1987 Pine Island July 24th-25th-26th

1987 Pine Island July 24 10 AM

    It is a foggy morning! It has rained intermittently all night, a rain that crashed through the trees and banged and rattled on the roof.

    It is a hot and damp and oppressive day. I have just challenged them to a game of Scrabble to stop the arguments. The boredom has been broken by the mother duck and ducklings in the bay. There is been a lineup for the bathroom, we have earwigs, we have had them all along but they are increasing. On to Scrabble!

    Michael has decided that the bird at Echo Bay last night was a crane not the great blue heron. We verified it in the bird book.

1:20 PM:

    The children are on the inverted dinghies catching snails. Who gets the biggest? Who gets the smallest?  it is a sticky miserable day but better here than at home. They have gone climbing over the rock islands and looking for the otter. They have had turns riding in the boat!  They have argued and we have had a great game of Scrabble.

     Michael and I have been checking the bird book, Joanna, Rachel and I have slight stomach ailments. I have taken pictures of their snailing expedition, and we are waiting for Michael Punch to come for Kyle, his last sailing lesson is today.

    We are going to move into town on Tuesday. Suzanne is off Monday and will come down to clean. Tuesday, John will be down with the truck to take the boat in. Any other year I have dreaded the return to town, this year I am not so sorry to go. Mary Anne, Lauren and Megan are coming down tomorrow. Michael, Donna and Wilf, Mary Jane and John will be here too!

1987 Pine Island July 25 Saturday

    It was a good day today. Brendon and Christina slept in, and Michael and I fed the chipmunks and watched for birds. Baby ducks swim around the reeds, saw us, and disappeared. The usual trips to the island and this morning they spent a lot of time on the rafts. Kyle rigged up the paddles to be used like kayak paddles.

     In the early afternoon Donna came down and brought pizza which they devoured even though we had just finished one of our gourmet camp lunches wieners and buns. At supper time Mary Jane came with salads and Nicole and Rhys Skinner were dropped off for the morning with Kirk, and they toured the Islands in the boat.

    The teens have gone to Richards Landing for a rock concert. Donna has taken Rachel and Kyle home for the night and Mary Jane has gone. Catherine McIntyre has a date for the rock concert so Tarryn is going to stay with Steven Michael Joanna and me.

    It was a beautiful sunny warm day with a cool breeze. Steven is now trying to teach Tarryn how to tie his shoelaces.  Evidently it is a must before he enters pre-kindergarten.

I came into “my room” and hear Joanna” where’s grandma” Apparently there has been a great snailing, clamming and frog egg gathering!

    Catherine McIntyre has just left in a speed boat with Steven Adams, Bill and Sabina Adams son. Bill was once smitten with Mary and in fact there was a ‘Donny-brook” at a party I forget the details but Jim required some repairs after. Bill died many years ago!

1987 Pine Island July 26 Sunday.

    A gorgeous summer day, blue skies, bright sunshine and a fresh wonderful breeze. We went to mass at Bruce Mines in the little white wooden Anglican Catholic Church. The pews were so narrowly constructed and rounded that if you leaned back at all you slid. The church was obviously Anglican built because the kneelers were an afterthought and flimsy and uncomfortable and not padded either.  They were bare wood! Catherine took Nicole, Christina, and Steven, and I took Joanna, Michael, and Tarryn. We couldn't fit Rhys and Brendon in so they stayed at the cottage.

    When we return to the cottage, the four teens took off to Erwin’s for the afternoon. Mary Jane and John came down with food. Mary Anne, Lauren, and Megan came also, and we had a great day.

    Steven Adams arrived in an aluminum boat to take Catherine and Tarryn fishing, and the afternoon went with people talking and laughing, and my boat going back and forth to the Rocky Island. John and Michael went out with Michael running the motor, and then we barbecued steak and wieners, bean salad, macaroni salad, potato salad, tossed salad and cherry pie for dessert.

     Wilf came down for supper, and Donna, Michael, Kyle and Rachel had come down with Mary Jane. A fine last gathering!

   Tomorrow is the last day. We have the cottage until Saturday at noon but with Suzanne on days, Mary Jane and John working, and Michael and Donna working it seemed wiser to go early. Wilf and I have to be in a Little Current on Friday and I'm happy to have a couple of days at home before we go. Steven Joanna Kyle and Rachel are watching TV everyone else has gone and it is peaceful. The river is lovely in the gathering dust!

1987 Pine Island July 23 Thursday.

1987 Pine Island: July 23, Thursday.

    Another day of record-breaking heat 98° in the Sault! We had a breeze that became a wild wind in the midafternoon. It flipped up John's yellow dinghy and flung it into the reeds by the marsh. The lifejackets rolled and flopped across the lawn.

