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.)

The Hern Cousins: Wally (pt. 2)

In the previous blog I introduced Wally Hern, the first cousin of Lois' father Bob. Wally was an excellent athlete who, as a member of the Stratford hockey teams, won three provincial championships: junior in 1900, intermediate in 1904 and senior in 1907. As such, he was one of only two people who could claim to have earned the "triple crown". In this photo of the Hern family, Wally is the young man with the straw hat standing next to his mother.


Wally appears prominently in stories told by Wally's nephew George Johnston. The reminiscences which began in the previous blog, now continue:

Margaret and her family visit the Herns in Stratford

"After two or three nights with Benson's folk [i.e., Margaret's in laws] on Nile Street we migrated to Water Street to be with Myrtle and Wally and their young. Life brightened up for us all. The bond of sisterly affection between Margaret and Myrtle was strong and remained so throughout their lives. Benson [Margaret's husband] and Wally were not compatible in the same way, but they were both young and as yet not burdened with the varieties of seriousness that awaited them. Both had loud laughs and gave them much exercise while they were together.

A child dies

Myrt had her woman's glory cropped and became a new person. All agreed that she looked younger and prettier. She had also been fetched by the alteration out of a winter of grieving for a daughter, Ruth, who had been born sickly and died after the first two months of her life. Spring came, and one fine day she took the notion, walked down town and had it done.

Wally's business fails.

Myrtle and Wally moved to Toronto with their daughters Margaret and Edith and son Walter. Wally's haberdashery business in Stratford failed, as Aunt Jen had foretold from reading his tea cup. Someone is taking money from your till she said. Her reading proved true. An important cause of his business failure was considered to have been the dishonesty of his one clerk, who seems to have got away with considerable money without being caught at it. So the story went at any rate.

The Hern's new home on Castlefield Avenue in north Toronto, a pleasant walk away from us on Eastbourne Avenue, through Pears' Park. Margaret and Myrtle rejoiced in the propinquity the move had brought them.

Wally tries being a Life Insurance Salesman

"Wally, impressed by his [brother-in-law] Benson's success, thought Life Insurance salesman would be right for him too, and Benson did not discourage him. The Sun Life was persuaded to take him on and train him. He made one small sale and then, after a long while, another. The sociability of contacting prospects gave him much pleasure, he could while away hours chewing the fat with almost anyone, but aside from that he was no salesman. Neither did he have the necessary convictions about life insurance. Finally, he gave up trying to be a salesman."

"Times were becoming depressed. After he was let out of Sun Life there seemed to be no other employment for Wally in Toronto. He settled down, uncomplaining, to reading the newspapers, for the positions vacant ads, he said, and rolling cigarettes for himself, and others who wanted them in the household, on an apparatus he had bought. Myrtle took in a boarder or two. Then Margaret and Edith began working and contributing money for their keep. They were loyal children to both parents, and seemed to accept that Wally should not contemplate employment beneath the dignity of an ex-mayor of Stratford, who had also, in other respects, been one of its prominent citizens."

Wally finds work in England.

George Johnston's stories continue: "In October '36 Walter Hern found employment again. He was brought to London, England, as referee for ice hockey, a newly popular spectator sport there. It seemed a gift for him. He set himself up in a comfortable flat in St. John's Wood and invited me to use it sometimes as a warm location for my labours with the pen. I went one evening when he was at a practice, but found it so warm I could not stay awake." .... "Uncle Wally, or U. Wally as we knew him among ourselves invited [me] to a hockey game at which he was officiating. He urged me to make use of his flat again, and I gave it another try, with no better success."

