Part Eight –
Introduction to the Baha’i Faith and Development of the Community
In 1951 we met Aldie Robarts who worked in the local Bank of Commerce. He was single and interested in similar things to us, history to music and playing golf, and used to spend a lot of time at our place. It was through him we first heard of the Baha’i Faith. We did not think a lot about it at the time, but both of us had been estranged from our respective churches for some time. In 1952 he left Forest and went back to Toronto. That fall his parents invited us to spend Thanksgiving weekend with them in Toronto. They had arranged for us to attend a performance of the New York City Ballet who were doing Fancy Free by Leonard Bernstein.
The next day, while Aldie’s brother took Joan on a tour of Casa Loma, Aldie’s father John, who I learned later was Chairman of the NSA of Canada and a top man with London Life, talked to me about the Faith, and loaned us some books to take home with us. That night Aldie took us to a jazz night club.
While there we met two of the Toronto youth, Elizabeth Manser who became Mrs. Mike Rochester and Doug Martin.
Earlier that year we left the little house on McHenry and bought a house on McNabb at auction. We paid $4,500 for it and used the proceeds of the sale of the other for a down payment. It needed a lot of work and over the next couple of years we remodelled the interior including a new kitchen and small bathroom under the stairs, and put in a new furnace.
Over the winter of 1952-3, we went into London several times to hear a series of talks by Ruth Moffatt on the Book of Revelation, and it was here we met some of the London Baha’is, such as Bob Smith and Ross Woodman, who at that time was Secretary of the NSA. We also met the Hoyles at this time as they were studying the Faith as well.
In April we went down to London to attend the formation of the first Local Assembly in that city, John Robarts presiding. We had all become Baha’is by this time, including Miller McPherson. Dorothy Boyers (she had not married Bob at this point) was a member of the Jubilee Committee arranging the 100th anniversary of the declaration of Baha’u’llah and she told us of the dedication of the Wilmette Temple. We decided to attend in May and the three of us went along with Miller and Ross Woodman and stayed at the YMCA downtown Chicago.
There were seven Hands of the Cause there including Ruhiyyih Khanum who delivered the dedication address from Shoghi Effendi. Also there were Zikrullah Khadem, Mr. Furutan, and Horace Holley. We also spent an evening with Nellie French, one of those present who knew Abdul-Baha.
That summer we were remodelling our kitchen when we had a visit from Ruth Moffatt. She slept in the den while Wilfred Shawhenee, an Indian from Kettle Point was installing a pass-through in place of a door in that room. While Ruth was in the washroom in the morning, Wilfred dashed in and removed the door – surprise! Also that summer we went to London to hear a talk by Mr. Furutan. One of the amazing things I remember is that he remembered who I was when I ran into him at the Guardian’s grave in London twenty-five years later.
By this time Aldie was working in St. Catharines and he had us down for a weekend where we met the St. Catharines Baha’is and went with him to Niagara Falls to see “Annie Get Your Gun” at the summer theatre.
Joan decided she would like to visit her parents the next year; it had been eight years. She would take Paul who was seven with her. Geoff would be four and Larry two and we would need someone to look after them.
As it happens, that spring our linotype operator was killed in a car accident. The job was offered to Jack Hoyle who was anxious to leave his London job. He didn’t know anything about it but learned quickly. He and Kathy moved into our house when Joan and Paul left for England, with me driving them to Montreal, where she sailed on the Empress of Scotland.
Joan was pregnant at the time and found out when she got there that she would not be allowed to sail until the baby was born. Our daughter Victoria was born in a hospital in Southport on Sept. 21 and they returned to Canada in November. I drove to Montreal to meet the ship and bring them home. Joan came back as a Canadian but Vicki was admitted as a landed immigrant and thus has dual citizenship.
During the fifties, Forest became a Baha’i Assembly. In addition to ourselves, Miller, and the Hoyles, we enrolled Charlie and Norma Willey, Duyck and Tredi Lewis and Don Thiers. Then Tony and Rita Marsolais moved here from the Ottawa area. We had many visitors during this period including Mr. & Mrs. Khadem (Hand of the Cause), John Robarts, Mrs. Meheringi Munsiff & daughter Jhodi, who were East Indian origin, as well as Baha’is from around Ontario like Charlie and Florence Grindley, Mike & Liz Rochester, Doug & Betty Martin, Fred Graham and others.
