I think the picture on the left must have been taken around 1940 while we were on vacation from Noranda, Quebec. We owned a farm near Burk's Falls, Ontario and always seemed to spend out time working on the old buildings, etc. as our vacation. It was a change from the mining towns that we lived in and it was considered to be "way down south" to us Northerners!! Anyway that's Dad's old 1935 Chrysler in the background and I would say that Andrew, my oldest brother, third from the left was just about the right age in it to join the Royal Canadian Air Force ... which he did. My brother Marshall (Pete), second from the left and a couple years younger than Andrew joined the Canadian Navy right after that and was loaned to the British Royal Navy for the remainder of the war. He served on an Aircraft Carrier in the Meditteranean and later pulled Destroyer duties in the Atlantic. As I was the youngest, (extreme left) I didn't get into the thick of it but I did manage to become a pilot but the war ended. I have to think that the enemy heard about me being almost ready to come and simply gave up .... the "chickens!" By the way that is also my Mom and Dad with my sister Doris in front of them. She would be about seven or eight at the time I would think I'm not too sure what year the picture on the right was taken but I do know that it was when we lived in Noranda, Quebec. I would guess it was around 1941-42. That is my Dad in the fedora, my brother Andrew next to him, Marshall (Pete) next to Andrew and 'lil ole me on the end.
I remember two great big shaped portraits of my Gandparents (my Mother's Parents) with wonderfully ornate frames and it has been a mystery to me for many years whatever became of them. I just went through some old snapshots in my mother's belongings and found two very poor, fuzzy ones with Granny and Grandad in them. There is absolutely nothing I can do to make them clear but I worked on them as much as I dare and am posting them both in here so there at least will be something recorded of them. I remember my Grandad when I was a little guy. Everybody called him "The Guvner", a sort of English term apparently. I remember how big he seemed to me and how gentle and kind he was with everyone. He looked almost identical to King George 5th as well. I remember him sitting on his old chair outside on the porch of this old ramshackled house in the country near Doe Lake, five miles from Burk's Falls, Ontario, Canada. He had a most amazing way with wildlife. As he sat outside on the porch on his beat up old chair, the birds, squirrels and chipmunks would be all over him with no fear or nervousnes of him whatsoever! He hand fed them and they didn't just "grab and run or fly away", they would actually stay on his lap or shoulder and eat happily. Grandad walked one and a half miles one way every summer day to his old rowboat at Doe Lake and spend the whole day there fishing. Once in a while he would bring lots of fish home but I don't think he really cared one way or another just so long as he could be alone with his love, Mother Nature. He was a fabulous gardener too. You couldn't imagine what wonderful vegetables, etc. he grew every summer. In those days they stored potatoes, carrots, turnips, etc. in a "root cellar" which was really a large hole dug out of the ground with steps down into it and a heavy thick door. It was all covered over well for insulation against the cold winters so the vegetables wouldn't freeze. These vegetables generally lasted the winter until the next crop came in too! Perhaps somewhere in here later I'll tell you the most amazing story about that lake the day they took him away in the hearse .... well what the hell ... I'll do it now! My aunt Ann had a tourist farm on Doe Lake for years and Grandad's funeral took place there. I was very young but I can remember to this day like it just happened.
It was a bright summer day without a cloud in the sky the day of his funeral. As they brought the coffin out the door and up the walkway to the hearse, the sky went dark and a great wind came up with lightening and thunder crashing all over. The previously calm waters of the lake whipped into whitecaps like no one had ever seen before! Then a strange thing happened. Through this completely unreal and sudden darkness a brilliant "ray of sunshine" shone only onto his coffin as they carried it up the walkway to the hearse! As soon as they loaded his body onto that hearse, within seconds, everything went back to the way it was before .... a bright, beautiful cloudless day, sunny sky and a dead calm lake! Why? Well crazy or not I think Mother Nature or that "Power" up there was venting its anger for losing him or simply saying "Goodbye Old Friend."