Wally gets hit by a bus

"On this second occasion, having dozed off as before, I was roused by the phone at abut eleven p.m., and a man's voice asked me in a London accent, if I knew one Walter Hern. I said I did. Well, don't be alarmed, sir, the voice said patiently. Your mite's been it by a bus. The calmness of the voice alarmed me from the first, but I was sufficiently alert to ask for more information. Walter Hern is in the Outpatients' at St. Mary's Ospital, the voice told me. Being attended to. It game me directions for getting there, and I followed them at once. The Outpatients' Clinic was dimly lit by a gas jet. Behind a desk in an alcove that was somewhat more brightly lit, sat a mildly authoritative-looking young woman in a white smock. A row of men and women, middle-age to elderly, all with unhappy expressions on their faces, were partly visible in the gloom, seated on a bench next to a wall, some with bandaging on a hand or foot or forehead. When they heard me tell the lady at the desk that I should like to know about Walter Hern they looked unhappier than ever. Ow, e did look orful! they all agreed. I joined them on the bench. After a while the desk lady gave me a sign and I stood up. A door opened, a wheeled stretcher came through it and across the waiting room to another door and on it was U. Wally, covered by a sheet except for his head, over one corner of which was a neat bandage. Hoo! hoo! hoo! he was saying through a tube stuck in his mouth, and he stunk of anaesthetic. For the week and half that he was in hospital I visited him regularly, and then I arranged a room for him at Thirty Doughty Street, rooming house and of the Admirable Mrs. Crichton, as we called her" .... "U. Wally got tea and toast for himself in his room and then came to our flat in Lamb's Conduit Street and spent much of each morning sitting by our coal grate, burning our coal, as we never did during the day, and reading our copy of The London Times. He would stay for lunch and then go the the Strand Palace Hotel and write letters home on their stationery. If a flunky eyed him he would say to himself, I don't have to care for you, you're nothing but a shit! or so he told us, at any rate." My roommates' "patience with all this must be considered supererogative, though they did find him and his ways somewhat entertaining, if unintentionally so. He would tell us about his sightseeing in London, how impressed he was by the Albert Memorial, for example. We were not to miss it, it must be one of the really great monuments in the world. He also informed us about one of our own favourite haunts, St. James' Park."

(On the right is a picture of the Albert Memorial at it appeared in August 2009 when Bob McEwan, Wally's first cousin twice removed, visited London. The memorial is just as impressive and unchanging in 2009 as it was 70 years ago when Wally visited it.)

Wally goes home

"At last he ran out of money, he had completed his convalescence, he was homesick and went home."

We have no record of what happened in the rest of Wally's life. The last note I have of Wally Hern dates back to the 1960's when his first cousin Bob Hearn (Lois' father) recollected that Wally had died sometime in the recent past.

The Hern Cousins: Wally (pt. 1)

Lois' grandfather Robert Hearn had a older brother John. Of John's four sons, one achieved fame as a goalie with the Montreal Wanderers, the illustrious hockey team which won the Stanley Cup for five years in succession beginning in 1906, and a second son who became "famous regionally" as a hockey player in Stratford. Riley, the one who became truly well-known is standing on the left in the above picture. His younger brother Wally is standing on the right. Albert and Frederick the two older Hern boys are sitting in front. This blog is about Wally. Born in 1882, Wally was the youngest of the seven children of John Hern and Frances Barnes. The family lived first in St. Marys and then in Stratford where the father John worked as an ostler at one of the large hotels.
Wally appears to have been a natural athlete. By the time the report above appeared in the St. Marys Journal on 10 February 1898, Wally already was the county speed skating champion for the five mile distance.

At the same time, the world of scholarship may not have been as satisfying for Wally as was the skating. In the St. Marys Journal of Nov. 11, 1897, W. Hern (presumably Wally) in Form II at the Collegiate Institute is recorded as achieving a 44 in arithmetic, and a 59 in Botany. Then, on Dec. 7 the newspaper reports that Walter Hern got a 36 in Latin, a 55 in Euclid, and a 44 in Physics.What was not in doubt, however, was Wally's proficiency as a hockey player. In the 1898- 99 season he played for the Stratford Junior team in the OHA league where the correspondent from the Stratford paper wrote on 1 Feb. 1899: "probably "Wallie" Herne did the best work on the forward line for Straford. He made many good rushes and on one occasion took the puck from one end of the ice to the other and scored the first game of the evening. It was a grand play and "Wallie" was the hero of the evening." During this period Wally lived with his mother and his older brother Riley on Brunswick Street in Stratford. He worked as a clerk in a dry goods store earning a salary of $100 a year. He continued to play hockey in Stratford and was considered good enough to be offered a professional contract in Montreal. According to family stories, Wally refused this exciting opportunity because he could not envision himself leaving his widowed mother on her own.Here is Wally with a group of friends in 1907 on a road trip to Humber Bay near Toronto. A notation on the back of the photo says that they were entertained by the Eatons. Wally is second from the left in the front row.

