Our “third Bobbsey Twin” is in a hurry to grow up and become a teacher, and meanwhile adventures mount amid family ailments and neighbourhood tragedies. But there’s always plenty of fun to be had, with new teachers, new dolls – and boys.

Miss McKinnon used to read to us and encouraged us to visit the local library, and another world was opened to me. At the time, the library was in the old Town Hall, now a museum but then a magical place where I could borrow books, read them and come back for more. I started out with young children’s stories but once I began the “Bobbsey Twins”, I was hooked. (Once, when the teacher asked us to name a country, I associated “country” with the place where the Bobbsey Twins visited, a rural area, and told her “Meadowbrook”. She tried to correct me but I stuck to that name so she just let it drop).

Previous chapters: Part 1 @ Part 2 @ Part 3 @ Part 4

I read all the volumes the little library had to offer and almost lived the adventures those twins had. I even built a snow house for Sister after reading about it in their book. That winter and early spring, I would play outside until supper, come in, eat then go to my room and sit beside the hot air register with a book and read until told to get ready for bed. Many nights, I would move my table light under the covers and read. It’s a wonder I didn’t set the bedding on fire.

In the spring, my parents decided to put the henhouse to use by ordering about a hundred baby chicks. It was too cold for them outside yet so they were put in Sister and my room, which was the warmest bedroom. Father constructed a barrier around the register and now the chicks were getting the heat I use to relish when reading. Other than the noise of all that peeping and the smell, we enjoyed having chicks as room mates and brought up friends to see them. But soon the henhouse was ready and as soon as the chicks got their feathers, they were moved to their new quarters.

Mother liked having her own home after years of bouncing around Europe, so she spent a lot of time making the place shine. Saturdays, while Sister and I were having our bath, she would wash the linoleum in our room and put on a light coat of paste wax, then run the polisher over it. We were tucked into fresh, clean beds, scrubbed and shampooed with the smell of paste wax in the air. Paste wax still brings back those memories.

By now, Carolyn and I were the best of friends and began to notice boys. There was one in my class who I used to look at but never spoke to. Julian was very popular and used to hold hands and walk home with a cute girl with blonde, curly hair. I was envious of her, but too shy to speak to either of them, so neither knew of my feelings. Julian was my first crush.

Carolyn and I used to skip rope and play hopscotch, both at home and at school and soon we induced two younger boys on our street to turn the rope or play hopscotch. They of course only did this when there wasn’t anything else to do or when no one was around, so at other times we also would play other games. Red Rover was one game we played with children of all ages, and throwing a ball against the corner garage’s cement wall was another. Roller skating and riding our bikes included those two boys as well as others, so we had lots of fun. In the spring we climbed over a fence to a summer home and played scrub baseball in their yard. With scrub, we needed no sides and took turns playing all positions. There was a park a block away and the town made a skating rink there each year, so we all went skating under the floodlights. My parents must have got us a toboggan because we used to go to a hill around the corner and play there until cold or hunger sent us home.

Father’s health wasn’t very good after his rheumatic fever as a youth and his exposure to the cold and wet in the trenches during the war. Now, his heart was starting to fail and he had many episodes when he couldn’t go to work. Mother decided that in September, when sister would begin kindergarten, she would try and find housecleaning jobs to help out. The Sisters held the mortgage on our home and they wouldn’t foreclose on us, so this extra income would help with the food and other expenses. Brother was in Grade 8 in September, I was in Grade 5 and Sister in kindergarten. Mother made arrangements for Sister to go to both morning and afternoon sessions, so I would walk her to school, pick her up at noon for lunch at home then bring her back for the afternoon. One time I felt sorry for her having to go to school when she didn’t have to and left her alone at home, telling her to go and play with a four-year-old across the road. Mother must have found out, because I got punished and Sister went back to all-day kindergarten.

