THE CAMPBELL FAMILY FARM STORY

THE CAMPBELL FAMILY FARM STORY

Told by Willis A. Campbell

Edited by Doreen Campbell

Produced by Cheryl Campbell (Weber)

Hopefully enjoyed by all the other Campbell’s

“Due to the inspiration of Stephanie Low (June Campbell’s daughter) this booklet was created, to hold many fond memories of life on the Campbell Family Farm. My love and thanks go out to Doreen, my life long companion and friend for over 50 years, for her help and support in creating these writings. A special thank you to my daughter Cheryl for all the work in preparing this booklet. This booklet would probably never been completed without her dedication. Finally, a thank you to my dear family for making these precious memories and joys on the farm possible.”

Willis A. Campbell

June 30, 1999

THE CAMPBELL FAMILY FARM STORY

In the beginning there was, and still is, a family called Campbell and according to their history one young lad wished to marry a certain Scottish lassie. Since their parents didn't approve, they ran away from Scotland and settled in Westmeath, Ireland. Since that time on, we have been considered as the Irish Campbells.

One of their many children was John Campbell, my great, great grandfather. He grew up and married Susan White . They had seven children, one of which was named William who was born in 1821 in Westmeath, Ireland. In 1840 from Athlone, Westmeath, Ireland, John and Susan and their family sailed to Montreal, Quebec where John worked as a Sea Captain on the St. Lawrence River from Montreal to Quebec City in Lower Canada.

William married Ann Cassidy, daughter of Patrick Cassidy and Sarah Irwin who also came over from Derrygonnelly, County Fermanagh Ireland in 1821 and settled in Keldare, near Rawdon, Quebec. Patrick's brother Connoly Cassidy married Margaret Irwin and settled in the same area. Their son Greighton Cassidy and Maria Robinson had eleven children and one of their daughters name Margaret Jane Maria Cassidy who later married William and Ann's son John.

Upon William and Ann's coming to Upper Canada, they settled about a mile north of the Village of Belwood which is about 5 miles north-east of Fergus, on Lot 14, Con.7E, West Garafraxa Township. Over the past number of years this has become known as the Buster Clark farm whose great grandfather was a brother of my great grandfather Sandy Clark. They lived across the road from the Campbells on Lot 14, Con.8W, West Garafraxa. Legend has it that when one of the mothers wanted to go to town, the other kept the children, and they shared the same bonnet.

William and Ann Campbell raised a family of twelve children. Unfortunately one died as a baby from causes unknown to me. Their son, John married Margaret Jane Maria Cassidy in 1884 and had four children, Lillian Cornelius 1885, Albert (my father)1888, Wilhelmina Donaghy 1895 and Arloa Legate 1898. Their complete family history can be found in the The Campbell Family Tree Book.

THE COMING TO LUTHER

In 1875 William Campbell purchased three hundred acres of bush land in East Luther Township on Lot 19&20 N1/2 and Lot 19 S1/2 Con I. William's son John eventually settled on Lot 19N1/2 and his brother James settled on Lot 19 S1/2. James daughter was named Queenie Campbell, the principle author of The Campbell Family Tree book.

This property was all virgin bush and forest that had been taken out from the crown in 1858 by a Thomas Stayner in compensation for land that he gave for development of the City of Toronto.

My father, Albert has related to me many stories about the settling of this property, that he was told by his father, John. The following are a few of these stories.

William used to come up from Belwood with his boys to start clearing the land so it could be turned into productive farm land which meant that huge piles of brush would be burned. This often got out of control and time had to be spent putting out fires, with William counting the boys as they went in and out of the burning areas. Eventually the land was cleared and a foundation was dug by using oxen and a humble log home was constructed.

This original log house still stands occupied today. It had first been covered with lath and plaster but after about 25 years it began to fall off. A new addition, the kitchen was added in 1912 and the entire house was covered with homemade cement blocks. Dad tells of mixing the cement by hand to fill the forms for the mason, Adam Densmore, who laid the blocks.

In 1949 electric power became available and in '51 an oil fired furnace was installed for central heating, along with a bathroom with hot and cold running water and a full set of kitchen cupboards. Another addition was added to the north side of the kitchen to replace the woodshed in 1965, a family room with a fireplace and a second bathroom.

Going back to the 1800's, another family of Campbells (Sam) lived across the road on what we know as the Densmore 50 and later Ollie Benhams. This family was not related to us. Dad tells the story that they had a very cross baby who cried and cried, so the mother in an effort to sooth him started to give the baby Laudim and after a long period of time the baby began to sleep endlessly so they called the doctor. He said the baby was receiving enough drug to kill a horse so a reversal program had to be started to wean him from the drug.

