all the generations that come by.
Speaker: There's a good a song version of that that ending called, i think it's just called La Chasse Galerie by the French Canadian group La Bottine Souriente, The Smiling Boot.
Speaker: I like them a lot. They mix up aye traditional French instruments and tails with more modern renditions. Very fun, but And their version that, you know, that ends up happening to them. So in this one, you know, it's a happy ending.
Speaker: They make a deal with the devil, but they just barely skirt by and they don't deal with the consequences. But other versions do have them eternally wandering the skies. I always kind of thought deals with the devil were like,
Speaker: casino rules like house always wins often yes but every once while get a story where someone outwits the devil or they just get really lucky like in this one your leader gets politically drunk yes uh yeah so i can that is the tale of la chasse gallery emily do you think We should, every New Year's Eve, should we tell this legend to our children and say, oh, look in the sky, is that the Shaskara? I'm actually just thinking that. i think it would be fun. We make it a New Year's Eve tradition to go and hunt for Shaskara. See if you can spot it in in the sky.
Speaker: But yeah, that's ah that's all we've got today. No, listeners, this was a bit different than normal, but and know I had a lot of fun, so I hope you guys had fun on this more laid-back and casual episode to an already fairly laid-back podcast. I think you've got to send us off with your best monster mash, the dance. Okay, I'm dancing right now. It's a really good monster mash.
Speaker: okay Happy Halloween, everyone. Happy Halloween. And we'll be back very soon. Matt and I should be recording in two days. Getting back into the thick of 1758. Either way, within a week or two, you should expect another full episode. Thanks for being patient.
Speaker: Appreciate you guys listening. And we'll see you next time.