Carolyn’s cat had kittens and I longed for one of my own, but Father didn’t want one. One day I “borrowed” a little brown tabby from Carolyn and had fun with it until suppertime, when Father got home. I didn’t want him to see the new arrival, so put it upstairs in my room and went to supper. Partway through the meal we could hear this meowing under the table and out came Brownie. Father never said a word. He looked at Mother, then at us and left the table. The rest of the meal was silent, and I dreaded what was to come after that, but was in for a surprise. When Father left, Brownie followed him and when we finally went into the living room, there was Brownie, curled up in Father’s lap and he was stroking her. Brownie stayed!

Father couldn’t do the strenuous work at Mount Mary, so he found odd jobs around town, when he was well enough to work. Now I was in charge of seeing that the dishes were done, the place cleaned up and a meal started for when Mother came home. Sometimes I failed at these tasks but was reminded promptly about my responsibility, so I tried harder.

Only once do I remember playing hooky from school. I waited until Sister went off and hid in the house, meaning to do all sorts of work I never seemed to have time for. But, I reasoned, Mother would wonder when I had time to do all this work if I was in school all day, so I decided to read and did nothing. I was never found out.

That Easter, my parents came home with a special present for the family – a Springer Spaniel pup, black and white, that we names Pinnochio because he had such a hard time standing on the waxed linoleum in the kitchen. Pinnochio was very attached to my parents although he loved going to the hill and chase us as we went sliding down.

Father got worse that fall but rallied around before Christmas so we had a good holiday. Mother had many jobs now and was able to supplement his income so we were all right. We had our own eggs and chickens, Mother put up lots of fruit and vegetables from our large garden and the Sisters helped out occasionally with things we really needed.
My Aunt had been moved to Toronto by now so we rarely saw, her but we had friends in the nuns at Mount Mary and the whole congregation helped us. Mother’s jobs also had benefits. When she worked at the grocer’s house, he let her charge things in the store and work it off. At another place, the lady helped us by arranging for us to buy clothes at her father’s store in Hamilton and also pay on installments.

Each year, Sister and I would be taken to that store and either get our winter clothes or summer clothes, alternating each year. Here’s Sister and me in our new dresses – notice the gap in my mouth?

How I loved trying on dresses, skirts, blouses or sweaters and being able to chose which I wanted. All our coats and hats were also bought there, and sometimes even Mother got something new. Now when I went to school I was dressed as well if not better than most girls in my class, and didn’t feel so self-conscious, being older than the others. One thing that bothered me a lot, though, was the gap in my smile where that tooth was ripped out so long ago, but that too was fixed, thanks to Mother’s job.

She worked at the dentist’s home once a week because their son was born with club feet and required a lot of attention and care from his mother so once a week Mother would go to help with the heavy work.

One day, the dentist and his family – that’s them in the picture – came to our house for a visit and after meeting me, he told my parents he could help me, and soon I found myself in his office being measured for a dental plate with two wires that pushed the two teeth apart, making the gap wide enough for a false tooth. After several months, a tooth was added to the plate and the wires removed and now I could smile without embarrassment. This plate was so well made that I didn’t have to have it replaced until after I was married!

To help pay for this work, Father offered to do carpentry work for this dentist, so the fee was paid off quickly and both parents went on working for this kind man, but this time bringing home the money. Without kind people like these we would have had a harder time managing.

Brother was given an old bicycle and he rode it all over the town and beyond with the other boys. They used to go swimming in an old quarry some distance from our home, and one day the boys were late getting back. Mother got worried and asked around to see if the other boys had returned, and that’s when she found out there’d been an accident at the quarry. Since she had no way of getting out there she had to wait, and finally Brother got home, much to Mother’s relief, and told us one of the boys drowned. This boy dove in and never reappeared, so the others dove and dove trying to locate him without success. They rode to the first farm they saw and had them call the police. By the time the police came, the fire department and other rescuers, it was late before the boys were released to go home. The drowning of course had a very strong impact on Brother, and he never went to that quarry again.

In April 1951 I turned 11 and was expected to help Mother on some of her office-cleaning jobs. She cleaned both the Township office as well as the bank and I dusted, emptied waste baskets, ran the polisher and did other easy jobs. I would look at all the things the staff had on their desks and plan what I would have on mine when I began teaching and had my own desk. I acquired two orange crates and made myself a desk in the basement where I would pretend I was a teacher to a class of invisible kids.

