MEMOIRS

Rationale

Quite often you hear people lament that they wish they had spent more time with a loved one who has passed on, to learn more about their life, and to perhaps shed light on why they became who they were.  This effort is an attempt to pre-empt that situation, and to dredge out old memories before they may be lost.  May the readers learn and perhaps enjoy.

Maternal Ancestors  U561 European - Basque, Sammi  40,000 years.

First Generation Found

Alexander Marriott.  He married Margaret Witherspoon.  No information was found regarding their birth and death dates.  Alexander and Margaret had the following child:

Generation 2

Generation 3

Anne Elizabeth Marriott was born in January 1868 (when her dad was about 18 and mom was about 24) in Cambridgeshire, England.

Alexander Marriott was born in 1870 in Cambridgeshire, England.

Elizabeth Sarah Minnie Marriott was born on November 18, 1872 in England and died on September 5, 1926 in York, Ontario.  She married Peter Creek in April 1894 in Cambridge, England.  Peter was born in June1874 in England.

Jane Marriott was born in 1875 in Cambridgeshire, England.

James Arthur Marriott was born in 1882 in Cambridgeshire, England.

Daisy  Annie Marriott was born in 1889 in Cambridgeshire, England and died on April 6, 1941 in New Jersey, U.S.A. (Mount Holly Cemetery, Burlington County, New Jersey).  She arrived in Montreal on the ship Virginian on May 2, 1908 and married James Alfred Howe in York, Ontario (witness Alexander Marriott).  James was born about 1890 in Balham, Surrey, England.  They emigrated to the U.S. in 1908 and lived in Cinnaminson, Burlington, New Jersey in 1930.

Ronald Percival Marriott was born in 1890 in Cambridgeshire, England, and died on August 13, 1964 in Hamilton, Ontario.  He married Jessie Elizabeth Nightingale, daughter of Richard Clark Nightingale and Jessie L M Patchcott, born in January 1888 in Plymouth, Devon, England.  They married April 15, 1912 in Cambridgeshire, England and came to Canada April 28,1912 - 13 days after the sinking of the Titanic.  She died on June 28, 1964 in Green Acres Home for the Aged, 194 Eagle Street, Newmarket, England.  (In May 1924 they lived at 36 Palmer Avenue, subsequently at 11 Albemarle Avenue in Toronto and finally at 50 Newport in Scarborough.)  They had the following children:

Generation 4

Jessie Elizabeth Edith Marriott was born on March 27, 1913 in Toronto, Ontario.  She died on January 24, 2005 in Stoney Creek.  Jessie Elizabeth Marriott married Wilfred Anson Craig, son of Anson Salisbury Craig, on October 6, 1933.  She later married William Thomas Depew, son of Gordon Roy Depew and Bertie Olive Sweet on November 19, 1960.  Jessie and Wilfred had four children.  Details can be found in the Paternal Ancestor thread.

Emily Florence Annie Marriott (Jessie’s twin) was also born on March 27, 1914 in Toronto, Ontario.  She died of gastro enteritis on August 19, 1913.

Anne Edith Marriott was born on September 28, 1915 in Toronto, Ontario and died in 1985 in Toronto, Ontario.  She married Thomas Brown (born Gallagher, of an abusive father, he took the name of his foster father).

Ronald Alexander Marriott was born in 1917, and died in 1985 in Toronto.  He married Lillian Esther Snowie on May 10, 1938.  She was born in 1919 and died December 18, 2010 in Toronto, Ontario.

Minnie Florence Marriott was born August 1, 1926 in Toronto, Ontario.  She married Derek William J. Ball who was born December 10, 1926 in Bristol, Somerset, England, and died March 20, 1996 in Toronto, Ontario.

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My maternal grandfather and grandmother emigrated from England after they married.  I believe that other members of their family emigrated at about the same time.  My grandparents came over on the Tunisian on its next trip after the Titanic sinking.

Built in Glasgow, the Allan Line’s Tunisian made her maiden voyage in 1900 travelling from Liverpool to Halifax and Portland, Maine.  A month later, her first of many trips to Quebec, Montreal, Halifax and Portland began.  Over a period of 21 years, she carried over 2,000 British Home Children  to their destinations in Canada.

The Tunisian boasted refrigeration, good heating and ventilation. It also had hot and cold, fresh and salt water on tap and four-birth emigrant cabins with spring mattresses.

 Ronald Marriott may have been related to the Marriotts of hotel fame: there is an anecdotal story recounted by my cousin Jim Brown, that two men visited one day and told grandma that grandpa was in line for a share of an inheritance.  They said that they needed proof of identity, which grandma apparently provided for them.  The men and the documents were never seen again.  Their Marriott ancestors appear to have had lots of money, based on their travel history.

Grandpa emigrated in 1913 as a bricklayer, and worked as a mechanic for the Toronto Transportation Commission.  He was diagnosed as a diabetic in his twenties and controlled his diabetes with diet.  He always seemed to be a bit frail and suffered heart problems beginning in his fifties and died in my arms from congestive heart failure on the way to the hospital in his seventies.

When I was a boy, we traveled to Toronto regularly to visit them, and when I was about ten years old they took me on a trip to Footes Bay (Bala) where my Uncle Ron was a partner in a garage.  He let me  pump gas one time.

Every summer, my family would go to the Trent River for our vacation, and would usually be joined by my Uncle Tom, Aunt Ann, cousin Jim, and Grandpa and Grandma.  My grandfather and I (the first grandchild) had a wonderful relationship, which no doubt is the inspiration for my involvement with my own grandchildren.

Grandma was trained in England as a domestic servant and worked for a Master Tailor and Robe Maker and his family.  I assume that experience was behind her attempts to make sure that we always acted mannerly. 

She was a Quaker in England and joined the Salvation Army in Canada.

