Carl and Cecil Bruner – Memories

Carl and Cecil - Wedding Day 1922

1
Contents
Carl and Cecil Bruner – Memories ..................................................................................................................... 1
Bruner and Larabee Family Parentage ............................................................................................................. 3
Lewis Wilson Bruner and Violet (MacIndoo) Bruner ........................................................................................ 3
Violet Jr and Sr with Arthur, Eric, Lloyd and Clarence ..................................................................................... 4
Cecil, Eldon, Ina, Walter, Gertrude; seated Mary and William; front Hazel and Lila Larabee 1924 ................ 5
Cecil and Carl Albert Bruner, Wedding Day - June 1st, 1922 ............................................................................ 7
Windsor (Moy Avenue) 1923 – 1930................................................................................................................. 8
Cecil and Carl Bruner as young parents ............................................................................................................. 9
Cecil & Carl Bruner with children, Moy St., Windsor ..................................................................................... 10
With quarantine sign on the door ................................................................................................................. 10
Belleville 1930 – 1931........................................................................................................................................ 11
The four girls in Belleville ................................................................................................................................ 11
Kingsville, Ontario 1931 – 1936 - 2 houses Maine Street & Pearl Street .................................................. 15
Carl Bruner with arms around son Bill - Kingsville ......................................................................................... 19
Bill and Carl Bruner, Kingsville ....................................................................................................................... 23
The Larabee Farm.............................................................................................................................................. 26
Bruner girls; Norma, Doris, Pat and Verlin on the farm, Merlin ...................................................................... 26
Plan of mail order house built by William and Eldon Larabee on their farm (1930s) ..................................... 30
It never had electricity and was burned down to clear the land after Eldon’s death. ....................................... 30
Cecil at Merlin farm house ............................................................................................................................... 31
Going to a reunion; Jones, Larabees, Dawsons and Bruners ............................................................................ 32
Gertie, Lila, their mother Mary Ann Larabee and Ina ...................................................................................... 35
Walter and Eldon .............................................................................................................................................. 35
William Silas Larabee and Mary Ann (MacIntyre) Larabee, Merlin ................................................................ 39
Sarnia 1936 and onward - Mitton & Proctor Streets ..................................................................................... 41
Doris, Norma, Bill, Verlin and Pat ................................................................................................................... 41
Norma and Verlin Sarnia Park .......................................................................................................................... 42
Verlin Welding in Brantford, ca. 1942 ............................................................................................................. 44
Doris and Pat with Sarnia school logo .............................................................................................................. 46
Carl and Cecil on the side steps, Proctor St., Sarnia ........................................................................................ 47
Carl Bruner and colleague on their CNR jobs .................................................................................................. 48
Bill Bruner in Sarnia ......................................................................................................................................... 50
Verlin and Norma on their bikes ...................................................................................................................... 52
Cecil Bruner ca. 1935 and Carl Bruner 1939.................................................................................................... 55
War Years - 1940 - 1944 ....................................................................................................................................... 56
HMCS Stadacona Wren Block ......................................................................................................................... 57
Norma and Verlin on leave with siblings in Sarnia .......................................................................................... 58
Verlin in the navy- standing at lower left in photo on right.............................................................................. 59
Peace Time - 1945 and on................................................................................................................................ 62
Cecil and Carl on the front porch of the Murphy Road home they built .......................................................... 63

2
Bruner and Larabee Family Parentage

Carl Albert Bruner born in Leamington, Ontario on May 3, 1900 to Lewis Wilson and Violet Bruner. He
was the 2nd oldest of ten children and his father was an engineer on the B&O Railroad. Dad got work
on the Canadian National Railroad in his late teens. He said that he lied about his age in order to get
the job. His father died in 1923. Dad would have been only 23 years of age and his siblings would
have ranged from under 1 year old to 24 years old. There would have been 6 kids 16 and under.
Grandma Bruner certainly had her work cut out for her.
Lewis Wilson Bruner and Violet (MacIndoo) Bruner

3
Violet Jr and Sr with Arthur, Eric, Lloyd and Clarence

Cecil Bruner was born in Merlin, Ontario November 24, 1900 to William Silas and Mary Ann Larabee.
She was the third child out of eight. Her father owned a hundred acre farm a few miles out of the small
town of Merlin. The farm had no electricity and farming was done with horses. I expect the children
were all born at home.

4
Cecil, Eldon, Ina, Walter, Gertrude; seated Mary and William; front Hazel and Lila Larabee 1924

Bill.
Mom would talk about her father playing the fiddle. Sometimes he would wake them up with it and
would also play it on the spur of the moment. She always had fond memories of him. He must have
had a love for music as he bought a piano for the house. When we were kids, we would play it, but it
always sounded out of tune.
Bill.
I think Elementary school for her was a one-room schoolhouse with all eight grades in the one
room. They used slates to write on and expect that teachers were only there for one year until they
could get something better. No teachers’ unions then.. Mom said that when she was little, she
remembered a year when they had a teacher who had a rule of strapping everyone at the beginning of
the year. She never mentioned if she had been given the strap. I guess to set the pace. We have
Mennonite schools in the Waterloo, Ontario area and you still see girls in their long dresses and boys
in their knickers playing ball, tag, etc. like they have done for hundreds of years. It must have been
similar to mom’s school life.
Verlin.
Mom went to the same school that we did, when we lived on the farm during the depression. She
then went on to Merlin for high school, cross cutting through the backwoods and fields beyond.
Bill.
Mom talked about a time when she was on her way home from school and heard the baying of a
pack of hounds on the trail of some creature. She became frightened and climbed a tree and shortly
afterwards, some Indians and their dogs went racing by under her, unaware that she was in a tree
above them. I don’t expect Mom would not have been frightened of the Indians as Grandpa was
friends with them and helped them out when he could.

5
Pat.
Mom was dating some fellow as a young girl and then found out he was going to propose. She
promptly dropped him and spent all summer working on surrounding farms, saving all of her money to
leave the farm. She went to Chatham, lived with a deaconess, and attended high school and Business
College. She borrowed $25.00 from her parents, which at that time was a horrendous amount of
money, and moved to Windsor. She worked in a grocery store when she met dad and then got a job
with Polk Advertising agency in Detroit. Remember Dolly and Doc and the original Christmas cards
they sent? I think he worked at Polk’s.
When she went to Windsor her dad accompanied her and didn’t want to leave her alone in the
Verlin.

big city. She boarded in Windsor and worked in Detroit. Her sister Lila was a nurse and lived in Detroit
with her first husband, but I never heard mom relate that to the time she was in Windsor.

6
Cecil and Carl Albert Bruner, Wedding Day - June 1st, 1922

Bill.
Mom talked about
this tall, good-looking boy
who used to hang around
her boarding house. He
was nice, but she wasn’t
interested in him,
however, he continued his
pursuit and they
eventually became a
couple and got married on
June 1st, 1922. He would
have just turned 22 a
month earlier and she was
21.

