Joey

Joey was telling me about dog sleds and a team of sled dogs while he was filling up the jeep. A truck loaded with sleds and dogs had stopped at the gas station the day before. Pretty cool. It was a working dog sled - not for racing or show, and was headed up the highway to Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories. Some sort of expedition. The whole time that he was telling me about it, there was a woman standing nearby. She had been walking her dog. She kept making comments. I think that she had seen the truck. So there she stood, dressed like a fur ball while this tiny dog in a knit coat kept running out on one of those extension leash things - like it should have a reel. Somehow the contrast between this woman and her dog and trying to imagine the musher and his working dogs was too much and I had to keep apologizing to Joey because I was laughing inappropriately.

After he filled up the jeep we went inside and since there were no other customers I asked him about his time in the Yukon. Now it's important to understand that the gas station in Kitwanga is really the center of the community and Joey is the acting manager. In the past I'm told that the train station was the center of activity. But it was torn down a number of years ago. Then the curling rink was, but it is closed now. Has been for quite awhile. Blew a compressor according to one person. Now the center of things seems to be Dollops Gas Station. It was named Dollops by Eric Doll, the owner – operator, in a fit of wry humor. Eric is in Vancouver getting radiation treatment for prostate cancer and is reported to be doing very well. Meanwhile Joey is the de facto station manager and in addition to the duties of running a small business and being the only employee, he makes the coffee for the twice-daily gathering of local guys and provides some of the best one-liners to go with the coffee.

Joey (Kirsch) is 46, was born on Haida Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands) and "moved a lot." He lived in the Yukon for ten years and has never lived further south than Telkwa. Telkwa is just down the road from Smithers which is only about an hour south-east of Kitwanga. He has now lived 24 years in Kitwanga and worked a variety of jobs. Curiously, his first real job was when he was in the seventh grade - pumping gas at Dollops Gas Station. Two years ago he married Irene, who can be found keeping books at Terry's or working the cash register at the general store or straightening out accounts at Dollops.

Because of his central role in the community, Joey is also a great source of information. Some of it true. O.K., most of it. Joey is the one who recently told me about the cougar and wolf sightings around Kitwanga, and the fact that many of the local folks are concerned for their bite-sized pets.

One of the most important things about Joey is the fact that after some ten years of serious struggles with alcohol – the time in the Yukon was the worst - he quit and has now had 12 years of sobriety. This makes Joey one of those remarkable people that it’s an honor to know.

... Bob
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