Later in life, I believe in her sixties, she would fall victim to depression, and was institutionalized after she threatened grandpa with a kitchen knife.  Today, she would probably have been treated successfully with drugs, but in those days electric shock treatments were the norm, and she never was deemed well enough to get out of the institution.

Jean and I visited her shortly before her death (which was due to a heart attack) and she wrote us a nice letter thanking us for the visit, which made me feel guilty for waiting so long to see her.

I was named after her brother Ralph, who was a grenadier guard.

 Ann was also diabetic.  Mom also had a younger sister Min who died of cancer.  She also had a twin sister who died in infancy.Toronto.  

Paternal Ancestors  R16162  Irish, Basque, British, French  17,000 years.

First Generation Found

John Craig (Cragg) was born in 1753 in Middlewich, Cheshire, England.  Nancy Hulme (Hume) was born in 1757.  They married on April 19, 1778 and had the following child:

Generation 2

William John Craig was born in 1799 in Kent, England.  He married Mary Hoare (Orr) in1819 in Canterbury, England.  She was born in 1796 and died on May 9, 1880 in Australia.  He and Mary sailed for North America in 1828, with William, Mary and Thomas on the William Donald. 

Emigrated to Australia in 1854 – we think for the gold rush, on the Militiades. 

He died on December 9, 1878 in Creswick, Victoria, Australia.  They had the following children:

Generation 3

Willam Craig was born in 1822 in Harbledown, Kent, England.  Christened April 14, 1822.  He married Ann Dunnell in 1855 in Haileedowns, Kent, England.  He sailed for Canada at age six (must have returned to England for the marriage) and died on November 3, 1865 in St. Mary’s, Ontario.  Ann was born on September 21, 1830 in Portsea, Hampshire, England.  She died in 1916 in Middlesex, Ontario.  They had the children shown in generation 4.

Mary Craig was born on April 19, 1824 in Chatham, Kent, England.  She died in 1901.

Thomas Craig was born in 1826 in Fordwich, Kent, England.  He died in 1885.

James Craig was born in 1828 in Dowingtown, Pennsylvania.

Ann Craig was born in 1831 in Ontario.  She died in 1885 in Michigan.

George Craig was born in 1832 in Ontario.

John Craig was born on July 31, 1835 in Lobo, Ontario.  He died in 1890 in Creswick, Victoria, Australia.

Sarah Craig was born on September 12, 1839 in Ontario.  She died in 1916 in Coburg, Melbourne, Australia.

Margaret Craig was born on January 20, 1844 in Lobo, Ontario.  She died on July 14, 1905 in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.

Generation 4

Children of William Craig

William John Craig was born in 1857.

Thomas Wesley Craig was born on September 29, 1859 in Blanshard, Perth County, Ontario.  He died on February 11, 1920 in Middlesex, Ontario.  Emma Melvina Payne, daughter of Burkholder, was born on February 27, 1862 in Cayuga, Ontario.  She died on April 24, 1931 in 19 Westwood Ave., York, Ontario.  Buried at St. John’s Norway Cemetery, Toronto, Ontario.  Thomas and Emma had eight children.  Details can be found in Generation 5, below.

Mary Jane Craig was born in 1861.  She married Michael Ballantyne on February 5, 1908 in St. Mary’s, Ontario.  She died in 1936.

Henry Salisbury Craig was born in 1863.  He married Margaret A. Taylor on June 21, 1893 in Oxford, Ontario.

Louise Anne Craig was born in 1865.  She died in 1959.

Generation 5

Children of Thomas Wesley Craig

Anson Salisbury Craig was born on October 2, 1885 in St. Mary’s, Ontario.  He married Sarah “Jennie” Harper on June 1, 1909 in York, Ontario.  Harvey Craig and Rose Harper were witnesses at their wedding.  He died in October 1961 in Thamesford, Ontario.  Jennie was born on September 24, 1886 in Tottenham, Middlesex, England.  She was a “home child” and was taken, with two of her sisters, from the workhouse and sent to Canada at age eleven in 1899 (Note: If born in 1886, she would be 13 in 1899)  to Hazelbrae, one of Dr. Barnardo’s homes in Peterborough, Ontario aboard the Lake Huron.

They had four children, details shown in Generation 6.

Harvey Lapier Craig was born on September 14, 1887.  He married Elsie Margaret Pilkey on June 21, 1916 in York, Ontario.

Marilla Beatrice Craig was born on September 4, 1890.  She married Paul Schramm on November 21, 1914 in Thorndale, Ontario.  She died on February 8, 1916 in childbirth of heart failure in Thorndale, Ontario.

Clara Alwilda Craig was born in 1891.  After her sister’s death, she also married Paul Schramm, on November 21, 1916 in Thorndale, Ontario.  Buried in Bethel Cemetery, Wellington County.

Ira Whitfield Craig was born on September 8, 1896 in Evelyn, West Nissouri, Middlesex, Ontario.  Emigrated to Buffalo in 1926.  Married Mary Madeline Desrosiers on February 2, 1929.  He died in January 1967 in Buffalo, New York.

Lloyd Wesley Craig was born in 1898 in Thorndale, Ontario.  He married Alice Rosella Hews on November 28, 1918 in York, Ontario.

William Austin Craig was born on February 4, 1902.

Eva May Craig was born on May 21, 1904 in Middlesex, Ontario.

Generation 6

Children of Anson Salisbury Craig

Wilfred Anson Craig was born on March 10, 1910 in Toronto, Ontario.  He died on February 17, 1952 in Hamilton, Ontario.  Jessie Elizabeth Marriott was born on March 27, 1913 in Toronto, Ontario.  She died on January 24, 2005 in Stoney Creek, Ontario.  They were married on October 6, 1933 in Toronto, Ontario.  They had four children – details in Generation 7.  She later married William Thomas Depew, son of Gordon Roy Depew and Bertie Olive Sweet on November 1959, in Stoney Creek, Ontario.  He was born on June 17, 1915 and died on April 27, 1981 in Hamilton, Ontario of cancer caused by his many years of firefighting.