7
Windsor (Moy Avenue) 1923 – 1930

Norma:
We lived in Windsor Ontario in a red brick house. I remember mom coming into the bedroom one
night, dressed for a party. She looked so pretty and smelled so nice. I told her so and she smiled.
• Other things come to mind - The living room drapes catching fire and we small children at the front
of the house afterwards, telling some cement workers who were repairing the sidewalk about it.
They listened and looked a little disconcerted.
• Then the time I decided to wash the dishes as a surprise for mom when she was out, and she
didn’t seem all that pleased with my efforts on her return.
• The time one of my younger sisters went to sleep on the bare boards of the front porch, and the
mailman coming and seeing her there.
• Having visitors come to visit in a car, and asking us if we would like to go home with them, teasing,
as adults some times do. I was a little fearful it would happen if they were persistent. (I hasten to
add they were not social workers.)
• One Christmas I vaguely recall. We had a beautiful tree and so much happiness and excitement, I
felt enveloped in a golden glow.
• Dad must have had a car as we drove to the airport to see the planes. (What vintage? As this
would be just after the First World War.) On the way, the door on the passenger side where mom
was sitting flew open and he reached out and grabbed her arm and pulled her into safety.
• I started to go to kindergarten in Windsor, and remember playing games in the playground there.
We also had a dental check-up, my first, probably, as I remember getting a needle (I think) and
afterwards running the tip of my tongue around the roof of my mouth and becoming aware of the
ridges there, which I felt quite sure the dentist had done. How dare he!
• I must have been learning to write as mom was helping me with the small letter ‘a’ which I was
having trouble with. I was told to draw a snowball and prop it up with a cane. Learning to tell time
was another difficult task. This takes me up to about the age of 6, when Verlin would be 5, Doris 3,
and Pat 2. Bill was not yet on the scene.
I once heard mom say if we had stayed in Windsor, things would have worked out for them, as we
could have got welfare. Did you know dad went to the welfare office in Kingsville to ask for assistance,
he was so desperate, and was turned down as we hadn’t lived there long enough to qualify? He came
home fuming and humiliated. I thought everyone was as poor as us until I read Studs Terkels book
about the depression years, where he said unemployment was about 20%.

8
Cecil and Carl Bruner as young parents

Verlin:
In Windsor I recall a brick house (duplex) the neighbour was an older gentleman and we must have
shared a basement. He was there to chop a head off a chicken and the chicken ran around the
basement without a head. I was watching and he was trying to catch it.
I recall Dad bringing home a box and Pat was chosen to open it. Inside was a little puppy.
One time Norma and I went to a nearby theatre to see Rin Tin Tin in person. He was a large police
dog that could do tricks He wheeled a baby carriage down the street. (He was a movie star before
Lassie.)

9
Cecil & Carl Bruner with children, Moy St., Windsor

With quarantine sign on the door

Dorrie:
Doris Violet Bruner, born in July 1926 on Moy Avenue, Windsor, Ontario. Like my three sisters – 2
older, 1 younger and a baby brother 4 years younger – I was born at home, which was not unusual in
those days, and my second name was after my paternal grandmother. I have no memories of
Windsor, and I was not yet 4 years old when we moved to Belleville. The depression hit hard in 1929,
dad was no longer being called for runs on the railroad, so the family went to Belleville in hopes of
getting work there.
Pat:
I was born in Windsor, in November 1927. In fact we were all born at home and mom disclosed to me
one day that she had never nursed any of us. Interesting for the time’s I would think. I love the picture
of our home with the “MEASLES” sign on the door.
Following the measles, Norma, mom and I had typhoid fever along with about 50 others. (See
Belleville.)
The depression hit, we lost the house and moved to Belleville. I assume dad thought work was
available there.

10
Belleville 1930 – 1931

The four girls in Belleville

Norma:
I remember many things about Belleville. The man next door had an arm missing (from the first world
war?) and the family had one child, a daughter, who I played with a lot. He had built her a playhouse
out of some house shutters and we played at afternoon tea. He would also play bat the ball with us,
quite a feat with one arm. He had a car and took me with their family for the occasional ride. He would
pull up alongside a farm wagon overflowing with pea plants and grab a handful while the car was
moving and laugh about it – after sharing them with us. On one of our outings, the car blew a tire and
turned over into a ditch – I remember the seat tumbling down on me, and people coming to help us
out of the car. We were taken to a nearby farmhouse where someone cared for us. I don’t remember
how we got home. On these outings we often stopped at a cheese factory and got bags of delicious
yellow cheese curds – so good. Many years later I saw some at a farmer’s market in London and
bought some. They were so salty I couldn’t eat them.
I remember the night Bill was born. We girls were sleeping on the floor in one of the bedrooms when
dad came in to wake us up to tell us – I didn’t even know she was pregnant. We girls also had
whooping cough at the time. I also walked in my sleep there, but don’t remember a dream.
I want to say I always felt Bill was the son (child) our parents wanted. He was able to remain with
them while we girls were shunted back and forth over our most important growing years, when we
wanted most of all to be with our parents, and family. When I watch my grandchildren growing through

11
these ages, I marvel at their innocence and trust, and thank God they receive love, care and kindness
from both their parents and have intact families.
The neighbours behind us took me on a picnic near a lake. They had a baby who slept with her eyes
open – eerie. One of the children almost drowned the same day, but was saved by a man who had to
swim out to get her.
(Pat: Continued from Windsor section) Following the measles, Norma, mom and I had typhoid fever
along with about 50 others. This was later traced to a dairy. The hospital closed off a large area to
isolation to accommodate us for six weeks. Apparently, our heads were shaven, as the high fever
would cause it to fall out anyway. No antibiotics then! Do you have any memories of this Norma? I
was just a babe.
Norma (continued.): As for typhoid, I remember it well, coming home from school very feverish, the
family being taken to the hospital and put in a dark room. We were hospitalized 5 weeks, and the
Salvation Army band came to play hymns on the hospital grounds every Sunday. That turned me off
hymns for life. Pat developed an ear infection and had to have an operation (mastoid), I think she was
in a crib in the same room as mom and me. You can imagine the hospital bills from this, and
somehow, they managed to pay this off bit by bit over the years.

After we got home mom said her hair was falling out so badly from the high fever that she was
thinking of shaving her head. I begged her not to, but came home from school one day to find her
bald. I cried and cried. (Doris. Mom wore a brown silky cap until her hair grew back in.)
The most fascinating thing about our Belleville house was the staircase with stairs starting at the front
hall, going up to the bedrooms, then down the back to the kitchen. It must have been great fun for
hide and seek. I do remember dad sitting in the kitchen tossing Bill(y) up in the air, higher and higher
until mom made him stop. One day the milkman was in the kitchen, HE WAS TALLER THAN DAD,
who up until that moment, was to me, the tallest man in the world. Dad ‘lit into him’ (as mom used to
say) about the bad milk his dairy sold which gave us typhoid. I felt it wasn’t the man’s fault as he was
just the delivery man. I shrank into myself with embarrassment as I often did during one of dad’s
tirades.

A few other memories I have are of foods – A basket of fruit brought to us by a neighbour, Huge
puffballs (mushrooms), a dead rabbit that dad, I think, skinned and when we ate it we had to watch
out for buckshot. Amazingly I don’t remember a single thing about school there.
As for dad’s work there I came to understand that when a job came up on the railroad he put a bid in
for it, and if someone with more seniority bid on it, dad was bumped. This is probably how unions work
today.
Verlin:
In Belleville the family had typhoid. Dorrie, Dad and I were at home with a hired girl to look after
things. She ended up walking off with a lot of Mother’s things including a velvet dress that broke her
heart. For Xmas Dad bought her a new one and she was so thrilled. Mom would bake the three-tier
Xmas cake with marzipan icing and a gumdrop on the top for Santa.
In 1980 I recognized a hill I had walked down with Mom on our way into town. I traced it back and
found the area where we lived and narrowed it down to 2 houses. Then traced my way to school and
found it.