That fall I entered Grade 6 and started to grow up a bit. We no longer stayed in one room but had to rotate to different classrooms for different subjects. Once a week a minister would come to teach Bible lessons and us Catholic students were sent out to wait in the nurse’s room for the duration. I always wondered what they talked about that I couldn’t hear.

Carolyn and I played together a lot now and sometimes her sister allowed her to come home from school instead of going to her aunt’s, so we had more time together. In her backyard grew a pussy willow tree, with low branches and easy to climb. Carolyn and I would take our dolls and pretend the tree was our house and different branches were rooms. We must have looked weird sitting in that tree with most of Carolyn’s dolls straddling branches like a doll-decorated Christmas tree.

One time as Carolyn was getting down, she saw a garter snake and scurried back up. Since she was deathly afraid of snakes and wouldn’t come down, brave me had to get down, find a large branch and beat the snake to death. Only then would Carolyn come down.
Another day, Carolyn and I decided we didn’t like climbing that tree any more, so we wanted to make beds for our dolls beside the fence. We dragged boards out of her cellar, found nails and a hammer and were soon banging together bunk beds, attached to the rails of the fence. We worked so hard and were so proud of what we had accomplished – until Carolyn’s father got home. Was he upset! He made up take the boards all apart and carry everything back into the cellar. Carolyn usually got her own way, but not this time.

Sister was now in Grade 1, and one day during the noon hour I went to look for her, but she wasn’t there so, being snoopy, I walked around pretending this was my class. When I got to the teacher’s desk I examined all the things on it, and couldn’t resist opening the drawers to see what a teacher kept in there. I didn’t touch anything, just looked. To my horror, a boy was hidden at the back of the room and since I didn’t see him, I was terrified when the Grade 1 teacher called me out of my room and questioned me about what I was doing in her desk. I lied like a trooper and told her I wasn’t in there, that I only went in to find Sister. The teacher couldn’t break my story, so she let me go, but I never again peeked in another desk until I had one of my own.

Like other schools, we played baseball and had field days. I excelled at both, even beating some boys in a foot race around the playing field. The area next to the school was paved and we called this the “tarvia”. There was a white line painted down the middle, dividing the place for boys and girls and Carolyn and I would jump rope just inside the girls side so the boys could see how athletic we were. By now Carolyn liked a boy on our street called Terry and I liked his friend Tommy, also on our street. But these boys avoided us at school and only played with us at home.

With Mother working we no longer kept chickens, so I decided to clean out the part where the feed was stored and use the area for a playhouse. I got it all cleared out and made a nice home for my dolls where Carolyn and I played hours on end. One morning, as I opened the door to go in, I saw a large garter snake curled up on the doorstep trying to keep warm. My first reaction was to run, which I did, but then stopped, knowing I wasn’t scared of snakes. When I got back the snake was gone, but I never told Carolyn because if she knew there were snakes around there, she never would set foot in that henhouse again.

The old manure from the chickens was still behind the house and when Mother was moving some to put into our garden, she told us, she’d uncovered a nest of garter snakes, but just let them be because they were good for keeping mice and other pests out of her vegetables.

Our Grade 6 homeroom teacher, Mr Ross, was very interested in Gilbert and Sullivan operettas and played them on the record player during our lessons. He had us conduct the orchestra when he played classical music and once arranged for the class to see and hear a rehearsal of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra. He loved movie musicals and sang or played pieces from a lot of them. He was so enthusiastic that I developed a love for musicals, operettas and classical music and have passed on this love to several students over the years, as well as some 4-H members.