Doris Margaret Craig was born on August 19, 1917 in Niagara Falls, Ontario.  She died on October 29, 1997 in St. Catharines, Ontario.

Roy Thomas Craig was born on August 19, 1917 in Niagara Falls, Ontario.  He married Clemens Lillian “Becky” McMahon on May 31, 1946.  He died in 2000 in London, Ontario.

Norman Leslie Craig was born in 1920 in Niagara Falls, Ontario.  He died on November 12, 1937 in Toronto, Ontario from a ruptured spleen suffered in a high school football game.  Buried with his grandmother Emma at St. John’s Norway Cemetery, Toronto, Ontario.

Generation 7

Wilfred Ralph Craig was born on April 6, 1937 in Hamilton, Ontario.  He married Jean Greene on January 1, 1959 in Stoney Creek, Ontario, and they separated December 17, 2004.   She was born July 6, 1928.  They had four children: Barbara, Jo-Ann, David, Kathryn, and adopted a fifth, Jeffrey.  Bud entered a common law marriage with Mardi Bullivant October 31, 2005.

Jessie Lorraine Craig was born on April 30, 1941 in Hamilton, Ontario.  She married Eugene Moses Crotta.  They adopted Fred and Judy.   Lorraine died on February 13, 1997 in Costa Rica.

Roger Barry Craig was born on December 22, 1949 in Hamilton, Ontario.  He married Christy Ann Rouse on February 21, 1968.  She was born May 6, 1953 in Hamilton, Ontario.  Their children are Terry and Paul.  Roger subsequently married Lynn Haig in Hawaii.

Judith Lynn Craig was born on June 25, 1952 in Hamilton, Ontario.  She married David John Murray on December 1, 1973 in Tapleytown, Ontario.  He was born on August 28, 1948 in Hamilton, Ontario.  Their children are Stefan and Robin.

Rosemary Irene Depew  was born on March 14, 1941 and died on July 29, 2011.  She was the daughter of William Depew.  Her daughter is Cheryl.

I believe that the Craig roots were in Scotland, because Dad talked about the Craigs fighting for the Gordons, which I assume was in the war that ended with the Battle of Culloden.

The Battle of Culloden^[a] took place on 16 April 1746, near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. A Jacobite army under Charles Edward Stuart was decisively defeated by a British government force commanded by the Duke of Cumberland, thereby ending the Jacobite rising of 1745.Charles landed in Scotland in July 1745, seeking to restore his father James Francis Edward Stuart to the British throne. He quickly won control of large parts of Scotland, and an invasion of England reached as far south as Derby before being forced to turn back. However, by April 1746, the Jacobites were short of supplies, facing a superior and better equipped opponent. Charles and his senior officers decided their only option was to stand and fight. When the two armies met at Culloden, the battle lasted less than an hour, with the Jacobites suffering a bloody defeat. This ended both the 1745 rising, and Jacobitism as a significant element in British politics.

The Craig and Gordon clans were in the north of Scotland.  My grandfather’s middle name was Salisbury and there is a Salisbury Hill near Edinburgh.

My oldest known relative was born in Middlewich, England in 1753.  No ancestral record prior to that, although his parents probably died in England sometime after that.

My theory is that the Craigs were either banished from Scotland after the Battle of Culloden in 1746 or were part of the Clearances which started in 1750.

The Highland Clearances (Scottish Gaelic: Fuadaichean nan Gàidheal [ˈfuət̪ɪçən nəŋ ˈɡɛː.əl̪ˠ], the "eviction of the Gaels") were the evictions of a significant number of tenants in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, mostly in two phases from 1750 to 1860.

The first phase resulted from agricultural improvement, driven by the need for landlords to increase their income – many had substantial debts, with actual or potential bankruptcy being a large part of the story of the clearances. This involved the enclosure of the open fields managed on the run rig system and shared grazing. These were usually replaced with large-scale pastoral farms on which much higher rents were paid. The displaced tenants were expected to be employed in industries such as fishing, quarrying or the kelp industry. Their reduction in status from farmer to crofter was one of the causes of resentment.

My paternal grandfather was born in Canada in 1885, and his family had lived in Canada for some time, his grandfather emigrating from England in 1828 at the age of 6.  My paternal grandmother, Sarah “Jennie” Harper, was a “home girl”, i.e. someone who was sent to Canada for adoption.  Her father, who had several children, was sent to the poorhouse and Sarah and two sisters were sent to Canada.  Such children were given to couples to raise and for help on a farm but were often abused and treated as servants or slaves, which was the experience of my grandmother.  She arrived in Canada in 1899, age 11-13, and was sent with her sisters Rose, age 14 and Elizabeth, age 8 to Hazelbrae, one of Dr. Barnardo’s homes, in Peterborough.

Anson Salisbury Craig was an authoritarian, and Jennie seemed to me to be a woman who was cold and distant.  My dad left home when he was in his teens to live with grandma’s older sister, Rose and her husband Charlie Madden.  They didn’t reconcile until my uncle Roy returned from serving in the Canadian Army Engineers after the second World War, when I was eight.  We met them sporadically after that, and Grandpa Craig built me a heavy plywood tool case, that subsequently ended up with David.  However, we were never close.  He was a machinist who also played the violin and had written music – I remember seeing a piece of music titled “March of the Double Eagle”.

Dad’s youngest brother, Norman, died from a ruptured spleen, suffered in a high school football game when Dad was 23. 

Roy, who was deeply affected by the war, and who had an alcohol problem as a result, spent some quality time with my Dad between 1945 and 1952, when Dad died.  They had a relationship similar to that shared by Roger and me, and usually ended up giggling together about some joke or trick that they had pulled.

Dad had a sister, Doris, who seemed to have a nasty streak, and they never got along.  Although it was alleged that Doris and Grandma Craig spent money which Uncle Roy had sent to them from his army pay, expecting them to keep it for him, nevertheless Roy kept in touch with her.  We saw her and her husband very seldom.