Wally later married Myrtle Black, a young woman who sang in the choir of the Centennial Methodist church. Myrtle's sister Margaret also sang in the choir. In later years, Margaret's son George Johnston wrote some reminiscences of his family in which his Uncle Wally figures prominently:

Wally and Myrtle visit with her Margaret"Myrte and Wally came and stayed for a fortnight, their young daughters Margaret and Edith with them. Wally then had his gents' furnishings shop and was well off and full of confidence. He had been mayor of Stratford for a term. While Benson (Margaret's husband) was in town, minding JOHNSCO'S thriving business, Wally put in the time, good-naturedly, with Myrtle and Margaret and the children, taking them shopping and on other junkets in his expensive, leather-upholstered McLaughlin touring car. Afternoons he spent at the Burlington Golf and Country Club. During the second week he proposed an excursion to Toronto.
They should take in a ball game, he said. The weather seems to have smiled on the trip there, and the picnic lunch on the beach at Sunnyside was sand and fly-bitten but a cheerful festivity. Then the two women were taken to Riverdale Park, where there was a small zoo, and left there with the four children. It seemed a likely enough place. The McLauglin stayed with them a a sort of headquarters. Neither Margaret nor Myrt knew how to drive.
There was no forgetting that afternoon for the men. Back they returned from the game in high spirits and were brought up short with It's about time! and fretfulness in their children of a degree they had not encountered before. An unforgiving calm descended for the drive home, and the children dropped off to sleep almost at once. By and by the women dozed off too."

( Stories to be continued in the next blog.)

Excursions to Grand Bend in the 1930's

The beach at Grand Bend has been a destination filled with fun and excitement for generations. Here are two pictures taken of Lois and her friends on the beach in about 1930. Of course, no one among Lois' group owned a bathing suit. When they went to the beach, they -- like lots of other young people -- needed to rent a bathing suit. Lois remembers that suits came in two qualities: cotton and wool. While the cotton suits were cheaper, they were also far more revealing, and Lois always hoped that the guy she was with would give her enough money for a wool suit. (Lois remembers that it was seldon that she would have any money of her own.) At the bath house you would pay your $1 and for that, you would be rented a bathing suit and access to a private change room where you would hang your clothes. The bathing suit would very likely still be wet from the person before you. However, for the rental period you would be free to paddle in the lake, take pictures, or play in the sand. In the top picture are Kelly, Lois' younger brother and his girfriend Eileen Dunsmore (on the left), Lois, and Gerald Riley whose family was a good friend of the Hearn Family. The second picture includes Lois' younger brother Ivan. He is the guy in the wool suit, the tie, and the hat. Surely, the suit was desperately uncomfortable on a hot day on the beach. Either, Ivan didn't have the money for a bathing suit, or quite possibly, he felt he looked more attractive in his formal suit than he would in a bathing suit.

A community play

In the years after the Second World War, entertainment in rural communities was often home grown. Dickson's Corners was no exception. In one memorable Christmas concert, Gordon directed a play in which the lead parts were taken by well-known adults from the community. Lois, the teacher's wife played the part of an invalid who spent most of her time in her bed. In reality, her bed was a camp cot which likely threatened to tip over ever time she attempted to get in - or out- of it. Lois' "husband" in the play was Bob Brown, a local farmer and school trustee, whose daughter Janette was in Grade 6 in the school. Zoe Henderson and Gladys Baigent, next door neighbours who lived up the road from the school, were also in the play.



A newly married couple from the community, Bob and Nonnie Kerr, played the part of the young lovers. A mystery woman, her face shrouded in black, was also in the play, but Lois can remember neither who she was, or what role she played. "Maybe she was the music teacher." The props were minimal and I am sure the acting was not terribly professional -- Lois remembers having only two or three rehearsals -- but that would count for little among the highly appreciative audience of neighbours and friends who thoroughly enjoyed watching Bob Brown nuzzle up to Lois McEwan at the front of the hall.

Robert McEwan, Gordon's Grandfather part 2

Sadly Robert McEwan, Gordon's grandfather died when a young man. Here is the story as Gordon has written it: "One night Robert was returning home and lulled by the silence of the land and the quiet rhythm of the democrat wheels, he fell asleep. The fast travelling horse startled by the reflection of the moon in a large puddle by the side of the road shied sharply to one side with the result the sleeping driver was catapulted over the wheel of the vehicle and landed on the gravelly surface of the road causing severe lacerations and bruises to his face.
Some time after that he began to have physical problems and when the doctor diagnosed his ailment as cancer of the jaw a terrible pall must have settled over the family. A portion of his jawbone was removed but one year later he passed away leaving his gritty widow, three children and fifty acres without his strength and guidance." That was in 1893 when Robert was 43 years old. This picture must have been taken shortly before his death when they all knew that he was dying.

