1987 April 24, Moving Day from McDougall St

 New Home 87 Carol Court

Moving Day from McDougall St

April 24, 1987

An Addendum to the last journal sent …

  So I am sitting in the sun, on the porch, at empty McDougall St. waiting for the trash man to come.  I have dusted the staircase for the last time – the oak panels, the newel posts with the carved oak urns.  It is a strange feeling – numb – because if I let myself really feel I will sit here howling like a banshee.  At 11 AM this morning the title to the house passed out of my hands.  I will be relieved when it is done.  Then I can concentrate on Carol Court as our home.

         The old lilac trees are sprouting their leaves.  Spring was always the time when this old place felt young again.  I used to go upstairs and open the south windows, and take deep breaths of the lilacs.  We always brought them with us transplanted from 235 Pim to 116 Church St to here.  There were four, but two died, and the two remaining have been so battered by the ice falling three floors from the roof, that they are at about a 40° angle across the side lawn.  The house is so quiet – so quiet.  I must not think.

         The daffodils are in bloom, and the jonquils, and the early tulips.  An early spring, this year, so I was able to enjoy the Scylla, and the English violets.

         At that point, three trucks pulled up, and began disgorge people and furniture.  Just as well, memories can be overwhelming.  But the furniture coming in was old style, beautiful wood, and the house will like it, and the family too!

         Now Wilf and I are meeting in the mall for a muffin.

         For every ending there is a beginning!

1973 May 2, MICHAEL AND MANITOULIN

MICHAEL AND MANITOULIN

May 2, 1973

It is a grey day. We are headed for Manitoulin, with an Elliot Lake side trip where Wilf has to do some immigration work. It poured rain from the Sault (9 a.m.) until now (early afternoon). The sun has come out for a watery moment, but the dark clouds are forming solidly again.

I bought two rain hats (one cheapy one does not cover my head!) and a toothbrush in Blind River. This wasn't one of my better organized trips.

I worked until almost 8 p.m. last night, clearing my desk after a hectic day at work. Mother has bronchitis, so I sat with her for a while. Suzanne came down for a visit, and I sat with her. Mary came down and put my hair up at almost 12 midnight. She was impatient and tired and so was I. Never again! I packed, did a washing, and got Mom settled. I fixed her pillows ten times, helped her into the bathroom, gave her her pills, refilled the vaporizer, fixed her hair, and then went downstairs and had a glass of sherry.

  Michael came in, and asked me to call him early. He had to be at school (Sault College) at 8 am to get the bus that was to take his class to Charlevoix to tour a nuclear plant.

   This morning I got up at 645 am, took a quick shower, had my coffee and toast, got Wilf’s breakfast ready, pressed his trousers, and checked on Mother, gave her a pill, and a sponge bath and a back rub. Then I drove down to Mary Jane's to pick her and Brendon up, after having to prod Wilfred out of bed, and FORGOT to call Michael!

When I was pulling into the lane with Mary Jane and Brendon, Michael was roaring out in his battered Volkswagen, and the Black Irish, Michael Gallivan look he gave me, I will not forget for a long time to come! He must have caught the bus, because he didn't come home, If he had missed it, I would have left home.

I think I shall resign. I am not any more going to be everybody's alarm clock. If Wilf and Michael want to get up, they will get up on the first call, because there isn't going to be a second one. Not from me anyway! And of course, after all this running, Wilfred, serene and shaven, and fully packed, started to bug ME about not being ready!

   Dr. Greco called to find out about Mother.

RESULT:

I forgot 1) my toothbrush 2) Plans for M,J, and John's new house to show the Rheaumes 3) MY camera, and heaven knows what else, when I come to unpack. We are to have dinner with Wilf's family in Little Current and will drop in on Susan in Espanola. Tomorrow, we travel “The Island". Wilf has several calls to make at destinations I have never been before.  The weather is clearing now maybe it will be a good trip after all.

1985 June 26- July 27th, Francolini's Cottage Point Aux Pins

June 26, 1985 Point aux Pins

    Wednesday: the wind is southeast strong and cool. If it would be still, the air is warm the sunny this first day at camp. I have been out since 11 AM. I was not able to hold Joanne Rachel Kyle Michael and Stephen any longer especially Kyle and Michael. They have already had their first swim of the season in rough water that is ice cold. There isn't much beach this year, only about 4 feet of sand. The river and lake level is very high.

    They sang coming out in the car and I had the strange “déjà vu” feeling instead of the combined Punches and Olsens, it could have been the other generation of McIntyre's and Punches.

   Mary has rented Marg Kelly's cottage at Point Louise again this year. For three weeks Mary Anne, Lauren, Catherine and Tarryn and will be there. Joanna is already begging to go down there. I am sure it is nicer there this afternoon as the wind is whistling directly at us, so they, beyond the point would be sheltered.