Mr Ross also taught science, and was far ahead of his time in how he presented the subject to us. We had an outdoor classroom, in a boggy wetland behind the playing field where we studied the flora and fauna under the open sky. We collected the cocoons of Monarch butterflies and praying mantises and watched them hatch before turning them loose in a safe environment. He was an easy-going teacher who we all loved, but one day Carolyn and I got the giggles and just couldn’t stop. Mr Ross lost his cool and took us into the cloakroom for a good scolding. Another time Carolyn and I weren’t speaking to each other but kept passing notes, stating how we didn’t want to see each other again. Mr Ross intercepted one of the notes and again took us into the cloakroom, this time telling us he didn’t want either of us to talk to each other or to even look at each other. After school, Carolyn and I couldn’t get over the nerve of that man, telling us we couldn’t talk or look at each other, and whatever we were angry about was forgotten.

That Christmas, Mother came home from shopping and told me about a large boy doll she saw downtown. I hadn’t had a doll to replace the one sister ruined in the sink, so I was all ears and dreamed of this doll. I knew there was little chance of me getting him because there was little money, but I hoped and snooped everywhere until I found where he was hidden. I kept quiet, but went around the neighbourhood begging for baby cast-offs so I would have clothes for him. That year Carolyn received a boy doll too, but hers had a pressed-sawdust head and cloth body. Mine had a plastic head and a rubber body.

Those dolls were played with every moment we could spare and unknown to me, that playing was related to a girl living near a house being built by Brother and this girl would be in my class in my new school. (The full story about Lydia’s last doll is here.)

Carolyn’s and my birthdays were both in April, and we went to each other parties, like the one picture dhere, where she’s in the front row and I’m in the back, second from the left, next to her father). But if one or the other birthday fell during the Lenten period, my parents wouldn’t allow me to celebrate, so every once in a while I had to miss out either mine or Carolyn’s. I hated that, but respected my parents’ decision. Sister’s birthday was in July so she never missed out.

A girl in our class lived not far from us and had a carriage house on her property that was now used as a garage. There was a large attic in there, and Linda and some of her friends cleaned it out and we held weekly sewing meetings in there. We would bring embroidery, hand sewing or mending and sit in a circle, each doing her own job, while telling stories, singing or just going over events that happened that week. This club didn’t last very long, but we sure had fun while it did.

Just down the road from Linda’s house was an old grist mill with a dammed-up pond where Linda and her sister used to go swimming. We weren’t allowed to join them because we couldn’t swim well and there was no supervision. That mill has since been turned into a fine restaurant and, other than being spruced up, is still the same as when we were growing up.

Father, with the Sisters’ help, had acquired an old car and got a licence, and we were now able to go for short rides. We would walk to church on Sunday mornings and when we got back Mother packed a lunch or supper and we would take off for the day. We drove highways and sideroads alike. One day we passed a one-room schoolhouse set near some trees with a bell on the roof and swings in the playground. My imagination really took fire that day, and I pictured myself teaching in just such a school when I got older. I had read a book about some children who were living in an area where there was no school and had to wait until a railway car arrived, fitted out with desks, and how those children came from miles around just to learn. Now I wanted to be such a teacher, in a small room.

Although my school was large, with rooms for each grade, I wanted to be in a small environment. Once while driving, Father finished his bottle of pop and threw the straw out the window – only the window was closed and his hand hit the pane. Oh, how we all laughed!

We travelled to Brantford to see the homestead of Alexander Graham Bell – Father was still teaching us things without us knowing we were being taught. Now we could take trips to go swimming in Lake Ontario on the Burlington Beach strip. Many days were spent building sand castles and swimming in the lake.

Across the road from the beach rides were offered to those that had money and occasionally we got to ride the merry-go-round or drive the bumper cars. There were food concessions around but with us bringing our own packed lunches, we only bought an ice cream cone or a cold pop.

Father got worse and stayed ill for longer periods, so Brother had to quit school and get a job in construction. Ancaster was expanding, and new subdivisions were springing up all around the village, so he soon got hired. A new Catholic church had just been built and a new school was in the process of going up. I was told that when the new school was ready, Sister and I would be going there, and I didn’t like that idea very much at all. I was happy in Memorial School with my friends and didn’t know what to expect in this new school. The teachers in Memorial told my parents that Brother would have a hard time getting work without at least finishing Grade 8, so they gave him a verbal test and he received his diploma.