My Granny with her snow white hair will always be fondly remembered by me. You see my Granny and Grandad were both born in England but my Grandad was a "gypsy" of one of the tribes that wandered throughout the country. When he met and wanted to marry Granny, her father said "as long as he left the tribe he could" so they were married and began a family. They had great problems however with the gypsy tribe because they were somewhat like the old "Black Hand ... or Mafiosa." Nobody was ever allowed to leave the tribe! They eventually had to immigrate to Canada to get away from them! Grandad became a bricklayer in Toronto and the houses he built still stand today but when the Great Depression came he moved near Sprucedale, Ontario to a farm and later retired from that to this "old ramshackled house" where I remember them most. That old house was somewhat like you saw on Steinbeck's "Tobacco Road!"
Eureka ... After all these years I found those old portraits of Grandad and Granny! Joyce and I were up to Burk's Falls on 15th July to visit my cousin Martha in the hospital and then went out to visit her brother's son, Thomas and his wife, Laura and family on the old Parry Farm and while sitting out on the lawn, Laura brought "the very two old portraits" I've always wondered about to ask me if they were indeed my Grandparents! I couldn't contain myself when I saw them, although someone had taken the pictures out of them and had the frames "painted" gold, I just had to set them up and photograph them right there. I also informed them that those frames were worth an absolute fortune as antiques and to guard them well. I touched them up in my PhotoShop and am proudly placing them in their "place of honor" here on my family Web Site. I didn't do too much with them ... just took out some spots and scratches, touched up the edges a bit but left the old color as they were. I hope you enjoy them as I do and now I have two wonderful portraits of my lineage that I thought I'd never see again. Wow .... am I ever pleased! Right now I'm too lazy to go and look it up but sometime later I'll find what dates they were born and what dates they passed away and insert them right on their portraits. It's around a hundred degrees in the shade here and right now I'm not up to doing anything more than I have to.
Granny was a very small person and to look at her you would think she would be meek and mild, which she was most of the time. However if you were unfortunate enough to get in her "black books" then God help you! She could "lick her weight in wildcats" if she took the notion. I remember her sticking up for me when she saw someone abusing me in any way and she did it with a true "vengeance" too! Nobody but nobody ever had the nerve to "cross" my Granny. I don't remember how many children they had but it was a rather large family. I remember when Christmas or Easter came along they and their children (tons of them it seemed) would gather for such special occasions and although none of us had much in those days, we always seemed to have enough to eat and enough clothes on our backs. That's my Mother and her Mom, my Granny on the right. Not too good a picture but I did the best I could with it in PhotoShop. As my Mother got older, she too had pure white hair like Granny had. I guess it runs in the family because mine has gone beyond the "grey" look to the "white" look too :-)
I do remember that in those days the children were not allowed to eat with the adults. They were generally sent outside to play until the adults finished and then we were all called in for our dinner. You might say that children were to be "seen but not heard" then. At least parents had the prerogative to discipline their children then instead of being legislated by the government such as we are today. Granted, most of our parents were "hard disciplinarians" with us but whether they be good or bad memories with regards to their strictness I have to admit that we all at least grew up with much more respect for others. It taught us to work and play together without the "I want it all and the world owes me" syndrome that seems so prevailent today.
The picture on the left will give you and idea of what the men's bathing suits looked like. Hell ... you should have seen the women's. You were lucky to even see an ankle then! These three fellows are of course doing a little "he-man stuff" showing off I assume and I could swear that the guy on the right (facing the picture) is my Dad. The big "show-off!!" The picture on the right is a typical picnic of the old days. How well I remember them. You could actually drink the lake water without worrying about that relatively "new scourge" ... pollution!! Here you see the kids paddling in Doe Lake which is five miles from Burk's Falls, Ontario, Canada and of course the ever present vigilance of an adult looking over them. Those were truly care-free days if I must say so. People had no money to speak of but always managed to "make their own fun" either by playing community baseball in one of the farmer's fields or picnics or "house dances." There was always someone who could whip up a tune on the fiddle and guitars and next thing you knew, you had a good old country hoedown going. I should know because I usually got stuck to play the guitar at them.
