My uncle Kelly who was Lois' younger brother married Eileen Dunsmore in the Fall of 1937 and he left the homeplace "without so much as a banty rooster" as he sometimes rather ruefully remarked. In December of the same year Lois Hearn married Gordon McEwan. Children followed quickly: Shirley Hearn and Betty Lou McEwan in 1938, Barry Hearn in 1939, Lois Ann McEwan and Donna Hearn in 1940. Bob McEwan in December of 1942 and Sheila Hearn in January of 1943. Linda Hearn and Terry McEwan, the babies in each family, followed later. In 1944 when the picture below was taken Lois' brother Kelly had joined the army. His wife Eileen was left alone with four young children. On occasion, she would come to Dicksons Corners to visit for several days. That meant 7 children and 3 adults in a tiny cottage, without running water or indoor plumbing. (Proof of that fact can be seen in the infamous two-holer outhouse in the background of the p
icture.) Of course, cooking was on a wood-fired kitchen range. Lois remembers that eating was in relays and that children slept crossways on the beds. Bathing those seven children was a challenge. My cousin Shirley recently remarked that she tried hard to be among the first group in the tub so that she could be there when the water was the cleanest! For over 60 years now these two families have been deeply interrelated. After Gordon and Lois left Dicksons to return to St. Marys, they bought Kelly's house, while Kelly and Eileen moved to a bigger house closer to the dairy but only a block away. Even then, the relationship was deeply intermeshed. Kelly stabled his milkwagon horse in the barn on the property which the McEwan's now owned. Because the barn had no water, Bob McEwan remembers that it was his chore to carry water out to the barn for his Uncle Kelly's horse. A boy who weighed less than 65 pounds, and large and sloppy bucket were not friends, as you may imagine! Later, Kelly and Eileen bought the huge Dan Wilson house next to the McEwans. That meant that the two families now shared a property line. So the relationshiop continued, but it is fair to say that the Hearns and the McEwans have different personalities and styles. This means that the relationship between the cousins has been somewhat elastic over the years. At times, during our adulthood we cousins pulled apart, but then, more recently as age and events have crept up on us, we have drawn back together, perhaps an unconscious salute to the commonality which we share.
My uncle Kelly who was Lois' younger brother married Eileen Dunsmore in the Fall of 1937 and he left the homeplace "without so much as a banty rooster" as he sometimes rather ruefully remarked. In December of the same year Lois Hearn married Gordon McEwan. Children followed quickly: Shirley Hearn and Betty Lou McEwan in 1938, Barry Hearn in 1939, Lois Ann McEwan and Donna Hearn in 1940. Bob McEwan in December of 1942 and Sheila Hearn in January of 1943. Linda Hearn and Terry McEwan, the babies in each family, followed later. In 1944 when the picture below was taken Lois' brother Kelly had joined the army. His wife Eileen was left alone with four young children. On occasion, she would come to Dicksons Corners to visit for several days. That meant 7 children and 3 adults in a tiny cottage, without running water or indoor plumbing. (Proof of that fact can be seen in the infamous two-holer outhouse in the background of the p
icture.) Of course, cooking was on a wood-fired kitchen range. Lois remembers that eating was in relays and that children slept crossways on the beds. Bathing those seven children was a challenge. My cousin Shirley recently remarked that she tried hard to be among the first group in the tub so that she could be there when the water was the cleanest! For over 60 years now these two families have been deeply interrelated. After Gordon and Lois left Dicksons to return to St. Marys, they bought Kelly's house, while Kelly and Eileen moved to a bigger house closer to the dairy but only a block away. Even then, the relationship was deeply intermeshed. Kelly stabled his milkwagon horse in the barn on the property which the McEwan's now owned. Because the barn had no water, Bob McEwan remembers that it was his chore to carry water out to the barn for his Uncle Kelly's horse. A boy who weighed less than 65 pounds, and large and sloppy bucket were not friends, as you may imagine! Later, Kelly and Eileen bought the huge Dan Wilson house next to the McEwans. That meant that the two families now shared a property line. So the relationshiop continued, but it is fair to say that the Hearns and the McEwans have different personalities and styles. This means that the relationship between the cousins has been somewhat elastic over the years. At times, during our adulthood we cousins pulled apart, but then, more recently as age and events have crept up on us, we have drawn back together, perhaps an unconscious salute to the commonality which we share.
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