   The cottage was so damp and cold that we had to put the oil stove on. We have had a long miserable winter and no spring, cold, cold, cold, and we have already passed the longest day of the year and are headed towards fall. Ugh a horrible thought!

    Rachel is braving the water now, mauve bathing suit, long black hair flying in the wind! Kyle, Michael, Steven and Merwan are racing across the lawn and jumping from the grass to the beach and into the water. How do they bear it the wind is so chill! Layla and Joanna are in the shelter of a bush talking.

    I brought the bare essentials out in the station wagon. The girls are grocery shopping tonight. The wind is winning!

June 29, 1985

   Christina and Tricia Ryan went into town last evening because Suzanne was going to be there. At 14 they are bored. There is nothing to do, there is nowhere to go! Mary Jane says it reminds her of 1959. Wilf says “here we go again” and I say “it was such a short time ago”.

   Steven is beside me on the deck chair. The boat fell on his toe when it was being launched. His eye is swollen shut from a fly bite. He says that this isn't going to be a good year.

  Brendon is bored too, but not so obviously vociferously, sullenly as the girls. He walks the beach, drapes himself off the Chesterfield and foosters in the boat and eats. Michael goes fishing and swimming and bicycling and listens to the ghetto blaster at top volume but busy, busy, busy. Joanna is so full of the joy of living that she seldom walks it is a hop skip and cartwheel.

    There is a freighter passing, an old one, rather scruffy. We have seen one huge Saltie from Greece another one from we don't know where, but few ships compared to the 70s.

   Brendon and Jimmy Hayden are back, having caught “3 million minnows”. There are five children on the dock from the next two cottages all five and under.

    Harriet Black is selling her cottage. Her land forms one arm of “Teen Bay” of old to form the cove where the French built ships in the 1730s.  The price is $235,000! She is advertising in American papers with the dollar devalued she hopes for a rich American. Mrs. Grady's cottage beyond point Louise is on the market, not winterized at $125,000. It is the land! The Savoie's, at Point Louise are selling. The location makes it prime real estate. Mrs. Grady's is much too much!

    Brendon is going fishing; our motor is a challenge because it takes a little wheedling to start. There are no water skiers, there are no powerboats, and there is no store for the young people to use as a focal gathering place. I have a feeling that this may be our last year here. Maybe we could rent on St. Joseph's Island and let the young ones come and go as they will. The only problem is that the girls are working and cannot let them loose, but there would be more activity at Hilton, their Community Night, the Village Strawberry Festival, etc.

   This year we have rented a place on Manitoulin over Haw Eaters Weekend, the “Rock Garden Chalet August 1 to the sixth. We left it so late we did not have a choice, $69 a night overlooking the lake, carpeted and with television, really roughing it the way Wilf likes it. John is here so the weekend is beginning. Monday is Canada Day July 1.

July 3, 1985.

   The weekend was glorious sunshine and breezy, the water is still very cold for swimming, I know because I waded knee-deep in it last evening helping a lady rescue a drifting boat. Pain!

   I have been doing theatrical reading. “Alan J Lerner” “The Street Where I Live”, the making of the musical comedies “My Fair Lady, Gigi, Camelot”. Interesting!

    Christina is desolate out here. She and her former friend Rachel Heydon from London (Lucille Daly’s great granddaughter) no longer have anything in common. There are no other young people her age. Brendon goes in to play golf or hockey so he gets a break, because there are no boys his age, although he and Jimmy Hayden relate pretty well. Michael has Merwan and they fish the Allagash regularly. Joanna bounces from one group to the other, there are several her age. Steven is by himself a lot, but adapts.

   Today is Lauren's second birthday. The little ones are going but it was not too successful last year. Lauren's paternal grandmother is possessive, protective, and a pain, and I think contributes a great deal to Lauren's present inability to get along with Tarryn. She is used to the adulation of many adults and can't share. She'll develop it on her own, and is a very pretty funny little girl.

   Tarryn is a picture book child, ash blonde curls, huge blue eyes and very active. Reminds me of Patrick at the same age! He came down here for a bath the other evening; there is no tub at Mary's cottage.

    I am going in this morning for Marguerite Gearhart's funeral. A long slow painful death from cancer! She determinedly stayed alive until her youngest daughter Lisa was graduated as a nurse. Rest her; she was a golden girl who had a very difficult life. I will stay in for the night and prepare for Jimmy's arrival tomorrow.

   Joanna's birthday is tomorrow but we will try to postpone it until Friday because Suzanne will be off. She is on 3 to 11 at present. Mary Jane and Suzanne are crisp with sunburn. I am slowly tanning.

    John has the boat out here and is as usual sailing with every available breeze. Just got a call from Mary Jane, Suzanne is on the way out and didn't check and Brendon wants a ride! Miss Flibberty Gibbet on the run!