     Suzanne came down at noon and delivered some groceries and a bucket of Kentucky fried chicken for supper. Steven and I had said that we did not want tacos, Sloppy Joes, or anything made with buns, hamburgers or wieners. She took Amy home and Michael and Kyle to the ballgame and sailing respectively.

    It was an odd afternoon the water came up very high. The children went to the island swimming then the water became very rough. Steven went out to the gap and said the whitecaps were rolling in the channel.

     Wilf came down to the camp. The heat in the Sault was unbearable he said.  We had supper and the wind stilled. It started to get dark early and Wilf decided to head back into town.

    It is very still not a ripple on the water! Michael and Donna arrived with Kyle and the wind came up, the water in front of the cottage whirled in an arc and the wind and rain and storm were upon us! Chain lightning and fork lightning continuous thunder and a down for of rain!

    John arrived in the back delivering Michael, the storm abated a bit and he took off after helping with the decision on sleeping arrangements. There is always an argument. Tonight Joanna, Rachel and Michael are sleeping in the front room twin beds and the rollaway. Kyle is on the cot in the main room and Steven is on the couch.

There is an apparition in the doorway! Joanna has a headache and needs an aspirin. Rachel has one for a stomachache (She doesn't like storms). The storm is rumbling around and flashing on the horizons.

    An item on the TV has just informed us that the storm centered in the Sault with half the city without power. Wilfred is alone in the house and like Rachel he doesn't like storms either! His upbringing was such that storms meant panic in the house. If they occurred at night everyone was awakened and gathered downstairs. My grandmother was terrified of storms too and prayed and sprinkled us all with holy water. Mother said that in Ireland they all gathered in the open hearth and said the rosary.

    I am just happy to be indoors. We sat on the wide porch tonight and watched the display. It was spectacular! We had to come in because the slanting rain in the wild wind was drenching us. John said that a great blue heron flew across the road and over the truck on the way down along the curve on Lake George near Echo Bay. I wondered if it was our blue Heron or another. Perhaps there are more around this year. Now to get Michael and Kyle settled

1987 Pine Island July 22 Wednesday

1987 Pine Island July 22 Wednesday 

    Trouble settling them down last night but finally, Michael is on the roll away in the big room, with Steven on the couch, Rachel on the cot in the front room, and Joanna and Amy in the twins.

     Michael York and I are the early birds! I wake in early and usually read for a couple of hours. Today I decided to go outside. Michael was awake so we tiptoed and when he was eating his cereal at the table in front of the big window, and I was in the kitchen in front of the window, a great Blue heron rose from the marsh to the right of the cottage and flew across both windows to land in the marsh to the left of the cottage. A magnificent bird!

    We went down onto the dock to watch and sure enough he rose from the marsh and flew at his leisure across to the far shore. Then we sat outside and the Chipmunks came around. Michael scattered some peanuts and we waited. The chipmunks became bold and Michael held his hand still. We waited for 45 minutes and finally I think I got a picture of him taking a peanut from Michael's hand.

    It has been a good day. Very hot! Steven took them swimming this morning and after lunch we all went to Richards Landing all six of us in the Acadian, to the beach. I was sorry that I didn't take my suit it was so hot.

    The children had a great time. Steven is so good with them in spite of the fact that he says he's going to kill them all. He organizes them and looks like the Pied Piper with them strung out behind him. He had them racing to see who could run into the water furthest without falling and lead them from one raft to another diving jumping and doing head stands.

    He will probably be working next year and if so I don't know how camp will work out. Of course they'll all be a year-older but then so will l. I hope it can be arranged, I would miss it, I feel much better  then when I came down to the camp. It has helped me recover from the move from McDougall Street, which was both physically and emotionally draining.

    Wilf came down for supper, we are low on groceries, so Stevens gourmet camp dinner was not really what he expected Kraft dinner and wieners. He's a great cook, but the kitchen looks as if a tornado hit it. Whatever is used is not put away, tops off everything etc. etc. But I gladly clean up! He made rice crispy squares tonight for their snack.

    Kyle, Michael, Amy, Rachel, Joanna and Steven and me tonight. I have all kinds of cake and cookie mixes but the oven isn't working. We haven't heard from Landlady Ross. They were on the dock when Steven went past with four passengers and himself going to the island.

     Wilf says he isn't feeling very well, says that the heat has gotten to him, it is sweltering in town. The cottage is really hot this evening, we have a fan going at the front door and one in the boys room. The girls don't have one and feel much put upon!

    I got some of my slides back, I got a river scene, and the one of the big bubbles that the children were blowing when Jimmy was here.I think I missed the lightning but will wait to pass judgment, until I see the slides projected at home.

    They are all in bed except me writing and Steven watching TV. I will put out this light; it draws the bugs to the window. Last night the raccoons got into the back porch! There is only a screen door but there is a solid wooden red door between the porch and the small passage into the bathroom. Mr. Raccoon chose to scratch at the red door just as Steven was going past it in the dark on the way to the bathroom. Steven said it startled him so that he hurled himself into the bathroom, and slammed the door before he realized what it was that was attacking him!

