Time for a new challeng

Chris Clegg
South Peace News

Years ago I was reading a Canadian Geographic magazine. I came across their small Christmas catalogue and began reading. It was a mistake. As a child, I always enjoyed looking at maps. I still do today. In this magazine was a giant jigsaw puzzle for sale. A whopping 18,240 pieces making it the world’s largest jigsaw puzzle for sale. It was comprised of four maps. I had to have it! What a challenge to complete this monster! It combined my passion for maps with puzzle building. Plus, it would look great in my recently-purchased home. I bought it for under $200. It took me nine months to complete it. Every piece. A friend once put a single piece in but I removed it, then replaced it just so I knew I put in every single piece. As a sidebar, a photo was published in the Edmonton Sun a few years ago. This man completed the puzzle except for one piece, which his dog ate! He must not have read the box, which clearly indicates you can contact the company and they will send you any missing piece. Anyway, to finish and preserve it, I tested two types of puzzle fixative on three different puzzles before I finally got it right. I had to use 17 bottles of fixative on this puzzle. The fixative actually cost almost as much as the puzzle. Thanks to Jim Connell, who suggested I use linoleum glue to paste the puzzle to its foundation. White glue just doesn’t work. Not a single piece of this puzzle will ever budge from its current position. I swore at that time I would never again complete a similar puzzle. Enough was enough. I would spend hours at a time working on this masterpiece. Twice, I had to quit working for a week because my eyes were getting sore, a sure sign of old age. But the winds of change are blowing. Three weeks ago I was surfing the Internet. I was shocked. A company came along and decided to make a bigger puzzle. Twenty-four thousand pieces. Over 5,000 more pieces than mine! I no longer have the world’s largest puzzle on the wall in my basement. I am somewhat depressed but it wasn’t totally unexpected. Since then, however, the puzzle bug has bit me again. To buy or not to buy. The first puzzle I completed was about six feet high and nine feet wide or just over 54 square feet in area. This one is a whopping five feet tall and 14 feet wide or over 70 square feet! It depicts life from the oceans to the sky. Now I know what Mom can get me for Christmas! Perhaps! Everyone should have a hobby, not that jigsaw puzzles building is mine. In fact, after this giant was completed I didn’t do another one until last Christmas at my mother’s and those were puny 500-piece puzzles. A measly few hours of work. The puzzle I have completed is a beautiful work of art and educational. It depicts old maps from the 1700s and 1800s. Until I completed it, I didn’t know Hudson’s Bay was formerly Button’s Bay. I’m the first to admit it doesn’t belong in a house. Rather, it should be in the High Prairie and District Museum or the High Prairie Municipal Library as an educational tool and showpiece. Perhaps it will eventually, but for now I’m holding on to it.

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