The One That Didn't Open
by Ed Ogle

At Pangnirtung one Christmas when weather kept any plane from landing, the air force advised the RCMP family at Pang that their Christmas order would be dropped at the landing strip Christmas evening. Included in the 13 packets to be parachuted was one Christmas tree (there are no trees of any sort at Pang).

With the tree, it was felt there was no need for a parachute because the tree would naturally fall butt end or heavy end first anyhow.

On Christmas Eve (well, afternoon really, there being little difference because it would be another six weeks before the sun would light up anything other than the far distant horizon) at a few minutes after two, the big transport plane flew over Pang, coming as low as 500 feet to buzz the city. Everyone got out his dogs and or sleds and headed for the flat area that normally would serve as a airfield but was crisscrossed with ice chunks about the size of a good bungalow.

After a few passes to assess the situation, the parachutes started rolling out of the plane at about 1000 feet. The tree came first and just as expected it fell nicely, butt down, and hit flat on a piece of bare rook and every needle on the tree kept right on going.

The parachutes let the other stuff down gradually except for parachute number 13. No chute opened there and the package struck only a couple of hundred feet away with a crunching noise. "That", said the wife of the RCMP constable, "will be our cutlery, dishes and glasses".

She was 100% right.

Background Information

Have you ever experienced living in a very cut off area? What do you think it would be like to live where you would have to have supplies dropped by plane. What would be good about it? What would be bad? Also, think about a time for you when everything went wrong. How did you handle it?

Questions

1. Why couldn't any plane land at Pangnirtung?

2. Why do you think there are no trees at Pang?

3. What is a parachute?

4. How was the family supposed to get their supplies?

5. Why was the sun only lighting up the far distant horizon?

6. Why do you think that parachute number 13 didn't open?

7. Use the word horizon in a sentence.

8. How low did the transport plane go?

9. How did people get around in Pang?

10. Why was the flat area crisscrossed with ice chunks?

11. Where do you think Pang is located in Canada?