Robert McEwan, Gordon's Grandfather

In a previous blog I told the story of John McEwan who was the first of the McEwans to settle in Perth County. He married Agnes Ballantyne who, like John, had been born in Scotland. Their first child who was born in 1849 and who was Gordon's grandfather, was named Robert. If John and Agnes had remained true to the traditional pattern of child-naming, then Robert would have been called after his paternal grandfather. However, since Agnes' father was also a Robert, it may have been that the baby was named after his maternal grandfather Robert Ballantyne. Few stories have been passed down about the character of Robert McEwan. What we do know is that in April 1872 he married Harriotte Hemsley. At first they lived on the Huron Road just west of Stratford and later moved further west to Kasterville. Finally they settled on Lot 19 Concession 3 in Downie on 50 acres of land just west of both the Ballantyne land and the Hemsley land. Here are pictures of Robert and Harriotte, likely on their wedding day, and of the house in which they lived with their three children, Harriotte, John, and Agnes.

Corn Syrup Hockey Pictures My First Collection

I have always been a collector. There is something about the act of anticipating, acquiring, organizing, and building a collection that appeals to me. My first collection consisted of hockey pictures of the famous players on the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Montreal Canadiens and the other six teams that made up the NHL the 1950's. It wasn't because I liked -- or was even interested in hockey -- that I collected the pictures. But rather, I collected for the sake of collecting. And equally important to a boy with no money, the collection could be started, and developed, for the price of a stamp. The company which made this possible was the St. Lawrence Starch Company of Port Credit, Ontario. As its name implies, the St. Lawrence Starch Company made a whole range of products including Bee Hive Corn Syrup, Ivory Laundry Starch, and Durham Corn Starch. My mother used Bee Hive Corn Syrup in her cooking. The syrup came in a deep blue can embossed with a distinctive drawing of a large red bee hive. As I recall, there was a paper label fastened either around the can, or on the lid of the can. All that was required of me was to remove the label, to write down the name of the player whose picture I wanted and then to send it to the St. Lawrence Starch Company. In return I got a 5 x 7 glossy picture attached to a cardboard backing such as the picture of George Armstrong who later became the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs. In retrospect I suspect that my collection was inspired as much by my father Gordon as by me. Since we didn't have a television at Dicksons Corners, and we never listened to the games on radio. I cannot understand how I could have known the names of the players. For me, then, the attraction was in the process of sending the letter, in anticipating the arrival of the picture and then in carefully adding it to the ones already in my collection.
Post Script: Lois corrected my version of this story. Our family -- at least Gordon and his two daughters -- regularly listened to the hockey games on the radio. Lois said that she, too, listened, not because she was interested but because it was a family event. As the game progressed, Gordon, who was lying on the couch would fall asleep, the two girls would attempt to change the station on the radio, but as soon as the station was changed Gordon would wake up and the dial would be returned to the hockey game.
Lois also noted that corn syrup was regularly used as a sweetner in cooking. I wonder if it is still available.

Gordon's sense of humour

Jokes and fun were an important ingredient in the lives of Gordon and Lois. "We had a lot of good laughs" is an expression Lois uses frequently in describing an evening of playing cards or other forms of socializing. Roberta Dundas recently related a joke which she and her friend Gladys Campbell, as little girls played on their teacher Mr. McEwan. One lunch hour Roberta and Gladys decided to exchange clothes and to become the other person for the afternoon. When the bell rang to end the lunch hour, the two girls went and sat in each other's desk. The teacher recognized the joke, and for the whole afternoon he called each girl by the other's name. Of course they loved the idea that they were fooling their teacher. I am sure that there were lots of exchanges of giggles between the girls that afternoon, and I am sure that the teacher also enjoyed the joke. On occasion, however, Gordon's sense of humour could get him in trouble. The annual Christmas concert at the school was an important event for the whole community with not only the parents of the children, but also the extended family and the neighbours attending. At one of these concerts at SS# 9 Downie, Gordon told a joke involving two of the school trustees: Freddy Fulcher and Joe Killoran. The joke went like this: One day Freddy met Joe on the road. Freddy stopped Joe and said "look at your nose and tell me what time it is". To which Joe replied "Look at your own, mine ain't running!". Thinking this was a wonderful joke, Earl Richardson a neighbour of both Freddy and Joe, laughed loudly and long. Unfortunately, Fred Fulcher did not see the humour in the story. Thinking that Earl and the teacher had planned this together to make him look foolish, Freddy was deeply insulted. By the next day, the teacher as well as the whole community had heard how Freddy reacted to the joke. There was nothing to be done but Gordon had to pay a visit to the Fulcher home and to humbly apologize and assure Freddy that the joke had not been pre-arranged with Earl Richardson. Here is a picture of #9 school, the site of the infamous "running nose" joke.