About the same time the barn that was on the Sam Campbell property caught fire and the strong wind was blowing the blazing shingles directly to our house and my grandmother (Margaret Jane) spent most of the night on the roof putting out fires as they ignited.

Dad continued to tell me of the time he was only seven years old in 1895 when the 40 by 60 foot frame barn was cut in half and raised up to be put on a foundation. He would carry water to the working men. The Densmore barn across the road was split and raised the next year but a high wind blew one half off the foundation. The house and barn on the James Campbell property down the road was built in the early 1900's.

Albert Campbell and Elizabeth Ann Small were married in 1914 and on May 23, 1916 Irwin was born. Dad and Elizabeth, known as Lizzie started housekeeping down the road on the James Campbell farm Lot 19 S1/2 and moved to Lot 19N1/2, the original homestead, in 1918 after his father, John, retired. John and Margaret Jane moved to Grand Valley.

On June 4, 1919 while dad was doing the chores down the road a severe lightning storm came up and struck their home while his wife Lizzie was looking out the bedroom window upstairs patiently waiting the safe return of Albert. While doing so she was struck and killed instantly. Lizzie was also expecting their second child at the time. Irwin, who was three, was sitting in a near-by dresser drawer which acted as his bed, remembers his mother being struck and falling before him. When dad arrived home, the bedroom curtains were smoldering.

This double tragedy was mourned for years and the burn marks are still evident today under the new flooring and on the outside stone wall. The whole community rallied around in sympathy. It was said to be one of the largest funerals to be held in the area, with a procession of horse and buggies over a mile long following the hearse to Grand Valley.

The next two years were very hard for dad to farm and raise a young son even though he had a number of housekeepers to help him. On January 12, 1921 he remarried. Jennie Middleton Clark (1891) became an instand mother to Irwin. I was born on September 17, 1923, and June was born nine years later on January 12, 1933.

In 1928, during the great depression, prices of farm produce fell to an all time low, 2 to 3 cents a pound for a fat steer. You might get $20.00 for it after feeding it for two years. Hogs were about the same, maybe $5.00 a pig. Farmers tried to produce as much of their food as possible so they wouldn't have to spent any money which they didn't have. It seemed the harder you worked to get ahead, the further behind you went into debt. It wasn't until the late Thirties and after the start of World War II that there was money for some of the extras. You could get help with your farm work by supplying board and tobacco to a single man for only $1.00 a day, and that was top wages. After the start of the war many men enlisted and went overseas to fight and many unfortunately never returned.

Irwin Campbell left the farm in the fall of 1937 and married Esther Prentice on September 20, 1942. They celebrated Fifty years of marriage in 1992 after which Irwins health continued to deteriorate and he passed away peaceably on December 20, 1994 at seventy-eight years of age. I had hoped he could of helped me write this history of the Campbell Farm. Fortunately I have remembered many of the stories our dad told him and he himself experienced, so I could include them in these writings.

My sister June, left the farm in 1951, to go to the big city of Toronto where she met and married Ron Low in 1954. She then remarried in 1981 to Bob Turnbull.

The lower James Campbell farm was sold to the Crewson family who in turn sold to James Legate. The Legate family lived on the farm until 1942 when he had a sale and let the farm fall back to the Estate of John Campbell. Dad (Albert) then purchased it from his sisters and we operated it along with the homestead, a total of 300 acres.

I had acquired my Grade nine education when I quit school in 1938 to work full time with dad on the two farms. On August 31, 1944 I had the misfortune of losing the end of my thumb in the hay fork pulley.

In November of 1944 I met Mary Doreen Mountain, a beautiful sweet seventeen year old. She was working in Fergus at Beattie Bros. in munitions. We naturally fell in love and were married on June 12, 1946.

Doreen's parents lived on a farm in Normanby Township, Durham, Ontario until 1945 when her father, Stanley tragically died in June of that year and her mother Alva Metcalfe Mountain sold the farm to Robert Lee. He married Anna Lawrence also in June 1946 and we have been very close friends ever since. Together we celebrate fifty years of marriage in June of 1996.