Dad had a favourite uncle, Charlie Madden, who had married Grandma’s sister Rose (the folks he went to live with in his teens).  She had died sometime earlier than my memory of his visits.  He and Dad were close and Uncle Charlie often drove over to see us in his big black Cadillac.

My Parents

My dad was born in 1910, mom in 1914.  They met at the Port Dalhousie theme park.  I was told that he later rode his bike from Niagara Falls to meet her at the CNE (maybe she is part of the reason he moved in with Uncle Charlie!).

They married when Mom was 20 and I was born three years later, in 1937.

 Years later, I learned that they had spent their honeymoon at dad’s Aunt Mae’s.  It surprised me that I had never heard her name mentioned, nor had we ever visited her to my knowledge.  I met her once at the wake for Aunt Clem (Uncle Roy’s wonderful wife). 

Dad worked as a truck driver for the York Trading Company until I was about three, at which time he joined Dofasco as a millwright.  He was handy with any kind of tool and was the fixit person in our neighbourhood.  He also built a 12 foot runabout, named the “Rumbucket”, which initially had a one-lunger inboard engine, and later a 5 horse Johnson.  He managed to invent a throttle control which could be activated from the front of the boat, beside the steering wheel – I don’t know if this predated such controls which later became common.

 Mom had worked in a corner store when she was a teenager (it is now owned by Koreans, and Roger took mom and aunt Edie to see it a couple of years before mom died).  After dad’s death, she ran a snack bar at the Bar-Don Lanes to make ends meet.  That is where she met Bill Depew – their marriage followed Jean’s and mine (Jean and I were the last people to be married in the old Cheyne Presbyterian Church: mom and Bill were the first to be married in the new church).

 The House in Fruitland

 We moved to a one floor (with attic) frame home in Fruitland when I was six, which is the first place that I remember.  I think the price was either $1,100 or $1,400.  Prior to that, we had lived in rented rooms or flats.  The house in Fruitland (at Canada Coach stop 69 – later called stop 13) had no running water or bathroom.  We used the outdoor privy in the summer, and a pot under the bed in the winter.  Heat was provided by a wood stove in the kitchen and an oil space heater in the living room.

 We bought most of our groceries at Hilts store, which today would qualify as a very small convenience store.  Milk was delivered every day by the milkman, for the first few years with horse and wagon – cream on top –and every once in a while Mom would treat us by buying a quart of chocolate milk.  The Canada Bread man came by each week, and Penelagon the Butcher would show up in his sedan delivery with fresh meat about once a week.  The Fuller Brush man completed the cycle about once a month.  In the early years, we used an ice box.  Our first fridge was a big deal!

 When I was about ten, dad extended the roofline down one side and built an attached garage.  Inside the garage, he constructed an indoor outhouse.  My job for the next four years was to dig the holes in the backyard so that the contents of the in/outhouse pail could be dumped and covered up.

He also built two uninsulated bedrooms in the attic, which were rented out for the first couple of years to Mel and Jo Locker and their two boys.  The rooms subsequently became bedrooms for my sister Lorraine and me.  Roger then took over our old room downstairs.  In the winter, mom hung a blanket across the stairway to keep the warm air from migrating into the attic.  Consequently, it was always ice-cold upstairs and to this day I have trouble sleeping in a cold environment.

I could go out through the window of my bedroom onto the shed roof over the kitchen and from there onto the roof of the house.  I often spent time out there daydreaming about some situation or other.

Dad smoked – usually roll-your-own cigarettes, occasionally he bought Players cigarettes or White Owl cigars, sometimes he used a pipe.

He used a straight razor most of the time.  A heavy leather strop was used to sharpen the blade (or to sharpen my behaviour).  Eventually, he switched to a safety razor.

 After dad died, his friends used money which had been donated, to install a septic tank and bathroom.  We still had no running water: a drilled well, with a hand pump in the kitchen, provided very hard water with a strong sulphur taste, and a cistern which dad had dug by hand out of the red/blue clay collected rain water.  Before the cistern, we had a rain barrel, and I often stopped there to watch the mosquito larvae swim around.

 Judy was born four months after dad died.  Things were traumatic for a couple of years and I remember when I was about sixteen or seventeen that all of a sudden mom and I were getting along better – puberty is a pain.  We stayed in Fruitland for four years after dad died.

I remember the day when he was burned at work.  The Dofasco rep. came to let Mom know and took her to the hospital to visit Dad.  He was lucid at that time.

The next day I was with Mom for a visit.  Dad was bandaged from head to toe, except for his hair - he was obviously wearing a hat when the transformer exploded.  He was unconscious and constantly moaning.  Not a pleasant memory.

 Mom made arrangements to sell our house to the people next door who owned a hardware store.  They tore the house down and the lot became a parking lot, which it remains to this day, beside what is now a Hair Salon.  We moved to 4 Mountain Avenue, which was a semi located next to the bowling alley, when I was 18.  I used the trailer which had been dad’s to move all of our belongings.

 Childhood Fun

 The summers in Fruitland were filled with hikes to Wayne Hilts’ uncle Jud’s farm on the plateau – Wayne was four and I was six, and we would wander off and be gone all day -  and playing ball (often just the two of us in a game called 21 – count 5 for catching a fly ball, 3 for a one bouncer, 1 for a roller; change places when you reach 21) for hours on end at Lloyd Harper’s ball diamond (now a parkette where elderly Sikh gentlemen gather).  Organized sports were only available in Stoney Creek, which was enemy territory, and we were never able to afford to participate.  In the winter we skated on a pond on the other side of the Queen Elizabeth, a two mile walk each way, or on George Lounsbury’s farm pond on the plateau, which was only one mile each way.

 We built forts above the tracks at DeWitt Road and pretended we were hiding from or fighting the Germans during the war as we watched the Harvard and Gypsy Moth trainers and occasional bombers fly overhead.