12
I had a teacher, Miss Blue, and didn’t like her at all. She ridiculed me – my sloppy writing, my nail
biting and pencil chewing. I was called stupid so much in my life. Had a hard time letting that go in
later years. It was a lesson learned – not to compare my children with each other or with anyone else.
Everything that happens to us is a chance for learning, if we want it to be.
My childhood wasn’t that healthy. I was born very premature and needed to be fed more frequently.
Doctors were never a help for Mother. In Belleville I had diseased tonsils and was often in fever and
with convulsions. (They called them fits.) I recall sleeping on the mattress on the floor and calling
down the back stairs to Mom for some burnt toast. It tasted so good. The carbon would be very
cleansing. They finally found a space of time when there was no fever so my tonsils could be
removed.
Mom and Dad were only about 30 (There was no such thing as birth control then.) so they had 5
children, typhoid and the depression was on. What a life. That’s when we girls were sent to the farm.
Dorrie:
I have very faint memories of the home we lived in. I slept in a small bedroom where the window was
left open to let some fresh air in, and I remember lying in bed listening to the eerie whistle of the
trains. I also remember dad coming in to the bedroom one night to announce the arrival of a new
baby brother… in August, 1930. And he was named William Lewis after both our grandparents. When
he was just a few weeks old, mom, Norma and Patsy ended up in hospital with typhoid fever - - - un-
pasteurized milk was the culprit. Dad must have had some help in taking care of Verlin and me, I don’t
know, but I can remember Verlin and me cutting pictures out of papers to send to those in hospital.
They probably never reached the hospital, but I had fun cutting.
I also remember the kitchen having a trap door in the floor, but I never did get down into the cellar. I
just have memories of mom going down, into the darkness, and we had to stand way back. I don’t
think anyone wanted to fall down there, but I was so curious. To see what it was like. There were no
steps going down, it was more like a ladder
My first memory of bad dreams was in Belleville. My dreams (which I had often) was wanting to visit a
friend (?) who lived 2 or 3 homes down from us, and for me to walk there was so frightening because
of the monkeys & tigers in the trees – over the sidewalk! I can still picture very vividly the animals all
looking down on me as I’m scurrying along. None of them ever pounced on me, or I wouldn’t be here
to remember.

For some reason I had a great fear of animals. Coming home in a car, riding in the back seat - -a
carton (or box?) was on the floor and I could hear sounds coming from it. Dad told us not to touch it as
it had dishes in it and they would break easily. I was suspicious because of the sounds. Sure enough,
when we were at home, a puppy was let out of the box and was free to run around in the kitchen. I
believe this was a birthday present for Pat. I wanted no part of it, and it was easy for me to sit on a
chair with my feet up so it couldn’t get me. I think the car was Bob McKay’s - -a good friend of mom
and dads, not married, and we kids loved to have him come and visit - - was it because he had a car?

I remember Verlin being sent home from school because she had pink eye. I thought she was
somebody very special because no other child was sent home.

Pat:

13
The only thing I remember getting was a baby brother. My only memory of Belleville. We weren’t
christened until “Billy” was born and the day we were to be christened, mom was very ill and dad
ended up taking us (5 of us) to church for the ceremony. Picture that!

Bill:
Since I was a newborn in Belleville, my memories of it are limited, i.e. nil. However, mom used to talk
about the time she and the girls were in the hospital and her concerns on having to be separated from
her poor little baby. Apparently, I was too young to leave at home so ended up in the hospital too. She
wasn’t allowed near me. The nurses must have provided all the cuddling I needed as I never felt any
deprivation. (Norma. I remember mom saying how sick she was, and the one thing that gave her the will
to live was that tiny baby that needed her. Bill was kept in the hospital while the others were there.)

14
Kingsville, Ontario 1931 – 1936 - 2 houses Maine Street & Pearl Street

Norma:
A few notes about my last years in Kingsville. I went to first year at the High School there and our
classes were held in portables – even then. We had a box lunch affair, where we took decorated
boxes of lunch and people bid on them. Don’t think mine was bid on. What a dumb thing to do
anyway. We kept gardens there behind the school.
I got a job, must have been about 11 years old, and went as a live-in maid for a banker, his wife and
nasty baby. I was being trained to clean, do dishes and serve at the table when there were guests. I
slept over and had my own room, but I was so homesick, I only lasted a week. I took the money I got
and took Bill to the 5 & 10c store and bought him a pair of crepe-soled shoes.
I went wading in a pool of water on the beach and came out screaming. I had black leeches attached
to my legs. I also saw two girls almost drown there. A young man jumped in from the rotting dock and
saved them both. Another time I walked out on the ice on the lake and it began to crack! I got out of
there in a hurry.
I hated my Sunday School teacher there. She also led the choir. The pressure was really put upon us
to be baptized. I resisted, but I did sign a pledge card to say I would never touch alcohol. I went to the
Catholic Church often with my friend, Amy Ringrose, a very bad influence.
The basement had a clean empty coal bin. I always wanted to do a play there and hang curtains etc.
but didn’t know where to begin.
One day, walking to the lake it rained baby toads. A phenomenon I’ve never seen since.
Do you remember the frozen flies on the ceiling on the back porch? We swept them down with a
broom. The ceiling was black with them.
Verlin:
In Kingsville we were getting big enough to help out, I had to see that Billy was clean and neat with
hair combed to go to school. He’d often run away from me and out the door only to be chased and
hauled back. On our way to school we passed where Dad worked and he’d check our appearance
and make us straighten our stockings. They were ribbed cotton and usually quite twisted as we pulled
them on. With his pride in appearance he kindly helped correct us.
I remember us all in the same room, helping or hindering as Mom and Dad hung wallpaper and paint
areas in the house. Dad refinished and remodelled a lot of furniture for our rooms. It was probably 2nd
hand but he loved good wood and nice grains. It was always a happy home, through difficult times.
When Mom burned trash in the fireplace we’d roast something on sticks or popcorn in those wire
poppers.
We picked berries and earned money to go to a matinee or rent a bicycle (25¢ an hour) we all learned
to ride. We played softball in the street. (I hated that for I was clumsy at sport or running. Too pigeon
toed.) Saturdays we cleaned the house before we could look at the Saturday comics.
Norma and I took occasional turns at making evening meals on the wood stove. We’d take the wagon
and a burlap sack to the feed mill and get corncobs to use as kindling.

15
Norma was a very responsible girl and Mom could always depend on her. We heard that a lot. That
didn’t say much for the rest of us. What a burden for her for so much was expected from her and the
rest of us envied her talents. Being the oldest and tall for her age – she was 11 – 13 going on 18. “As
one man said “I don’t mind criticism but am wary of compliments, because then I’d have to live up to
them.”
One summer they closed off one block near our place for roller-skating on a Friday evening. Norma
and I took tap-dancing classes. . (Pat Was it “Zimmerman” who taught tap dancing at the pavilion in the
park? I remember the music “Shuffle off to Buffalo”.)
There was no garbage collection, other than tins or bottles. A small pit was dug in the sandy soil and
wet garbage went there and some soil thrown over it. When it was full enough, another pit was dug.
Garden was planted on the old area. All paper, etc. was burned. Very efficient.
Dorrie:
When we first moved to Kingsville, we girls from the farm, we lived in an old house on Main Street, 2
or 3 doors down from the fellow who owned the Hardware Store across the street and down a bit
further than his home. I remember him because he gave us a bunch of paint chips to KEEP, these
were long sticks (6”) all different colours, and probably colours that were discontinued. We didn’t know
what to do with them, how does one play with coloured sticks? But at the time I thought of him as
being ever so kind.
Our radio was in the front room, and sometimes we would sit in front of it to listen to it This was more
common for us to do when we lived in the New House, as we were old enough to have special
programs that we listened to each week. When Kim was 7 or 8 years old, he asked what we used to
watch on Television when we were kids, and was surprised to find out there was no such thing. His
next question was “What did you sit and look at?” I got off the track completely here, sorry!

The house had an average size living room, a dining room behind it - This was the room with a
pot-bellied stove in it, and where mom would drape clothes all over the place to dry. It seems to me
that she also had a line to hang some of the smaller items on it. Behind the dining room was a fairly
large kitchen. None of this was fancy. Furnishings were bare necessities. To go upstairs, the door was
off the dining room and the entrance to the stairs was Dark! I was so scared of what or who might be
lurking under the steps. Never did find out!