     All is not quiet. Michael has just come out looking for a flashlight, and Rachel's little face just appeared in the opening of the other door and then disappeared.  The door is closed. There is a slight difference of opinion about the door. Joanna wants the door closed and Rachel wants it slightly open! All is quiet for the moment it is 10:30 PM,

 

Mom's drawing of the cottage

1987 Pine Island July 20th Wednesday and Thursday

1987 Pine Island July 20^th

 Wednesday and Thursday night, Steven, Rachel, Joanna and I were here and Friday, Christina, Tricia Ryan, Joanna, Amy Ryan arrived and Steven and I were here.

    Saturday night Suzanne came down with Tarryn and Steven went to Rennie’s overnight Sunday. They are going in so many ways!

Catherine came to get Tarryn and Rennie John and Steven took the sailboat into town. John brought Rennie and Steven back down and we barbequed. It was cold and damp in the cottage so we lit a fire in the acorn fireplace. It smoked but gradually settled down, and took the chill off. I came into town for the night and will pick Rachel up by 10:30 AM, and then we will go down to the cottage to relieve Suzanne. If it is nice and clears, Rachel and Joanna and I will stay for the night. I may bring them up for the night so I can go to the old Stone House advisory meeting at noon tomorrow.

    Mrs. Ross accosted Suzanne and said she and her husband had decided to charge us $50 a week more because we had more people than they had assumed we would have. Suzanne said that she said,” that was not acceptable” and enumerated some of our disappointments with the place: for example the fridge was not working, there was no swimming near the cottage, and she could've added the oven on the stove, which has a bad connection, and will only heat on one element. I burned my chocolate cake!  The landlady is trying to take advantage of me and I won't have it.

     I told her that there would be a constant flow of family and friends. I told her different family members would be staying, and the investment is $1000 for four weeks very high!

     She has succeeded in taking much of the joy out of my holiday. The first season and how many, 30 maybe, that I have been spied upon. We are taking excellent care of her property as we always do and I will be glad to be home.

Tuesday July 21^st

I sat outside in the shade today-a breeze the sun hot. Last night I had Amy Michael Joanna and Rachel. They slept on pillows in their sleeping bags in the big room-squirming like worms, giggling. Michael got the mattress from the roll away but didn’t use it to sleep on –draped it like an awning from the couch over their heads. They finally slept about 1130 after I threatened that I would put Michael alone in the front room Rachel alone in the middle room. I knew that would silence them-they are all easily spooked and would be in horror of being alone in a room.

I relieved Suzanne, came down at noon yesterday. She stayed over on Sunday night and I went in to have a shower and wash my hair. I have only had one bath here-the second evening I think –anyway it was before Mrs. Ross’s first encounter. One of her complaints is that we would use too much hot water so I am extra careful and we bath in the Sault.

 Suzanne was accosted by her again.  Suzanne told her again that we made a bargain, and we were keeping our part of the bargain. She told her the stove sparked and sputtered, only works sporadically, and put a hole in aluminum tray and that was not what she had told us when we were renting. She had nothing else to say.

   Mrs. Ross hasn’t said anything else to me and I am the one she should be talking to. I paid her the $1000.00 and she cashed the check. Mrs. Ross walks to the end of her dock and looks back at our lawn where we sit in front of the cottage and I am sure she is counting heads. I wonder what her husband George thought of me being so delighted when I looked at the cottage, that it was a big old cottage with large sleeping quarters. He even showed me the extra bed on the back porch. Why would he think I wanted a large cottage if it wasn’t for family to enjoy?

    When Suzanne went home yesterday Steven went with her for a doctor’s appointment and to sleep the night. That left me without any way to get Amy Joanna and Rachel to swimming I don’t even run my own motor boat, so we drove to Women’s Institute Park on St Joe’s at Richards Landing. There is a beach and two rafts for swimming and diving. I then took them to “Nook and Cranny” for their mega sized ice cream cones.

    Steven came back today, and has been the ferry to the island for swims and rides. He is a great help, and seems to realize that Rachel is a bit “out of things”, Joanna is 10 Amy 13 and Rachel is not quite 8.

    On Saturday Suzanne insisted that I go with them to the Island-so I did. I swam, one of the only times so far. Right now there is a chipmunk foostering under the chair next to me. Rachel put peanuts out for him.

    Steven and Rachel followed an otter across at the little rock outcropping, I can’t really call it an Island. The rock is smooth with tall coarse grass growing out of its crevices. Sea gulls sit in the sun.

    There are four rocky pine crested islands. The children swim from one to the other. They can almost walk from one to the other but not quite.

    I meant to bring my wildflower book down. I have my bird book but can’t identify one slim brown bird smaller than a robin, not at all like a sparrow.

