27 December 1937

No pictures of the wedding. None were taken. Here is how Lois tells the story: Gordon was teaching at Black Creek School. His Christmas school vacation gave them just enough time for a wedding and a short honeymoon. But, of course, all of this had to happen after the 25th because Lois was responsible for organizing Christmas for her father, and her six siblings. On the 25th, which was a Saturday, Lois cooked a Christmas dinner for the family, and two guests: elderly, unmarried, second cousins - David and Rachael Fulcher -- who always were invited for the Christmas meal. On the next day, the 26th, Gordon came to visit. It was snowing hard and the roads quickly became impassible. Lois' father Bob suggested that Gordon stay the night. The morning of the 27th was clear and Gordon left right after breakfast to drive home by way of Conroy and # 7 Highway where the roads were more likely to be clear. Lois got the breakfast ready and then did up the dishes before she got herself ready, without, of course, the aid of a bathroom or running water. (She also must have packed some type of bag for the wedding trip, but I have never heard what it was or what it contained.) Lois' Aunt Minnie (George's wife) came to stay with the youngest children, Vic being 7 and Roberta 5. Then father Bob drove Lois and Laura Turner (a friend of the family who was to be the second witness) to Avonton where Lois and Gordon had arranged to be married by Rev. Samuel Kerr in the front room of the manse of Avonton Presbyterian Church . The young couple, the two witnesses, and the minister were all that were present. The minister's study in the manse at Avonton Presbyterian Church faces west overlooking the Centre Gravel road which runs north through the village leading to Sebringville. In front of the church, the road follows a gentle decline down to the bridge over Black Creek. Rev. Kerr, performing the wedding ceremony, stood with his back to the window, Bible in hand. Gordon's car was parked outside on the road. As the vows were being said, Lois could see Elizabeth Robertson and several others hurrying up the road. Then, as Lois looked at the minister to repeat her vows, and beyond him to the scene outside, she could see Gordon's car rolling silently down the hill toward Black Creek. Gradually the car rolled out of view and disappeared to the right behind the curtain of the minister's study.
.... to be continued

Gordon's mother Beanie

Gordon’s mother Beanie (a diminutive of the name Rubina) was a complex person, eliciting very different emotions from among those of us who knew her. Born in 1880, she was the youngest of nine children of Scottish parents. While she claimed to be no great scholar, she also claimed that she could throw the ball further and run faster than anyone else in the school. At school she did learn to recite poetry and, as an old woman she would repeat “The Face On The Barroom Floor” with all the melodrama of the Victorian music hall. Above is a picture of her and Jack likely before they were married. Lois remembers her as being a good sport on the trip to Niagara Falls.

At the same time, Beanie was obsessively controlling of her son Gordon and she made Lois desperately unhappy when the older and younger couple shared the family farm home for a short time after Gordon and Lois were married. Beanie loved fashion and deeply regretted that they had no money to buy luxuries. After Jack died she went to work for a short time in a knitting mill in Stratford. Then she moved in with her sister Alice and her brother-in-law Charlie Ballantyne who owned a big red brick house on Elizabeth Street in Stratford. (As an afterthought: if you click on the picture, it will enlarge to full screen size.)

The first date

It was a Saturday night in the late summer of 1932. Lois and Gordon were both 18. As was typical in that era, when the weather was clear there would be a Saturday evening ballgame followed by an outdoor dance. They were major social events for the community, and for the young people in particular....

On this evening, Gordon played ball for Number 7. Lois had come to watch the game with her father, Bob Hearn. After the game, as Bob and Lois walked toward the car, Bob stopped to chat and Lois ran into Gordon.

"Lois, save me the second dance" Gordon said. "If you want to dance with me, you'll have to come down to dad's kitchen" she replied. "Why, aren't you going?" he asked. "No." "Will you go with me?"

Lois agreed to go to the dance that evening, and Gordon came to pick her up in the family car. He was wearing plus fours (trousers that came down just below the knee and were worn with knee socks) and a rust coloured sweater. Lois thought he looked wonderful.

When Lois and Gordon arrived at the dance, one of Gordon's cousins, Merv, called out to him. "Does your mother know you're out, Gordon?" Gordon was angry and humiliated. He spoke under his breath. "The ignorant bugger."

Introductions: Lois and Gordon

Hello everyone! Welcome to our family blog! This is a little experiment, and part of a larger project headed by Lou .... We were at Grandma Lois' this past Saturday, brainstorming for some ideas on how to make Lois' 95th Birthday project a little more accessible to us all, regardless of where we are.

The idea is to have weekly posts with pictures from Lois' and Gordon's past and present, accompanied by a story. Jessica and Bob are administering the site at the moment, so if you have ideas for posts, questions about people, places, or things that relate to Lois and/or Gordon that you'd like to see, send them to us. We'll see how it goes!

Now, on to today's story:

In the summer of 1937, Gordon invited Lois to go on a day trip to Niagara Falls. This was before Gordon and Lois were married. Gordon didn't have a car of his own so he had to borrow his parents' car, which meant his parents wanted to come along too.

Lois' mother had been dead now for four years. Lois was acting as mother to her five brothers and one younger sister, two of whom were under the age of five. It was a real treat to have a day's outing. Lois had no money, but she wanted something special to wear for her day away from home. She knit herself a dress, especially for the occasion.

At the time, Gordon was working at his first teaching job at the Black Creek school near Sebringville, just outside of Stratford, Ontario. Gordon had little money, but he had enough to put gas in the car to get them to Niagara Falls. Gordon's father Jack, on the other hand, had even less money than Gordon, and felt this fact keenly. When Gordon, Lois, Jack and Binnie (Gordon's mother) stopped to fill the car with gas along the way, Jack wanted to be able to pay for the gas. Gordon slipped the money to Jack, and Jack proudly went in to the station and paid for the gas himself.

We're not sure who owned the camera, but Gordon likely took the picture of Lois.