I grew up on a farm so my world was full of animals.
Not many were considered pets however ,even my dog Buster had a job to do . We had 1 dog, 13 cats , 20 cows , 1 bull, 2 horses , 50 chickens , 1 rooster, 20 sheep and 1 pig.
Busters was the same age as me and was sort of my brother. He was a white and orange border coley(Heinz 57) .His job was to bark like crazy if any wild animals came around . He saved my life once by attacking the bull so I could run away. I cried a lot when he died. He died of old age when we were 13 years old.
The cats job was to kill the mice and rats that were eating our grain and vegetables. We never fed them so they were always hungry. They might get a dish of milk when we milked the cows.
I had around 20 banty chickens that I looked after . You could eat the eggs but they where really just pets I guess.
With all these animals around I was never lonely and could always find something to do .
Trying to find where the kittens were hidden every spring was fun.
Looking after the calves has a big job but was fun too.
Watching the city people mooing at the cows was funny too.
You never made friends with the pig cause he only lived for one year.
Thanks to the support from companies like Esso , Flint , etc. in Whitecourt we raised $30,000 selling sand bags to the oil patch. We rented a grey hound bus and sold the empty seats to other scout troops (Kitscotty , Marthorp ) . We took 30 kids from Whitecourt.
The Jamboree went off without a hitch thanks to the premium planning by scouters and Thunder Bay city officials, and countless helping citizens. Over 13,000 scouts, parents, volunteers, and leaders made this event into one that is still remembered fondly today, and showed why Scouting is the largest youth movement in the world.
see the video.
Darren went to CJ93 too. Not many scouts get to go to two CJ’s.
CJ93 was in Kananaskis Alberta . I took my cub troop there for a day visit. A scout troop from NewfoundLand was our host.
12,000 attended . Darren had a great time there. video.
Start with Amy .. watching her and her friends jumping around in the wreck room dancing to “Girls Just Want to have Fun”.
Joey .. Having the doctor wrap his whole head in a bandage after he burned his face with gun powder in Powell River. Thank god he had his glasses on. He went trick or treating with the bandage on that night. He didn’t really need the bandage. It was a joke between me and the doctor.
Darren .. tracking him down at CJ93 in Kananaskis Alberta. It took me a while to find him. He was having so much fun there. He just asked me for some money and turned around and went back to the activities.
We had many great times together. Mostly camping , scouting , hiking etc.
Dad was a farmer who quit farming when he was 50 because he hurt his back. To go from farming to being an hourly paid employee took a lot of courage. With some help from his friends he pulled it off.
One of dads sayings was “If you can’t say anything good about somebody don’t say anything at all” .
Dad was a past master of the Mattawa Masonic Lodge 268.
Much of what dad did was because he was a Mason. I know they helped many people that were in trouble.
Dad was a supporter of the United church , did some road work for the Town Ship of Bonfield and drove a school bus.
Another saying of dad’s was “Damn the Luck”. I heard him say this when the baler (or something) broke down and when he found out he had leukemia. I miss him.
Helmcken Falls, in Wells Grey Provincial Park in BC.
Desolation Sound Marine Park , Lund , BC.
I’ve been to Europe , Australia , Arizona all over Canada but the two above are pretty unbelievable.
To see Wells Grey properly you need a canoe and tent . You can see the falls with a car but not the volcanoes and true wilderness of the park .
Candle Lake Sask .. Northern Lights
Candle Lake Sask .. 50 teenage Canada Geese with 5 mothers all in one flock on the beach. The mothers were watching me very carefully but they did not run away. I just backed away slowly.
The Grand Canyon .. hard to believe.
Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick. watch the tide go out or in.
She always had my back . Even made my sisters angry because she spoiled me so much. She was a city girl who had to become a farmers wife and she did most things better than the farm girls like. Knitting , CREWEL EMBROIDERY, CROCHET, QUILTING , SMOCKING , she made shirts and pants too. I learned knitting , embroidery and sewing from her. She was into many crafts too like copper tooling, paint by numbers.
Mom was a leader / member of the 4H , UCW(United Church Women) and WI(Women’s Institute) .
Mom taught me a lot about making preservers , pickles and cooking in general. As a kid I was her helper in the kitchen. She was an unreal cook. When I went to university I did the cooking and the other guys did the cleaning , there was four of us. After I got married Rita banned me from the kitchen.