If mom could find work, she would have a maid come to look after us. One of these maids, who was
probably all of 15 or 16 years old, was too nervous to walk home alone, and this would be dusk, so
two of us would walk with her. When we came to a bush by the sidewalk, she would walk way over
just in case someone was hiding behind it. As nervous as I was about a lot of things, I couldn’t figure
out her fear.
Mom’s work was either at the tobacco factory or canning factory. I remember going in one afternoon
to the tobacco factory, to ask if we could go swimming. This too was when we lived in the New House.
We (whoever was with me) walked all the way from the school to the factory, which was halfway from
our home to the lake, then back home to get bathing suits, then the long walk down to the park. Didn’t
know how to swim, just paddled around, but it was a treat, then the long walk home again afterwards.
The park, to me, was Huge. Beside the park was a Big baseball diamond, and we often went there to
watch ball games. In the park itself was a ride that kids could stand on and make it go round and
round by pushing with their legs, and at the same time make it go up and down. There was also a bar

16
with monkey rings (my favourite) but I could never ever make it across the whole length. There were
also swings and probably a slide but I can’t remember that.
This park was where our Baptist Church would have their Sunday School picnics. It was always such
a fun time with all the races and games and food.
I remember one particular day there (not a Sunday School picnic} I was watching people play Bingo
and I commented to someone that if I ever won I would take a toaster for my mom. Some kind
gentleman probably overheard me and paid for me to play. I played and had Bingo - someone had to
tell me - and lo and behold I selected a big doll for myself instead of the toaster. When morn saw me
walking towards her with this doll, she was sure I had taken it from someone and couldn’t believe I
had won it. What a thrill for me.
This park also had a big pavilion, and we watched tap dancers there dancing to the tune of Shuffle Off
to Buffalo, a very popular tune at that time. This could be where Norma and Verlin took tap dancing
lessons, and they in turn taught us to hop, shuffle, step, hop, shuffle, step. I don’t think I ever got
beyond that. (Norma. A group of men played baseball there while riding donkeys. Funniest thing I ever
saw.)
This also was the summer that ladies (probably teenage girls} started to wear long pants. Very
stylish.
In the mid-70’s Phil and I went for a drive from Burlington to Kingsville, saw the New House that we
lived in, then the beautiful drive down Division Street to the Big park. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I
saw the baseball diamond - Small! and then into the park and the Monkey rings were still there, the
round-a-bout whatever, and the Inn that was near the pavilion. I can’t remember seeing the pavilion
then, but I do remember how small the Big Park was. Don’t ever go back. Memories are sometimes
best left as memories. From there we drove over to Jack Miners bird sanctuary, and saw all the wild
geese. Hundreds of them and what a beautiful sight to watch them: landing en masse, or to take flight.
I have a feeling if it were today that I wouldn’t get so excited about it.
School in Kingsville; I had approximately 2 to 3 months of kindergarten at the one-room schoolhouse
at the farm, so this gave me the privilege of starting Junior First in Kingsville. There were two schools,
the big one and the little one. One was for Junior and Senior First and Junior Second, then on to the
big one. The little one had a huge butternut tree in the schoolyard, messy but beautiful
In Junior First, I sat near the back and the kid across from me and I decided we didn’t like the plain
white pages in our readers, so we undertook to colour them. I chose yellow for mine, and couldn’t go
to another colour because the teacher found us out. Had to stay in during recess, after lunch I tried
desperately to find some way of missing school that afternoon for fear I was going to get the strap, but
nothing else developed from it. I could understand the teacher being upset because the kids all had to
buy all of their own books, pencils, rulers, all school supplies that are automatically given to them
these days.
I also remember stealing a penny from mom’s purse one day to buy myself a small notebook like
some of the kids had. It was a big penny, I bought the notebook and then I hated it, because I had to
steal to get it. Never ever told mom about that, but that has been on my conscience all these years.
We were so poor that any pencil we had was down to a small stub before we could get a new one. Do
you remember wearing shoes out, holes in the soles, and we would look for cardboard to put in our
shoes to cover up the hole?

17
The schools had 2 entrances, one for the boys and one for the girls, and we lined up outside, single
file. When the music started - someone playing a march on the piano - Repaz Band and if a teacher
played and knew it, she would play Isle of Capri - popular at that time, then we would march in.
Halloween was really and truly prankster’s night, and somehow they would manage to get a big wagon
on top of the school.
I had two teachers in Kingsville that l liked so well. Mrs. Marshall who was top heavy, and I thought
she folded her arms most of the time for her boobs to rest on them. Mr. Lawrence, who treated all the
students alike. Both of these teachers made me feel as if I belonged. (Norma. Was Mr. Lawrence the
principal, who always warned us not to smoke, as it would stunt our growth? I was the biggest girl in
the class, but he sure scared me. We sang such dumb songs, like “Roaming in the Gloaming”.)
Our new house was really new. In later years morn told me about it being built by a man who spent his
winters in Florida. (In those days too!) Whoever was looking after this man’s affairs while he was
away rented the house to mom and dad for them to have a place for their 5 children. He didn’t know
what the owner’s reaction would be when he found out, but as it turned out the owner didn’t mind at
all. In fact he used to come over to the house to sit and have a cup of tea and a chat with mom. When
our family moved from there to Sarnia, mom and dad were 8 months behind in the rent and the
landlord told them not to do anything about it. Once mom and dad were a bit established, with work
again, mom started sending cheques each month until eventually the debt was paid off.
This house to me was beautiful. It had a fireplace in the dining room - no furniture in there that I can
remember. There was a kitchen with cupboards that opened either in the kitchen or in the summer
kitchen/porch. Everything about the house was so clean and fresh. In the winter it was heated by a
stove in the front room, in the summer the stove pipes were gone, probably the stove too, and we
would lie on the floor upstairs to listen to the conversations down below, through the hole in the floor.
Never heard anything too exciting. The basement was clean, no mustiness or dank dark corners. Dad
made his beer down there and one year treated us kids to making root beer. (Norma. Dad kept his beer
on the top shelf of the kitchen cupboard, and a bottle would sometimes explode and run down the
walls, foaming and smelly. The root beer we loved and I still like it.)

18
Carl Bruner with arms around son Bill - Kingsville

Dad’s work in Kingsville was sporadic. Sometimes he was lucky enough to get a job driving the ice
truck, delivering ice to different homes. If we went to the icehouse, he or whoever was there would
chip off a chunk of ice for us to suck on. A real treat. He also worked at a car dealership. ‘Needless to
say’ this was not worth while, because no one was buying cars in those days.
Mom also told me about people who owed dad money through this business. After they were in
Sarnia, mom contacted a lawyer in Kingsville and as time went on the cheques started coming in until
all the debts had been paid off.
Kingsville was no different than most other places as far as beggars were concerned. In those days
they were called bums, and we often had them come to the door wanting some food, and mom
without hesitation would have them in and give them something to eat.
Does anyone remember the lady that lived next door to us? She had cardboard cut-outs of colourful
advertising hanging by strings from strings going across the room. She had invited Patsy to go over to
have lunch with her, and when the time came near Pat started to cry because she was so scared. We
truly believed this woman to be crazy. Mom went over and gave some excuse so Pat didn’t have to go
and I think she sent some food home with mom to give to Pat. We were sure the food was poisoned.
Who knows anything of this? (Pat I remember her. She played an old organ and I think that is what
attracted me into the house.) (Norma. I remember this lady singing, but we kept our distance. After
she left a European family moved in. They had a boy, Andy I think, and we played baseball on the
road. This family thought they had lost their toddler and the whole neighbourhood went looking for her.
They found her sleeping under a comforter on a bed in the house.)
The Kingsville Baptist church was a Sunday ritual for us, both for church services and for Sunday
school.

