PHOTOS - BIRTHDAY BOY AND CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

As it was Don's birthday recently I came across these photos included here.

On his bike, aged about 12 years old (1957) in front of one of the flat deck trucks

[left] me, then Don, Beverley Pipe. Fluffy dog was hers; the dachshund is Rex Mears family pet (who lived next door to the Pipe family) Year: 1957 or 58

In Canoe Boat Basin with Les Treat.  This boat was fibreglass, olive green and the very latest thing, i.e. fibreglass. Year would be about 1960 I think.

* * * * * *

This photo must be about 1950 when I would be 6 and Don 5 years old. The line-up is [left] Don, then Donald MacLennan, Marcella MacLennan* and me.

We are sitting on a toboggan or else a sledge of some sort.  The bush in the background is a lilac bush, one of 2 that were outside the front door of our house in an area which was a flower garden.  Why do I remember all of this? Because one day, when my mother was asleep having worked night shift (which she did fairly regularly) my father bulldozed the whole lot to out to make space for the 'boys' (drivers and swampers) to park their cars every morning upon arrival for work.  When she woke up to find what he'd done... she was furious...throwing  crockery across the kitchen smashing all on the cupboard doors above the sink!

______________________________________________________________

*  I believe they were from Barra.  The dad was a social worker.

A MUSICAL MOMENT: JAEDEN IZIK-DZURKO UK PRIZE WINNER

On Friday I was listening to BBC Radio 3, as is my habit. It was the Leeds Piano Competition for under 30 year olds. It's a very high calibre, international line-up, held every 3 years.  I noticed that one of the five semi-finalists (Jaeden Izik-Dzurko) was from Canada.  I looked up his bio details and was astonished to find he was from my ‘hometown’, as they say in America, i.e. Salmon Arm, British Columbia.  It’s a small town in central B.C. built on the Canadian Pacific Railway line.

As it happens I am on the committee of the Milngavie Music Club who hold monthly concerts of international artistes of various types. The President sent out a circular to everyone giving the Head's Up about the final concert coming up (Saturday) because one of the artistes who played last year (pianist Junyan Chen from China) was going to be playing as she was one of the 5 semi-finalists.  I responded in the circular email stating that I intended to listen and mentioned that I had happened to find this chap in the list of 5 and why he stood out for me. (I’d never heard of him!) 

A couple of hours later…lo and behold… he won!…. and Junyan came second.  Such a coincidence and quite delightful!

WEEK 76 CORONAVIRUS: CASES RISING - WE'RE LEARN ING TO LIVE WITH IT

Another week, another rise in cases.  It is expected and we learn to live with it... we carry on, as they say.

In our Sunday night Quiz with the 3 generations of the family I stumbled across the idea of  widening the Quiz Session by introducing the topic of 'Childhood Memories'.  My idea is to see if the children will tell us about something they remember from when they were younger.

Iain and I thought we would start things off with a memory of our own.

 * * * * *  Barbara's childhood memory * * * * * 

I recall standing on the platform of the CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway) Station in Salmon Arm watching the train coming into the station.  It did not stop but  travelled very slowly.  As it approached the station platform the driver of the train leaned out of the window and put his hooked arm through the big hoop that the Station Master was holding up for him to grab as the train slowly passed by.

Iain explained to us that this is a 'key' being handed over as part of a signal safety practice. Well, well... I never knew that!

While I am here.... some background images to give the setting.  Salmon Arm in British Columbia, Canada, is a small town, and like many small towns, it grew up along the CPR railway.

This photo is exactly like the CPR station as I remember it and the age of the train too... late 1940s or early 1950s.  (This photo is, however, Guelph Ontario.)  The train station is still there but has long since closed.

I took this photo of the deserted station in Salmon Arm in November 5, 2007.  I talk about it, and posted more photos, here.

Salmon Arm is on the Shuswap Lake in B.C. The train wound its way along the right hand shore as seen in the photo above.  The town and train station located centrally and opposite the town wharf are just out of the photo on the lower right.

This photo is the wrong lake (too tuquoise!)  but the right train winding its way along an unknown Canadian lake's edge.

* * * * *  Iain's childhood memory * * * * * 

This is Iain as a Cub in the 6th Clydebank Boy Scouts. “I had agreed to do an important job. When I heard what I had to do, I was devastated. Giving flowers to women was not something that a young boy should be doing! That was for girls!

I put a brave face on it and squared up for the ordeal. It turned out to be much less harrowing than I expected!”

CANADA VISIT - BOOTH FAMILY PLOT IN MT IDA CEMETERY

While in Salmon Arm Don and I visited Mary in her new home.  The 3 of us joined Pat for lunch where we chatted and Don bumped into folk from town that he knew.  Here he is in the entrance foyer.

Don drove me in his white half ton truck to visit the family grave site out at Mt Ida Cemetery on the west side of Salmon Arm, B.C.

The plot is on the western end of the cemetery not far from the car park.  Some years ago on this blog I have described it ... more when I find it.*

This is the plot.  There are various family members in it some of whose headstones I show below.

Our parents: Margaret and Allen Booth

My paternal grandfather, John Cousins Booth of Downiehills, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.  He married Gladys Bessie James who was from Corbridge, Northumberland.

My paternal grandmother's mother Elisabeth O Jameson, i.e. mother of Gladys Bessie Jameson.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

* So far I have only found  this:  END OF THE APPLE BOXES

and this is the blog reference

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6138499928168461673#editor/target=post;postID=6996515487181265890;onPublishedMenu=template;onClosedMenu=template;postNum=3;src=postname

CANADA VISIT - SALMON ARM APPLES

Mary and Pat took me out to Peterson's orchard where we spent an hour buying some apples and reminiscing about the days when we had a similar orchard.

 

These photos say it all: our back yard had the same stack of Mac apples piled up in exactly the same apple boxes.

In the shed some of the the box end brand labels were arranged on the wall.

And, of course, the ladders.  My father was very tidy in the yard: "a place for everything and everything in its place".  Large ladders stacked together; medium ladders next them; short step ladders last in the line. I recall that picking bags were hung up high from hooks. Buckets?  Used but were for the cherries.

 * * * * * * *

Mary's new residence is in Andover Seniors Residence on Lakeshore Road.  Having booked myself into an AirBnB next to the hospital I simply went down to the CPR railway crossing and walked the lakeshore trail along to her place.  

As well as finding the excellent AirBnB I discovered that there is now a bus service which does several circular routes in and around town.

* * * * * * *

Mary and her friend Mary M's thrown pots!

Andover Seniors Residence - very nice!  It's large and spacious and very new.  Mary has a small garden area adjacent to the kitchen in her little apartment.