Three Score and Ten, What Then?

by Peggy Mary E. Smith

  Most people looking back now think that Canada’s demise came more out of the failed crops in the Prairie Provinces. They suffered years of drought. Their fields just turned to dust. Here in Ontario and Quebec, we faired out somewhat better. Our economies were more diversified. Not all our eggs were in the same basket, so to speak. We had more going on than growing wheat.

  When the great depression first hit in 1929, our neck of these northern woods wasn’t really affected right off. This area was mostly made up of farmers and loggers. Most folks were very self-sufficient. We had already made it through the tough times when people like my folks had immigrated here three or four decades earlier. We were survivors.

  The farms were well established by that time. Second generations were taking over from their pioneering parents. Most of them shipped cream. Their extra butter, milk, beef, pork, hay, and oats were sold to the mill towns that were still operating. They had a steady income. Everyone always grew a big garden and wild game was plentiful. Most folks had plenty to eat.

  By the time the early thirties rolled around, the lumbering business started to stall, and the price of commodities dropped significantly. Farm products were worth less than they had been before World War I. Everyone’s household income dropped, and cash was in short supply. Nobody lost their property, as I recall, but they sure had to tighten up their purse strings.

  The Government set up relief programs to help provide work. Mostly these were road maintenance positions. Married men with families were the first to get hired. The young single men were only considered if there wasn’t anyone else. That was rare. Lots of the young folks who had ventured to the cities to work returned to their family farms. At least there they had food to eat. Very few young people got married during the depression years. They had no money to set up house nor a steady job to provide for a family.

  Logan and I faired out rather well. Ashton’s General Store had been in business for fourteen years, and Logan had been very thrifty. We had managed to tuck away some savings. Logan had hoped that the electricity company was going to extend its lines to our village, but when the depression hit no one wanted to spend the money. The money he had set aside for the electricity installation was used elsewhere. Everything works out in the wash, Ma used to say.

  People had to refrain from luxury purchases as they didn’t have the cash to spare. We had to adjust our inventory to compensate. I think it made better storekeepers out of us. We couldn’t take risks on merchandise that wouldn’t sell. Folks couldn’t afford to buy new machinery, household items, or clothes. Everything was repaired or mended when possible. That’s the business we picked up on. We sold all the parts and pieces for fixing and mending. People often improvised and became creative.

  Logan was always good at coming up with ideas to help people out when they needed to find a way to fix something. He would find a part in the back storage room that could be altered to do the job. They say poverty is the father of great invention. Well in this neck of the northern woods, Logan Ashton was said to be, and folks knew he would never gouge them.

  Most folks in the area that had been loyal customers, and those who Logan knew he could trust were offered credit when they needed it. A few folks took a lengthy period to repay their debts, but nobody failed to settle up. Logan was a fair businessman and was compassionate to his customers’ circumstances. After all, those were the same people who had supported his business during all the good years.

  Before the depression, our store had been a gathering place for people. They would stop by and pick up their mail, and often have a little chinwag with neighbours and other people they knew. On Saturday afternoons, folks often brought their children by to purchase an ice cream cone or soda. It was a real social outing, and I became known for all my homemade ice cream flavours. The children just loved them.

  In the winter, the men all stood around the old potbellied stove and chewed the fat a little. Many stories got told. Some were stretched somewhat, but it was a chance to unwind and share some laughter. It gave Logan and me a chance to catch up on the local goings-on as well.

  I remember, during those lean years, I always had a big pot of soup simmering on that old wood stove. Logan was always trading store goods for vegetables. At times there were just too many to sell before they spoiled, so one cold day I decided to make soup with them. That’s how it got started. Bums riding the railway got off and would come into the store. They were hoping to find food or work. I always had a bowl of soup to offer them. During the winter, after traveling by horse-drawn sleigh as a few folks still did, they looked forward to my soup to help them warm up. The big local joke used to be to come into our store and ask what the soup of the day was. They knew the answer was always the same: vegetable.”

  Beth chuckles, “So you opened the first local soup kitchen, did you, Gran?”

  “Not exactly, dear. I was just lending a helping hand to those in need. I didn’t want to be wasteful and throw all those vegetables out. That would have been a real shame. The bums had no way of cooking them. I was just being charitable.

  The saving grace for some folks was the Old Age Pension. Quite a few roofs housed three generations, and that made for extra mouths to feed. Some years earlier, in 1927, the government had made a concession to implement the pension, and all Canadian seniors who were seventy and had resided in Canada for twenty years qualified. I think it was about $20.00 a month in those times, but it went a long ways. Ma and Pa started to get it in the early thirties, and it made a difference in their household. I know it helped out a lot of others as well.

  In 1934 the Dionne Quintuplets were born. That sure made a mark on this part of the land. They were born into a poor farming family in Corbeil and had very little. They weren’t expected to even live, but through the sheer perseverance of Dr. Dafoe, they not only lived, but thrived. After the government made them wards of the court, hundreds of thousands of dollars were poured into providing for them. They had nothing but the best.

