a Halloween scare

On Halloween night it was traditional that there would be a mascarade party in the Avonton Hall. For one of these parties in the early thirties Elizabeth Robertson, Lois' good friend, invited Lois to come to stay with the Robertsons and to attend the Avonton Party. After supper on that Halloween night, the two friends went upstairs to Elizabeth's bedroom on the second floor to put on their costumes and to prepare for the party. As they were dressing one of them looked up and started screaming for there, outside the bedroom window danging from a rope was a dead man, a cord tightly knotted around his neck, swagging limply in the wind. As could be expected the girls ran out of the room and generally reacted in exactly the way that Jean, Elizabeth's younger sister had hoped they would. For it was Jean who had created the hanged man using her father's clothes and a rope. It was Jean who had climbed up above her sister's bedroom and lowered the mannequin down outside bedroom window. While Lois can no longer remember what she wore to the masquerade party or who was at it, the image of the hanged man swaying outside the bedroom window remains as vividly clear as the night she saw him.

Wally Hern (pt. 3)

In previous blogs we have seen that Wally Hern, the first cousin of Lois' father was an excellent amateur athlete, a not-so-enthusiastic scholar, and a popular young man in Stratford. The picture on the left taken of Wally when he was on a road trip with his hockey colleagues to Humber Bay in 1908 shows that he was also a fashionable dresser. His overcoat is almost identical to the coat worn by the model on the right, and taken from an advertisement appearing in the Stratford Beacon in the same period. In the years leading up to the First War, Wally continued to play senior hockey with the Stratford Indians in the O.H.A , but by 1912 he was playing less and in 1913 he was no longer playing competitive hockey. In an emergency he filled in as a referee for the Indians' hockey games. Even though his name no longer appeared regularly on the sports page his name, continued to appear in the Beacon on a daily basis. In 1912 he was advertising a dyeing, cleaning, pressing and suit repair service but by 1913 he had moved two doors down on Downie Street and expanded his merchandise to include suits to order and trousers guaranteed to hold their shape and fit. This was likely a good time for Wally Hern and his career, long before the troubles that led to his losing his business. But that was in the future.

Visiting the Country Cousins

While the title of this piece may be accurate, its implication is misleading. Lois, on the left and Kelly on the right were not -- as it may appear -- rich kids from the city visiting their poorer country relatives. In fact, all three were country kids, and there was no way that Lois and Kelly Hearn were richer than Jack McMaster. The difference was that Lois and Kelly were dressed in their Sunday best because they were the visitors, while their cousin Jack McMaster was dressed as he normally would be on any regular day at home. The families were related through Mae Hearn's mother whose sister married a McMaster. The McMasters had a large family, most of whom were already adults by the time this picture was taken. It was only their youngest a boy named Jack who was close to Kelly in age. This picture with Wellburn as a backdrop was likely taken about 1926 when Lois was 12 and Kelly was 8. Their father Bob Hearn had a cream route which took him through the Wellburn area. It was arranged that he would drop Lois and Kelly off and the McMasters would pick them up and take them to their farm for some holidays. Lois remembers having lots of fun with the McMaster girls, who were obviously older, but who tried hard to entertain their younger cousins. On one occasion they played hide-and-seek and Lois can remember that one of the cousins -- likely Mary, but possibly Alice -- climbed up onto the roof of the house and hide behind a window shutter. No matter how diligently the rest searched, she was not to be found. The picture at the top was taken as Lois and Kelly waited in Wellburn for their father to pick them up. One can't help but wonder whose feet were more comfortable: Kelly's, in his too-big shoes or Jack's, in his Huck Finn barefootedness? Furthermore, in Kelly's expression there is the hint of a young boy who feels slightly silly in his wide-brimmed straw hat, and his woollen suit.

Thanksgiving 1938

Today is Thanksgiving Sunday 2009. Jessica and Carlos and I went to St. Marys to have a Thanksgiving dinner with Lois and her sister Roberta. Yesterday, October 12 is the 71st birthday of Lois's oldest child, Betty Lou. Lois remembers that Thanksgiving Day 71 years ago was a bright cool, day. As a teacher Gordon had Thanksgiving day off. In the afternoon they went for a walk over to the "other 50 acres" which was north across the road from the McEwan main farm. Lois remembers that they walked a long distance through the 50 acres and across to the side road leading to Sebringville. On the following day after coming home from school Gordon changed his clothes and went to the barn to help his father Jack. When he got to the barn his father said: "Go back to the house. I think Lois needs you more that we do." By the time he had returned to the house Lois said that she thought she needed to go to the hospital. They arrived at Stratford Hospital at about 6 p.m. and the baby was born about 8 p.m. the much loved first child of Gordon and Lois, the first grandchild of Jack and Beanie McEwan and the second grandchild of Bob Hearn. Here is a picture of the baby likely taken in front of the farm house on a pleasant spring day in 1939.

How To Get To The Dance?

It was Saturday night. Lois was at Helen Laing's place. They were teenagers. There was a dance at Lakeside. Neither of them had dates, but they wanted desperately to attend the dance. Helen's younger sister Marie was going with her date Ken Rea. Lois and Helen came up with a plan and Marie agreed: When Ken Rae knocked on the front door to collect Marie, Lois and Helen were to run out the back door, get into the back seat of the car and crouch down so that Ken could not see them. If they could get to the dance, maybe they could get a ride home, and Ken would never know. The plan worked perfectly, Ken knocked at the door, Lois and Helen scurried around from the back of the house, crouched down in the back seat, determined to stay quiet, but the question was: How long would that last? The                 plan progressed, Rae and Marie came out of the house, got into the car, Ken turned on the motor, pulled out of the drive and headed toward Lakeside. Helen and Lois crouching in the back hid their mirth, while the conversation of Ken and Marie, young people on a date, continued in the front seat without Ken realizing that every word was being overheard. Then, unexpectedly, Ken turned east when he should have turned south if he was going to Lakeside. Marie asked "why?" and when he replied that the had agreed to pick up another couple, the Helen and Lois knew that the game was up, and all that bottled up tension burst out in what Lois describes as "snorting" hilarity. The girls offered to be taken home but Ken, a generous man, said that all six of them could all go together to the dance. Lois remembers that they got to the dance, had a great time, and even managed to find a ride home so that Ken and Marie could be on their own. (The two pictures - one of rather poor quality -- which accompany this blog are taken from the collection of the St. Marys Museum and represent what the pavilion may have looked like on the evening in which Lois and Helen hitched their ride with Ken Rae.)