Moms love of flowers and things that grow is still with me today. We had a big garden on the farm .
Mom won a lot of prizes at the fall fair in Bonfield and used the money to buy her cherished china that Amy and Meghan now has.
Some farm things she did but wasn’t that great at like milking cows, shoveling manure, driving tractors . She always sang out of key.
A drink of iced water. When doing hard work like loading and unloading wagons full of hay-bales on a hot summers day there’s nothing better.
Camping . watching the fire burn and tending it. Going for a bike ride through the camp ground. Meeting different people at the camp ground. They all seem to have interesting stories about why they are at the camp ground. Like: just got divorced. Looking for a job in Alberta (They were from New Brunswick). Installing wind turbines in the summer and living in Florida in the winter.
Watching the wild life . The rabbits and prairie dogs hide in the camp ground to avoid the coyotes. Teasing the squirrels. Making poogy pies on the fire. Fishing at Carson Pegasus Park in Alberta.
Hiking when Rita was able. She drives around on her scooter now.
Driving across Canada and finding interesting places to feast like “Bills sticky fingers” in Portage La Praire Manitoba. (Best ribs in Canada).
Trans Canada Motel in Dryden Ontario. Fried Baloney and Corn Chowder (was owned by two new-fees but I think it burned down. I miss it).
“The Sub Place” in North Bay Ontario (the best roast chicken subs in Canada).
Andrea’s in Bracebridge Ontario (real Spanish coffee and beef tenderloin stroganoff)
“The Green Gables” in Whitecourt Alberta (best prime rib in Canada, owner was a butcher )
The Granada in Powell River BC (Baked spaghetti )
The White Fox Inn, Thunderbay (spent our anniversary there)
Saskatoon has many great restaurants too like The Granary, Mano’s , Arby’s, to name a few.
(Originally written and posted to Wayne’s Storyworth in 2023)
My favorite store was “The Joke Shop” on main street in North Bay , Ontario.
Why? You could buy itching powder and little fire crackers to put in cigarettes. The itching powder was sprinkled down my sisters back . The little fire crackers were pushed into the end of a cigarette . When somebody bummed a smoke you would give him the one with a fire cracker in it. When you lit the smoke for him it would blow up. The smoke ended up looking like a peeled banana.
The store had many neat things in it.
(Originally written by Wayne for Storyworth in 2023. His memory is from around 1960. The Joke Shop was on the corner of Main Street and Wyld Street, just a few doors down from Loblaws.)
There’s a few things to point out in this picture. Dad had a push-lawnmower that he obviously hadn’t used in awhile. The tub was our “swimming pool”. My memories of it were very exciting. As you can see by my face I was totally happy. The “playhouse” is behind us. I’m told, it used to be the chicken coop and it was in a different location. But Dad moved it here for us to use as a playhouse. It also was very exciting. And then there’s Buster!! Our fantastic, great dog. Half collie, half husky. The best dog ever.
Again, about in the same area as above, but looks like Dad cut the lawn. The store-bought swimming pool was a luxury. Wayne is a little shy of hair on his head from his surgery. Looking behind us is the garage, that I don’t think had a door and I don’t remember a vehicle ever being in it. To the top right, is about the spot where Wayne faced the bull, nose to nose. AND there’s Buster – best dog ever, with his collie-white mane and curled up husky tail and short-round snout.
Thanks Wayne for finding these pictures and sending them to me.
This picture is one that I had developed from a box of negatives that I found in the old Pennell home in Rutherglen. This clothesline stand is a big memory for me and was still there beside the porch door when we moved from house in 1968. Although I can’t make out her face well, I’m assuming this is my grandmother, Alice Pennell. This stand was Buster’s (our family dog) summer home. Off to the left, you can see someone on a ladder, likely picking apples from the small crab apple tree that was beside the house. It was to become a beautiful huge tree, flowering in the spring and giving us crab apples in the summer.
As I looked at this picture, I was puzzled that the clothes were not hung on a line-and-pulley, but on lines attached to the wooden crossbars. So I researched the line-and-pulley clothesline and found that it was patented until 1939.
Here is the clothesline stand again taken during the winter of 1956-1957. The crossbars are gone and the huge pole on the left is likely topped with a wheel and pulley.