 Fruitland School was a one and a half mile walk, which I did each day from age six to eleven.  Once I walked it only to find out that it was a PD day – I wondered why I was all alone!  For grades seven and eight, I went to the new Mountain View School which was only a one mile walk.

 Wayne’s dad Frank had a general store and gas pumps and he bought new cars in 1949 and 1952. My dad had to be content to trade his 34 Chev for a ten-year-old 41 Chev in 1951.  After his death, it was sold to Uncle Tom.  I finally got to drive it on a trip with Tom to the Trent River when I was 18.

 Frank was the first person in the neighbourhood to own a TV, and dad and I were invited over on Saturday nights to watch Hockey Night in Canada.  The hour-long George Goebel Show started on the Buffalo channel a half hour before the game, and Wayne and I would watch it, hoping that our parents wouldn’t notice that they were missing the first half hour of the game.  I think now that they just pretended to be unsuspecting at times.

 Frank also owned a cottage at Featherstone Point, and our families spent many a happy weekend at Lake Erie.  Wayne and I once rode our bikes from Fruitland to Featherstone Point, partly over gravel roads.  We slept over and then rode back home again.

 Dad took me to hear speakers at Men’s Club and other venues, usually when they had to do with nature – one time I got to hear Greg Clark, who was a fairly famous humour writer.  We went to The Exhibition and The Sportsmen’s Show most years, and we got to Algonquin Park once.  I remember one year at the Exhibition when the Tucker car was featured in the Automotive Building – it was years ahead of its time, but was successfully put out of business by the other established auto makers before it could bring any cars to market. We also took in one baseball game at Tiger Stadium.  Together we built an HO gauge railroad that grew to be about 6 feet wide and 15 feet long.  My job was building and painting the engine shed and the bridge abutments, and cleaning the tracks with carbon tetrachloride (a substance which is now banned, but was then a common degreaser). 

 I remember listening on the radio to the Joe Louis – Billy Conn fight.  This was while we were attending a Strawberry Social in Fruitland.

 Before I started school, I began to take accordion lessons.  When I was sufficiently accomplished on the accordion, dad included me in a couple of Minstrel Shows which were staged to raise funds for the Fruitland Men’s Club, which he had helped form: he played the tipple (a Spanish instrument that was a bit bigger than a ukulele, which Roger now has) and sang or played the harmonica while also playing the tipple. 

Me with my Waterloo Music Festival medals.

 Music was a big part of dad’s life.  He played the Tipple and Harmonica.  Besides the Minstrel Shows, he played at various times in two bands (The Dofasco Humdingers, and The Dofascoaires) with other Dofasco men.  While the Lockers lived with us, Mel and dad often played together.

 Two or three times during the summer, we would gather at someone’s house for a corn roast and sing-song.  Often, the men would drink homebrew to save money.  Hard liquor was a rare treat.  Wine was not common.

 Every summer, we would vacation at a rented cottage on the Trent River.  Dad would fish with uncle Tom in the morning and at night, and with me and sometimes Lorraine, during the afternoon.  Occasionally, he and Tom would not be able to coordinate their vacations, which was good news for me because then I could fish longer with dad, and when our vacation was over, I would stay on for another week or two to fish with Tom.

My only foray into organized sports was for one game with a juvenile fastball team.  I played outfield without a glove (couldn’t afford one) and after I dropped a fly ball my dream ended.

 My Career

 When the Bar-Don Lanes opened in Stoney Creek, dad was instrumental in forming two leagues, the Saltfleet Men’s League and the Saltfleet Mixed League.  He had bowled in a Dofasco league for a few years prior.  

It was at the Bar-Don that I got my first job at age twelve.  We started out setting pins six nights a week, and were upset when they cut us back to four.

 My dad died when I was in grade ten at Saltfleet High School.  The next school year I started helping the janitor sweep floors after school to make extra money.  I did my homework while I set pins at the bowling alley. 

 The summer my dad died, and the following summer as well, I worked as a mailboy at Dofasco, carrying requisitions throughout the mill to obtain the requisite superintendents’ signatures.  Dofasco turned a blind eye to the fact that I was only 15 that first summer.  I think that I made about $30 per week.

At age 16 I added a third part time job at Clayton's Men's Wear.

When I was 17 and had completed grade 12, it became necessary for me to quit school and start working full time.  For a year, I worked at Clayton’s Men’s Wear (at $35. per 46 hour week), until he got a job flying supplies for the construction of the DEW Line and decided that he needed a more mature person to run the store in his absence.  Although I was offered a job by Stu Chapple to work at the hardware store and had also been approached by Walter Scott, the manager of the Royal Bank, I decided to try Dofasco, where I started at $45 per week.

 For the first year, I worked steady nights, picking up time cards throughout the mill and calculating the hours worked for each person.  For the first three months of that stint, I also worked days at the Men’s Wear store to help the new manager get into the swing of things.  I would get about three hours sleep Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, eight hours on Wednesday (a half day at the store), and virtually no sleep Friday when the store didn’t close until nine.  After closing the store at six o’clock Saturday night, I could sleep around the clock because I didn’t have to go back on nights at Dofasco until Sunday midnight.   I lost 15 pounds that summer (from 135 down to 120).

 After a year on nights, I was brought into the time office and for almost two years worked on payroll.  I was then sent for psychological testing and after a grueling day was told that I should quit Dofasco and go back to school to become an accountant (which I couldn't afford).  Instead, Dofasco put me on the Sales training program and I spent the next year and a half working in various labs throughout the plant, including several months in the Steel Casting department (Dante’s Inferno).

 I followed a path that would be impossible today without a university education.  My determination to achieve and dedication to the job, together with an analytical bent and long hours, helped me to finally become Director of Sales Planning and Administration, with a staff of about 80 people and a spot in the “Management Group” which got to eat in the separate executive dining room and rotated through attendance at monthly Company Directors’ Luncheons.