I couldn't believe it when I ran into this very old picture. You can tell it's old by the "cut" of the people in it and the fact that it was done in that ever popular format ... the "oval." I know that they are all past relatives of mine but for the life of me I cannot name them all as it was taken long before I was even a dirty thought.:-) I do know that on the left rear row standing, is my Grandad on my Mother's side and to the extreme right (kneeling) is my uncle Colin. He was a great "teller of tales" believe me. Right beside him, sitting, is my Granny and I know that my aunt Kate and her husband, uncle Tom are in there. Uncle Tom has the straw hat on and is sort of kneeling beside Grandad and his wife, my Aunt Kate is sitting in front of Grandad to his left. Got you confused? Hell ... I am! I'm sure my Mom and Dad are also in there but the quality of the picture and the age of it prevent me from being certain which ones they are. It, as I said before was taken a long time ago before I ever came into existence. I thought it was an intriguing old picture and dropped it in here. Hope I'm not boring you to death.
The picture on the right jumps not too far ahead of the one at the top left of this page. This is my next eldest brother, Marshal "Pete" in the Royal Canadian Navy. He joined up as soon as he could but immediately after his basic training, was "loaned" to the British Royal Navy and served on an Aircraft Carrier with them for the duration. He saw combat in the Mediteranean among other places. After VE Day he was on his way back across the Atlantic in heavy seas on the HMS Restigouche, a destroyer that had a one and a half foot split in its bow. He was returning to Canada to take training to help the Americains fight the Japs. Half way across the Atlantic, VJ Day was announced and World War Two was officially over! I believe this was taken while he was on leave at home before he left to go overseas originally. My oldest brother, Andrew (on the left) had previously joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and was stationed on the west coast at Sea Island as an airframe mechanic. Unfortunately I do not have a picture of him in his uniform but I am dropping a more recent picture of him and his wife, Linda in here for now. This picture was taken some time in the late nineties while they were visiting us here at my place. Andrew fell in love with B. C. and has lived there ever since. Unfortunately we haven't seen each other much over these past many years.
Well .... hang onto your seats folks 'cause you are about to see how we all sort of "turned out" as age crept up on all of us! You will notice that I, of course am the handsome one on the left with my wonderful wife, Joyce at our 50th Wedding Anniversary. Andrew and Pete seemed to hold their ages pretty well though. That's Andrew and his wife, Linda above left and "Pete" and his wife, Sheila to the right here. I guess we are all pretty lucky considering our ages and some of the things we have been through. Guess I didn't live right or something .... and I'm not even rich either damn it !! Oh well as they say .... you can't have it all. Wonderful wives, great kids and grandkids and relatively good health. What more could we really ask for anyway?
Well it's now 19th August, 2003! We have sold our home in Honeywood and moved to Port Colborne, Ontario ..... right on another of the Great Lakes .... Lake Erie! We are twenty miles from Buffalo, New York and kind of got sick of the drifting snow in the winter time up north. Other than the drifting snow, we loved EVERYTHING about where we lived before but "old age" kind of dicftates to us as to what we can and cannot handle and the snow AND the house and grounds were getting a little too much for us. My daughters, Bonney and Carol had bought a big old house here in Port Colborne a few years ago and turned it into apartments and they always wanted us to occupy the one on the ground floor. For a couple of years we said no but last fall we realized we had to get into easier quarters with a more moderate climate so we took them up on their offer. The house is right on the shore of Lake Erie!
Unfortunately one of the first things that happened after getting here was to "tangle" with a big dump truck and needless to say ... our Grand Marquis doesn't look too grand right now. Nobody was hurt and it happened at a stop sign where neither of us were travelling fast at all. The Niagara Regional Policeman was most courteous and the neighbours near the scene all came out and even passed cold pop out to all of us while we were waiting to get it straightened out! By the looks of that .... I rather think Port Colborne is going to be a nice place to live.
