Well, if I am ever going to begin to relate the history of the things my grandchildren want me to, and those things my daughter, Irma, has been telling me I should commit to paper, I had better get busy. The old thief of time gets me every day. I remember when we lived in Collingwood (I was born at Ravenna near Collingwood) Ontario, Canada. [They actually lived near Singhampton, a small community south of Collingwood, ed.] I must have been a very little girl, not three years old, of that I am sure because my mother has told me many times that I was only three years old when we left Collingwood, and these things happened before we left there. One of the first things I remember was falling down a long flight of stairs. My oldest sister slept with me upstairs and I had awakened, found she had gotten up, and had left me there, so I was mad and decided to go downstairs, which I proceeded to do. The result of my hasty actions was the catapulting the whole way down the stairs like a sack of potatoes. I found my sister, Maggie, in the big kitchen and called her an "old groundhog" for leaving me alone upstairs. Poor Maggie, I suppose she had to rise betimes to prepare breakfast for the family. At that time there were in our family - let me see - there was Maggie, Wesley, William, Alex, George, Jonny, Annie, Ada, myself and Reuben. What a family! Then of course, my mother and Father! How on earth could one man provide for such a large family? Later, after we moved from Collingwood up to Sault Ste Marie in Algoma, two more children were added to the family; namely, Harry and Ettie. The latter was christened Isabella Annette. We considered that quite an aristocratic name. My mother's name was Isabella Robinson. However, I am getting ahead of my story. Another memory that comes to me in my young life in Collingwood was, or is, of an old gander that used to chase me if he saw me and how I would run! I dreamed Mother cooked the old gander, feathers and all, and put him on the platter in front of me at the table. It must have been a dream because it couldn't have been reality though for a long time I thought it was really so. At that time I sat in a high chair at the table. I also remember my brother Reuben, and I deciding to run away from home because Maggie wanted to wash our hands and faces. We got as far as the gate - by the way it was a big white gate which must have been made of lumber because I remember we couldn't open it and crawled through between the boards. We turned to look back at Maggie standing in the doorway. Our hearts failed us and we crawled back through the gate, returned to the house and took our washing. I remember, too, being forbidden by Mother to eat any apples from the orchard; and I remember distinctly one day when Mother was away from home I slipped out to the orchard, pulled an apple off a tree, hid somewhere and ate it. I felt quite guilty. Then, too, one day my father and mother found it necessary to take a trip somewhere and I was allowed to go to school with Annie and Ada. I must have been very young because I grew sleepy and the teacher made me a bed with her cloak (it had a beautiful red lining) on a bench and I went to sleep. After school, I remember we all went to a little village called Ravenna and played on the sidewalk in front of a shoemaker's shop and I remember his name was Mr. Bruster -- Brooster probably. All at once we saw our mother looking for us. I still remember how cross she looked! We all were hustled into the carriage and driven home. Annie and Ada were punished severely. I was not punished, perhaps because I was too small to know better than to go to the village. Some time later Annie was trying to explain to me the mechanism of the sewing machine. She said, "Put your finger in here under the needle and I'll show you how it sews." I , being a credulous child, placed my forefinger under the sewing machine needle. Annie turned the wheel while I turned into a howling baboon. Another whaling for sister Annie! Our carriage which I mentioned a short time back, was one of those old fashioned affairs with high wheels, steps up the side and a canopy with fringe all around the top. It was very classy. My Mother always wore a bonnet with big ties in a bow under her chin. I never knew a grandmother, only a grandfather. The only memory I retain of my grandfather Tegart -- my father's father -- is of a dour old man who ate my egg at breakfast time one morning. I hated him for that, but then he brought me some bulls-eye candy which sort of made it all right. He must have been a greedy old man, i think, because I have heard my mother say he was always getting up in the middle of the night and eating up everything he could find in the pantry. We used to have pantries in those days. They were little rooms off the kitchens where our mothers made their cookies, pies, cakes, etc. In fact, did all their baking, washed their dishes, etc. We never hear of pantries now. Well, one morning my grandfather was found dead, lying on the pantry floor. I believe in his own home. He had gotten up in the night looking for something to eat. The angel of death came and laid him there. Let us hope he died painlessly. But I always thought for years that God had punished him for taking my egg. I had been taught, even at my early age, that God always punished people when they were naughty. I remember being sick, something wrong with my throat and father and mother took me to a doctor. I remember his name was Dr. Moore. He many years later lived somewhere in Manitoba, Canada. I cannot remember whether he lived at Brandon or Portage La Prairie; but anyway he is mentioned in a story book called, "Sowing Seeds in Danny," by Nellie McClung. Dr. Moore had a number of skeletons in his office and I remember him coaxing me to touch one. Was I scared! He was a very nice man. He must have lanced my throat because for years and years I carried the marks on my neck and I remember I thought he put fire on my neck; it hurt so. I had two long necked black bottles at home which I used for dolls. I do not even remember having a real doll then. I used to sit in a little rocking chair nursing these dolls and pretending they too had their necks cut and had fire on them. One I called Susan Lacey and the other Lacy Lacey. My sister, Annie, used to make me play baby when she would have her girl friends in to play. I hated the role because she would make me stay covered up in bed and I couldn't see what she and the other girls were doing. Then she would order me to cry every little while and then she and all the girls could come running to see what was wrong with the baby. That part suited me fine. There was one place I loved to go; to friends of my father and mother. Their name was Wallace. One of their boys was named Russel. He and I used to sit together in a big rocking chair and rock. Guess he was older that I because he would kiss me say, "When you and I grow big we will get married." I guess that was my first proposal of marriage! We must have had a nice place at Collingwood. I remember the house was white and we had an orchard and a big barn. According to what my mother and my sister, Maggie told me, after I was older my father decided to sell out and go elsewhere, where he could find land for the boys. In those days it seemed boys were more important than girls. Well, father went away to Portage La Prairie to look for land. He must have gone by boat, probably as far as Port Arthur, then how he went the rest of the way, I do not know, but I have heard him say they travelled part of the way in either row boats or canoes and they would come to places where they had to carry their canoes on their backs. I remember he said they called that part of the trip, "portage,' or "we had to portage our canoes." Well, anyway, he must have secured property there because when he was returning to his old home in Collingwood, he met a man on the boat who persuaded him to give up the idea of moving out to Portage La Prairie and, instead of going out to that wilderness to buy land which this man had in Algoma, he found it was a dreary wilderness there. Portage La Prairie proved to be one of the richest wheat land in Canada. |
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