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!"