There are a couple of different accounts of Grampa’s passing. Hazel Eady passed along, in a 1992 letter, that the gossip was out there, that Grampa confessed on his death bed that he did not have his “proper name”.
So while the “death bed” confession as been de-bunked, a confession did take place on the eve of Aunt Edna’s and Uncle Cliff’s wedding.
Then there’s my brother’s memory of what he heard:
Grandpa died with his pants halfway pulled up. He was getting dressed in the morning and didn’t finish. (Guess it could have been when he went to bed or in the middle of the night too) So he was sitting on the edge of his bed and fell backwards on the bed. Didn’t even bump his head. Edna went up to see why he had not come down at his usual time. She found him dead laying on his back halfway in the bed with his pants half way on. I think Edna already knew something wasn’t right anyway.
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.
Food Basics now have green opaque produce bags that many consumers THINK are composable. One gentleman actually told me he loves to use them because he reuses them with his green waste. OMG!!
Also today I saw a woman put a mesh bag of onions into a green produce bag – WHY?? Also bananas – what are they protecting themselves from? The peel comes off – same with oranges. And things that you don’t peel, you wash before you eat.
Its so frustrating going grocery shopping. I walk around with my cell phone, posting and bitching on Facebook.
On February 10, 1921, my grandfather A. W. Smith bought 22 shares at $5.00 each in the Rutherglen Rural Telephone Company, Limited (Ontario). This rural telephone company would have been bought by Bell Telephone.
What happened to these shares? Are they still valid?
Thank you for looking into this for me.
Wendy Smith
February 20, 2012 Email from investor.relations@bell.ca
Good afternoon!
Thank you for your email. No, those old certificates are no longer valid. Bell bought hundreds of rural companies 40-50 years ago. In most cases, shareholders received their payout without having to return their old certificates. That could be the case. If not, then, after so many years, rights belongings to past arrangements become obsolete.
“The old reliable on a Sunday morning” is written on the back of this photo.
To date this picture, I zoomed in on the license plate and Googled “Ontario License Plates” which resulted in the image behind the photo. With this, I was able to date the picture to 1922.
Also note, when I zoomed in on the license, over the back wheel, there are two little faces I hadn’t seen before. This is the 1922 version of photo-bombing!! I can only make an educated guess that these two little faces belong to Lloyd (my Dad) and Emmett.
The people standing to the right of the car are likely (L-R) Vera, Uncle Chester & Gramma. Standing on the step of the car looks like Georgina (“Jo”). (Always thought this was Grampa, but when you zoom in you can see that the face looks more like Uncle Chester).
This was taken between the house and the “Milk Shed” (the logged building on the left) at our farm in Rutherglen.
There are very few pictures of Grampa in the “early” days, without white hair and a mustache. So you might not recognize Grampa in this photograph believed to be taken at the funeral of his mother, Great-grandma, Leah Eady, who died May 28, 1924. When I found out that Grampa’s biological father was not actually a Smith, it changed the way I looked at these pictures, now knowing that the half-siblings were really step-siblings.
L-R: Henry (step), Emerson (Willard’s son), Willard (step), Orin (half) and Grampa. Henry, Willard and Orin are all sons of Philander Smith. Henry’s and Willard’s mother was Ann Dean, the 2nd wife of Philander. Orin’s and Grampa’s mother was Leah Eady, 3rd wife of Philander. The centre woman in front is Annie Scobie (Eliza Ann Smith), full sister to Henry and Willard. Her husband died one year before this photo. She would later marry John Mullen. Next to Annie is Georgina, full sister to Orin. Missing is Julia, Orin’s twin sister. The woman to the left of Annie looks nothing like other pictures I have of Julia.
The identification in the top picture “Third Row #2”, being that she “looks like Grandma Smith”. Of course, its not her as this is her funeral. And can’t be any of Leah’s sisters as Leah was the last surviving female of the siblings.
“Rutherglen – in front of the farm house before it was sheeted in. Taken in 1915.”
Dad, born in 1917, isn’t in the picture of course. Aunt Edna said that was a big deal as every time he saw the picture, he’d get angry because he thought he was in the house and no one called him out for the picture.
This house would be our farm house. The thin sapling behind Aunt Edna’s shoulder became a huge lovely tree that shaded and cooled the back yard on hot summer days.
L-R: Chester, Georgina, Grampa, Elmo, Vera, Gramma, Emmett and Edna
“Billy Hill got some money from Grandpa. He was famous at the dances in Rutherglen because he would [become intoxicated] and step dance like crazy up on the stage. Last time I saw him was at the Orange Lodge and he fell off the stage. He sure could step dance. He lived between Jackson’s gas station and Westley Rose’s grandma’s in a tiny house.”
