Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Apr 19/02) - About 70 years ago, two young girls became friends through the mail, but as the years went by they lost touch with each other.

Now one of those friends is trying to find the other.

Ten-year-old Ethel Golden (now 83-year-old Ethel Mitchell from near Salmon Arm, B.C.), and her sister would write to interesting people in the pen pal ads in the Winnipeg Free Press/Prairie Farmer.

"The winters were long, so we'd pass time by writing to these people who we saw in the paper," Mitchell, who lived in Saskatchewan at the time, recalled.

One day she wrote to a girl who lived near Arctic Red River. The two became friends and corresponded for over two years.

"Husky Dusky was her pen name, but I can't remember her real name."

Now a freelance writer, Mitchell thought it might make an interesting story to track down her childhood friend.

"I just thought it would be fun to find out if she still remembers me or if she was still living up there."

The two girls wrote back and forth sharing thoughts and dreams of growing up, but Mitchell recalls few details.

"I think she was a strong girl and that's how she picked the name," Mitchell said. "She was part Scottish and part Eskimo and I think her father was Scottish."

"All I remember is having to address the envelope, '20 miles north of Arctic Red River,'" Mitchell said. "That and the name Husky Dusky."

With the mail travelling via truck, plane and dog sled between Arctic Red and Maidstone, Sask. in those days, the pair had long waits between letters.

"It took a long time for letters to come and we lived about seven-and-a-half miles from town, so we couldn't get in to check the mail too often," she said. "We lived quite far north, so we'd have blizzards."

If anyone knows Husky Dusky, please call The Drum and we'll pass along Mitchell's phone number and address.