Alva lived on the property until she bought a house in Durham beside the Durham Chair factory. In the fall of 1963 she was struck by a bicyclist while walking home one evening and was severally injured, never to regain concousness. She died in May 1964. It was a sad and stressfull year for our family, especially for Doreen and her sister Myrtle. It is also interesting to note that Doreen's great, great grandfather, Henry Metcalfe, settled in Nichol Township just below Ennotville on Highway #6 just south of Fergus in 1834. The Metcalfe family came from England and are buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery on land he donated for a church and cemetery.

After Doreen and I were married, we bought and settled into the original homestead Campbell farm and operated the two hundred acres, while mother and dad moved down the road to the lower farm of one hundred acres. Dad depended on me to make the day to day decisions regarding the farming. I don't think a day went by that mother and dad didn't come up the road to see what we were doing, usually catching us still eating breakfast, as we seemed to have more morning chores to do before breakfast than they did.

Going back quite a few years now when there was no electric power, no modern farm machinery, all the field work was done with horses. Cultivating, plowing, sowing, binding and even threshing was powered with a team of two horses. A custom thresher used to come around in the fall of the year and we would move the threshing machine into the barn and our neighbours would all come and work at unloading the sheaves from the mows. They would all be put through the machine and this would fill the grainary with the grain and the straw which was left would be blown to the back of the barn or in a stack outside.

The ladies would provide meals for everybody. We would come in covered in dust and dirt, sometimes almost to sick to eat from breathing the dusty air in the barn for hours. After spending two to three weeks returning the work with the other farmers in the area, we would become accustomed to the dust and look forward to the meals. I remember at Gordon Richardsons, the farm adjoining our farm on the next line, we would always have Swiss steak for supper. It was so delicious, along with lots of canned fruit and pies. The ladies tried to feed you the best they possibly could as they realized the dirty job we had to do. Since then, Doreen has prepared Swiss steak many, many times for our family and I take my turn to cook it myself for the two of us now.

In those early days we did not grow corn as we did not have a silo until 1963, but I used to go to a lot of silo fillings. You would load the big corn sheaves onto the wagons and they were then put through the cutting box and blown into the silo. This was a fairly clean job, and you really developed an appetite.

Sometime after, a few tractors came into the community and we would hire one to plow a sod field for us. Up until 1940 dad and I would do nearly all the plowing with a single furrow walking plow powered by two horses. You were lucky if you plowed two acres a day. We always looked forward to the hours rest at noon as you had to feed and rest the team of horses. It was about 1940 dad bought a two furrowed riding plow from Tom Taylor and then we would use four horses to plow.

In August 1944 we bought our first tractor, an International Farmal (see picture of me on the Farmal on front cover), with a two furrow plow, which I later converted to three furrows. In 1953 I bought a Ford tractor for doing light work and the horses were finally retired and put out to pasture. I eventually purchased a White Cockshut 1850 that pulled five furrows that would cultivate up to twenty feet at one time. Of course the old Farmal, dangerous as it could be, was always my favorite.

THE HORSES

As mentioned earlier, the horses were a very important part of our life on the farm. They were used to work the land, sow the crops and for transportation to town and also for entertainment. These are just a few stories I remember of the horses we owned.

First there was Trim, who was purchased from Mr. Hanna near Belwood. He was four years old before being broke in. He turned out to be a very dependable horse, as he loved to be in town on a Saturday afternoon and couldn't wait to race any horse that was ahead of him. I remember taking him to church in Grand Valley one Sunday morning when I was only nine years old, and almost smashed the cutter into a hydro pole while turning into the church. He would always stop at the command of Whoa if you were in trouble which I was.

Another time, when dad was driving home from Grand Valley in the buggy with Trim in the spring of 1932 or 33. He was driving past Henry Newsons gate when Trim just dropped out of shafts and left dad in the buggy sitting on the road. Roy Lobby had been working for Newsons and had taken his 44-40 rifle out to shoot crows and when it discharged it struck Trim in the flank in front of the hind legs. The bullet glanced and went under the skin and lodged on the other side. Trim bolted about a hundred feet then turned around and returned back to dad. Roy came out and he and dad replaced the harness and Trim and dad drove home, a mile down the road. Trim was taken to Dr. Hughes who operated and removed the bullet. He recovered with no ill effects. He died in 1938 trying to jump over a fence. He got tangled up in the fence wire and we didn't find him until the next day.

In the 1930's we had Dolly. She used to take me to school in the front bob of a sled with a box on it, so I could keep out of the wind and return home by herself. At 8:20 A.M. every morning the train would go by on its way up to Teeswater. I would try to be at the tracks which was only a quarter mile up the road, and would start up the grade to wait for the train to go by. Dolly loved the train.