    The Toronto flight is going over.8:45pm. It is a lovely still evening. Steven is following the far shore. I could not have functioned without him and I am sure he is often bored. He referee’s the children’s fights not fights constant nattering. He barbecues and is pleasant company for me.

    Suzanne just delivered some groceries, picked up Michael, and was gone again. She works 3-11.

    I just finished “Light a Penny Candle” by Maeve Binchy. It made me lonesome for Mother and for Ireland. The Irish expressions I haven’t heard since Mother died. My Father used “eejit” for idiot, the simple Irish Catholic faith, the candles, the prayers, the simple rituals, and the male domination of women yet the matriarchal power structure of some families. Some of the expressions in the book were "let it stay that way" ( don't do anything about it),  "I've got the tea wet", "Eyes like two big holes in a blanket”, Strealish hair" a streel a slovenly untidy person, a child" a little love" just what Mother called Michael, "Let the little love be!".

   Suzanne read it and wept copiously. There was a male in it “Johnny Stone” who has the same moral standards –rather lack of them as her last boyfriend. The identical charm too. Or perhaps she was weeping for Mother-they had a great and close relationship. “Aileen” died in a scene that could have been mother’s room in the hospital that last evening.

    It is so pretty here. There is a tall purple marsh flower like a lupine but the leaves are not the same. I must bring my flower book down. There are birds busy in the marsh grasses-water lilies in the little curved bay (and blood suckers as well!)

    We are cut off without a phone. I was told I could use theirs but I don’t want any more arguments. We may move in early on Wednesday of the last week as Suzanne and Mary Jane are both working. We’ll see how it goes. In all the years of renting I have never felt so uncomfortable.

    Brendon is not down much this year and Christina complains about coming. If Steven is working next year this may be our last expedition. I will miss it! I have read “Until the Colors Fade” about the Crimean War, “War Brides”, “Golden Boy” (biography of William Holden) and “Light a Penny Candle”. Utter luxury to spend hours reading. I waken early but don’t move about because the children are up late and then sleep late.

Mary Anne’s two have the chicken pox so have not been down.

    

1987 Pine Island July 16 Thursday

1987 July 16 Pine Island

    It is Thursday; Michael and Donna brought Kyle down from his sailing lessons yesterday evening and we had a lovely evening. Michael took us in stages in the boat over to the island, and I saw where the children swim close up. A beautiful place, blueberries, moss in the cracks in the rocks, the smooth smooth rock slanting down into the water, pine trees crowning the rocky islands. There are four islands- I felt as if I was standing in a Group of Seven painting.

    The morning was relaxing and fun. Steven kept the motor warm going swimming and taking Michael, Kyle, Joanna and Rachel, for rides in the boat.

     I walked almost to the highway picking raspberries. The girls played with their dolls, brushing their hair, dressing and undressing them, wrapping them in blankets and took them for a walk along the road behind the cottages. It is a breezy sunny day. I am waiting for Wilf to relieve me so I can take Kyle into his sailing lessons, and Michael in, as he is going to a baseball tournament in Oakville. Brendon is driving with Mary Jane and his friend Kirk is going too. The teens now need company!

     I trust that Christina is alone this weekend. I have had enough of Kristine Stortini for a while. Christina is much affected by her, belittles everyone and everything when they are together. The only important thing in Kristine's life right now is 17 and 18-year-old boys, her own age boys, Brendon and his friends, are much too tame for her.

    I am going to have to leave Steven in charge because Wilf isn't here. I didn't expect him to be on time, but I had hoped he wouldn't be this late. He will say I didn't give him the right time.

    Suzanne is off for the weekend, she bought jazzy sports Honda Prelude that she brought, down for the children's approval. Says she might get it in white, it is red and has a sunroof. Here is Wilf! 

1987 Pine Island July 15 Wednesday

July 15th 1987 Wednesday 

    Jimmy was here Wednesday to Sunday last week. We were up and down to the cottage. Suzanne was off Friday Saturday and Sunday, so she stayed here with the children and I went into town on Friday. Jim and Sue and family were doing the malls on Saturday, and going to 7 PM mass, then to the cottage for Sunday and home from there.

    Suzanne and I, Steven, Brendon, Joanna, Christina, Kristine Stortini and I were all set to go to mass on Saturday in Echo Bay. The boys were ready early so went for a ride in the boat.  Suddenly all hell broke loose in the atmosphere. It had been threatening all day, but it exploded about ten to seven and “exploded” was the word. The boys were on their way to shore and saw what looked like a great white wall of water coming down towards them between the Pine Island shore and our shore. They made it to land, about 30 seconds before we were hit. The water in front of us seemed to rise to meet the oncoming wall of water. The winds became hurricane force, small branches flew off the trees, and the river was a wild churning tumult of waves. The sailboat tipped until the mast touch the water. Brendon and Steven saw the keel bared then it slowly righted itself.