19
Why mom started us going there, I don’t know because she was definitely United. Dad, I don’t think
had any religion. The church had a big “pit” behind the altar for baptism, where they actually “dunked”
people. I sure hoped Mom would never want us to be baptised because I was sure I would drown.
Someone please tell the story of when we were christened. I just know bits and pieces of it. I liked
Sunday school, although I would always forget that I was to memorize a certain Bible verse for the
next Sunday, but we weren’t criticized for that. We used to have Christmas Concerts - usually at the
Town Hall - and I can remember the Wise Men in their costumes walking up the aisle to the stage
were Baby Jesus was. The angels were all dressed in white frothy cloth and had sparkly halos. Santa
always made an appearance and we would each receive a stocking from him - the red mesh ones -
and it would have some Xmas candies in it and maybe some junky stuff. It didn’t matter as long as we
got some candy and it was a present.
Mrs. Arnor, a Sunday School teacher, arranged to have boxes of clothing brought to the House, and
we would be so excited about it. The only things in the boxes that I remember were the tweed coats
(Old people’s styles} and mom would cut them down to fit us and that way we had winter coats. I
hated them. I remember the fur coat and hat that Billy had one winter- probably rabbit - and he looked
so nice and warm. It seemed like such a long walk to school in the winter, and one day my feet were
so cold and numb I was crying from it and the teacher sat me down in front of a radiator in the hall so I
could put my feet on it. What a treat. )
Another winter (when we were still living on Main Street.) I had a brown wool hat, similar to a hood
without the pointy end and it covered my ears and I loved it because it was so warm. Dad saw me with
it on one time, and made me throw it away, t guess it looked awful, but I was too young to think of
things like that.
Going back to the concerts at the Town Hall, we were at one and all at once Billy appeared on the
stage, sang Robin Red Breast, took a bow, and walked off. Mom couldn’t believe her eyes; she had
no idea he had planned on doing this. He looked so cute in his red shorts and white shirt, He really
was such a cute kid, but we girls just thought of him as a little brother, often a nuisance.
• Sitting in a tree.
• Little Robin Red Breast,
• Chirrup, chirrup, chirrup, chirrup,
Xmas must have been very difficult for mom and dad. They tried very hard to have us believe in Santa
Clause, but when you are poor, somehow or other you know you won’t receive the presents that
Santa usually gives out. But I can’t remember Xmas not being fun for us. One year I was very
disappointed, because I so badly wanted a Topsy doll and Xmas morning my favourite doll had been
painted black and was still tacky. That was my Topsy doll and I think the end of that doll. I believed in
Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny long after I was old enough to know otherwise, probably wishful
thinking.
One Easter mom took us all aside to tell us that we knew them was no Easter Bunny, but not to say
anything on Easter Sunday, because there would be some candy for Billy, but they couldn’t afford any
for the rest of us. I was hurt but understood, and then when I went to Sunday School, a girl in my
class was hugging her stuffed bunny that she received along with some Easter eggs. She was from a
poor family, somehow or other life just didn’t seem fair.
The Salvation Army Major and his wife lived down the street from us, and they had a telephone! If
anybody wanted to make a phone call they could use theirs. It seemed so strange because who else
in all of Kingsville, had a phone that one could call?

20
Mrs. Cooper and her 8 kids lived down the street as well at the corner. Her husband was in the mental
hospital in London (with 8 kids to support during a depression, this could send anyone there), and she
did sewing to support her family. I played with them a lot. Our summer evenings we played Kick the
Can, Statue, Red Light and Tag. Do kids nowadays know what these games are? (Pat. I loved her and
her kids. Spent a lot of time there. )
One day after school, there was a man outside passing out BB Bat suckers to each kid. This was a
promotion to introduce them. They were wonderful, sort of caramelly, and as you sucked on them or
chewed them, you could stretch them out longer and longer until finally you had to eat them up.
Remember the penny candy store with the white curtain hanging in front of the candy display? If a
child had a penny, the clerk would stand and hold the curtain until ages later the child would finally
decide which candy he/she wanted. There was also a safety sucker out. It had a twisted paper loop
handle. Great idea but didn’t seem to catch on.
Aunt Lila and her fiancé, Med Drouillard, came to visit one day. I was sick with the mumps, and she
brought us some oranges and bananas - - What a treat! Then I found out I couldn’t eat an orange,
because of the mumps and it hurt so much. They also gave us their dog. It was big, part Chow and
part Husky. Norma and Verlin each tried to get it to pull them with their roller skates on. The dog
decided it was free, so it went ‘Hell bent for Election’ and both girls, after having bad falls, decided not
to try that trick again. I don’t think we kept the dog very long.
I remember the shed by the railroad tracks, just a couple of blocks from where we lived. Mom would
give us a burlap bag; we would pull our wagon there to gather up any coal or corncobs that we could
find, to use for heating. I was so embarrassed and hoped no one would see me, yet I’m sure many of
our friends did the same thing. (Pat Me too and so afraid they would dump a load of cobs on me while I
was inside.)
There was a big house on the corner that had a veranda that went all around the front and side. It was
an old brick home, lovely in its day and lots of huge shade trees in the front yard. I never ever saw
anyone going in or out and believe it was sitting empty. Walking by it with a girl friend one time, she
told me it was haunted, and the man that lived there hanged himself in the basement. I was (and still
am) very gullible, and from that day on I would never walk on the same side of the street for fear
whoever haunted it would come and get me. (Pat I used to hide in the bushes at night and make
noises and scared myself silly.)
Pat:
Our next move was to Kingsville, I think I was there. I vaguely remember our house on Maine St.
Other than it was there I found out there was no Easter Bunny.
I remember our Pearl St. house & neighbourhood well. Aunt Hazel looked after “Billy” (when she
wasn’t dipping her crepe roses in wax) and the four of us girls and we were very young, were shipped
to Grandma and Grandpa’s farm for a lengthy stay, so mom and dad could find work.
Dad tried selling Hudson Terroplanes but who was buying cars? He delivered ice door to door and
liked the American cottagers. I think they gave him beer. I remember mom working at the tomato
packing shed and she told me she was fired because she didn’t have time to wash her uniform. She
then started to go with a busload to Leamington daily to work at Heinz in season, that is. I also
remember her working at the tobacco factory where she also lost the diamond out of her ring, which
was later found. Now why would she wear the ring to a tobacco factory? It was there that dad came to
announce that he had been recalled back to work after all those years.

21
I loved the neighbourhood in Kingsville, not aware of the hardships. I remember having the measles
for about the 10th time I think, and standing naked in front of a full length mirror feeling sorry for
myself. All the other kids were playing hide-and-seek in the cornfield across the road. I had fun with
the kids in the neighbourhood. Of course I hated Peaches Oulette and received a whipping because
of her.
I remember Norma inviting one of the hoboes in and made a meal for him. We stood round and
watched him eat, etc. Mom was really angry with her for inviting him in. People usually just made a
lunch that they took with them.
Giving food to these people was unbelievable, because it was a struggle for her to find enough food
for all of us. If she had an extra nickel one of us would stop at the bakery on our way home from
school at noon and buy a nickel’s worth of stale pastry - if there were some. Such a treat.
I loved my Sunday School teacher, Mrs. Arnold. I remember sitting with her in church after Sunday
School. I did a lot of wiggling I had a very itchy rear end. I think I had worms! The Arnolds lived on a
farm and I remember having dinner there at a big dining room table with a white tablecloth. Mr. Arnold
stood at the table and carved the meat and filled the plates stacked at his side. What luxury!
We used to go in our bare feet all summer and one Saturday three of us went into the United Church
to watch a wedding. We parked ourselves in the front row and when the bride and groom kissed we
giggled a lot. I can’t understand why they allowed us in, as we were certainly little ragamuffins.
Bill do you remember having your tonsils out in the Dr.’s office? ( Bill. I do. Woke up to this big light over
me. Presume it was tonsils, but get confused as to whether it was that or being hit by a car. The car
thingy happened right in front of the doctor’s office and probably in the same year.)
I loved kindergarten and could hardly wait to get into grade I. The kids in grade I received little bottles
of milk once a week from the local dairy and I was so envious. When I skipped that grade I was
devastated. Remember singing “God Save The King” in the big school when King George V and
Queen Mary were in power (?).It was in that same hallway that I received the strap in grade IV, just for
talking. Talk about mixed-up memories.