He got his licence to drive and now he was the main chauffer when we went for rides whenever Father was too ill. One day when Father was in the hospital we went to Lake Ontario, and Brother and I had a race to see who could get to the water first. I reached the water, and when I looked around and didn’t see Brother I thought I won – until Brother stood up in the shallow water, his face covered in blood. He was disoriented, so I guided him to the beach and ran for the lifeguard. Mother tried to stop the bleeding until the lifeguard arrived and told us Brother would have to be taken to the hospital in Hamilton. He wrapped a bandage around Brother’s head and Brother drove us all to St Joseph’s Hospital on the on the other side of Hamilton. I don’t know how brother managed to get us there in one piece. His eyes were almost swollen shut and the bandage was soaked with blood. When we got there the nurse took one look at him and he was rushed into the emergency room, where he received several stitches to close the gap. He stayed in there for a few days, so we visited both Brother and Father until they both got out.

Carolyn’s sister and her friend were very into a local country-and-western band called the Main Street Jamboree who played on the Hamilton radio station and performed live concerts around the area. One place where they put on Saturday night shows was at the Spring Valley Auditorium, just outside of Ancaster. Carolyn always went with her family, and once in a while they took me along for company for her. That was the beginning of my love of country music. We had an old cabinet radio, and I asked to have it in my room, where I would listen to the live broadcasts every Saturday night whenever I couldn’t go with Carolyn. The next day we would discuss what happened at the show and I could imagine the things that I missed hearing on the radio.

The Jamboree featured singer Jack Kingston with a band consisting of Wally Traugott, Eddie Preston, Maurice Bolyer and others. The emcee was Gordie Tapp, also known as “Gaylord”, and he did a routine where he was a hillbilly called Cousin Clem. Gordie was later seen on the US show “Hee Haw” and is now doing commercials for Posturepaedic Adjustable Beds. (When he came to a local fair a few years ago, I had him autograph a picture I took of him with the Jamboree, and he said that sure was a long time ago.)

Spring Valley was a new subdivision built on the top of a steep valley where every May 24 the town held a huge fireworks display. We all sat on the sloping sides and the firemen set of the fireworks at the bottom. As it was starting to get dark, sparklers were passed out and at a given signal, all were lighted for an unforgettable display of waving lights. Then the main display started. I first went there with Carolyn, and later Father took us then Brother and then Mother.

When new homes were being built around Spring Valley, children of the older homes found lots of sand to play in around the construction sites, and one day a family missed their pre-schooler. They searched by themselves, then called the police, and they finally found a child that was with the boy that afternoon. A trench was being dug for the septic system and the girl told the police the boy was in the hole when the bulldozer filled it in. She was about four, and didn’t think to tell anyone until asked if she’d seen the boy. When they dug him out, the parents were so overwrought that they moved away from Ancaster. We used to whisper about how that poor boy must have tried to get out and we all cried.

Around this same time the Sisters were also building a new school to hold Grades 7 to 12 for girls of parents who wanted a private education for their daughters. These Sisters already had such schools in other provinces, as well as the United States, and there was a need in Ancaster. Brother’s construction company got the job of erecting this boarding school, and I heard all about what a great place this would be. So in September, when St Ann’s School wasn’t ready to open yet, Sister returned to Memorial and I was enrolled at the new Mount Mary Academy in Grade 7. There were only a few girls there at the beginning, but word of mouth soon filled the classrooms with boarders and day students. The Sisters waived the yearly fees for me because of my parents’ hardships, and I began Grade 7 in a different environment. I didn’t like it one bit.

Now I no longer saw Carolyn except after school and weekends and didn’t like the few girls in my class. Two weeks after school began, St Ann’s opened and Sister was enrolled. I cried and begged and was finally allowed to enroll also, so the first day, instead of going to Mount Mary, I went to St Ann’s, but failed to tell the nuns, thinking that because they also were teachers in that new school, they would tell the others. My own teacher was a man, Mr Lunney (rhyming with funny, as he pointed out that first day), so the nuns didn’t know about my switch until the records were in the office a few days later. I was chastised for not telling Mount Mary but I was accepted and remained there until I graduated.

