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.
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