One morning as she was coming home from school a train snowplow was coming along after the train and Doll, true to her training started up the grade and stopped. The engineer tried to stop but couldn't until he was already past the crossing. The stressed engineer looked back to see that Doll had turned around about fifty feet and was now going over the tracks.

In the fall and spring, I used to ride her to school and then send her home. I was very fond of her and hated to see her take that last trip to where all good horses go when they die.

We had numerous other colts in the earlier years, some of which were good and some bad. Spot was one such horse, a bad actor. In 1942 when dad was in Orangeville staying with his mother before she died, Spot kicked the post with both feet above my head as I started to go up beside her. We finally broke her, but you couldn't trust her. We finally sold her to George Duncan who worked her in the bush, but that never turned her around either.

Nell and Queen were the last team of heavy horses we had before aquiring the tractors. They got off easy.

Another horse named Gertie, was the mother of King, 1932, and Ted, 1933. I spotted King out in the field when he was born and I laid claim to him. I used to drive and ride him all over the county. I rode him to highschool in Grand Valley and drove him in the buggy and cutter.

One day while going to highschool I took King to the Blacksmith Shop to have him shod. I left him all day and when I returned at four o'clock I jumped on his back and because I liked to go fast we took off around the corner only to find out that his new shoes were slippery which landed me on the road with my foot caught in the stirrup. I talked to him until my foot came loose. We were careful after that, especially after getting new shoes.

He also worked on the farm and drove the hearse with his brother Ted in the winter months. One weekend they went over one hundred miles. Ted took colic and died in the barn down the road at an old age. King lived for thirty two years and had to be disposed of in 1964 as he could hardly get up or walk anymore. King brought many years of companionship and enjoyment to our four children, the neighbour children and all the cousins that couldn't wait to get on his back for a ride.

Our children all have their own stories they can tell of the fun with King. It was a sad day to see King go but the kids understood we couldn't let him suffer.

THE SNOW

Enough about the horses. Now let me share with you about our winters and winters they were. We have always been noted for having lots of snow and storms in Luther Twp. On the last Sunday of February of 1947, Doreen’s first winter with me, we had had an excess of snow and mother and dad awoke to two men pounding on the door. They had been stuck on Highway #9, which is only a quarter mile from the farm, and at first light walked to the first farm house for warmth. On the following Tuesday night the highway from our sideroad to Tom Tindal’s sideroad which is one mile away, became blocked and twenty one cars and trucks were stuck and twenty six people were stranded. Dad took the team and sleigh to the road to check it out and found one car where the people had stayed in all night and one lady was deathly ill from the fumes from the exhaust.

The people were all divided between Tindal’s, Mom and Dad's and our place. At Tindal’s, one fellow had been a cook in the army and took over the kitchen. There was a meat truck stuck, so we had no shortage of meat and mother stayed up two nights baking bread. On Friday I took a number of people to the station by horse and sleigh, and they left by train. Then I brought home more supplies for our survival. Saturday night at about 6:00 P.M. a snowplow started at each end of the road and they worked all night to clear a path and we started to lose our guests that morning. Monday morning found more storms and another truck stuck at Tindal’s. It was Bill Rutherford, who had taken a load of cattle to Toronto and got back that far. He left the truck and walked to Arthur and it was three weeks before he came back to get his truck.

One of our guests was a Cope Transport driver who we called Lee. He helped with the chores and fitted in as one of the family. He left that Sunday also, but got stuck again the next week at Gordon Howes, a few miles up the road, and came back to our place instead of going to the first farm house in sight. He spent three weeks with us this time and when he got unstuck, Doreen and I went with him to Durham as Doreen had not seen her mother all winter and had good news for her as she was to become a grandmother for the first time that next August. I returned home and the following Sunday, the first of April, to find the flats just west of our corner were flooded and almost ready to break through the snow banks to flood the highway.

What a winter to remember.

We have had many storms since, but none quite so exciting as the winter of '47. It stormed for three days steady and the train was stuck just east of Grand Valley for over a week and Highway #9 was open for only seven days in March. We still visit with Lee and his wife near Sutton.

LIFE ON THE FARM

Mother and dad lived on the farm until retiring to Grand Valley in 1960, selling the farm to Herbert and Else Birkholz, who came from Germany in 1954. The Birkholz still operate and live on that farm today. After many years of enjoyable retirement my parent's health began to fail and they both went to Dufferin Oaks, a seniors building in Shelburne on February 1, 1971. Here, they were well cared for until dad died in March 1973 at the old age of 85. Mother never really coped very well as she had hardening of the arteries which caused severe memory lose and dementia. She died in August of 1981. They are both buried in Grand Valley Union Cemetary beside Irwins mother, dad's first wife Elizabeth.