After retiring, I worked for Laurence Marshall at Larry’s Trucking and at Golden Horseshoe Tire for about three years, as Credit Manager, management assistant and finally as Purchasing Manager for Truckland, after Laurence had sold it and it changed names.

Perhaps my most satisfying job has been my “farm labour” activity as I tried to help David wherever he needed assistance.  Watching your son overcome the obstacles and challenges of entrepreneurship to build a successful business and playing with your grandchildren on the job is as good as it gets.

 My Cars

When I was in high school, I bought an old Austin that didn’t run, for $35.  Neil Whitfield was going to help me rebuild the engine, but we never got around to it.  After I started at Dofasco, I needed transportation and bought a 1950 Prefect (the forerunner of my PT Cruiser) for $195.  It had a standard transmission and I drove it around the block (without a license) dozens of times, to get the knack of shifting gears.

I traded it several months later (in 1956) for a 1952 Meteor, getting $250 credit on the trade-in.  The Meteor got Hollywood mufflers and was my cool status symbol for two years.

 Next up was a 1954 Buick Super 2 Door Hardtop.  Wish I still had it today.  It had two heaters – one in the usual spot up front, and one under the front seat that provided hot air to the back.  It was built on the same frame as the Cadillac.

When the Buick engine needed serious work, I traded for a Renault Dauphine.  Dangerous car because of the rear engine and the weight distribution – many rolled on highway ramps – but it was a fun little car.

The most exotic car was my 1961 Austin Healey 3000.  Hard to keep tuned up, but lots of fun on winding roads.

 We crossed the country many times in vans.  Our first was a VW, and we burned the motor up (air-cooled) in Iowa due to a heavy load, hilly roads, heat and strong headwinds.  Spent three days in Omaha, Nebraska while it was rebuilt.  Had an air intake problem in Cheyenne, Wyoming and replaced rear wheel bearings in Bakersfield, California.  Arrived in Los Angeles broke and with less than $200 at home in the bank.

I was never so relieved as when we crossed the border at Windsor on our way home. 

 Our 1972 Ford Econoline crossed the continent several times and became David’s transportation when we were finished with it.  We also had an extended Dodge van that moved Jo-Ann to California (and was brought back by David and Yancy and I - David as far as Chicago, then he flew back to L.A.)

 Other cars, not in chronological order:

-    1957 Plymouth, which was a real used car lemon.  It lasted until the day the passenger door flew open on the way around a corner and I grabbed David’s coat just as he was about to fly out the open door.  It was traded the following week.

-        a BMW that I traded to Charlie McIntosh for an older Volvo and an older BMW

-        a 1967 Buick Wildcat 2 door hardtop

-        1973 Pinto, which was a surprisingly good little car

-        1973 Ford station wagon, bought at auction after Barb and I started the store

-        American Motors Eagle 4WD station wagon (would be called a crossover today)

-        1980, 1982 and 1985 Chrysler LeBarons – the latter two were the smaller K cars.

-        Chrysler New Yorker.

-        Dodge 2000 (Mitsubishi Galant in North American clothes)

-        2002, 2005, 2013 and 2019 Dodge Grand Caravans.

-        PT Cruiser woody.

-        Jean also owned a 1947 Chrysler two door coupe, a 1950 Chevy Sedan Delivery, a 1956 Ford Victoria hardtop, a 1954 Chev tank.

-        Probably others that I have forgotten.

 ON AGING

 The round numbers associated with aging are only symbolic.  The really important milestones in life are usually contained in the crooked numbers.

For example, I have always maintained that I was born at the age of six when we moved to Fruitland, since that is when my early childhood memories really begin.

And the trauma of age fourteen, when my dad died, shaped much of my life thereafter.  (As I write this in 2009, Sean is the same age as I was then – makes you stop and think.)

The arrival of children: at age twenty-one, I married Jean, and adopted Barbara and Jo-Ann; at age twenty-three, David came along; at age twenty-nine, Kathryn.  Jeffrey was adopted three years later.

At thirty-seven, I became a grandfather for the first time.

On my forty-second birthday, I was astonished to see how young it felt to reach a birthday that my father was denied.

 Retiring at age fifty-five was somewhat of a surprise.  My sister’s death four years later, at the same age, was a jolt.

 Falling in love again at age sixty-six and entering my “teenage years” was wonderful.  The absence of any conflict in this relationship is an incredible and wondrous phenomenon.

 Since turning 64 I have had four holes-in-one:

·      July 3, 2001 on Sundrim’s 118 yard Blue #3 with a 9 iron

·      September 11, 2003 on Sawmill’s 130 yard #14 with an 8 iron

·      July 8, 2007 on Scenic Woods’ 171 yard #9 with a 5 wood.

·      June 11, 2019 on MontHill’s 124 yard Gold #5 with a 5 iron at age 82.

I also scored a hole-in-one on the Golfers’ Den simulator on the 11^th hole of Castle Pines with a 6 iron.  But the reader should realize that all such holes-in-one are accidents – the only achievement is that you have proven you can hit a ball that far.  I fully expect to have more before I expire.

 My best score has been an 82 at Sundrim on May 31, 2005.

My goal now is to golf my age.

 My recent years have been good ones, and reaching eighty plus is simply a reminder that things are progressing nicely.

 I have finally reached the stage where I can allow myself to enjoy life’s pleasures without feeling guilty.  It’s kind of nice.

(The following is a series of e-mails between Mark Richardson, Julie Taylor and me, written just after my 70^th birthday).

 From: Bud Craig [mailto:bud.craig@bullivant.ca]

Sent: Sunday, April 08, 2007 11:30 PM
To: Jewett Dave; dbagshaw@samuel.com; Gary Parker; Richardson Mark; Craig Roger; pburton@hwcn.org
Subject: My 70th

Had a great day.  Thank you for the Bushnell's - they will be well used on my hikes and adventures.

Special thanks to Doc for adding his considerable talents to the Fishguts Tribute Band for the song Roger wrote - "My Brother, My Father, My Friend".  A most moving experience!

