Endnotes

1 Gabrielle Roy (1909–1983) was one of French Canada’s most prominent authors. Her first novel, Bonheur d’occasion, was published in 1945 and was translated into English as The Tin Flute, first by Hannah Josephson in 1947, then by Alan Brown in 1980.

2 Pendant que, written by legendary Quebec singer/songwriter Gilles Vigneault.

3 In this song, the French singer Renaud reminisces about his past, one of the features of which is a candy called “mistral gagnant”; some of the packages were marked “gagnant,” meaning that another package could be obtained free.

4 Toujours vivant was composed by Michel Rivard, with lyrics by Gerry Boulet.

5 Fool around; mess up; bother; flip flops; wuss; hooker.

6 Snow banks; slush; black ice; blowing snow.

7 Gabrielle Roy’s autobiographical novel Ces enfants de ma vie (1977) was translated by Alan Brown as Children of My Heart (McClelland and Stewart, 1979). This quote is taken from Brown’s translation. The original French reads as follows: “En repassant, comme il m’arrive souvent, ces temps-ci, par mes années de jeune institutrice, dans une école de garçons, en ville, je revis, toujours aussi chargé d’émotion, le matin de la rentrée. J’avais la classe des tout-petits.”

8 This is another reference to Pendant que, by Gilles Vigneault.