I have devoted a special section as shown in my Index about my sister Doris and her husband, Arnold (about something serious that has happened since our Anniversary) but as this sort of completes the "family history" in here I risk being guilty of repeating myself. Here they are on the left and the pictures of them, Pete and Sheila and Joyce and I were all taken at our 50th Wedding Anniversary in December, 1998. I have since found the picture on the right here of one of the few times we were all together as a family and it was taken in Montreal during our visit to Expo '67. Just thought I'd toss it in although it does sort of "blow the sequence" of things. Oh I don't have to be told that I do "babble on" because I know it already! It's just that it's the first time I have ever even tried to put together a sort of "family history" and I must admit that it is quite intriguing. Try it some time. It's amazing what you will remember took place years ago as you puruse old photos. When I got to looking at my wife's old pictures along with their history, I couldn't help but become very involved in getting as much as I could gather. Her folks were actually homesteaders and helped settle the west! You know ... history is dying every day and we are letting it slip by us by not recording it while those involved are still here. Get involved ... do some digging and you will be amazed at what you find and how engrossed you will become.
I may as well complete the family circle here while I'm at it. Above Doris and Arnold you see Joyce and I at our 50th Wedding Anniversary in December, 1998 and on the left is my Mother and Father at their 50th Anniversary in 1973. The picture on the right is the entire Heatherington family, grandchildren (of the time:-) and all except for my youngest daughter Carol who was not able to attend. It was taken at Mom and Dad's 50th Wedding Anniversary. They also had a very large banquet on their 60th Anniversary but I haven't found pictures of it yet. If my Father had lived two more months, they would have reached their Sixty Seventh Wedding Anniversary!! My Dad had Alzheimer's Disease when he died and I still get sad when I think of being at his hospital bedside constantly the two days he was dying. It was so sad to see a man of his talent and quick wit slowly, progressively, unknowingly nor willingly slip into that "shadowy, living tomb" within himself the past few years of his life. In his day he helped design parts for the Chrysler car and in the end ... he couldn't find the bathroom! My Mom passed away about five years later.
I took these pictures way back in the early seventies when Mom and Dad were living in Sundridge, Ontario after they retired. Happier times for them to be sure. I was "practising" doing portraits at the time and had them down in their Rec Room with lights, reflectors, etc. all over the place. I rather think they were getting a little fed up with me getting them to sit so long each time while I was setting up the camera shots. I think you can tell by the look on their faces that I was being a "pain-in-the-ass" but what the hell ... I had already worn poor Joyce out and needed new "victims!":-) I'm glad I did them now though as they are both retired in the "Big Place" and all we have now are memories and what pictures we are in possession of. Dad was born in 1903 and passed away in 1989. Mom was born in 1905 and passed away seven years later in 1996. Hard "taskmasters" they were but we loved them very much and thank them for raising us so strictly regardless. Maybe if the goddam government would keep their dirty hands off parenting as well as almost everything else, children would know what discipline is all about. Today, they get away with literal murder and our stupid laws will not allow parents to discipline their children. "Young Offenders Act" and all that b...s!
I'm afraid I would be remiss if I didn't include the picture on the left right along with all our family. Although I married the most wonderful gal in the world, I did have one love before meeting my wife Joyce. This love started when we were five or six years old and carried on until well after WW2 when I met and married Joyce. I have no regrets at all as we both have wonderful spouses and children (grandchildren too) but my love for this person will always be there and my wife ... angel that she is ... has always been aware of this. They have been good friends all these years even so and for this I am truly thankful. No scandal ... no "shady past romance" this, just a pure and wonderful love two people had for each other for a long time but eventually went their separate ways. It has never been a secret and never will be. That love is still as strong as ever.