22
Bill and Carl Bruner, Kingsville

Bill:
My earliest memories are all connected to Kingsville, Ontario where we apparently ended up when
dad, a locomotive fireman, was laid off the Canadian National Railways in Belleville, Ontario.
Our house was white and seemed quite large to me, but expect it would seem pretty small now. I can
picture the living room (not much furniture in it) and the kitchen on the main floor. Also I remember
one bedroom upstairs as I had been hit by a car and got a black eye out of it and that’s the room
where my friends came to see me.
There was a cornfield across the road from us and I believe another one on the right hand side. We/I
played in both. There was a foreign family that lived next door with a girl about my age and we would
play together.
Remember trying to coax my sisters into reading the comics to me one more time, but with little
success and ending up trying to figure out the words. Expect it helped me in future reading as English
was one of my easiest subjects.

23
Went to kindergarten in Kingsville where they had a brick tower on top of a large well for pumping
water. The bigger kids would put us little ones in and would close the door on us. We would have to
creep around the ledge in the pitch black, hugging the wall to avoid falling in the water, in order to
reach the door latch. Seems funny that they didn’t have a padlock on the door.
There was a large sandbox in the schoolyard and at recess, some of the kids dug a hole in it and
buried me up to the waist like you do on the beach. The school bell rang and the others forgot about
me so I was late getting back to class. Don’t remember any punishment
Also remember being at the top of some wooden outside stairs at someone’s 2nd floor apartment,
possibly over a garage and watching some little kids, in a house below. They must have got into their
parent’s booze as they were giggling staggering all over.
Had little red pants and a white top which I liked and also remember a fur coat and hat in the winter
time.
Dorrie talked about my concert debut singing Robin Red Breast, which I remember very well. I loved
singing and think this was because mom seemed to sing around the house a lot. How on earth she
remembered the words, I’ll never know. Think I got a prize of some kind, but can’t remember. Also
remember a church/Sunday School play where I was wearing sleepers and was a lamb fast asleep.
Got to keep the sleepers. Strange, they didn’t ask me to sing!
Can’t recall it being cold or snowy in Kingsville, but it must have been at times. What kind of work
would mom and dad have been able to get in the wintertime? I recall us all being outside one night
watching the northern lights. They were spectacular and I presumed that this was a normal thing. It
wasn’t until years later when an adult that I realized this may have been a once in a lifetime show in
southern Ontario.
I also remember a night when there was a large glow far off in the sky and they said it was a ship on
fire out in Lake Erie. It wasn’t a stormy night and I couldn’t find anything on the internet about it, so it
must not have been a major disaster
We had a goose dinner once. Someone had shot it and had been kind enough to donate it to us.
There was a dish in the middle of the table to put the lead buckshot. Presumably no one worried
about if you swallowed any. Mom used to say, “You’ll eat a peck of dirt before you die.” Meaning
“don’t worry about a little dirt”. (In today’s scales, a peck was a quarter of a bushel or about 10 litres.) I
still use that expression, but no one knows what I’m talking about.
Dad was away a lot of the time. It may have been when he was periodically called back on the
railroad. One day, he had just arrived home from wherever he was, he was lying on the couch
smoking a cigarette and let me have a puff. I coughed and coughed. Didn’t think smoking was so
smart after that.
Dorrie talked about a big brick house on the corner. It was fascinating to me. Like you, I don’t ever
recall anyone going in or out, but do remember they had tons of blue jays squawking in their trees. It
didn’t strike me as a scary place, but more like a rich person’s home and a probable nice place to visit
in and explore.
Norma mentioned the baby toads and wonder if it’s the same as my memory of baby frogs. There
were millions of them. Thought they were a gift from heaven. Didn’t realize they had rained down.
There was a cornfield across the road where we would play. Cornfields were fun, but you could easily
get lost in them, similar to being in a maze without paths.

24
In the candy store there was someone, the owner or an employee, who played the shell game with
kids for one penny a guess. There were three shells and one pea underneath one of them. They
would shuffle the three shells around and when they stopped you selected which shell the pea under
it. It looked so easy, but doubt if anyone ever won. If you guessed right, you won something, but
don’t remember what. Since pennies were scarce, there weren’t too many participants. Wouldn’t the
depression era have been an awful time in your life to work so hard for your money and then lose it so
easily? Even if it was just a penny.
I have often wondered who had the responsibility to make sure I was presentable and through these
notes found that it was Verlin. Expect all you girls made sure that I got to school okay, but it must
have been my responsibility to get home for lunch and then back to school on my own. One time
Norma came looking for me and found me playing with a boy with a big toy Coca-Cola truck.
Apparently I stopped to play on the way home and forgot all about time and missed my lunch. I don’t
remember you scolding me Norma. The school must have sent you to look for me when I didn’t show
up. I don’t remember the crepe soled shoes Norma, but I do remember you as a special someone in
my life, so grown up and always being there when needed. Actually, I remember all you girls being
very special. As I’ve said before, it was a happy childhood for me and you were a big part of it.

25
The Larabee Farm

Bruner girls; Norma, Doris, Pat and Verlin on the farm, Merlin

Norma:
I remember when a wedding party for Gertie and Lyle was held in the Living room, our bedroom was
just off it, and the door was opened a bit so we could see some of the merriment, and there was lots
of music.
The school was a long hike from the house and in the winter months the snow was as high as the
tops of the fences, and if a crust formed on it we could walk on top of it. When the snow was gone I
skated on the ice in the ditch by the road, wearing an old pair of skates someone had found in the
attic. The weeds trapped in the ice made substantial obstacles.
In May we had a special day when all the students and teacher picked up the litter in the schoolyard,
no school that day, and I think we even had a dance with ribbons around the Maypole.
Back at the farm house I often went to the fence at the side of the road where the cows would
sometimes be, and stare for long, long minutes into their eyes, I thought they looked very intelligent,
and they had such beautiful long eyelashes. One day I walked back to the woods and found one of
the cows there with a newly born calf by her side. I ran back to tell grandpa, and he went off grumbling
and cursing under his breathe to tend to them.
When we walked along the roads, we would put our ears to the telephone poles and listen to the
humming of the wires and pretend they were voices on party lines. We didn’t learn anyone’s secret.
Then we often threw stones at the glass globes at the top of the poles, trying to break them, a
favourite pastime of country children. We collected burrs from the large burdocks that grew by the
side of the roads, and made teacups with them. There were also Elderberries growing there and we