 From: mark_richardson@dofasco.ca

To: bud.craig@bullivant.ca

Cc: taylorju@HHSC.CA

Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2007 12:13 PM

Subject: RE: My 70th

 Hi Bud and Mardi,

Julie and I were honoured to be part of the celebration. We talked about it a lot over the weekend.  I hope that I am as fit as you when I hit 70 - I better start working out now.

 I particularly liked your quote about getting the most out of life - could you reference it for me so I can use it.

 You are an inspirational and influential without bravado and I hope you take pride in that.

 See you at my 70th,

Sparky

 From: Bud Craig [mailto:bud.craig@bullivant.ca]

Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2007 8:54 PM
To: mark_richardson@dofasco.ca
Cc: Mardi Bullivant; Taylor Julie
Subject: Re: My 70th

Thanks Mark.  Going in to the party, my feeling was that 70 was just a number.  I had this vision of friends and family visiting and chatting together, blow out the candles, and go home.  Nice time.  The reality was much more emotional than I expected - especially the music that Roger and the boys wrote and "Doc and The Fishguts Tribute Band" played.  I saw two people that I had not seen for 50 years!  And everyone who showed up meant so much more to me than I had anticipated.  It was fantastic and I'm not sure I have emotionally recovered yet.

Thank you for your generous comments.

The saying that I quoted was supposed to be an old German proverb.  "You have to take life as it happens - but you should try to make it happen the way you want to take it."  I have always translated that as "be an architect of your fate, not a victim".  Or, it doesn't matter what comes your way - deal with it and move on.  I think that approach is somehow related to the loss of my father and how I got through that period of my life.

Sometimes it takes a stroke of luck too - like finding a Mardi or a Julie to help you get through the tough times and appreciate and properly enjoy the good ones.

I'll be at your 70th - but don't be in any rush to get there.  Keep on smelling the roses.

Gettysburg here we come!

Regards,

Bud.

 Well Bud your words are memorable and moving. You sure know how to make a gal swoon, Mardi didn't stand a chance.

Thanks to both of you for allowing us to share your special day!

Bud you have so much to be proud of in your self, I have told your amazing story to many friends, it is inspiring and moving and reminds us how important the love of family is.

thanks to you both,

Julie

 Field of Dreams

 I have some difficulty in understanding my emotions when I watch movies such as (and particularly) Field of Dreams.  I am often moved to tears.

 Am I affected by the loss of my dad when I was fourteen?  When I saw the movie once again with Roger in 2007, I was thinking about him losing a dad he doesn’t even remember.  When my dad died, I don’t remember thinking about how that affected Lorraine or Roger.  I was only thinking of my own loss.  Lorraine, at age 10 must have been traumatized as well.  Roger would only realize later what he had missed.

 My Friends

 I was always somewhat shy and withdrawn and became even more so after my dad died.  I would describe myself as socially inept and I lacked the confidence that I would later gain through sheer determination and being an achiever.

 In public school, my best friends were Wayne Hilts and Dick Napper.  When I went to high school, I was friends with Neil Whitfield, Warren Utter and John Lintack, but due to my two or three jobs I did not socialize much.  I attended two dances in high school, but because I didn’t have access to a car I didn’t get to take my dates home after the dances.  That was just about the extent of the romance in my school years.

 I never realized the effect that I had on Roger as we were growing up, and we didn’t have much contact after he left high school, until he invited me to attend the “Invitational Bass Classic”.  Subsequently, he started another fishing trip in the fall and Fishguts was formed.  At Roger’s suggestion, I picked up the accordion again after a 50 year hiatus.  Our basement/campfire band will never amount to much artistically, but it is “dedicated to the pursuit of good fun, good fishing and a little music along the way”.  I count the band as a close circle of friends.

 At Dofasco, I joined a group of the people who worked for me and we started hiking the Bruce Trail.  The first hike was called “The Tobermory Tromp” and the name Trompers was adopted.  We hike, we bike, we canoe, but mostly we just enjoy each other.  This group is similar to Fishguts in that I feel most of us would go to any end to help one another.

 The Optimist Club of Stoney Creek has been a source of friendship since I joined it (one month before David was born).  Lyle Tweedle and Red Boyce set pins with me at the bowling alley and we were all brought into the Optimist fold by Wilf Barlow, who was like a second father to us – Red’s dad was electrocuted while working for the Hydro while Lyle’s died early in life from a heart attack.  Many other Optimists have been friends over the years, and Ed (Cupid) Strecker is one of the best.

 The guys that I golf with in the Dofasco Retirees Golf  group are good friends too.  And the couples that Mardi and I golfed with in Forest (later in Camlachie) and North/South Carolina are wonderful people as well.

 At age seventy (plus), I’m still not the most outgoing person in the world, but I am a lot more comfortable in my skin than I once was and feel blessed to have so many trusted friends.

MONEY

 Jean and I both brought debts to our marriage.  We never really dug our way out.

 Over the years we struggled to support our family.  When we adopted Jeff, we decided to move to a larger house – the selling price for 4 Maple Avenue was about 65% of the price of 16 Douglas.  And we then bought 26 Mountain Avenue from Jean’s mother as an investment and poured money into both places.

 I bought the other half of the duplex where Mom and Bill lived on Mountain Avenue.  The intent was to have the business on the first floor and Barb and Yancy would live on the second.  But after Barb and I poured many hours and some money into renovating, she had a critical call from Mom because Yancy’s hard shoes were making noise that carried through the wall.  As a result, Barb refused to move in.  We rented a storefront on King Street and I rented out the house.  Lost money on both.

The business (Sew Easy) that Barb and I started cost me about the equivalent of a new Lincoln Town Car by the time it failed, a year after startup – that was how I rationalized it at the time.

And the cost of education (private school) and therapy (including a Quebec retreat) for Jeff drove us further into the red.