    We huddled together on the old porch until it blew over and past us, then the thunder and lightning began. There were tornadoes in Michigan and we were on the edge of the turbulence. For a while it seemed as if we were right in the middle. The television warned us that there was a severe storm watch on until 9 PM on Sunday.

     On Sunday we drove to Bruce mines for a communion service at 11 AM. Nicole and Margie Irwin were there too, and they invited Brendon, Christina, and Kristine, to come over to their cottage for water skiing in the afternoon.

    Jim and Susan Jennifer Sarah and Angela were at the cottage and Jennifer took off with the teens. Will didn't come down until 330. Catherine and Tarryn and her friend Lisa from Toronto arrived so we had our usual gang.

    The weather was threatening again and Donna, Michael, Kyle and Rachel were down too. The teenagers arrived in time for supper with extra friends, spaghetti and meatballs for all.

    The sky darkened and everything was still. Then a cloud came in the corridor between the island and the mainland, black, black cloud with an under cloud that snaked close to the water. The lightning and thunder exploded at one and the same time. Fork lightning all around us, then a couple of whacks that made Jimmy say “it is right here!”

    It roared around us and over us, Rachel was almost hysterical and then the rain. Huge splashing drops then a downpour, then again the wind.  The teens did a wild mud dance in the puddle that formed on the lawn, and took a shower to clean off where the water spouted off the corner of the porch. That was the third storm in as many days.

Showering in the drain runoff in the rain

Puddle mud in the storm

Dancing in the rain

    The first was a mere shower compared to the other two. Steven and I tried to photograph the lightning in the first one, he used Suzanne super-duper camera with the zoom lens, and I use my wide-angle. I haven't got the results yet but I don't think my trigger finger was fast enough.

     After the storm everyone had left, Jimmy and family for home, Wilf for the Sault, with Donna Michael and Kyle. Mary Jane and John were in a baseball tournament all weekend, so didn't we didn't see them until late Sunday.

    Oh on Sunday just before the storm Brendon his first year driving left in the truck with Kristine Stortini heading for the Sault. Only a few minutes later they arrived back. Brendon had wisely decided to get off the highway because of the downpour and the nil visibility. They were drenched just running from the car to the cottage. After everyone disbursed to Elliot Lake and the Sault the ones left were Steven, Michael, Joanna, Rachel and me.

    Mrs. Ross our landlady has a cottage just back of us across the road and on a higher point of land. She came to the door and told me we were having too many people, and she had no idea we had so many children, are such a big family and if I continue to have my family using the cottage she would have to charge me another hundred dollars a week. She is concerned about the use of the toilet (I will only allow it to be flushed after # 2 use) and the amount of power we are using for hot water and cooking.

     I was very upset by her visit and told her on the phone when I agreed to rent it that there would be a constant flow of people, and she said she understood that. I told her I would have my grandchildren with me, that my daughters would be down on weekends, and that my son-in-law would be here on holiday and would be there at other times too. She mentioned that there would be a charge of $25 per person a day if an extra couple was sharing it all the time.

    I said on the phone that wouldn't happen and it hasn't happened. I told her on Sunday we had always rented a cottage for family use and had paid $250 a week.

     She mentioned the fact that her husband had had a heart attack and I assured her I didn't want to upset him that I would see what I could do about limiting the use somewhat.

    On Monday John came down to go sailing, his boat is anchored in front of the cottage, and that had been mentioned in my original visit down here in the spring when Mr. Ross showed us through.

     Mary Jane phoned to say she and Suzanne wouldn't be down. We were to have the use of Ross's phone whenever we needed it according to the original conversation. It had been locked inside twice when I went up to use it, but Mrs. Ross came down with the message. She informed me that she had told Mary Jane she would have to charge $25 per day extra.

    I was upset by her but I will not be drawn into a confrontation. The next thing I see, Mary Jane and Suzanne coming around the side of the cottage to make sure, they said, that I didn't get my check book out.

     I had considered another hundred dollars but then decided “NO”. I am not doing anything that wasn't agreed to in my original contract with Mr. Ross.

     We have a barbecue which is our gas, I brought Mary Jane's microwave for quick little energy cooking, and we stripped the beds of all their linens packed them and their towels away, and I brought my own small TV and put theirs away. We are using paper plates most of the time and plastic glasses.

     I spent over an hour on Monday afternoon on my knees taking stains off the carpet. Stains that were here when we came, Wilf repaired a chair that was sagging and spreading straw all over the floor, and we have our own outdoor chairs. The two wood and canvas ones here were unusable.

    We have to bring our own water and I brought a roll away because one beds is very uncomfortable. This is an old family style three bedroom cottage. It has a cot on the enclosed porch. What on earth would one couple have need for the facilities!