   I bought a TV on the spur of the moment last Saturday. Wilf wouldn't lend us his small TV, which he uses occasionally in his room. I wanted one for a long time to be able to watch the programs I like in comfort. Wilf controls the remote control and switches in the middle of programs and lingers on the food ads. He is stuck on a plateau in his weight loss, talks about his diet a lot except at meal times when he overeats. So be it. The Olsens are still sleeping and it is 11 AM. I'm glad the Yorke’s are around here most mornings to get them up.

   We watched “Places in the Heart” last night, (Suzanne brought her VCR out), too late. Mary came over, and in the fight scenes with the Ku Klux Klan, Joanna lay on my knee, arms around me, singing at the top of her voice so she would neither see nor hear it.

1985 July 15th Francolini's Cottage

   Monday: I cannot believe that we are well into our third week at the Point. Jim and Sue have come and gone, bringing with them lots of activity fun and laughter. Jimmy is as noisy as ever, full of life enjoys, enjoys. We have had riotous games of Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit and he and John have had a to the death cribbage cup series.

   Michael brought his sailboat out and there were many children laden trips. They have gone on holidays now too. They left on Friday for Ottawa and are to meet Jim and Sue in Toronto today. Jim and Sue are on the road now.  It was so wonderful to see them all together here enjoying each other. The cottage was sometimes wall-to-wall children at night with the big room filled with the pullout bed and cats and sleeping children.

    Michael Yorke has just come in. He slept in the bath house with Merwan.  Everyone else is sleeping. I had to put Joanna in my bed at 3 AM she was coughing so hard. I hope I can keep her out of the water today. Mary and tribe moved in from their camp on Saturday. Catherine and Tarryn return to Toronto tomorrow. Tarryn is a beautiful blonde curly haired little fellow. He and Lauren Mary Anne’s little girl do not get along. At two years old they cannot share their territory. Lauren is the aggressor, the first angelic looking little witch I have ever known. Blue-eyed, innocent looking, a very pretty child, and violently tough! There is constant confrontation between the two.

    I had a great sail with John last Thursday breezy beautiful day. We went beyond the point to Seagull Island close to Gros Cap. The waves sparkling, as we turned to come home the wind quieted. We had just enough to coax a glide out of the boat. We landed under the blue blue skies and a few clouds of white fluff. Twenty minutes later a black cloud appeared from Lake Superior. The wind came up, the level of the river changed, and the water erased every vestige of beach. We watched as the storm swept over the South Shore of the river. Curtains of rain pouring from the clouds, lightning sporadically, and the temperature must have dropped at least 10°, all in about one half an hour.  It has been an unpredictable weather time. A few sunny days one at a time, cool but not a great deal of rain during the day.

   The first week was the worst. The mood of the weather hatched Christina’s mood. Stormy! However both have improved. She has had her friend Tricia Ryan out and she and Jennifer had a great time together too. Amy and Tricia Ryan are here with her and Joanna. Night before last I was the only adult. There was Steven and Brendon on the pullout bed, Trisha and Christina on cots one beside, one at the foot off the bed. Joanna and Amy in the middle room, Michael York and Michael McLean in the bedroom and me in the front.

  Daly’s had a bonfire! The little ones roasted marshmallows and wieners first, came in about 10 PM to bed. The older ones Rachel Hayden, (she and Christina have found a lot in common now!), Trisha Brendon Christina Steven and several others from Disano’s down the beach had their time until 12 midnight, told ghost stories and had a great time.

   Yesterday Mary, Catherine, Tarryn, Lenore, Brian, Judy, Shannon and Breanne, Mary Catherine Haley and Ruth Anne and a friend all came out for a swim and had a beautiful afternoon. The older ones lie on the deck of John sailboat and talk teenage talk, the others jump off the dock and snorkel and catch frogs and collect crab claws.

   Mary Jane is back to work today after two weeks holidays. She stayed overnight only a couple of times, not a camper, or at least a reluctant one. Suzanne is out as often as her shifts permit, she is a camper. John is on a month’s holiday and is here and on his boat as often as possible.

   I am not sure how Suzanne’s love life is going.  She has been going out with Laurie Hill a cardiologist but it is not a happy affair. She is edgy about it. I have never met him, none of us have, and deliberately so on her part! This was hurtful at first! I cannot really understand, either she is not sure of herself or she knows he would not fit into our family affairs. Her children have met him. Joanna blasted out of a group of her friends into the cottage to ask Suzanne “What kind is he?” Suzanne “What do you mean?” Joanna “You know, what kind is he, Filipino?” “NO” said Suzanne “Jamaican”. Joanna blasted back to her group. Would be interesting to know the conversation that was going on! I must make a cake and some cookies.