I loved St Ann’s. Most children were new to me, but a few had been in my grade at the public school so it wasn’t totally strange to me. Also, I knew the nuns, so that made it seem more like home. At first, we had only four rooms opened, and my class held Grade 7 and 8. There was a kindergarten, a Grade 1 to 3 and a Grade 4 to 6. We were more like a large family than a school, since none of the classes was very full. One morning, just after our bus arrived at the school, two little girls who walked to school were waiting to cross the highway when a transport truck tire fell off a moving vehicle and rolled towards them. It hit one girl, breaking her leg and creating quite a sensation for the rest of us. (When I started teaching in my first school in Georgetown one of my pupils was the younger brother of the girl who was hit by the tire.)

Work was still ongoing around the building and the grounds, but that didn’t bother us. St Ann’s was created to look like an old Spanish villa with a red tiled roof, white stucco and arches across the front.

The church next door was also in that style and we were very proud of it. Our class had the distinction of choosing our school colours and finally settled on green and gold. The girls wore navy blue tunics and the boys dressed in neat clothes. Sometime after school opened to the pupils, there was a grand opening with a lot of dignitaries, priests, nuns and parents. Father, who loved photography, took pictures of the event.

There were only about 18 of us in that class and I soon had my eye on a boy in Grade 8, Mickey. He was of Italian descent and very good-looking, but as before, I never spoke to him, just yearned from afar. Larry was in my grade and we became somewhat friendly. His family had adopted one of the orphans who came to Mount Mary just before we left there, so I felt a kinship to him. We remained friends throughout the two years we were in St Ann’s, and I found out later that he was entering the priesthood. Not too long ago I tracked him down in California where he is now a monsignor.

Also going to this school was Gary, who was in Canadian Martyr’s with me when I went to Hamilton. Gary had a twin sister, but they were as different as night and day. Gary was dark and a bit slow because of epilepsy and Gail was blonde and very smart. While Gary remained in grade school, Gail was now well into her high-school years. I found out from Carolyn years later that Gary had had a bad episode and died.

Mr Lunney had a unique way of teaching us. His desk was at the back of the room and after assigning us our work, he put his feet on the desk, took out his guitar and sang old songs for us. It was from him that my love for Irish music began. We learned all the Irish songs he knew, and the two years I was there we put on concerts on St Patrick’s Day on the Mount Mary stage for parents and anyone else who wanted to come. We knew the words to “Danny Boy” and the “Old Colonial Boy” as well as we knew the national anthem. Mr Lunney sang old ballads like “The Wreck of the Old 99” and many songs the cowboys used to sing while on the range.

When we weren’t singing and our work was done, we had a 20-question quiz. He would think up questions, jot down the answers and we would see how many we could answer. He caught quite a few of us by asking when the War of 1812 was. English was one of his favourite topics, and early in our first year with him we learned the difference between asking “can I” and “may I”. If one of us wanted to go to the washroom, we would ask, “Can I go to the bathroom?” and he would reply, “Yes, you can”, then wait until we were nearly at the door and then say, “but you may not”. It took a while for us to catch on, but it wasn’t long before we knew the difference and used the correct term. I still find myself correcting children to this day.

Mr Lunney wasn’t married, and we were all interested when we heard he was seeing a girl. We even saw them together during Mass one Sunday, so learned who this red-haired female was. Teachers at our school tried to visit every pupil’s home at least once during the year and let the parents get to know them, rather than have open house at school where everyone only had a few minutes together. The day Mr Lunney was to visit my home, one of the girls told me she heard him talking about bringing his female friend to our house, so I wanted to impress him by repeating her name over in my mind.

Imagine my embarrassment when I came into the room, greeted Mr Lunney and the girl by name, only to discover he had brought a different woman! I turned all shades of red, stumbled over an apology and backed out as fast as I could. The next day I didn’t want to go to school, but Mother made me, and much to my relief Mr Lunney never said a word about the blunder and I never told any of my friends.