Our Calder Friends

When Gordon and Lois moved to Dicksons Corners in 1942 one of their closest neighbours was the Calders. Jim and Mary Calder who lived in a large white frame house on 100 acres of land across Highway

2, had two children: Gordon who was younger than Betty Lou and Margaret who was a year younger than Lois Ann. As children, we spent a lot of time with the Calder kids. Of course, we attended the same school SS#3 North Oxford where Gordon McEwan was the teacher. We also attended the same United Church in the nearby village of Thamesford. Here is a picture taken in March 1946 of the five children standing on the front steps of the school on a Sunday after we had arrived home from church. Then, in a re-creation of that scene, here are the five of us on a recent Saturday afternoon over 63 years later.

May 24th Holiday 1935

This weekend is the 24th of May holiday. Traditionally, this weekend marks the beginning of summer. When I was growing up in the 50's it stood for firecrackers, soapbox derbies, the first swim in the quarry and, if you were very unlucky, the weekend to plant potatoes. Today was rainy and cold and that type of weather reminded Lois of a Victoria Day picnic which she went on in 1935 when she was dating Gordon. They were both 20 years old. Lois was at home raising Vic and Roberta and running the home for her father and her four other brothers. Gordon was in his first year of teaching at Black Creek School near Sebringville. To mark the long weekend, they decided to go on a picnic with Gordon's friend Reg Hammond and his date Isobel Waldie. This must have been planned well in advance because -- and this is the part that was important to Lois -- her Aunt Minnie, who was an excellent seamstress and was a strong supporter after the death of Lois' mother --- made Lois a new dress. It was yellow with a yoke collar. A large decorative button was fastened to the left side near the collar. Unfortunately, when the day of the picnic arrived, the day was exceptionally cold, but the two couples decided to go on their picnic, in spite of the weather. They drove around and finally settled on having their picnic near Trafalgar bridge, a heavily braced steel bridge, a sight which was once common in rural Ontario. Trafalgar Bridge which was build in 1905 sits on the boundary of Banshard, Fullarton and Downie Townships and spans the Thames River as it heads toward St. Marys. Lois never said whether she was sensible and wore a coat or whether she was foolish and decided to forgo the coat so that the yellow dress would be shown to its best advantage. At the top is a picture of Trafalgar Bridge as it may have looked on the day of Gordon and Lois' picnic, and here also is a picture of the same bridge as it appears on a pleasant day in June 2009.

The Short Course of 1933-34

Lois' mother died in the spring of 1933 leaving husband Bob and seven children, ranging in age from Roberta at 1 and Vic at 3 through Don, Ivan, and Kelly, to Lois at 18 and Lyle at 21. While the shock and sadness undoubtedly hit everyone hard, I think it would be fair to say that-- of the children -- it was Lois who was forced to make the biggest adjustments and the biggest sacrifices. After the initial period of mourning, the boys returned to their regular routines. But for Lois, the world had completely changed. In place of being her mother's helper, she now was the one in charge of all the cooking, cleaning, and washing needed by a large family. The new role involved an awful lot of work, but it also involved sacrifices. One of the early sacrifices that needed to be made, was to forgo the chance to attend the Short Course offered by the Perth County Department of Agriculture in St. Pauls during the winter of 1933. The course ran 5 days a week for three months from December 1933 to February 1934. The men studied theory of agriculture and travelled to area farms to judge livestock. The women, who met in the upstairs room over Hauke's store (which was reputed to be a very cold place in February) studied nursing, interior decorating and home economics. While the information given was doubtlessly useful, I suspect that the reason why so many young people attended was because the course offered a chance to socialize with other people in surroundings something like a "college experience." At the top, is a picture of the participants. You will notice that Lois is missing (at home looking after children) and so is Gordon (living in Stratford with his Uncle Charlie and Aunt Alice Ballantyne while he attends Teacher's College.)