 10:45 AM: the only one up is Michael Yorke. He has made a couple of trips into the bathroom because the “bath house” has no toilet and he spurns the outhouse.

    I have made my cake and the cookies are in the oven. I really should stand and hold the door, because it doesn't close entirely and the heat escapes and everything is very brown on the bottom. I am now sitting on a stool with my right foot braced against the oven door. I make cakes and cookies nearly every morning and they are demolished by nightfall. Food just disappears! John is the official barbecue master. Tonight we are having “hotdogs” under protest. We try to have hamburgers and hotdogs once a week but we embellish them with salads.

   Wilf isn't coming out tonight as he has a K of C meeting and is counting cash at the church this morning. He as always is not a camper. This keeps my feet warm, I alternate feet on the oven and I haven't gotten dressed yet this morning as I don't want to disturb Joanna after her bad night. The denizens of the pullout bed haven't budged yet!  Suzanne has called and is on her way out, I must make the coffee.

   The cake is out and the cookies are out only slightly singed on the bottom.

   We miss having Mary's beach. The children swam there every day and sometimes twice a day. We have the bicycles out here and they had transportation. I have my old no-speed bike out and enjoy once a day at least ride up to the highway. Great exercise! You miss so much in a car. I hear the birds, watch a chipmunks and squirrels, see the flowers in the ditches, daisies and blue flags. I picked wild strawberries one afternoon backbreaking, and they are so small, I only had a very small amount of them after one and a half hours. The pines are always beautiful.

   On Sunday there is mass at the tennis courts. Father Dominic Koric a Franciscan monk who is at our Lady of the Highways. The children enjoy him.

   He is Ukrainian I think, or Croatian, anyway a very thick accent and very traditional. If the children don't hold their hands exactly, because he really doesn't approve of receiving the host in the hand, he will slap their hands away and say “Opink mouth batter for children.”

   The tennis court is surrounded by tall tall Pines. Last Sunday it rained and we went to Fabbro’s where their large covered patio is roofed, although still open sided. We all took our own folding chairs and the remnants of the families who have been here for a long time. The Bretons, the Hayes, Nancy Drayer, the Nori's, the Greco’s, the Daly’s the Nanne’s, and others about 60 or 70 people, the young people in shorts and bare feet. A collection helps father who has a very small parish and not much money.    

   We are in the throes of deciding to sell our own house. Not easy, but I know it is time. It is in good condition now and the neighborhood is changing and has changed. Wilf is not interested in even minor repairs. Cutting the lawn is a chore. I will miss my garden very much.

   The other decision, the accompanying decision is apartment or smaller house. I do not like the apartment idea but I know that it is the sensible decision, depending on the living space.

   Wilf and I do not thrive on togetherness. I need my room I need at least some of my books, typewriter and foostering space but we do not need 11 rooms, galley kitchen on the third floor, two bathrooms, three floors. We want to sell privately and will put it on the market in mid August. I have psyched myself up to this point. So be it!

   There is no great hurry if we don't sell this summer I will remove it from the market and give it to the real estate broker in the spring. Meanwhile I will check the apartments. There is a little house on the corner of Centennial and Queen but it is very small.

   I am going to get dressed and raise the sleeping beauties. The fog has lifted and it will be a sunny lovely summer day.

July 16 1985

   The birds are busy in the pine trees, pine siskins I think. They fly so fast I can't be certain. One bird has a high Shree Shree shrill and the long short notes afterwards. There is a squirrel running up and down the tree trunks. It is cloudy and cool. A very cold wind from Lake Superior, feels like a late August morning.

   There was an incident of sexual experimentation discovered yesterday by Lucille Daly, which upset her very much, and all involved. No serious consequences and a good cautionary experience.

    I am drinking a cup of hot tea because the cottage is cool. I should put the oil heater on. I am nervous of it because of its location in the cottage, between the two doors that lead to the three bedrooms. At night I worry. Any problems with it would effectively cut off all escape routes.

    Mary and I were counting the cottages we have been in at the point. Patterson's: Wilf and I we rented it when Mary Jane was 10 months old. I have pictures of her standing with her hand on the door frame about to step out. Also I have a picture of her with mother, who always visited us once just to make certain we were safe and warm.

Delayers: We were together, outhouse and all; I think the McIntyre's and the Punches.

  Then how could I forget out Attles Alley the first joint effort and the boat “the Galway Bay”. Later Mary rented the Delayers.

Russell's: We tried to cover the summer. I rented the cottage for one month and the McIntyre the other. They got Russell's for several years then we rented Kurtz together. The famous rain everyday summer! Pozzebons: In the bay where the children pulled all the carefully planted flowers out. Disano’s jointly for many years. No one knew that we paid half as we thought Disano’s might not have liked it. Silly now, I realize that everyone thought we were leeching off the McIntyre's.