When we entered Grade 8, the Grade 7 pupils were all new to our room, and one girl, Carol, had a way of getting sympathy from all of us. She looked sickly with her dark hair, blue eyes and very pale skin. She was always fainting or almost fainting when we had to go to any service in the church, and the nuns would rush to her side and take her out. The rest of us knew we wouldn’t get away with this trick after some tried and were caught. One day a magician was coming to our school and, for 15 cents, we could sit in the room to watch him.

We were all getting our money for this event well in advance, and the whole school was going to the show – all but Carol. We found her crying in the bathroom and, upon asking what was wrong, she told us she wasn’t allowed to go. Further questioning had her tell us she was adopted and her parents treated her very badly. A grandmother had given her a birthstone ring and when she lost it, the parents punished her severely and took away some prized possession of hers. She wasn’t allowed to have friends over, and went on and on.

We girls all felt so badly for her that we decided to pay her way in by taking up a collection, then that night at home I told Mother about Carol’s story. Mother just listened and when I finished, I asked if I could give Carol some of my nice things, like my new neck scarf with the sparkly brooch. Mother said it was up to me, but was I sure I wanted to do this? Assuring her I was, I gathered what I wanted to give Carol, and next day found that other girls had done the same. We got Carol into the bathroom again and presented her with many gifts, given from our hearts and the money for the show that afternoon.

A while later, one of the girls told us that what Carol had told us was a pack of lies. This girl’s mother talked to the nuns and found out that Carol came from a well-to-do family, wasn’t adopted and had spent the show money on herself. We were stunned at first, that anyone could put on such a convincing show for us, then angry at Carol for fooling us. Try as she might afterwards, we never again believed anything she told us and excluded her from our group. Carol remained a pathetic girl, and none of us felt sorry for her again. If she had told us she was sorry, we might have forgiven her but she continued to act like she was hard-done-by, so we ignored her. I often wonder how her life turned out.

I made many new friends at St Ann’s, but Lynne was one of my best friends, next to Carolyn. Lynne was younger than me, but since we both travelled on the same bus to school we became good pals. In the photo here, I’m on the left and Lynne on the right. Between us is the sister of Freddie, who was in Lynne’s class and liked her very much, but she just considered him a friend. He was cute, so I kind of liked him too, but knew he was much too young for me.

One weekend Freddie invited Lynne and me to his place. His father owned the livestock sales barn. We had a nice time visiting the family, and then Freddie showed us around the many buildings, ending up in one that was quite dark inside. He proposed we play Truth or Dare, which we did. When Lynne lost a question, Freddie dared her to kiss him and I guess she did because it was too dark for me to see. Then I was dared to kiss Freddie as well, and got the shock of my life. Kissing, to me, was lips touching cheek or maybe the mouth, but Freddie forced my mouth open and thrust in his tongue. I was shocked! I had never even heard of such a thing, and it disgusted me, but I never said a word, not wanting Lynne to know what Freddie had done. That was my first real boy-to-girl kiss and I wouldn’t tell anyone about it for years.

Even though I was in another school, Carolyn and I still got together, but now it wasn’t to play with dolls but to talk about boys and plan for parties. I would invite some of my new friends to one of her parties and she would do the same for one of mine. At this time, there were only three television sets on our street. We had just bought one on payments from the store where Mother worked, and Carolyn and her neighbour each had one. Hamilton was opening a TV studio, and one of Carolyn’s friends was to sing at the grand opening. Sharon was also known to me from my public-school days so, because my living room was bigger, we invited a lot of friends over to watch the event on our TV. Mother fixed some snacks and we Grade 8 girls felt so proud when Sharon finally came on.

