“With thirteen siblings, it was not every day that I had a few precious moments alone with my father. This time was to be savoured. I had to mind my outlandish tongue. My father hated us acting silly. He wanted serious children.”
Patently, parenting would be tasking for a man who has thirteen children. It would be problematic for Velma’s father to spend identical time with all his children in view of the nature of his profession. Velma is fortunate to have exclusive time with her father by herself.
“As we rode back to the village, I would look back at him occasionally. His cap with the little white ribbon on the front tilted back slightly as he placidly chewed his snuff. His prematurely gray hair was trimmed into a crew cut. He was a hefty man of five-foot-six, and although I did not know it until much later, he had been a handsome man in his youth.”
Wallis’ father’s aging is manifest in the gray hair. As a result of the maturity, his charm dwindles. Old age denigrates his freshness eventually; hence, the images of youth and current form are contradictory.
“As children we called Grandmother Martha “Itchoo.” The Gwich’ in word is actually pronounced “Sitchoo,” but we Wallis children were never able to speak our language properly, so we addressed our grandmother as “Itchoo.”
The children’s incapability to communicate eloquently in the Native language is credited to Whites’ influence. Unlike the older generation, the Wallis kids conform to the White culture to the degree that they cannot utter elementary words in the Native dialect.