    That was one of the things that attracted me when going through with Mr. Ross in the spring. I was delighted with the sleeping facilities and he did not object or mention numbers. We have always taken excellent care of our rented cottages and have left them in better condition than when we arrived. I feel very badly that this has happened. I rented a cottage for the family and certainly won't restrict its careful use by me and by them.

    On Sunday night Steven, Michael, Joanna, Rachel and I slept here. On Monday night Steven, Joanna Rachel and I.

     Tuesday morning the weather was cold and miserable so we went into town at 10 AM and did not return until 12 noon on Wednesday.

     Wilf and I drove down on Tuesday evening to lock the door and check the boats. This afternoon, Wednesday, Steven, Rachel, Joanna and I are here and tonight Kyle will join us. Donna will bring him down after the sailing races instruction. I will go out with Kyle tomorrow for 2 PM for his lesson and I will go to the library board meeting. Wilf will come down for 2 PM to be with the children and I will pick Kyle up and bring him down again for the night.

     Brendon Mary Jane and Michael are away all weekend at a baseball tournament and John is racing, so is Michael and Donna, so the weekend will be quiet. Mrs. Ross has taken a lot of joy out of this holiday. Could she be trying to take advantage of me and get more money?

1987 Pine Island July 10, 1987 (11 am)

     11 AM: It is day six of our summer holidays. Sarah, Kyle, and Angela are casting off the dock. Rachel and Joanna are paddling around in rubber dinghies. Steven and Jennifer have returned to their sleeping quarters (the floor and the couch in the living room.) They have been very patient with their siblings, who have had a very noisy breakfast with many arguments. Joanna 10, Kyle almost 10, Rachel 7, 8 in September, Angela 7,8 in January, Sarah 11, Steven 14, and Jennifer,14.

     Jim and Susan went into town last night and Suzanne and Wilfred. John had to take Michael in for baseball and Brendon in for hockey. Mary Jane is working and in and out.

     I am sitting in front of the cottage refereeing when necessary. The children are catching more snags than fish. It is a dull cloudy day but warm and breezy. We rented the Rossi’s cottage which is on the mainland behind Pine Island. 

The cottage

Not as good a location as Humbug Point last year. The swimming right at the cottage is not good a mucky bottom and bloodsuckers, but the boat is busy ferrying them to a rocky island close by.

Rachel Punch

    John has the sailboat anchored offshore “The Stitch”. After he brought it down from the Sault the other day and had it settled, he relaxed on a chair in front of the cottage leaned back and looked out at the boat and said "Now it is summertime!"

    The other night I had nine people here. Brendan 16, Kirk his friend 16, Christina almost 16, Michael, Joanna, Steven, Kyle, Rachel and me. I broke up a giggly Scrabble game at 1 PM with the four teens, but they get along very well, all of them in spite of the constant younger ones arguments.

     On Sunday Catherine McIntyre and Tarryn, Mary Anne Wilson, Lauren and Megan spent the day with us. Mary Jane was here and John and Suzanne and Wilf.  Donna, Michael, Kyle and Rachel came later back from a week sail to Meldrum Bay on Manitoulin, Bruce mines, and Hilton Beach.

Mud fight

Dancing in the rain

Boating back from the rock

John Steven and Michael

John's boat the Tanzer 22
 Kyle is now outnumbered on the dock. When he brought the dinghy in Joanna told him how to dock it much to his chagrin. He is going to commute to the Sault for sailing lessons. I don't know how that is going to be worked out but it is not my problem. That's the nice part about being a grandmother, no responsibility for their final outcome, concern of course, and many many prayers.

     I try to convince Wilf when he is nagging and nattering at them, that we don't have to bring them up, but he still pounces on them the way he did with his own children. He has to nag, he has to be the king, is so afraid that he is not going to get the giant share of the food.He feels very neglected because I am down here! I am not his mother! I am not responsible for him, concerned for his comfort, but he is not neglected and has never been. But he has the negative Rheaume attitude, always dwells on what he does not have, can’t seem to count our many, many, blessings.

    To get back to Sunday, the motor wasn't working so the expeditions to the island were curtailed. John got the spark plug plugs, and fixed it on Monday. Steven ranged the islands, and John took the charts and checked the channel because it is quite narrow. Then he took the smaller ones over to the island to swim.  When backing off shore the propeller fell off the motor and twirled to the bottom in about 20 feet of water-$84 later the boat is in commission again.

    They are having fun in the dinghies. We have a two man dinghy and a one-man dinghy, a larger one that goes with the sailboat and a small plywood one also for the sailboat, the Tanzer 22 "The Stitch ". John is again playing in a group “The Night Shift” but he is on holidays until the 20th.

Steven Hoarding the dinghy

    Mary Anne’s children are, one Wilson, Lauren age 4, and one McIntyre, Megan age 2. Megan is very much like Sheila in personality although sturdier. Lauren is a sprite, big blue eyes, wide smile, dimples and a will of iron. Tarryn, Catherine's son is pure McIntyre, a clone for Patrick at that age. He hippity-hops, he jumps, he dashes, he doesn't know what the word “no” means. He should, he hears it often enough! He has just recovered from a fractured arm acquired when he fell off the monkey bars in the park.