  A huge mansion sized house-hospital was built for them. Housing was provided on site for all the nurses and other employees needed to provide their care. When news got out about the quintuplets, curious tourists and news reporters came north to get a view of those miracle babies. Highway 11 was upgraded to supply a direct northern route for all the traffic that soon started to come north from Toronto and the U.S.A. They say that the Dionne Quints actually helped to bring us out of that depression. Long-awaited jobs were finally available. Tourist dollars and all the spin offs, along with the highway construction, got things moving again. It was nothing short of a miracle indeed!

  The best thing that came out of those bleak depression years for us was our new family addition. We had been married for almost two years when I realized I was pregnant. At first, Logan was a little troubled by the idea. He was so concerned for my welfare, but I was in excellent health and felt really good.

  I was more concerned about our age. We weren’t exactly spring chickens. I was thirty-four and Logan was thirty-six. I reminded myself that Ma had been thirty-seven when she had had my twin brothers, Milton and Malcolm.

  It had been eight years since Chase had been born. I felt out of practice. Part of me was really excited about having another baby to cuddle and love. The other part knew that it would be a big adjustment. It was too late to think about all that, though. I was a big girl and knew what caused it. Come summer I would have a baby.

  Murray and Mary Beth were fifteen. They were attending continuation school in town. Friends of ours had offered them room and board. They had both become quite the scholars. Mary Beth hoped to be a nurse. Murray was thinking on being a dentist. I wasn’t sure whether finances would allow them to pursue their dreams, but for the time being, I didn’t discourage them. I was thankful we had the financial resources to allow the twins to attend higher education. There were no jobs about for them at that time anyway. Logan didn’t have full time work to offer them around the store either. They had
to do something to fill their time that would be a benefit to them.

  Logan’s eldest son, James, was twelve by this time. John and Charity were ten. They were given the extra chores when Logan and I needed their help in the store. Murray and Mary Beth helped on the weekends when they came home.

  Well, my pregnancy progressed normally. I was due in July, and I felt great. I didn’t get too big till the last couple of months. When I went into labour the second week of July, Logan drove me into town to the mid-wife’s place. We had made arrangements to go there beforehand. Within a couple of hours, I gave birth to a little daughter. Twenty minutes later I gave birth to a little boy. Twins again! That was a surprise. I had had no indication that I would have twins again. Good thing Logan and I had settled on both a girl’s name and a boy’s name. They were named Jacqueline Rose and Jacob Reese.

  Logan was so relieved when he was told all had gone well. I know he was shocked to hear we had twins, though. Two babies. We had our hands full for sure.

  I stayed at the mid-wife’s home for a week. She helped me to get a good start. Logan and the gang came and picked us up in our automobile. The other children were so excited to meet their little sister and brother. I remember all eleven of us, getting packed into that car to head back home. Logan leaned across the front seat and kissed me. With a big smile he said, “Here we go, Mother, homeward bound.”

  Well, as it turned out the twins were my last babies. They sure disrupted our household and kept us busy, but they were a bright spot during a gloomy period of time. There’s nothing like little ones to bring life back into a home. I know that a parent should never favour any child over another, but I know little Jackie and Jacob were the apples of Logan’s eye. He was so proud of those two babes. I think they made him feel young again. They brought him a newfound purpose. Perhaps they gave him final closure to the ones he’d lost. At any rate, they were healthy, and we were a happy family and managed to get through the Great Depression together, all eleven of us.”

  I hear a knock on the door and say, “Come in.”

  Jenny opens the door and enters pushing a small cart. “Lunch ladies,” she announces. “Enjoy! If there’s anything else you need, Anna, you know where to find me.”

  “Thanks, Jenny. I surely do appreciate this,” I reply as she leaves. “That was good timing, wasn’t it, Beth? We’ll have a nice lunch and then continue on with my story. It sure smells good. Oh, Kentucky Fried Chicken, my favourite. What did I do to deserve all this?”

  Beth looks at me, smiles, and said, “I love you, Gran. It’s just for being you.”

  leaving the nest

  “You know, Beth, you never seem to realize how fast time slips by until you take a minute to look back. That’s when you can see how far you’ve come and how things have changed. On a daily basis everything just keeps moving along. When life is running smooth, we keep going along with it and try to enjoy the ride.

  We tend not to observe how fast our children grow or how much we age. Those transformations just happen. One day we just wake up and realize we’ve hit middle age, and our children have turned into adults, right before our eyes. My goodness, time just seems to fly!

  I guess it’s all part of the circle of life. We teach our children how to become strong, self-sufficient adults, preparing them to go off on their own to enjoy life and chase their dreams. They find their own mates and start families of their own. That’s what keeps the cycle continuing forward. And that’s our real purpose here.