I think the picture on the left must have been taken around 1940 while we were on vacation from Noranda, Quebec. We owned a farm near Burk's Falls, Ontario and always seemed to spend out time working on the old buildings, etc. as our vacation. It was a change from the mining towns that we lived in and it was considered to be "way down south" to us Northerners!! Anyway that's Dad's old 1935 Chrysler in the background and I would say that Andrew, my oldest brother, third from the left was just about the right age in it to join the Royal Canadian Air Force ... which he did. My brother Marshall (Pete), second from the left and a couple years younger than Andrew joined the Canadian Navy right after that and was loaned to the British Royal Navy for the remainder of the war. He served on an Aircraft Carrier in the Meditteranean and later pulled Destroyer duties in the Atlantic. As I was the youngest, (extreme left) I didn't get into the thick of it but I did manage to become a pilot but the war ended. I have to think that the enemy heard about me being almost ready to come and simply gave up .... the "chickens!" By the way that is also my Mom and Dad with my sister Doris in front of them. She would be about seven or eight at the time I would think
I'm not too sure what year the picture on the right was taken but I do know that it was when we lived in Noranda, Quebec. I would guess it was around 1941-42. That is my Dad in the fedora, my brother Andrew next to him, Marshall (Pete) next to Andrew and 'lil ole me on the end.
I remember two great big shaped portraits of my Gandparents (my Mother's Parents) with wonderfully ornate frames and it has been a mystery to me for many years whatever became of them. I just went through some old snapshots in my mother's belongings and found two very poor, fuzzy ones with Granny and Grandad in them. There is absolutely nothing I can do to make them clear but I worked on them as much as I dare and am posting them both in here so there at least will be something recorded of them. I remember my Grandad when I was a little guy. Everybody called him "The Guvner", a sort of English term apparently. I remember how big he seemed to me and how gentle and kind he was with everyone. He looked almost identical to King George 5th as well. I remember him sitting on his old chair outside on the porch of this old ramshackled house in the country near Doe Lake, five miles from Burk's Falls, Ontario, Canada. He had a most amazing way with wildlife. As he sat outside on the porch on his beat up old chair, the birds, squirrels and chipmunks would be all over him with no fear or nervousnes of him whatsoever! He hand fed them and they didn't just "grab and run or fly away", they would actually stay on his lap or shoulder and eat happily. Grandad walked one and a half miles one way every summer day to his old rowboat at Doe Lake and spend the whole day there fishing. Once in a while he would bring lots of fish home but I don't think he really cared one way or another just so long as he could be alone with his love, Mother Nature. He was a fabulous gardener too. You couldn't imagine what wonderful vegetables, etc. he grew every summer. In those days they stored potatoes, carrots, turnips, etc. in a "root cellar" which was really a large hole dug out of the ground with steps down into it and a heavy thick door. It was all covered over well for insulation against the cold winters so the vegetables wouldn't freeze. These vegetables generally lasted the winter until the next crop came in too! Perhaps somewhere in here later I'll tell you the most amazing story about that lake the day they took him away in the hearse .... well what the hell ... I'll do it now! My aunt Ann had a tourist farm on Doe Lake for years and Grandad's funeral took place there. I was very young but I can remember to this day like it just happened.
It was a bright summer day without a cloud in the sky the day of his funeral. As they brought the coffin out the door and up the walkway to the hearse, the sky went dark and a great wind came up with lightening and thunder crashing all over. The previously calm waters of the lake whipped into whitecaps like no one had ever seen before! Then a strange thing happened. Through this completely unreal and sudden darkness a brilliant "ray of sunshine" shone only onto his coffin as they carried it up the walkway to the hearse! As soon as they loaded his body onto that hearse, within seconds, everything went back to the way it was before .... a bright, beautiful cloudless day, sunny sky and a dead calm lake! Why? Well crazy or not I think Mother Nature or that "Power" up there was venting its anger for losing him or simply saying "Goodbye Old Friend."