    I had better go in the house.  Sounds coming from it indicate that lunch is being organized- hot-dogs. We have the microwave which a boon. I have just contributed to the organization by yelling “lemonade no pop!”

     Sarah just blasted by me to the dock with the fishing rod. “Kyle is weird!”  Why, I do not know!

     It is getting cooler and threatening rain. I should have a sweater on but I hate to go in. The place was fairly tidy when I came out, but it won't be when I go in. Steven has aroused from sleep with the remark “Big, fat, hairy, deal!” It is interesting to listen to the remarks.

Angela Punch

   Jimmy brought a contraption for blowing huge bubbles. I got some pictures of them. 

Joanna and Angela

Joanna Angela and the bubbles

    How do you use the microwave?  I better go in 5-4-3-2-1 countdown chorus!  Someone knows how!

    There is a frog chirping in the bulrushes, and a bird, I have seen a snipe, Red-wing blackbirds, many robins. The children saw a Heron in the bay close by, and Steven saw one on the far shore. There are bats in the evening, a skittering chipmunk under the old porch, and raccoons, if we don't sometimes remember to put the garbage in the small shed. There is a bullfrog too who harrumphs!

    Don’t put plastic in the microwave! I have to go in!

1983 Joanna Olsen's Drawings age Six

Grandma K

Mary Jane

Brendon

Grandma K

John Yorke

Joanna

Beulah and the Galway Bay

 Every family has a few favorite things which take on characteristics as family members. Such objects were the Galway Bay our boat and Beulah the green car. Both have passed on.

Beulah was killed! By Jimmy!

Leslie’s reaction: “You killed Beulah!”

Suzanne’s reaction: “You Killed Beulah!

Jimmy’s -misery.

The Galway Bay, the weight, the water, logging Jim’s last trip slowly sinking into the Saint Mary’s River. “ Mother couldn’t you  row a little faster!”

The bonfire, the cremation of the Galway Bay!

The Galway Bay

Buelah

Family Stories -Savory Succotash

Family Stories -Savory Succotash

My father would not have stew served at the table. "I ate enough stew as a child to do for the rest of my life." We were not allowed to eat canned meat. Dad was Inspector at meat in the packing plant in Edmonton. “I know what goes into that stuff!”

   Dad was a beef eater. Roast of beef on Sunday. Hash on Monday, steaks often, leg of lamb at Easter. There were capons at interval, and of course, turkey for Christmas. The turkey would have been bought fresh at the market. I remember my grandmother 'plucking the turkey'. Her hands were full of feathers. Then next the pin feathers had to be removed, one at a time. She cleaned the turkey, with her hands full of entrails.  Mary was always helping grandmother. Mary was learning what were the heart, the lungs, and the kidneys. When the turkey was carefully cleaned, grandmother rubbed the insides with salt.   When some chickens were brought alive from the market, they were executed by my father in the basement. Frank and Mary were always in attendance. Not me. We could hear the squabbles! Frank chased me once with a dead bird which had a stiff neck, and with head still on. Never again! 

We lived in the age of 'ice boxes'. It was before Refrigerators were made. The Ice Man delivered the ice. He had a special cart filled with huge blocks of ice and covered with sawdust chips. The Ice Man wore a leather shawl across his shoulders. He lifted the block with large metal prongs and swung the ice onto his back, and brought it into the kitchen and put it in the ice box. Our dog, Nancy, a big setter, hated the Ice Man. His leather shawl flapped and scared her. We had to be sure that she was tied up when the Ice Man rounded the corner of the street, and Nancy growled and barked and jumped at the door. There were no more problems when Dad threw the ice box out, and bought a refrigerator for the kitchen

   My grandmother usually boiled her Irish foods for menus, but we never shared it. It was a slab of fresh bacon with wedges of cabbage. Her 'finger food' was unknown to us. Junk food was not part of our eating.

   A treat was an ice cream cone on a hot day. A special treat was when we had visiting relatives. We would take them to Cream Parlor for a strawberry soda, or a chocolate sundae. We sat at a small round table that had wires to hold it up, and the seat had iron legs.

   The nearest we came to junk food was at Penny Candy at the corner of the street. It was a rare occasion when brother Vincent came home from college for holidays. He gave Frank and me handfuls each of pennies, and we went to the store and peered into the glass counters. They would have long strings of twisted licorice, or licorice pipes or paper sheets with candy buttons on them. Sometimes the wax had shapes filled with flavored liquid. Gum was forbidden as a rude habit. No Coca Cola, either. "Poisonous", said father.