Another John McEwan Story

Here is another story of John as told by his Grandson Jack to his son Gordon. The narrative picks up from the train story told previously. "John's good-natured courage was not always so pleasingly evident when he had been drinking. When he came home late from the settlement, an anxious Agnes would often take him to task for worrying the family and leaving them with the chores to do. Her scathing remarks aroused in the culprit a need to "put her in her place" and the sight of the rather unsteady John attempting to lay hands on the nimble-footed Agnes irked the boys who were entering the portals of manhood.
"The next time he comes home drunk and tries to lay hands on you, Mother," they promised, "we'll take care of him!"
Well, the night arrived when a tardy John feeling the effect of strong drink, arrived home late and true to form Agnes met him with a blistering tirade of tongue-lashing. It wasn't long until the race was on and the fleeing Agnes sped through the door, by which, shrouded in darkness, stood her sons. You can imagine the surprise of the pursuing John when he was seized by six strong hands and carried bodily to the watering trough. Despite numerous threats and protests he was dumped unceremoniously into the drinking place for horses, held there for a moment, brought to the surface for a breath of air and again pushed to the bottom. After a series of dunkings, the boys brought him up for air, allowed him to cough up any of the tank's contents and when they were certain he was in condition to listen, they stated tersely, "Dad, if you ever come home and try to lay hands on Mother again, we'll take you to the tank and keep you on the the bottom!"
The treat was sufficient to change John's belligerent habits and as my father expressed it "from then on, Grandma chewed at him for the rest of his life and he never spoke back to her once."
Here is a picture of John and Agnes as a middle-aged couple and then one of Agnes as an old lady.

S.S.#3 North Oxford - Dickson's Corners

Thursday, July 5, 2007

S.S.#3 North Oxford - Dickson's Corners

After graduating from Stratford Teachers' College, Gordon, with the support of Uncle Charlie Ballantyne who would supply the transportation, drove about the countryside looking for a teaching position. That first assignment in 1936 was Blackcreek near Sebringville, the school he attended as student. Neighbours, Sam Herman, George Eckert and Edwin Erb acting as trustees, drew up that first contract. In 1937,Gordon and Lois were married and moved into the "two storey red brick house" mentioned earlier to live with Jack and Beanie.

Lois and Gordon's next move came in 1939 when they rented, for $5.00 a month, an apartment attached to Houck's General Store in the village of St.Pauls. This apartment had one room on the main floor, two bedrooms on the second floor and the real luxury - three outhouses, also serving the needs of the adjacent community hall.Gordon was now the teacher at #9 school, Lois's home school and was the teacher for Lois's brother, Vic and sister, Roberta.

As Lois recalls, by 1942 Gordon felt that the trustees of #9 had raised his pay as much as they were able. He began to keep a constant awareness of ads for teaching positions through the London Free Press delivered daily to Houck's store. As referred to earlier, and ad for the need of a teacher for S.S.#3 North Oxford, Dickson's Corners, caught his imagination. Lois and Gordon had a doctor's appointment in London and decided to try to find Dickson's Corners in what was to be a very round-about trip. Gordon was always good at asking often for directions. They managed to find Erwood Kerr, Walter Hutcheson and Jack Butterworth, the three local farmers who had the responsibility for hiring the teacher. The stone school, the brick house with an outbuilding to serve as a garage was located beside Jim Calder's bush in a setting where three roads converged, #2 highway in front, a gravel road behind and a cross-road along the edge, "Dickson's Corners."

posted by louandjohn @ 12:32 PM

"Well, That's The Story"

Saturday, July 7, 2007

"Well, That's The Story"

Gordon and Lois McEwan and their family of four, Lou, Loiey, Bob and Terry moved to St. Marys in 1952, having purchased a house on a double lot from Kelly Hearn. The house on St. George Street has its own interesting history in the Hearn family chronicles from the Hortons to the Hearns to the McEwans and from clapboard to red insulbrick to its present Tudor white plaster treatment.

Gordon McEwan had been offered a position and partnership in W.A.Clarke Hardware in St. Marys by Walter Clarke. So, it was good-bye to Dickson's Corners and hello to new surroundings in St. Marys, "The Town Worth Living In."
From the classroom to the hardware store seemed an easy transition for Gordon as his natural abilities in meeting, greeting and enjoying people were given full play in the hardware business, an already successful venture because Walter Clarke, himself, was generous, affable and civic-minded with a sneeze that would reverberate down and around Queen Street from D.L. O'Brien's Clothing Store to Dave White's Butcher Shop across to L.A. Ball Fiurniture Store and Funeral Home and back up to The Toronto-Dominion Bank.