I gave my first public talk at the Brock Hotel in Niagara Falls. There were about twenty present, all Baha’is from Toronto and Hamilton. Prior to this I was asked to cover the summer school which was held at Geneva Park on Lake Couchiching for the Canadian Baha’i News. There I met Marjorie McCormich and Stanwood Cobb and was on a committee to send a cable to the Guardian with Ola Rawlowska who later pioneered to Zaire. It was also my first contact with Jim Willoughby and Alan Raynor.
A couple of winter I led discussion groups at our home. We did Northrup’s “Meeting of East & West”, Toynbee’s “Study of History” and a history of Asia that I compiled. Among those attending were a couple of high school teachers.
We had always been fortunate living so close to the resorts on Lake Huron. Shortly after Joan arrived in Forest we won a week at one of Jamieson’s cottages at Ipperwash. It was September so there were not a lot of people around. In the 50’s my parents bought a cottage at Cedar Point and they allowed their kids to use it for short holidays during the summer. At the same time, Pat & Jack Boyd had a cottage at Ipperwash and they allowed us to use it from time to time right up to the 1970’s. On a couple of occasions we camped at Camp Ipperwash, once in a tent and again in a trailer. I would drive in to work every day and came out at night.
One year around 1960, the Baha’is were unable to acquire a site for a summer school and decided to hold three mini schools that year. One was at Forest and Boyds allowed us the cottage for the venue.
The teachers came from the Summer School Committee and included Nancy Campbell from Hamilton and Marion Hughes from Detroit. About 40 turned up and while some stayed at the lake, others stayed in Forest. The Forest Baha’is supplied the catering and it was a busy time. Another time we held our own summer school; it was on a smaller scale and we had Charles Grindley as one of the teachers.
In those days I did some travel teaching around the area. I spoke in Kitchener several times and also London and Colbourne Twp. Once we went to Royal Oak, Michigan for a fireside. We also held firesides on a regular basis in Sarnia. Joan gave the fireside at Jim Oliver’s house and we also had public meetings in the Public Library. We also established the first International Picnic at Canatara Park, at first for ourselves and the Baha’is of Port Huron, but in succeeding years it grew until it was attended by over a hundred.
While teaching in Sarnia we gained a contact, actually through Charles Willey, in the person of Mary Allen. Much to our surprise a week or so later she landed on our doorstep and moved in with us. She became a Baha’i and eventually got a place of her own. It was when she moved to Detroit that we spoke at Royal Oak. We would sometimes drive to the summer school at Louhelen near Davison, Mich. We got to know the Egglestons quite well; they had donated the property to the Faith for a summer school and it has become quite well known now.
Sometimes we attended concerts by the Detroit Symphony at the State Fair Grounds in Detroit. I knew a couple of the players whom I had played with in the International Symphony.
During the fifties I took a course by correspondence in electronics from DeVry Institute. I didn’t do much with it, but I built a radio, and a voltmeter as well as a circuit tester. I also started collecting stamps while Jack Hoyle stayed with us – I collected China, Greece, Turkey and Iran and corresponded with collectors in Iran, Turkey, Brazil, and Indonesia. The girl in Indonesia sent me a beautiful carved statuette of Kilki, the 10th avatar of Vishnu, in exchange for a couple of stamp albums, which we still have.
While living at McNabb Street we bought our first television set. It was at an auction sale and cost $25. The antenna I think cost more than the set but Norma Willey would come over when I was out and watch the movies with Joan. They eventually became Baha’is. It was through the Willeys that we met George and Erica Lazi who were Hungarian refugees from the 1956 revolution and who came to work for Charlie. Erica and Joan got along quite well and spent time at each others place. They lived above one of the stores on King Street.
Also while we were at McNabb Street, a friend of Joan’s mother, Amy Reynolds, whom she met in England, arrived and stayed with us for a while. She was the first lady auctioneer in England and also taught elocution lessons for awhile. While with us she confused the Anglican minister by attending both his church and the Catholic church on the same day. Before returning to England she went to London and got a job as housekeeper for a Jewish shopkeeper.
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