Francolini’s where we are now, while Mary is at Kelly's around the point. In between we were at Maskinonge Bay which preceded Attles Alley the first joint venture.

  Two years at Nelsons on St. Joseph's Island. I have notes on many of our adventures.

   I plan on editing some of these stories and giving it to the children for Christmas.

   The sun is trying to break through the cloud cover. I only had the three Olsens last night. They are all sleeping. Suzanne is bringing Chris Young, a friend of Steven out today and Trisha and Amy Ryan, Christina and Joanna's friends, went in with John and Michael for soccer and hockey last night.

    Mary Jane's holidays are over and she is back at work. Her boss Dr. Toye is on call for the next five weeks so she will be hopping. He is taking most of September off so she will have it easy then. She likes her job but wishes his office was in a doctors building instead of in isolation over Royal Trust. He is good to work for.

   John is enjoying his month-long holiday, enough wind for sailing. Michael and Donna will be back on Saturday so this is the quiet week although Donna is off until August 2. Michael is off for the Trans Superior July 27.

 Wilf didn't come out yesterday. He takes over the TV when he is out and has a fit when the conversation or the games prevent him from hearing the baseball games or the news. He is not camper.

   I am going to knit for a while I am trying a Nordic sweater for Mary Jane for her birthday. I must write some letters too. I'm going in on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning for a dinner for Sister Shannon who is leaving the parish. Christina has an interview with Willie Eisenbechler at the library tomorrow, is very apprehensive naturally.

1984 July Point Aux Pins Francolini's Cottage.

Joanna's Cabbage Patch Party Hat  used on her seventh birthday saved by Katherine Punch

The Party!

Wednesday, July 4, 1984- Point Aux Pins Francolini's Cottage.

   It is Joanna's seventh birthday. I am reclining on the beach cot with her beside me on another. She has just asked if she can go and change for her party. The answer is “NO”. The party is at 6:30pm, ice cream and cake for the beach urchins and it is only now 230. Steven and Kyle are rowing around in the small wooden boat.

12:30 AM Thursday, July 5, 1984

   The first paragraph in this story ended with a sudden thunderstorm that swept in from Lake Superior with little warning. Having just reclined, having slathered myself with suntan oil put on my sunglasses, with a jug of ice tea beside me, my book at hand, I had to hastily fold the two cots, gather my props up and race for the cottage gathering the children as I went. Michael and Merwan were playing their own version of lawn tennis with plastic bats. Rachel came from next-door, Brendan and Christina with her. Thus began a series of slight misfortunes!

   Wilf for who always phoned in the morning and was slated to pick up the birthday cake bring out ice cream and Joanna's birthday present neglected to phone. I started phoning him at 12 noon and kept it up at 20 minute intervals until 4:30pm when John arrived to take Michael into his T-ball game. I hastily departed for the Sault to pick up the birthday present cake and ice cream and to find out what it happened to Wilf. I departed so hastily that I missed the top step and fell down the cement cottage steps. Shook me up landing on all fours but nothing else! I missed the turn to Bluebird Bakery off the second line and went on to McDougall Street wondering if Wilf had fallen at home and was injured or what. He wasn't at home so l picked up the birthday present, back on to Bluebird Bakery, into a traffic jam on Second Line and Highway 17 N. I was delayed there picked up the cake and ice cream remembered that I had forgotten to call Helen Olsen to remind her of Joanna's party and got back to the cottage at 6 pm. I hadn't asked John to put the barbecue on as I wanted to have our hamburgers before the cake and ice cream crowd arrived. Almost  7:15 PM. The crowd began to arrive. I had prepared for 15 to 18 with Cabbage Patch paper plates and serviettes, 12 paper hats and 16 loot bags. Well they came in force! Joanna must have toured the beach and there were about 25, so I gave the loot bags to the smallest first and then up the line with the older ones missed.

   There were enough Cabbage Patch and Smurf balloons, there was a definite shortage of Cabbage Patch hats and in the melee I forgot the ice cream, my flash didn't work for the pictures, but I think everyone had a good time. They threw their paper plates and hats all over the lawn and stomped on their balloons with noisy glee. Wilf finally arrived. He had been called into the rectory to work on the bazaar tickets and meant to phone me but hadn’t got around to it.

   Mary and Mary Anne, Catherine, Lauren and Tarryn arrived late. Tarryn reminds me of Patrick at the same age his little legs never still; he doesn't walk he runs and runs and runs. He is a beautiful child, ash blonde curls, huge blue eyes just like Catherine. Mary Anne’s Lauren one-year-old yesterday is a lovely little girl, blue-eyed fair-haired with a quick merry smile. We were at her party yesterday. This year Brendon at 13 is part child part adolescent with his voice "quavering” and breaking into deep tones in the middle of a sentence. Playing one minute, sitting aloof and bored the next!