26
gathered the dusty fruits and someone would make elderberry pie, I still drool over the thought of that.
I was running along the road one day when I suddenly saw a snake coiled up and flicking his tongue
at me. I was moving so fast I had to jump over it. I was very frightened.
I once saw a snapshot of Jean Bruner and myself on the boardwalk [sidewalk] at the farm. I don’t
have any recollection of her visit, though. She was only 6 months older than me and loved to tell
people that, and wanted me to call her Aunt Jean.
{Grandma Bruner died when I was in the hospital after Jill’s birth. I remember thinking when a new
babe comes into the world; it replaces an old person who must die.}
Before the typhoid fever in Belleville, my hair had been straight but came back in as a huge mop of
unmanageable curls and I looked like a Zulu. It was completely unmanageable. Grandma tried to
tame it by rubbing goose grease into it which was very humiliating. We also had lard sandwiches for
lunch. More goose grease? (Pat. Goose grease was also used for sore throats, saturated in flannel
wrapped around the neck.)
I went to a church meeting with grandma, and they were discussing the budget. Grandma had to tell
them she wouldn’t be able to continue with her job there and she was near tears. She must have
relied on the pay she received for it.
I don’t remember any talk of going to the farm, nor do I remember how we got there. But I do
remember the grey weathered house and barn, probably never painted, the garage and the hen
house, and the out-house, which still makes me shudder [was it Lime that caused such an acrid
stench?]
The kitchen had a wood burning stove where a pot of milk warmed on the back until it turned to
cottage cheese. There was a small pantry where I once ‘stole’ some icing sugar to take to a secretive
outdoor spot. I mixed it with water and anticipated a sweet treat, only to find it sickenly sweet and
runny, even starchy. Quite a disappointment - maybe I got the rat poison by mistake. Grandma tested
the oven by putting her hand into it to see if it was hot enough to start her baking. We seemed to get
enough to eat - my favorite was broken bread cubes with sugar and warm frothy milk fresh from the
cow, unpasteurized. I never got an egg for breakfast, although Eldon did, and he would take Pat on
his lap and give her tastes of it. I was so jealous of Pat, with her black hair and bangs, and large dark
eyes, and didn’t hesitate to complain.
I remember the bad smells there, of Grandma’s bedroom, where she kept the incubator for hatching
chickens, and the very sour smell from the always damp towels hanging by the washbasin by the back
door, and the wet doggy smell of Sailor who always had a tangled coat of burrs. [Did I mention the
outdoor toilets?]
Outdoors the chicken and geese roamed freely. and left their droppings everywhere. We always
seemed to be without shoes, so we had to step carefully. One gander attacked me when I was
innocently walking near him, he grabbed the hem of my dress and wouldn’t let go even though I was
pulling away screaming with fright. Another time I climbed up the wooden ladder in the barn when I felt
some things crawling on my arms and ran screaming to the large drinking kettle the horse’s used, and
washed my arms. Chicken lice, of course.
Grandpa had fallen off a hay wagon in 1940/41 and was laid up for a while before he died. He went to
a Catholic hospital where he was happy. Gertie carried me in to see him in the casket – I really didn’t
want to go. Grandma gave me her first and only smile (I thought) when I got into the car beside her for

27
the funeral procession. Did you know grandma applied to the government for financial assistance,
and had to take a ‘means test’ – how degrading, and was turned down.)
Verlin:
During the depression mom and dad had a real struggle finding work and did what ever was available.
With 5 children, it must have been a big worry. Grandma Larabee was a big help by having some of
the kids stay at the farm at different periods of time. The girls apparently stayed one or two winters.
When I got to be about seven, I started spending my summer vacations on different farms. Thinking
about this, mom’s relatives were extremely generous. This wasn’t only an expense factor, but there
must have been a lot of work involved in taking care of us.
My memories of the farm start in the old house where mom and her siblings were raised. A large
kitchen ran across the back of the house with large wood stove on one end. Pat would stand on a
chair to wash dishes in a dishpan on the table. Grandma made her own soap and it was hard and
dark grey. It didn’t create any suds. The dishwater was poured into the pigswill (a pail on the floor
where peelings and scraps were recycled through the pigs). At night we’d undress behind the stove
where it was warm, before going up to the attic (Norma and I) to sleep carrying a coal oil lamp. At the
top of the stairs was a burlap bag of salt - very hard and had to be scraped or chopped to get enough
for use in the kitchen. Old clothes hung from nails and cast eerie shadows. It was spooky.
We children were there through 2 school years, if I remember correctly. A one-room schoolhouse.
Each row, or half row, was another grade. We used inkwells and slate boards. Our exercise book
was for more permanent use. We carried our lunches in lard pails. (They were cute little pails.)
The washing machine was a cradle type that stood on wheels. The upper box moved back and forth
as you pushed and pulled, sloshing the clothes around. The inside was lined with half dowels like a
wash board effect. The wringer was the old kind where you turned the crank while feeding the clothes
through the rollers. Such heavy overalls and sheets. Buttermilk was churned and Grandpa talked so
enthusiastically about the buttermilk that we couldn’t wait to drink some. He also grew a few stocks of
popcorn every year. Then he’d tie the ears together and hang them in the bedroom to dry. To make
pop corn - he’d use a cast iron skillet on the wood stove, rub the ears together to shell the corn- then
popped it using an old magazine as a cover for the pan.
In the farmhouse - the long kitchen table was covered with oilcloth and was used at thrashing time
when the thrashers came in to eat. Neighbour women came in with extra pies, etc.
The house had three very small bedrooms and I often think of that family being raised there. It was a
happy home for friends were always welcome and felt at ease. Also they were one of the poorer
families in the area. I think this is why she always tried to better herself and prodded us.
Grandma Larabee impressed me so much – her tiny fingers. She worked so hard with chickens, in the
fields, plus in the house preparing meals, baking her bread and her pies. Ironing clothes with those
heavy flat irons that are heated on the wood stoves. There was no thermometer for ovens. (She put
her hand inside to test if it was hot enough for baking.) When company came someone went out and
caught a chicken and killed it. She’d remove the feathers, clean it and bake it. She also heated water
in a big oblong boiler on the stove in order to do the laundry. On top of that she also hoed in the fields.
In her 80’s she went to neighbours to pick tomatoes in order to pay her taxes. She couldn’t
understand why the government needed so much money to live. When daylight saving time started
she got behind in her work and said she’d be glad when they gave that hour back. She braided all the
rugs on the floor and made many quilts. I was fascinated at how her fingers worked. As she got older
– the nails weren’t cut and bent over the tips of her fingers. Looked like a bird’s.

28
One time at Max Dawson’s, Max was helping a neighbour load wagons and bringing the load back to
his place. Norma and I rode on top one time and the wheel went off the driveway into the ditch as they
turned onto the road. The load upset and us with it. Recall being bent double with a heavy weight on
me. Everyone laughed over it afterwards – probably from relief.)
Dorrie:
From Belleville we girls went to Merlin to Grandma and Grandpa Larabee’s farm to stay for as long as
it would take for mom or dad to find work, and/or to be able to care for us in some way. (Norma. They
went to Kingsville, took Billy with them, still a very young baby.)
The memories I have of the farm are not pleasant. I think of the home (very small) as being dark and
dreary, no electricity, heated by the wood stove in the kitchen the outhouse WAY BACK of the yard
and one had to watch your steps because of chicken dirt or the geese hissing at us. The door to the
outhouse wouldn’t close tightly, and there were always spiders & spider webs, toilet paper was old
catalogues with pages all curled. At night we used the chamber pots under the beds, smelled awful.
The table we ate at was in the middle of the kitchen. One meal we were having boiled eggs and
whoever cut Pat’s for her, took it away in a hurry because there was a baby chick in it (I’m sure it was
dead by then.) and I so badly wanted to see it and I wasn’t allowed. Uncle Eldon always (it seemed
always) took my bread from me after I buttered it, so he could butter it for me. I guess I didn’t do it well
enough - - probably butter in the centre. These are memories of the old, old house.
There was a morning that I slept longer than others, and someone (Verlin?) came in to the bedroom to
get me up so I could see the mouse the cat had caught - - in the bedroom I was sleeping in, behind
the dresser. Even though the cat already had it outside, I was too scared then to get out of the bed,
probably thinking there might still be a mouse in the room somewhere.
I started school in the green one-room schoolhouse, and I was in the kindergarten class with Doris
Larabee (and one other person). I was so very, very shy and didn’t want to talk to the teacher or to
any of the kids. I hated it so much, probably because of my shyness. I didn’t start school until Easter,
but it was enough to let me go to Junior First when we moved to Kingsville.
I often wonder how Grandma Larabee ever managed with the four of us dumped on her after her own
family was raised, and she was the one that did most of the work around the farm - - although Eldon
did take care of the horses and plows out in the fields. Because of no jobs available, they built a
bigger home (as in the snapshot Pat enclosed) and it was so mom and dad & the five of us would
always have a home if needed. Mom and dad took advantage of it after that year, we spent our
summers there while we lived in Kingsville, and the memories of those summers were not pleasant for
me either.