Doreen and I continued to live on the original homestead and raised a family of five. Larry in 1947, Nadine in 1950, Cheryl and Darryl, the twins in 1953 and last but not least Alita in 1966. In 1959 I went to work with the Co-op for three years and then in 1968 I worked for the Ontario Mutual Insurance Company in Grand Valley.

Near tragic events on a farm seem to be common place when growing up, and now when I look back on them I realize how we all had guardian angels watching over us.

One such event was when the boys were very young and were playing in the barn swinging on a rope suspended from a large barn beam which were across the rafters. Suddenly the beam came crashing down to the barn floor just missing Cheryl who was watching the boys having fun. To this day, she remembers that frightening loud noise.

One day, when Nadine was around the age of four went to collect eggs with me. When she opened the hen house door, the big rooster met her, jumping at her and splitting her head wide open just above her eye. Her mom asked her what had happened seeing her with blood running down her face. She said "that damn rooster got me". It seemed quite a speech coming from one so young. We never forgot it. However she was taken down to Orangeville to Dr. McGee who put in several stitches and it healed quite nicely. Of course Dr. McGee could fix anything. He was such a fine doctor. Ours for twenty years until his retirement.

The only other very close call for Nadine had when she was very young was her run in with her new found friend, the skunk. Many cans of Tomato juice later, she was still unbearable to be near. She wanted to bring him home as a pet.

After selling our livestock in 1971 we borrowed a pony from Harry Montgomery for the kids to enjoy and ride. This pony was his grandsons but had got the best of him and would throw anybody off. Darryl and I went up to pick him up. When I got on him he tried to buck me off, but I won out and then rode him home.

One day Doreen found Alita who at the time was very young, out playing with the pony in the orchard. Needless to say she had her out of that orchard in record time and back in the house. I also recall one other day, when Alita was very young, when Darryl was moving the tractor down by the pig pen and he was starting to move foreward when Alita made an attempt to get on, as it was the small tractor and she thought she could just jump on, but she was knocked down. Darryl, not being aware of her presence, went into reverse and then went forward again, starting to run the wheel up her leg. Doreen nearly came head first out the kitchen window as she screeched and watched in horror and I was yelling from the drive-shed. She was fine except for some bruising.

ANIMALS ON THE FARM

Our children always had their pets on the farm. I would say our farm dogs would be the most important pet. When we were first married we got a Collie pup and named him Skipper. He was our farm dog for many years - a very reliable friend. It was a sad day when he had to be put down because of old age. We got another young dog from a friend and we called him Skipper as well. He was a collie, wagging his tail and showing his teeth when he was around people. They were frightened of him, but he was only smiling.

We had a black Labrador retriever and a shepherd after that, the later being claimed by Darryl. Darryl went to Western Canada in 1972 for five months before entering the Police Force. When he returned his black shepherd "Sarg" didn't know him, but when he got a sniff of Darryl, he felt so foolish. It was funny to see how ashamed he was of himself.

Our boys went into raising rabbits for awhile until the novelty wore off. We had gone out of laying hens, so they took over the hen house for the rabbits. Anyone knowing rabbits will know it does not take long to get into business. They were cute little things. The weasels thought so too. Need I say more.

We also had our share of barn cats as well. I think they could multiply almost as fast as rabbits. There were many a litter the children never saw or even knew were born. One such litter was found one day and one kitten in particular was watched and nursed along so as to not land under the feet of the cattle and fall into the water trough. Cheryl eventually brought the kitten to the house and "Button" became our one and only house cat, until one day when he was all grown up, he just disappeared. Of course I spoke of our horse King, earlier, as being one of the children’s fondest and largest pets.

4 H

All of our children were in 4H one way or another. Larry and Nadine started off by showing an angus calf at the Fall Fair. Of course we had to go out and buy these calves, as we didn't have anything in our herds suitable for 4H material.

We bought our first angus from the Colbeck Bros. in Monecillo. We kept building this breed until we had quite a number and all the kids always had a calf to choose from. All summer long they had to train these calves which had a mind of their own. We took one to the Toronto Exhibition one year called 'Elly'. She was quite a high strung animal, but once she got in a strange place she really stuck close to her master and showed off very well.