   Christina and her friend Rachel Hayden are in the same stage, changing outfits trying out trendy styles walking the beach together disdaining the younger ones.

   So I have the seven of them under the cottage roof, Brendon and Michael Yorke the three Olsens and Rachel and Kyle Punch. I enjoy it!

   Michael is volatile as usual and Joanna is a very bossy seven. Rachel at 4 and 3/4 is just a little out of it and spooked at night. I have to lie with her until she falls asleep and tell her exactly what is going to happen the next day item by item until she feels reassured and relaxes into sleep.

    Tonight Michael and Kyle are in the first room, Joanna and Rachel in the second, Steven in the bed and Christina on the cot in the third room. I am on the pullout in the living room on guard.

   Mary and Jim have rented a cottage at Point Louise. Catherine Tarryn, Mary Anne and Lauren are out with them, with Nora and Sheila and Patrick back-and-forth. Paul won't be home this summer. He has set up a practice in Halifax and is getting married in Chester on August 25.

   Jimmy and Sue are busy moving from Espanola to Elliot Lake so they won't be here this summer either. It is 1:10 AM I am tired but wakeful after drinking coffee. Suzanne was back yesterday from four weeks in Europe, Paris Greece and Italy.

July 5, 1984 Thursday.

 Rachel crawled into bed with me at some hour of the night tucked herself tightly under my back and promptly went to sleep. None of us got up until 9:30 AM although I was awake long before. Mary and Mary Anne Catherine Lauren and Tarryn came for coffee. Lauren pulled a folded cot over on herself and caught her finger in it, a result a jagged cut on her tiny little finger that required three stitches in emergency.

   The day was mild and cloudy, the children in and out of the icy water. Suzanne came out and she and Catherine had a good visit while Tarryn played on the beach. This afternoon it rained and of course they were bored and ate all the cookies and a snack and cake.

   Donna came to pick Rachel and Kyle up; they are all going to Manitoulin for the weekend. The Sunstrums and Jim and Sue have rented a cottage at Oaks on Lake Mindemoya. Jim and Sue moved yesterday and today to the Elliot Lake while Vange kept the children at the lake. We had supper and then the urchins from along the beach came for a film show “Donald Duck”. “A Country Mouse” “Rekiki Tikki Tavi” one hour and a half, and I gave them ice cream cones, (the ice cream I forgot to serve yesterday) and then Wilf was here, so I got on my bike and rode out to the tennis court and then back to point Louise to the end of the road and back. I found some places I want to photograph. Blue flags and the Allegash view.

  Christina is sleeping over with with Rachel Hayden at the next cottage I have finished one book “Real Lace” the story of the wealthy Irish in America. Good chapters on the famine, the reason for the huge immigration to America.

July 18, 1984

The summer is flying and my life is going by like a fast-moving train. Clickety-clack, clickety-clack! The weather hasn’t been too good. Rarely two fine days in a row quite often two or more bad days. Yesterday after a couple of bad days I took Brendan Steven Joanna and Michael into town for a visit to the Cambrian Mall for a shopping expedition, just for a break from cold rainy days. It cleared while we were in and today is cool but breezy and sunny.

John is reading Discovery, Suzanne is stretched out on a cot sunning; Joanna is in the water with Layla. Steven is lying in the dinghy; Michael and Merwan are listening to records in the Daly’s back cottage.

   Brendan and Jimmy have just arrived after going around Point Louise in the metal boat. They are soaked; the waves are wild on the old North shore. Since last writing there have been two trips to Emergency at the General. Lauren Wilson age one pulled the cot over jams her little finger and it required three stitches to mend her jagged cut. Michael York used Brendon’s fishing rod without his permission and tangled the line. Brendon took after him “to kill that kid”, Michael fell, Brendan fell over him, and Michael gouged his elbow. One stitch in the Emergency!

   I have read another book “The great hunger” by Cecil Woodham Smith on Ireland in the 1840s. Amazing that the happenings tie in with the stories my mother told of her grandfather. She was born in 1880, her parents would have been born in the 1850s or 60s, her father would be young in the night 1846 famine.

   Catherine went back to Toronto yesterday. Tarryn is very much like Patrick at the same age and Catherine too, he is impulsive and headstrong, fascinated by the car.

     Michael has caught some fish, Brendon hasn't but he and Steven have bought a new kind of fish stringer just in case they do. Michael and Brendon are going into town many times for hockey, baseball, T-ball and soccer. Wilf goes in and out grumpy with the noisy ones. I go in once during the week overnight, on the weekends when Mary Jane is out.

