Part Twenty-Three – Time to Return to Canada
We decided to return to Canada in September of 1983. Larry had provided me with literature from DVA which meant I was able to receive a pension which would hold me over until I reached my 65th birthday and get the OAP. This time we hired a mover who came to the house and wrapped everything. We didn’t need to do anything except tell them where things were, and they were very efficient.
After they had gone we discovered that Carl’s passport had been packed and panic stations were in order. We called the movers and found our stuff was already in the big container at Avonmouth. Carl and I took off and managed to retrieve the missing passport. Fortunately the container was not filled and they were very helpful to us.
Before leaving the staff at the Journal presented me with the gift of a book on Somerset; and I also received a pen set from my snooker partners at the British Legion which I had joined.
When we arrived at Toronto flying from Heathrow, we were met by Larry who brought us to his home in Sarnia where we stayed for a few days. At that time Bruce was only a little over two years old and was a real pill. From there we took the train into London and we stayed a few days with Ruth while I contacted DVA and Joan and Ruth went house hunting.
We finally found one, a duplex, on McLary Street which was within our price range. We moved in in October but we had to threaten the landlord with the Dept. of Health before he would properly clean it up. Having no furniture we were helped out by several people including Gladys’ father, Keith Greenham and Bob and Dorothy Smith. The place was pretty small for the four of us, but we managed.
The biggest disappointment was when our furniture and the rest did not arrive until February, and then they wanted to charge us extra because we were a few miles beyond their limit, but we managed to talk them out of that.
In the fall I contacted a Dr. Mayor who had an office around the corner on Grand Avenue and whom we still go to although he has moved a couple of times since.
Before leaving England we had received a letter from the LSA of London and we contacted the secretary after we had settled in. I attended my first Feast at the home of Chet and Ruby Turner whom we had known before and who lived on Grand Avenue. At this Feast there was a by-election to fill two vacancies on the Assembly and Terry Drakhs and myself were elected. I remained on the Assembly for about the next seven years.
In the spring Terry went with me to buy a car. We found one at a lot on east Dundas Street for $1500, a red Chevette, so I cashed in my insurance policy and bought it. Terry also went with me for my insurance, road test and driving licence, and I am still with the same insurance broker who has also moved twice since his first office on Bradley.
During that year we lived on McClary Ave. we would walk downtown as Eatons was on Wellington (where it is now) and was the largest store in a small indoor mall. I also did quite a bit of walking along the river which was close by and had a walking path its full length. Over several weeks I walked from Highbury as far as Byron at Springbank Park.
Joan and Linda would walk to the A&P store on Base Line for groceries and only when they had a lot to carry would take the Richmond bus which stopped within a few houses of where we were.
Both kids eventually got jobs, Carl in an electronics firm on Dundas St. East and Linda in a video rental store, first on Base Line and later on Wonderland near Commissioners Rd. They both went to work by bus but occasionally when the weather was bad I would pick them up.
By fall when we had been in that house for nearly a year we decided we needed more room so we started looking. The real estate agent we contacted talked us into buying rather than renting so Joan looked at a lot of properties that were within our price range. I also went to see many of them. We eventually settled on the place we are in now, a townhouse in a condo complex, three bedrooms, one and a half baths, and a rec room and laundry and storage in the basement.
We moved in in October and have been here since. After Carl had worked long enough to earn the money he decided to go to Venezuela where Cathy Khan was living. He had been corresponding with her since they met on the bus to Calgary back in 1982.
In May of 1985 we decided to take a trip down to the Maritimes and Linda decided to come with us and share expenses. We left on a Sunday and stopped overnight in a motel just outside the town of Gananoque. The next day we drove down the St. Lawrence Parkway and took the Long Sault Parkway drive out into the St. Lawrence River the other side of Cornwall.
We got on to the wrong road through Montreal and were held up quite a bit so we didn’t get as far as we had planned. We stopped at a motel in Plessisville overnight. From there we carried on down the St. Lawrence on the Trans Canada as far as Riviere du Loup where we turned south and stopped overnight at Grand Falls, NB. Our motel was right beside the falls. From there we followed the St. John River first to Hartland where we crossed over the longest covered bridge in Canada. It’s a good thing there was no traffic on it as we found out it was a one way bridge and we were going the wrong way. Next we drove through the city of Fredericton instead of taking the by-pass. We had thought of visiting the pioneer village at Kings Landing but it was not open yet.
We carried on to Moncton where we stopped for the night. The next morning before continuing, we visited the famous magnetic hill and experienced the sensation of feeling the car coasting up the hill. From there we went to Fort Beausejour. It was cold and windy and there were very few people there but we wandered around anyway.
At Amhurst we turned off the Trans Canada and followed the lighthouse route along Northumberland Straits through Pugwash and Tatumagouche to Pictou where I spent three months during the war. I didn’t recognize anything; even the dockyard which was outside the town and where we were undergoing refit was now inside the town. From there we went through New Glasgow and the Carse Causeway to Baddeck where we got a good deal on a motel for two nights. The next day we followed the Cabot Trail through the Cape Breton Highlands. The following day we visited the Alexander Graham Bell museum which contains many of his inventions. Bell spent his last years in Baddeck where he experimented with aircraft and hydrofoils. His home is nearby and is still lived in by his descendents.
We went from there to the Fortress of Louisberg which has been much restored and is inhabited in the summer by students dressed as people who actually lived there in the 18th century. We were there on June 1st, the first day they were officially open. Leaving there we followed the south shore of Bras d’Or Lake back to the mainland and stayed overnight in Sherbrooke on the south shore where it was pouring rain. Sherbrooke is another community that is attempting to preserve it as it was back in the 19th century.
The next day we followed the east shore to Dartmouth, the first time we had been there since just after the war. The city has expanded considerably and we went out to the naval air station, now called HMCS Shearwater, but we couldn’t find Marion Heights where we lived for nearly a year. We crossed the new Angus McDonald bridge to Halifax, but we didn’t stop there but went on up the valley to Grand Pre where the Evangeline Statue and church are located. We stayed the night in Kentville.
From there we left Nova Scotia and drove up through New Brunswick to Campbellton. Between Chatham and Bathurst the road was under construction and we lost a lot of time there. Not a very nice place where we spent the night.
In the morning we crossed into Matapedia, Quebec and decided to drive around the Gaspe Peninsula. We stopped for awhile in the town of Gaspe where we had put in for a boiler cleaning during the war. We had a nice day and were able to see Bonaventure Island and Perce Rock. We continued on around the peninsula which is a very scenic route and we stopped for the night in a little village called Grand Prairie (?) where no one could speak English.
We went on the next day through Rimouski and Riviere du Loup until we reached Quebec City where we stayed two nights. The next day we took a sight seeing bus throughout the city which was well worth while. We covered both the upper and lower town as well as the Plains of Abraham.
From there we drove to Montreal along the north shore of the St. Lawrence. We hit the city at rush hour and it seemed to take forever to get through the city. Eventually we reached Ontario where we stayed the night in Gananoque and returned home the following day.
Back to Table of Contents
Back to Part 22
Forward to Part 24