by Wendy V. Smith (originally written January 2011) From 1956 to 1968, I lived on a farm in rural Ontario with my mother Joan, father Lloyd, my older brother Wayne and my two older sisters, Carol and Donna.  We had cows, pigs, sheep, lots of cats and Buster the dog.  Every spring, everyone helped Mom and Dad […]

by Wendy V. Smith (Originally written 2011; edited for Blog November 2019) To me, the dog and the cats were pets but to my parents the dog protected the house against the bush wolves and coyotes while the cats kept the mice and moles down to a minimum.  This is a memory of the cats […]

by Wendy V. Smith (originally written Jan 2011; edited for Blog November 2019) Our 200-acre farm was split into two 100-acre sections. Across the road had the section with the creek and Aunt ‘Liza’s abandoned house. The other section had our house. To me, this seemed like an enormous playground for us. As long as […]

By Wendy V. Smith (February 2011), revised and edited with memories from Wayne L. Smith (May 2016) Every year my cousins from Buffalo, New York, came for a visit and the summer of 1964, when I was 8, was no exception. While Sharlene and I spent time playing with dolls and baking in my Easy […]

by Wendy V. Smith (January 2011; edited July 2, 2020) This is a memory of a summer day in Rutherglen... Dad decided to go across the road into the bush along the Blue Sea Creek to clear some wood. Wayne and I had been making some extra cash by picking lyco. “How much, Dad?” asked […]

by Wendy V. Smith (January 2011, edited July 2, 2020) Wayne and I shared one bedroom on the second floor of our old farm house.  The bedroom window looked east, out through a large fragrant lilac tree over a very large glorious crab apple tree, to an immense vegetable garden, and beyond that one could see […]

by Wendy V. Smith (January 2011; edited July 2, 2020) Donna is 11 years older than me and Carol is 8 years older.  Donna and Carol were members of the 4H Club where young people learned how to do things that people did living in farming communities.  For example, they learned how to take care of a […]

The first year that registers in my mind is 1963 because that was when I was in Grade 1.  I must have printed 1963 hundreds of times at the top each page of my workbooks at school. It was my first year at Rutherglen Central School.  My best friend Lorna was one of our closest […]

by Wendy V. Smith (February 2011) The September when I was five years old was a very exciting time.  I could finally use that new lunch pail Mom had bought me, wear that new dress Mom had made and walk with Wayne and Buster down to the end of long driveway and wait at The Gate […]

The August day had just begun, and it was already hot.  There wasn’t a cloud in the blue sky. I ran down the stairs and out the porch door to catch up. “Where are you off too?” Mommy shouted. “To help Daddy,” I shouted back. “You kids be careful!” Mommy called her regular warning. “OK!” I […]

It was very difficult to sleep on Christmas Eve.  But the lack of sleep never stopped us from getting up Christmas morning way before sunrise.  I would open my eyes to solid blackness and listen to hear my Dad downstairs in the kitchen starting a fire in the wood stove.  I'd pull the blankets and flannel sheets […]

I remember standing in front of the long mirror at the end of the upstairs hall, gazing at the beautiful dress Mom made for me to wear to Carol’s wedding. 

Our farmhouse was a century home, made of logs with a red-brick faux facade.  By the time Wayne and I were born, there was electricity, a toilet and running water.  The floors creaked and the doors squeaked and while most of the time, living in an old farmhouse was a lot of fun, sometimes it […]