July 23, 1984

This is the last week of our four-week stint at the cottage. John is going back-and-forth to the sailboat in his blue and yellow dinghy. It is his day off and he is ministering to his sailboat. Michael Punch is somewhere between Chicago and Mackinac Island in the race with “Gunderson” who owns the boat, a 34 foot C&C. Michael's and Donna's dream is a 19 foot C&C.

   I don't know how long I'm going to last down here on the beach. There are big horseflies and they bite and they are using my oiled legs as a landing field and they “REALLY” bite.

    Joanna and Layla are building one of their complicated sand cities, roads and ponds and castles. Brendon and Gino are shooting bows and arrows at a target out near the garage. Celeste is bothering Layla and Joanna. Steven is walking back-and-forth wrapped in a towel. He is in one of his bored solitary moods. I am going to have to get the “Off”.

   Jim and Sue and children are driving this afternoon from Elliot Lake. Donna Kyle and Rachel will add effervescence to our last few days.

   The weather has not been good, rarely two days in a row of sunshine. I have made good use of my film Council membership. We have had film showings of a rainy afternoon or evening for as high as 25 beachkins.

   There is a pall over the Sault Algoma Steel. It is on its last gasp of survival and there are many more people to be cut from the staff. Top to bottom no one is secure. Laurie and his whole crew were cut last Friday. Mary Anne has her name in several places and is hoping for a chance of an opening in the hospital. I thank God for our good fortunes, although John is worried he is still working. . MJ's boss Dr. Landecker (the ophthalmologist) has closed his practice and is moving to Newmarket. Mary Jane is going to work for Philip Acetti an optometrist, doing the same kind of work contact fitting.

 Suzanne has taken a few weeks to settle down after Greece and Italy. She is dating Lori Hill a Jamaican doctor.

  Michael was chosen for the East end All-Star team in his T-ball league. We sweltered at North Street field watching him play. His team won 39 to 21. He is an aggressive alert player very competitive. He got a medal. It was held for crippled children as part of Rotary’s Community Day celebrations. Brendon is playing ball regularly and practicing hockey. Both he and Michael are attending hockey school beginning next week.

   Christina has spent one week in town at a dancing school and one week in North Bay. She has sore feet to prove it. She and Rachel Hayden spend most most of their time washing hair and primping. I fear that that will there will be quite a social gap between Jennifer and Christina.

   Joanna plays with Cabbage Patch kids with stuffed animals and just plays. She is still a little girl.

“Merwan, will you go for a swim?”

“Nah”

 “I won't get you!” (Splashing)

   John and Michael are walking the beach, Joanna is turning cartwheels, the wind is up and John is waiting for Jimmy for a sail.

  Catherine and Tarryn have gone back to Toronto. Mary Anne and Mary have moved back to town. They are coming out for lunch tomorrow with Eddy.

   The flies have won!

. Later I went for a row in the aluminum boat and the flies followed me. I am now in the cottage wondering whether it is worth it to spray myself with “Off” which stuff I hate, so I can go back outside. John and Steven have gone for a sail, Christina is sunning. What I should do is get my nerve up for swimming. I went in a couple of time at Kelly's cottage on the North Shore where Mary rented. The water was warmer there and the waves interesting.

   Laurie was devastated by the layoff. I hope Pat's job last for a while anyway. Someone has to do ordinary work. Laurie’s prospects as a carpenter are not very good. There is some construction but not much. He is an excellent carpenter too, more like a cabinetmaker. He made Lauren a cradle that is heirloom quality. It is so discouraging for young people. Michael has been most fortunate to be working. His company have a couple of good up-and-coming contracts so he is assured of a couple of years but at 31 that is not much assurance.

   Donna and Suzanne are pretty secure as nurses although their departments are constantly being reviewed and streamlined. Michael has done well in his first Algoma College computer course, I hope he continues.

   Jim and Sue are safe for a few years having transferred to Elliot Lake, that is if the bottom doesn't fall out of the uranium market as it did out of steel.

   We are looking forward to Paul and Julia's wedding in Halifax on August 25. Mary, Jim, Sheila, Pat, Wilf and I, John, Mary Jane and boys, will represent the family. I imagine it will be very casual.

   Mary has not yet been asked for her guest list for invitations and by now the invitations should be in the mail. Mary and Jim have reserved the golf club for a rehearsal party. The yacht club is the wedding reception. The wedding is a Unitarian Universal ceremony, where we don't know, probably in grandmother Ogilvy's garden.

   Donna just called they have all arrived from Elliot Lake and will be out immediately. I will put this away; put some “Off” on and go down to the beach to wait. The day has become beautiful bright with sunshine and breeze.