  But it’s not the easiest transition in life, for a mother to watch her children grow and mature from a tiny babe into an adult, then, to simply wish them well as they head off into the big vast world on their own. Somehow, we still feel the need to be there to help them out every step of the way, to protect them and keep them from harm’s way. It’s hard to let go and watch them leave the nest, but that’s just what we have to do. We give our children wings and teach them to fly, so we have to let them soar with the eagles when their time comes. It makes a mother’s heart burst with pride, for it surely is a beautiful thing!

  All our children attended continuation school. That’s the equivalent to today’s high schooling. That was pretty significant. Most children didn’t get that opportunity back then. We had to pay to have the oldest of them boarded out in town. It wasn’t until 1940 that school buses were provided to take the country children into town. Chase was almost done his final year when that first started. Only our two youngest ones were bused every day to attend high school in town.

  One by one, as they finished continuation school, they headed off to pursue their dreams. Six out of the lot of nine went on to graduate from formal education. Three came back and settled close by. With each one’s departure, it got a little easier letting go. I had to learn to trust in the fact that we’d done a good job raising our children, knowing that they were good and capable people. Seeing how they blossomed as their dreams were being fulfilled was true testament to that.

  When Mary Beth graduated from continuation school in 1934, she was very intent on becoming a nurse. It wasn’t a new desire for her. She had talked about it for years, so after being accepted into the two year Hospital Nursing Program, she headed north to the city to start her training. I was so proud of her, but worried at the same time. She was my first to strike out on her own. She ended up moving to Toronto to take a nursing position once she graduated. She married a lawyer from down that way and that’s where they settled. They had three children.

  Murray wasn’t far behind his twin sister. In early 1935, he moved to Toronto to live with Logan’s brother in order to attend university and study dentistry. He worked at the family store to pay for his room and board and help with his school expenses. It was a three year course back then. After he graduated, Murray set up practice in Toronto with one of the other fellows he went to school with. They were really good chums and Murray ended up marrying that fellow’s sister, and they had five children.

  James went off to Business School in 1938 for several years and came home to work with Logan at the store. He eventually took over the business when his father retired in 1955. He married a local gal that he’d been sweet on, and they had six children.

  Charity went north to the city to Teacher’s College after she graduated continuation school in 1939. She took a position at a grade school in the same city after graduating. She married a teacher, and they set up house there, not far from the school where Charity was teaching. They had two children.

  John joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1940. He saw lots of action during World War II. He was gunned down and taken as a prisoner of war by the Germans for a short time just before the war ended. He stayed on in the Air Force and made a career out of it. He married a gal from Halifax and that’s where they settled. We never saw much of them till after his retirement. They had six children

  Chase joined the Canadian Armed Forces in 1941, right after he graduated continuation school. That was during World War II. He was killed in action during the invasion of Normandy in June of 1944. He was only twenty-one. That was a very difficult time for me. Once again, war had stolen a piece of my heart and cheated a young man out of the opportunity to die of old age. It just about tore my heart out. To lose Chase was like losing Royce all over again. A piece of me was gone.

  I know Royce would have been so very proud of his son. Chase was the spitting image of his father. He had grown into a tall, handsome, robust young man. His smile could warm the heart of any young lady, and his keen sense of humour made him a pleasure to be around. I’m not sure if Royce would have been supportive of his choice to go off so readily to join the forces in Europe, though. Royce had endured the vigors of the cause himself, and he had seen so much death. He knew how the loss of Jed and Dalt had just about broken me, and he wouldn’t have wanted to tempt fate again.

  Janice attended Secretarial School in 1942. She was hired on by a firm in the city to the north. She worked there for several years. T
hen she worked at Bell Canada as a telephone operator for a time till she married and started a family. She married a mechanic, and they had eight children. Their home wasn’t far from where Charity and her family lived. They all shared a really close life. They had become such good friends during their childhood years, and it made Logan and me happy to know their relationship followed them into their adulthood.

  Jacob and Jackie graduated from continuation school in 1949. Jacob moved to the Toronto area and worked in a car factory for several years, but he hated it. He missed the north country terribly. He moved back home to help James run the store when Logan retired. He married a local gal and had four children.

  And Jackie, your ma, attended Hairdressing School. She met your Pa when they were attending continuation school. His family owned the grocery store in town, and he eventually took it over. Your ma set up her own hairdressing shop and ran it for forty years. They’ve lived in town all these years and raised you four youngsters.

  The whole lot of them turned out to be wonderful, hardworking people. We ended up having thirty-eight grandchildren between the works of them. Every summer we would all try and get together and have a reunion. That was always such a fun time. It was such a joy to see all the grandchildren and have the time to play with them and fuss over them.

  Of course, we saw a lot of Jacob and James’ crew. They lived real close by. We visited with Jackie on a regular basis, too. She’s my hairdresser, as you know. Charity and Janice would drop down usually once a month. In later years, when we had more time, we made the hour drive north to the city to visit with them.