Granny was a very small person and to look at her you would think she would be meek and mild, which she was most of the time. However if you were unfortunate enough to get in her "black books" then God help you! She could "lick her weight in wildcats" if she took the notion. I remember her sticking up for me when she saw someone abusing me in any way and she did it with a true "vengeance" too! Nobody but nobody ever had the nerve to "cross" my Granny. I don't remember how many children they had but it was a rather large family. I remember when Christmas or Easter came along they and their children (tons of them it seemed) would gather for such special occasions and although none of us had much in those days, we always seemed to have enough to eat and enough clothes on our backs. That's my Mother and her Mom, my Granny on the right. Not too good a picture but I did the best I could with it in PhotoShop. As my Mother got older, she too had pure white hair like Granny had. I guess it runs in the family because mine has gone beyond the "grey" look to the "white" look too :-)
The picture on the left will give you and idea of what the men's bathing suits looked like. Hell ... you should have seen the women's. You were lucky to even see an ankle then! These three fellows are of course doing a little "he-man stuff" showing off I assume and I could swear that the guy on the right (facing the picture) is my Dad. The big "show-off!!" The picture on the right is a typical picnic of the old days. How well I remember them. You could actually drink the lake water without worrying about that relatively "new scourge" ... pollution!! Here you see the kids paddling in Doe Lake which is five miles from Burk's Falls, Ontario, Canada and of course the ever present vigilance of an adult looking over them. Those were truly care-free days if I must say so. People had no money to speak of but always managed to "make their own fun" either by playing community baseball in one of the farmer's fields or picnics or "house dances." There was always someone who could whip up a tune on the fiddle and guitars and next thing you knew, you had a good old country hoedown going. I should know because I usually got stuck to play the guitar at them.
I couldn't believe it when I ran into this very old picture. You can tell it's old by the "cut" of the people in it and the fact that it was done in that ever popular format ... the "oval." I know that they are all past relatives of mine but for the life of me I cannot name them all as it was taken long before I was even a dirty thought.:-) I do know that on the left rear row standing, is my Grandad on my Mother's side and to the extreme right (kneeling) is my uncle Colin. He was a great "teller of tales" believe me. Right beside him, sitting, is my Granny and I know that my aunt Kate and her husband, uncle Tom are in there. Uncle Tom has the straw hat on and is sort of kneeling beside Grandad and his wife, my Aunt Kate is sitting in front of Grandad to his left. Got you confused? Hell ... I am! I'm sure my Mom and Dad are also in there but the quality of the picture and the age of it prevent me from being certain which ones they are. It, as I said before was taken a long time ago before I ever came into existence. I thought it was an intriguing old picture and dropped it in here. Hope I'm not boring you to death.
The picture on the right jumps not too far ahead of the one at the top left of this page. This is my next eldest brother, Marshal "Pete" in the Royal Canadian Navy. He joined up as soon as he could but immediately after his basic training, was "loaned" to the British Royal Navy and served on an Aircraft Carrier with them for the duration. He saw combat in the Mediteranean among other places. After VE Day he was on his way back across the Atlantic in heavy seas on the HMS Restigouche, a destroyer that had a one and a half foot split in its bow. He was returning to Canada to take training to help the Americains fight the Japs. Half way across the Atlantic, VJ Day was announced and World War Two was officially over! I believe this was taken while he was on leave at home before he left to go overseas originally. My oldest brother, Andrew (on the left) had previously joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and was stationed on the west coast at Sea Island as an airframe mechanic. Unfortunately I do not have a picture of him in his uniform but I am dropping a more recent picture of him and his wife, Linda in here for now. This picture was taken some time in the late nineties while they were visiting us here at my place. Andrew fell in love with B. C. and has lived there ever since. Unfortunately we haven't seen each other much over these past many years.
I'm afraid I would be remiss if I didn't include the picture on the left right along with all our family. Although I married the most wonderful gal in the world, I did have one love before meeting my wife Joyce. This love started when we were five or six years old and carried on until well after WW2 when I met and married Joyce. I have no regrets at all as we both have wonderful spouses and children (grandchildren too) but my love for this person will always be there and my wife ... angel that she is ... has always been aware of this. They have been good friends all these years even so and for this I am truly thankful. No scandal ... no "shady past romance" this, just a pure and wonderful love two people had for each other for a long time but eventually went their separate ways. It has never been a secret and never will be. That love is still as strong as ever.