1980 July 13,1980 Point Aux Pins Francolini's Cottage

July 13,1980 Point Aux Pins Francolini's Cottage

July 13, 1980 Point Aux Pins

    It is summertime and summertime means Point aux Pins. Mary Jane in a purple one piece terrycloth sun-whatever, is lying on her stomach on a Sun Cat sunning. Mary Anne in a black terrycloth one piece terrycloth sun-whatever, is lying on her back on the Sun Cat sunning. Suzanne, Mary and friend Bonny McLean are on the end of the dock prone and sunning.

   The children are on the sand, Joanna, Suzanne's three-year-old, Christina Suzanne's nine-year-old, Janet Bonny’s seven-year-old. John is foostering in the sailboat having graduated a year ago from the Sunflower 11. Michael Yorke, Mary Jane's four-year-old is playing with the girl next door. Steven, Suzanne’s seven-year-old has just come around the side of the cottage hopping, balancing, and talking to himself.

    I just had a refreshing swim in the cool cool waters of the St. Mary's River. A power boat comes out of the cove. There are jet trails in the blue cloud flexed summer sky. A tug goes by. The lighthouse is still there, red-capped against the pines. There is a new cedar solar house beside it. There are sailboats beached in the cove where the French built their sloops in the 1730s.The big difference is that the chicken tree is gone and the beaver that used to live in Teen Bay is gone. The bears have moved back into the thicker forests that are less humanly populated. The airport is where the blueberry marsh was, and the children on the beach are grandchildren.

    Paul is a doctor in Chester Nova Scotia, busily contemplating his navel in between patients and sailing. Jimmy a teacher father of three girls lives not too far away in Espanola, and shows the same noisy "joie de vivre" he did as a child, still volatile but controlled.

   Patrick is in town, the little boy off by himself not just sure of his life as it is lived, the insecure product of what negative impressions as he grew, who knows!

  Mary Jane still objecting to sand and bugs is married to John Yorke from Nova Scotia who is balanced, kind and humorous. The closest thing to "the prince" Suzanne jokes about, that this family knows.

   Suzanne the nurse separated since last year from Joel, divorce pending, nine years of stormy unhappy marriage behind her. Thank you God! Healing and then just knowing herself, gaining confidence in herself, a month return to work full time at the General Hospital. Mary Jane is caring for her three children, has them at camp, a joint project reminiscent of Mary and my combined summer efforts as well as her own two. She cares for them in town too.

   Catherine McIntyre has recently quit a remunerative secretarial job at Algoma Steel. She was engaged last year, broke it off for very valid reasons of incompatibility last Christmas and is being pressured by her ex-fiancé to try it again. She is in Toronto. Perhaps if she is wise she will make it her home and take a new approach to living. She is a beautiful, willful, and mixed up child. Her constant growing up threats of “when I am 18 no one will tell me what to do” was not an idle threat. Too beautiful and willful for her own good!

   Sheila is working at Algoma Steel, a tall slim lovely girl not spectacular or blatant like Catherine but lovely.

   Mary Anne is very pretty and intelligent, and like Mary Jane a constant suffering weight watcher. She is engaged to a handsome quiet moody Laurie Wilson. Wedding plans next May. She has passed her restless moodiness and has a positive approach to life. Europe on bread and cheese behind her, one year in Vancouver behind her, as ready as anyone is to take on life and marriage. Is anyone at any age ever really ready?

   Michael is married, a girl 10 months, a boy almost 2, and a wife who suits him perfectly and loves him devotedly. She also likes sailing which is his addiction. They are off on a three week holiday amongst the islands of Georgian Bay and the Manitoulin's, children and all. I don't know how much their new Tanzer cost and I don't want to. They enjoy life.

    Donna is a nurse part-time now, sister of Jimmy's wife Susan. Have I enumerated them all? I don't know!

    Wilf still a non-camper is in town this afternoon.

   Nora a pretty sixteen, a boyfriend right now, shorn of her thick lens glasses and into soft contacts. Her contacts treated to their utmost, suffering all of the Sixteen Syndrome. Very pretty too! All of Mary's girls are pretty.

   John and Jim McIntyre are now out in the sailboat the “Nordica”. The river this glittering Sunday afternoon is alive with water skiers and sailboats. The cottage is in Daly’s compound just down the beach three east of Attles (now the Psychney’s?). In the bay is Pozzebons a beautiful gray brick establishment. Disano’s is one away from here; Russell’s is down the beach as is the Delayers.  Kert’s and Richardson’s are no more. They were sold and torn down.  There are beautiful year-round homes on the property because Pointe aux Pins is now part of the city of Sault Ste. Marie.

    Where the bears walked one summer evening not so long ago now is Pine Shores Boulevard. The trail we dare not walk because it was the bear’s domain is now paved and prosaic Daligleish Drive. 

   The grand children still fish the Allagash – where Douglas and Suzanne used to fish, and they still walk the Indian trail to the store, and they still build castles in the sand. Plus everything changes and everything remains the same.