The first year Larry was in 4H he participated in the calf scramble at the C.N.E. and won a calf. Larry, Nadine, Darryl, and Cheryl all showed their calves at Grand Valley fall fair.

One year there was a very stiff competition narrowed down to Larry and Nadine, with Larry getting Grand Showman, and Nadine runner up, only a hair between them. Larry was also the Grand Champion Showman in the Orangeville Fall Fair as well that year. We were very proud of him. They were in the swine club as well as grain and tractor. Willis was a Beef 4H leader for 10 years. The girls belonged to 4H homemaking, taking many clubs in cooking, sewing, gardening, etc. I believe Alita took the most, 18 projects in all.

In 1967 Nadine competed in the Dairy Princess Competition for Dufferin County. She was runner up that year, but competed the following year and won that year and the next. She then had the opportunity to compete at the Canadian National Exhibition held in Toronto in November. It was a thrill for her and we were so proud. Unfortunately she did not win as the competition was very tough.

SELLING OF THE FARM

I had farmed, along with my father for fifteen years, until he sold the James Campbell farm and returned to Grand Valley. After this, the boys Larry and Darryl and often our girls, especially Nadine helped with the farming. In the summer it took everyone to pitch in as there was much work to be done. Doreen kept us well fed, taking meals, snacks and cold drinks to the field as to save time. We farmed like this until 1971, when we had a sale, mainly to sell our dairy herd.

After this the farm was cash cropped which lightened the work load considerably. This was a good thing as by then Larry, our oldest son, was married to a lovely Fergus lass, Wendy Tonkin and had settled in a new home which he had build himself at a corner acre of the farm. Nadine was in nursing college and was engaged to be married to a Fergus lad, Gary Boles. Darryl had left home to go to college. That only left Cheryl and Alita at home.

I was called on more and more to work with the Ontario Mutual Insurance Company as a farm claims adjuster and agency supervisor, so was “burning the candle at both ends.” Doreen could see how exhausted I was becoming, so we made the big decision to sell the family farm. After telling our family of our plans Larry and Wendy decided they would buy it and so we traded houses. They moved into the old farm house and Doreen and I moved into their new home.

We were both very happy with this change, but after four years of crop failures due to bad weather, Larry and Wendy decided to sell the farm. So that sad day finally came, the end of an era for the Campbell Farm after 104 years. We had a big auction sale in 1979.

Douglas Gear, a farmer of hundreds of acres bought the farm, renting the house, cropping the land and feeding about 150 beef cattle for market. Doreen and I stayed on the corner lot of the farm and kept a watchful eye on the goings on up the road until 1987 after which time we sold the property and came to Fergus.

We bought a comfortable new two bedroom condominium over looking the Grand River. It took us a while to get settled in as we both had lived in the country all our lives. Luckily the neighbours were our age and very friendly and we have never regretted the decision.

LIFE AFTER THE FARM

Life does go on and I must say with a whole lot less work and so much more time to enjoy our 5 children, and our 8 grandchildren: Larry and Wendy’s Chris and Corrie, Nadine and Gary’s Stacey and Joshua, Darryl and Elizabeth’s Dawn, Cheryl and Stephen’s Jillian and Jared, and Alita and Jack’s Justin (who reside in Texas). The list goes on as we now can enjoy our 5 greatgrandchildren: Kelsey, Tegan, Lorissa, Drew and Jacob. As you may realize we now rent a hall for our family get to-gethers.

Not only did we enjoy our new found freedom but we now could go on trips and vacations without thinking of getting home on time to milk the cows, so our first destination was the Middle East. We enjoyed this so much that we decided to be tour hosts and went back again for two additional trips, 1976 & 1979 each with something different for us to enjoy. We also went to Hawaii in 1977 and Europe in 1980 as tour hosts. We then vacationed in Jamaica, Florida and Houston, Texas to visit our daughter Alita and her husband Jack and their son Justin.

In 1996 Doreen and I celebrated our 50th Wedding anniversary. Married June 12, 1946 in Durham, Ontario. The occasion was held at the Fergus Seniors Recreation Centre and well over 200 friends and relatives attended. Our family did most of the planning and work for this very momentous and happy occasion. They did a terrific job and we are most grateful to them. Their gift to us was the downpayment for a beautiful Caribbean cruise aboard the Sun Princess. This had always been one of Doreen’s life long dreams, next to marrying me of course.

We continue to love each other and have lived life to the best and fullest that our health has allowed us and have prospered in so many ways. What more could a man ask for.