Phoebe Eely ran the office in the hardware store and Marjorie Switzer, John Tyler and Gordon McEwan handled the customers, selling everything from nails to wallpaper to pots, pans and kitchen utensils to fishing tackle and other sports equipment. My job in Grade 8 was to sweep the floors every morning at 8:00 a.m. before I went to school. There was a big barrel of dustbane at the back of the store and I scattered dustbane up and down the aisles and then swept it up from the front of the store to the back. Marjorie Switzer thought I lifted the broom a little too high and covered the open bottom shelves of the display counters where the granite ware was kept with dustbane. Gordon usually swept the front sidewalk and that was an excellent opportunity for him to greet fellow business people and early customers to the store. In dealing with customers, Gordon would discuss and answer all the questions he could, closing the deal usually with, "Well, that's the story.

1952 also saw the arrival of a new minister at The St. Marys United Church. Ross and Helen Crosby and their two sons, David and Paul, took up residence in the manse and thus began a long and rich ministry both to the United Church and the town of St. Marys. Walter A. Clarke was a member of that search committee and "W.A." was always pround of the fact that he was instrumental in bringing both the Crosbys and the McEwans to St. Marys in the same year.

"Well, That's The Story"

Postscript # 1: I was always amused when my father, Walter Cull would come into the hardware and be greeted by Walter Clarke with a cheery, "Hello, Waller" followed by an equally friendly, "Hello, Waller."

Postscript # 2: When Walter and Ella Clarke were first married, they lived in an apartment above Sommerville's Drug Store. On the opposite side of Queen Street where Tim Hortons is now located was a Chinese Laundry. Mr. Wong, the proprietor, would collect laundry from people's homes as part of his customer service

One morning when Walter Clarke was shaving and getting ready for work, there was a knock at the apartment door.

Walter called out, "You go, Ella."

From the other side of the door came a response from the irate M. Wong, "You go 'ella too, Mister Clarke!"

The First John McEwan

John McEwan who was born in Glasgow in 1819 was the originator of the McEwan clan in Perth County. Gordon tells the story that John and his brother Arthur  (footnote 2017: I wonder whether the name should be George) came by boat to Goderich and then walked east toward Stratford. Arthur stopped in Huron County while John walked on into Perth where he met the Ballantynes. While that story may be accurate, the registration of John's marriage to Agnes Ballantyne in 1847 lists John's residence as being Toronto, and his witness John McGaelin as also being from Toronto.   After their marriage, John and Agnes settled in the extreme west of Downie Township on the border of Fullarton Township. Black Creek ran through the McEwan property and it was on this land that the Black Creek Cheese Factory was built by John's brother-in-law Thomas Ballantyne. Although the cheese factory has disappeared, the square fieldstone house of the McEwans still sits overlooking the valley of Black Creek. (Below is a picture of how the house appears currently.) While John's obituary paints the picture of a staid man who was a devote member of the Presbyterian Church and a staunch reformer in politics, family stories reveal a more colourful character. Here, in Gordon's words, are a couple of stories passed down by Gordon's father Jack. "Besides being afraid of the Lord, John had a healthy respect for trains that thundered east and west along the track that crossed the Fullarton-Downie road to link Stratford and Goderich. To people of another generation, it is difficult to visualize the fear that horses had of the train as it raced across country spitting out sparks with smoke belching from its stack. Also great forests blocked one's vision and it was a real fear that the horse and driver might reach the track at the same moment as the train roared by.
To guard against such happenings, John used to get Agnes to run ahead of the horse which he stopped a long distance from the track. After Agnes had checked carefully in both directions for oncoming trains, she would give the "all clear" signal and John would urge the horse onward at as speedy a pace as could be mustered, cross the rails, pick up Agnes and hurry on to what was a zone of safety. Agnes would shop at the village store, wait for John to leave the bar and set herself patiently in the buggy for the homeward ride.
Undoubtedly, John would be in an expansive mood and I am certain his countenance would not wear that grim, dour look which he wears in the only picture of him that I have seen. As they turned southward and began to approach the dreaded railroad track, Agnes realized that John was doing nothing to abate the speed of the steed. Their conversation is recorded as being something like this:
Agnes: "We're coming close to the track, John!"
John: "Aye"
Agnes: "Do you want me to get out and look after the train?"
John: "Let the train look after itself, Agnes! Get up Prince!"
(more John McEwan stories next time.)