 I had dreams of being a land baron. But the properties in Stoney Creek never paid off, and those in Lagoon City that we bought in the 1980’s probably lost us close to a quarter of a million dollars, not including lost opportunity. 

 In the two years at the end of my career (1991 and 1992), including the profit from cashing in stock options, I made $125,000 per year.  When I retired, my fund payout was over $400,000, but a portion of that went to paying off our remaining real estate debts (and the resulting tax bill from cashing in those RRSP’s).

 Also, when I retired, I still had stock options to cash, but missed a two day market window when they would have made me about $70,000 and they expired worthless.

 By the time Jean and I split up twelve years later, in 2004, the RRSP was less than half of its original value, and when that money was split we each got about $82,000.

By 2024, the RRSP (now a RRIF) has appreciated somewhat, despite the recession/depression which started in late 2008, and despite the fact that it is now being paid out on a monthly basis.  

Since joining Mardi, I share ownership of our condo apartment, but no other debts, and no significant assets other than my van.  We live well, and happily.  We are not frugal, but don’t spend foolishly either.

 Vacations are paid for by working for David at the greenhouse.

 PLACES I HAVE BEEN

 I have traveled to the following countries:

·       Canada

·       U.S.A

·       Mexico

·       Bahamas

·       Belgium

·       Luxembourg

·       France

·       Italy

·       Austria

·       Germany

·       Switzerland

·       Lichtenstein

·       Spain

·       Gibraltar

·       Morocco

·       U.S. Virgin Islands

·       British Virgin Islands

·       Puerto Rico

·       China

·       Hong Kong (while it was still under British control)

·       Dominican Republic

·       Peru

·       South Africa

 I have been in several high places:

Natural:

·       Salcantay Glacier (16,000 feet)

·       Dead Woman Pass (14,000 feet, on the Inca Trail)

·       Pike’s Peak (14,000 feet)

·       Medicine Wheel Mountain (11,000 feet)

·       Beartooth Pass (11,000 feet)

·       North Rim Grand Canyon (8,500 feet)

·       Alps

·       Pyrenees

Man-made:

·       Hoover Dam (726 feet)

·       St. Louis Arch (630 feet)

·       Washington Monument (555 feet)

·       World Trade Centre (107^th  floor – 1348 feet – year before 9/11)

·       Empire State Building (86^th floor – 1250 feet)

·       Sears Tower, Chicago (103^rd floor – 1353 feet)

·       Statue of Liberty (inside the crown - 305 feet)

·       Grand Canyon Skywalk (4,000 feet above the canyon floor)

·       Catwalk under the New River Gorge Bridge (876 feet)

 I have also visited:

·       Great Wall of China

·       Terracotta Warriors in China

·       Machu Picchu

·       Grand Canyon rim-to-rim

·       Pearl Harbor

·       Pyramid near Mexico City

·       Mount Rushmore

·       Crazy Horse Mountain Monument

·       Every state in the U.S.

·       Every province and the Yukon Territory in Canada.

 Cruises I have taken:

·       Florida to Nassau

·       Caribbean

·       Hong Kong to Beijing

 KEEPSAKES

 I have several items that have meant something special to me.

Things that belonged to my dad:

·       One of his pipes

·       A cribbage board that he made himself, with his initials WAC on it

·       His pocket watch with his initials

·       His brace and bit (drilling tool)

·       A glass chess board, painted on the reverse, given to me by William Prior, a next door neighbour, just before my dad died

·       A steel gyroscope which I got at age six or seven

·       Aluminum replica cannon made by Malcolm (it should go back to Malcolm when I die).

MY HEALTH

 The usual childhood diseases – measles and chicken pox.

Tonsillectomy.

Had serious coughing and congestion in my younger years that was diagnosed, after 50 needles in my shoulders, as allergies to Dust, Mould and Vaccines.  Changing from wheat to rye bread made a significant difference, but I still have congestion issues, particularly in the morning (due to milk?).

Also, a few years ago, I experienced irregular heartbeat after consuming MSG.

Mumps as a young adult.

Hepatitis as a result of polluted water at a fishing camp.

Broken knuckle, left pinkie, trying to catch a football.  It was set, but nurse pushed it out of position.

Broke my back skiing at age 48.  Burst L5.  Decided on conservative treatment and spent six weeks on my back in hospital.  A fragment(s) entered the spinal column and when tired I experience nerve issues in my right leg and limp.  Also had a bout of foot drop before other arteries took over.

Was near sighted from age six (as a result of measles?), until cataract surgery a few years ago corrected the problem.  Also, before that, had laser surgery in both eyes to correct retina detachment.

Received two stents to correct partially blocked arteries.  One other was completely blocked but my heart found an alternate route to compensate.

Have had lots of vaccines, including annual flu shots and six Covid shots.  Also participated in an RSV trial – got the real thing and avoided RSV when Mardi caught it.

 MY GRANDKIDS

Spent some quality time with Sean as well (every time with Sean is quality time - we've been bosom buddies since Machu Picchu).  Speaking of that, here are some pictures of that trip when he was 12 years old.   On the 70 mile hike..........

..........celebrating at the 14,000 foot pass crossing with our guide (we also crossed a 16,000 foot pass, but I was on oxygen at the time and incapable of lifting a camera)......

and overlooking our destination.

 I had made many trips with my oldest grandchild, Yancy, but this was the first of what would become a tradition - a special adventure with each grandchild after they turned 12 (and before they became addled teenagers).  

Thanks for that, go to David.  I had first asked him to accompany me, but he declined due to business pressure and suggested that I take Sean instead.  That turned out to be so wonderful that I had to do it with the other grandkids.

Anna to New York City, Malcolm to the north rim of the Grand Canyon and down into a slot canyon, Kyle on a Caribbean cruise, Ewen on a 28 mile hike across the Grand Canyon, and Sarah-Jean, with Mardi's granddaughter Reggie, to tour the U.S. south west.  Awesome times!