The TV played a big role in Carolyn and my lives the summer between Grade 7 and 8. We had just gotten ours and Carolyn got hers a few weeks later. Our favourite shows were “Howdy Doody”, “I Love Lucy” and any cowboy shows. We both loved “The Three Mesquiteers” which starred Robert Livingstone, Ray “Crash” Corrigan and a comic relief, Max Trehune. Sometimes other actors played these parts, but these were our favourites. After a show, Carolyn and I would get on our bikes and pretend we were riding the range on our trusty steeds, saving people from the bad guys. Sister liked to play with us, so we always made her the comic relief, until she finally decided she didn’t want to be the odd man and quit following us around. We didn’t stop her.

Also that summer, Sister contracted polio and we thought she would die or be crippled for life. Father had just had a bad bout of his own illness and was in St Joseph’s Hospital, where we took turns visiting him, and now Sister was rushed to the General Hospital where all the polio patients were housed. Mother had to work, as did Brother, and our house that summer was a very sombre place. I would get on the bus and go to see Father, then catch the city bus to visit Sister. At least she wasn’t as bad as some of the other children and adults I saw. Some were in braces, some in wheelchairs and some in iron lungs. Sister, although very sick, had some muscle weakness in her legs but wasn’t crippled.

Sister loved Roy Rogers, and Nestles’ Hot Chocolate had a promotion for a set of figures from the show that could be had for 25 cents and a coupon from the can of Nestles’. I sent away for it, and when it came I took it to the hospital. The set included Roy, Dale, Trigger, Buttermilk (Dale’s horse), Bullet their dog and their sidekick Pat Brady and his jeep Nellybelle. Sister was so sick she hardly gave my gift a glance, and then I really knew how ill she was. Before she could play with the toys, someone stole them from her room, but she was too sick to care. I on the other hand was angry with whoever took them and had Mother ask around, but we never found them. I knew Sister always wanted my stuff, and I thought I would bring Robert to the hospital for her to play with. First I had to carry the doll on the bus, then into Father’s ward, then back on the other bus and finally into Sister’s room. But, she was still too sick to even notice him, so back home Robert went.

The kids on our street all felt badly about Sister being so sick, and Carolyn dreamed up the idea that we should all buy her a gift. None of us had money, so we set up a booth at Carolyn’s house and we looked around our homes to see what we could sell.

Here’s what it looked like, with Sister’s friends behind the table and Tommy, a boy I liked, on Carolyn’s tricycle – we charged money to let people ride it. I guess it was a sort of yard sale before yard sales ever became popular. Some lady on the street found out what we were up to and donated some small jars of jelly, and other parents also sent things. We didn’t charge very much and sold all we had that afternoon. A sign was hand-printed saying, “All money collected is for a gift for a girl with polio”. We made about $6 and asked Mother what Sister would like. She said Sister always liked animals, so Carolyn’s sister bought a metal barn full of animals and implements that cost us $5.98. We didn’t take the barn to the hospital, but told Sister about it, and by then she was starting to get better and couldn’t wait to get home to play with it.

That barn and its contents helped Sister to get better. When she finally came home that’s all she played with, and when I went to teach at my first school in Georgetown, the barn and a basket of animals were played with by my kindergarten class, since by then Sister was too old for them.

Sister was better, but Father remained at St Joseph’s for some time yet. We still visited daily, taking turns, but when he finally was able to eat and get up, we took him home, where it was easier for us to nurse him. Sister had trouble walking for any length of time, and we had to get her brown, high-topped shoes like babies wore, which she hated. While in the hospital, the nurses told Mother that Sister had started her monthly flow, so when she returned to school, in Grade 3, the nuns had to help her change her sanitary napkins and no one else was told about it, including me, who was still free of the “curse”.

One day while cleaning the bathroom, I was dusting under the tub and pulled out several pairs of bloody underwear belonging to Sister. Shocked, I took them to Mother, who sat and explain to me the facts of life and the reason for Sister, so much younger than me, having this. While she had polio, the medication she was given had started her cycle, but it wasn’t regular and now that she was off the medicine, she only got the period occasionally. The reason for this discharge wasn’t explained to me, so when Carolyn, who knew why women got this, talked about it with me, we decided that women who didn’t get periods (as Carolyn called them) became nuns. When I told some nuns years later of our deductions, they had a good laugh.

Continue to Part 6.