Birthday Celebration

On one occasion at least, Gordon planned a special birthday celebration for Lois. This one occurred after Gordon had retired from teaching. They had travelled to Arizona to vist their friends Clare and Gwen Odbert who spent several months each year in the south. Gordon organized the party on his own, something which he would find difficult and something with which he had little experience. A big group of their friends: the Douglases, the two Somervilles, the Aitchesons, the Bill Douglases, and the Betteridges were all invited. One of the small gifts given to Lois was this small candy dish from Chips and Charlie Betteridge. The Bettridges had a cottage at the Bend next to the cottage which Gordon and Lois rented for several years. On one of their trips out from the Bend Gordon and Lois had purchased a new set of dishes which carried a thistle pattern. The Bettridges had either been part of the purchase or had been shown the purchase. In any case, Chips remembered the pattern and gave this dish to Lois as a birthday gift.

Lois' 30th Birthday

March is Lois' birthday month. Here are two of the birthday cards which she received for her thirtieth birthday in 1944. The first is from her mother-in-law Beanie. Inside the card there is a letter in which Beanie relates the story of her trip to Windsor to attend the funeral of her older brother Alex, a rather handsome man who in his younger days had a head of dark curly hair. Alex was a baker. He and his wife Alice moved to Windsor in the era when Windsor was a booming city with its car plants, its industry and its proximity to Detroit. Beanie relates that she travelled with her sister Alice and her brother-in-law Charlie who did the driving (I don't believe that either of the women had a license.) I presume they drove in Charlie's Model A. On the trip home they left Windsor at 12:30 a.m. and did not arrive back in Stratford until 6 a.m., having travelled all night. No wonder Beanie complained of being tired.

The second card is from Lois's Aunt Ada, her father's sister. Here is what it looked like.

Peat as a Fuel Source in the 1930s

Peat was the fuel burned in the kitchen of Jack and Beanie McEwan. Each Fall Jack would drive out to the Ellice Swamp where he would purchase a load of peat. Peat came as round cylinder-shaped tubes of densely compacted, dry vegetation. Jack would store the peat in the cellar where it could be brought up in a kettle to be burned in the kitchen stove throughout the winter. Of course they had no furnace. The pipe from the peat stove which went up through the ceiling to the second floor provided the only source of heat for the remainder of the house: small wonder that everyone gathered in the kitchen on cold winter evenings. Lois remembers that the peat burned very hot and that resulted in problems for the grates in the stove. Lois' second recollection was that peat was a dusty and dirty fuel. According to a recent article in the Stratford Beacon Herald, ( 7 Jan 09) William Leasa was producing peat in the Ellice swamp outside of Gads Hill on a commercial basis as early as 1835. "Mr Leasa invented a machine which greatly facilitated the production of peat as a commercial fuel. The harvested peat was put into a mixer which ground it into a powder. Once properly mixed it was forced by pressure through three tubes and as it came out it was chopped into six-inch lengths by the workmen." (p. 5). When Lois married Gordon in 1937 the McEwan farm home was split into two parts and Lois got a proper cook stove in which they did not burn peat. In any case, the use of peat as a source of heat was weakening. By the late 1940s, according to the article in the Beacon Herald, " the demand for peat as a fuel had waned and the land was sold to the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority which has since reforested it." On the left is a picture from the Stratford Archives of peat harvesters in Ellice Township in the 1890's.

Mae Hearn's apron

For Christmas this year I was given a red-striped apron with a bib and long apron strings that can be pulled around and tied in front. When I put on my new apron for the first time I was reminded of a story which Lois sometimes tells about her mother's apron. Mae Hearn, had a reputation for being a hard-working and meticulous housekeeper who always wore a white apron. Here is a picture taken about 1932 showing Mae in her apron. Whenever visitors dropped in unexpectedly, Mae would greet them at the door in an apron that looked as clean and fresh as if she had just put it on. The apron was so suspiciously white that someone once suggested that Mae must keep an unused, clean apron hanging by the kitchen door to be used whenever visitors appeared unexpectedly. Lois, however, says that there never was a fresh, "visitor-ready" apron hanging by the side door. The explanation is even more simple. Unlike some of her descendants, Mae was not a messy spiller-type cook. While my apron will very quickly show signs of my cooking and greasy hand-wipes, Mae was able to keep hers spotlessly white.
Post script June 2017: I have recently recalled an addendum to this story.  Lois explained that it was Mae's sister-in-law Minnie Hern (herself a meticulous housekeeper) who first expressed the believe that Mae must have had a fresh apron hanging by the door in case visitors appeared. On one occasion, however, when Minnie stopped in her sister-in-law Mae was not to be found. Minnie found Mae in the basement where Mae stored all her canned fruit. And the apron was as white and clean as if she had just put it on!