We were allowed have Vernon ginger ales when we went to the Ottawa Exhibition in the summertime. They also provided us with the wonderful pink cotton-candy. We did not know of the potato chips or toritos or cheeses. They did not yet exist.

In winter we had popcorn at home. We filled a wire basket and let it go back and forth on to the open kitchen coal stove.

Snacks were apples. Mackintosh apples in fall season, and Spies and Russets were bought in barrels. In Christmas there was Hard Candy and Rock Candy and, of course, red and white candy canes.

Meals were rituals. It was breakfast together at the table before going to school. They came home for lunch. Dinner in the early evening was family gathering at the table. Father said the Grace. I don't remember the children taking part of the conversation, but there was talking between the adults.

Mother often made butterscotch pie for dessert. Mother made a marvelous cake: white with sticky white frosting with raisins in it. When the cake was a birthday cake it had nickels and dimes in it. No one worried about swallowing them.

Many weeks before Christmas, the Fruit cake was ritual, with grandmother in charge. She was grinding the fruit in an old hand-ground clamped at the edge of the table. Then mixed everything else and she was stirring and stirring and stirring.Plum pudding was hers too. It was boiled in cloth for many hours.

We graduated into new dishes when we had children and had our own homes "Savory Succotash"; a vegetable casserole became a must for every family dinner. Every year, at the cottage, we seemed to have something special. One another year it was a "Flan". We each bought a flan pan and had every imagine kind of fruit flan with burgher.

In Halloween we always had pumpkins-cookies and butterscotch pie. At every Christmas we had boxes of pickles and tins of cake and cookies. They came from Wilf's aunts in Little Current, Manitoulin. Then another era arrived.

In Sault Ste Marie there were many different foods from Italy, and Finland, Quebec, and many other Europeans and also Chinese.

Then you choice wines even for hamburgers. Today’s life has not all simple food, and nor has always nutrition, but interesting.

Mom's descriptions of her children

Suzanne and Mary Jane

 Suzanne was born so soon after Mary Jane (14 months) that they were babies together. Mary Jane, even at an early age was fast paced (walking and talking),

impulsive and sparkling, with a phobia about all things soft and fuzzy.She was frantic when we used cotton batten to oil the infant Suzanne.

   Mary Jane just developed in the womb, and got born at a steady pace, well under the time allotted for a first birth. The fact that I had unaesthetic didn't affect her any. The nurses couldn't believe that she was actually holding her head upright, and checking her surroundings, shortly after birth.

   Suzanne was different. She was restless in the womb, given to swift, jerky movements. I woke up one morning, grossly misshapen, with the baby crowded to one side. I touched my stomach, and she dove away from my finger. She also sat for a few weeks on my sciatic nerve---ouch! She was born so quickly that I almost didn't make it to the delivery room, and the doctor got there after she had arrived.

   After birth she was equally restless. She rejected food, and lost weight until it was discovered that she was allergic to the corn syrup in her formula. (I had such problems trying to nurse Mary Jane that I didn’t even try for Suzanne.) She barely made the required weight to take her home from the hospital with me, and the first few months were hectic. She had colic, slept fitfully during the day, and cried most of the night. I had a path worn from dining-room, living-room, to hail to kitchen to dining room in the McDougall Street house. I stayed downstairs so we wouldn't keep everyone awake, thus interfering with Jim and Mary's late evening courtship. Once all the quirks in her stomach were ironed out, she settled into a routine, and was a contented baby.

   There were times, as a three year old, when she would stand in front of me, stamps her foot and say, "No!", even though she had not been directed to do anything. She drove her kiddiecar through the downstairs rooms as if practising for the Indy 500, parking between the chairs, backing in, circling the tables, and whizzing around the corners. She was a traffic hazard.

   As she grew, she became very attached to home. She would not play outside unless all the doors were open so that she could retreat quickly indoors if a stranger passed. This continued until her Teens when, unbeknownst, she hitch-hiked to Toronto with a knife in her cuff for protection.

   Like her Aunt Mary, cats were a passion. She was always hauling them home, saying they were "lost", and crying wildly when I forced her to take them back from whence she had lured them. We always had a cat -- hers. Doorbell I; Doorbell 11; Candy and Hippy, the King of McDougall Street.

   The big tragedy of her childhood was the day her chameleon ate the guppies, and the cat ate the chameleon. She and Louise McLurg organized many funeral processions. In the yard at McDougall Street there is a large rock with a nail-polish inscription in memory of a favourite turtle.

   When it was time for her to go to school she was agreeable, as long as the whole family could go with her. I was the large body in the back row of the Grade I class (no kindergarten at that time) for the first week. One noon hour Jim McIntyre tied up traffic on Wellington Street when he delivered her to Sacred Heart School and had to pry her fingers from the car door and leave her writhing and crying on the side walk.

That frightened little child became an unflappable Emergency Nurse. Thus Suzanne-- a contradiction!