29
Plan of mail order house built by William and Eldon Larabee on their farm (1930s)

It never had electricity and was burned down to clear the land after Eldon’s death.

Summer vacations were spent at the farm. I still hated it, although I do remember some of the more
pleasant aspects of it.
• Walking out to the back bush, sometimes we would see wildflowers there and I didn’t know why
they weren’t there the next time I went. (Pat I remember May apples and Jack-in–the Pulpits.)
• There were also skeletons of cows. (Were these cows that had been killed for food and that
was the only way of disposing of the bones?)
• The maple bush where they would tap for the syrup that was such a treat for us
• The tepee back behind the back house that Eldon built of old weathered boards, and
make-believe tables were inside so we could make our mud pies and cookies.
• Walking in newly ploughed fields and seeing tiny pink baby mice whose homes and families
had been disrupted but these creatures were so tiny and helpless and cute.
• The attic that had some planks laid across the rafters so we could walk on them and not fall
through the ceiling below.
• A box or old magazines in it with paper dolls that we cut out and played with.
An unpleasant task at the farm was gathering eggs. The hens didn’t have sense enough to stay in the
hen house. They laid them in so many different places, and grandma seemed to know them all. After
we gathered any that we could find and took them in the house, we would be crawling with chicken
lice. Grandma said it didn’t matter because the lice would die, they could only stay alive on chickens.
Because they didn’t spray their fruit trees for worms, cherries would be pitted and cooked and any
worms that were in them would float to the top and could be skimmed off. If we were Chinese, we
would eat them as a delicacy. Have we come a long way in our civilization or set ourselves back?

30
Cecil at Merlin farm house

Grandma and Grandpa had a pump in their back yard, but no well. The girls would have to go outside
and pump pails of water to bring inside but also pump water often to keep the BIG iron (animal trough)
kettle full.
One day Grandpa had to go in to town, Merlin, to buy some seed or feed or something to be used for
farming, so he took us kids with him, on the democrat. No springs, a bumpy ride sitting on the board
seat or standing up behind the seat with two horses pulling. They always had one horse named
Queen and every dog they had was called Sailor. While we were in town, we each had 1or 2 pennies
to spend at the General Store. It was an exciting day, even though there wasn’t much selection for
that price. I bought a butterfly brooch.

31
Going to a reunion; Jones, Larabees, Dawsons and Bruners

Another time Grandpa and Eldon, probably Uncle Lyle too, hooked up a flat-bed trailer to the
buck-board, and a whole crowd of us including Shaw kids - just whoever was there at the time - rode
on that all the way in to Chatham for a huge family picnic. It was Orangemen’s Day so we got to watch
the parade. This was the first time I ever saw our cousins who were blind, having lost their sight with
the measles. Family picnics were always great fun with lots or food and games and kids to play with.
We have a snapshot taken just before we left the farm, but with cameras in those days, we probably
can’t see who was in it.

Land at the corner of the farm had been donated for a church by grandma and grandpa. People
would come to church either with horse and buggy or buckboard. There was a drive shed at the back
of the lot for the horses to stay out of the weather during the church service. Grandma was very
religious, and would not allow us to play any card games nor, as we got older, to sew, - not even a
button.

Pat:
Most of my memories began at Gran and Grandpa Larabee’s farm and to me they were good
memories. I was young, probably 3 to 4 years old age when we moved there, very innocent, with no
expectations of what life should be like or disappointed because our family was broken up for a while.
I don’t remember missing mom or dad although I probably did.
Although I wasn’t aware of it for years, Grandma Larabee was a big influence on my formative tears. I
wish now that I had thanked her for all her kind attention and the valuable lessons she taught me by
example. So this is my tribute to her.

32
I probably spent most of my waking hours with her. She walked quick short steps and took hundreds
of them during the day to keep up with her endless work. Because the farm lacked running water and
electricity, her work was multiplied many times. When Grandma made school lunches for Norma,
Verlin and Doris, she always made one for me to eat at the same time. The students all carried school
lunches in lard pails, of course washed clean first. It was a little thing but I thought it was very special.
Grandpa milked the cows and other morning chores before he came in for his breakfast and she
prepared eggs, meat and fried potatoes for him and I remember him ending the meal with apple pie
drenched in maple syrup. Remember, there was no refrigeration, electric stove or dishwasher there.
Grandma tied an apron on me and stood me on a chair to wash dishes while she was doing other
chores. I remember “helping” preparing vegetables and fruit and numerous other things. I used the
dasher to help make butter in the churn but soon became bored as it took so long but then loved to
watch her shape butter prints in the wooden mold. I loved her buttermilk and the cottage cheese made
on the back of the stove.

In season she canned numerous jars of fruit and vegetables and many jars of maple syrup. This was
made from sap collected from their maple bush and boiled down to the right consistency. She also
made jams, preserves, pickles and a variety of relishes. I remember “helping” her pick berries,
particularly the gooseberries. The bushes were very prickly? I was given a jar of homemade quince
jelly last year and it brought back memories. Grandma would dig up horseradish and put it through
the grinder.

That kitchen table was also used for cleaning the coal-oil lamp chimneys with old newspapers and
refilling the lamps for later. And there must have been many thousands of stitches in sewing and
mending done at that table.

Washday was a major event on the farm. Water was pumped into pails, brought into the house and
heated in a big boiler on the wood stove and then two people carried it outside and filled the wooden
wash tub which was under the tree at the back porch. Of course, this was summer laundry. The
washer I recall was shaped like a half barrel with a handle on the side to swing it back and forth. The
homemade soap was sliced up and dropped into the wash water but I don’t recall it sudsing much.
Wet clothes were hung or spread on the grass to dry. I don’t know what they did with the free-range
chickens, ducks and geese when all this was going on. Then there was the ironing and there was no
wash-and-wear stuff. The flat irons were heated on the stove, wiped on wax paper before the actual
ironing.
Besides sewing for the family, Grandma also made the big cumbersome feather ticks and pillows for
the beds. These were stuffed with the down plucked from the geese and ducks. And the bed ticks and
pillows were plumped up in the morning to sink deeply into at night. Quilts and braided rugs were not
made for the fun of it, but the necessity of it. I particularly remember the patchwork quilts made of any
fabric available from old clothes, etc. I remember as kids, sitting on the quilts trying to identify their
sources. All of these patches were stitched together by hand with a variety of stitchery.
Do you remember Grandma dosing us with a spoonful of brown sugar with a few drops of turpentine?
I think for worms. She did her best.
Threshing time was fun for us kids but a heck of a lot of work for the adults. How did they ever
manage to feed so many, so much with so few conveniences? I do remember the dishes had to be
washed to allow for more than one sitting.

33
The little country church was built on the corner of the Larabee farm, across from the one-room
schoolhouse. It was closed up in the winter and Grandma opened it in the spring. She cleaned it and
one time there were hundreds of dead bees on the pews and the floor which fascinated me but
increased the workload for her.

I always found Grandma good-natured with an even disposition. I remember one time, Gertie, mom
and Grandma shelling peas together and they got laughing and the tears were streaming down Gran’s
face.
I usually slept with Grandma. She wore layers of clothes and took off two or three layers before she
got into bed. I peeked but pretended to be asleep. Remember the egg incubator in the corner of her
room?
Summarizing this, I believe Grandma was a very conscientious person and had a good set of values.
She certainly set a fine example for us as she was a survivor, proven over and over again by her hard
work and diligence. She died at age 86. (Doris. Our mom died at age 93. Are we all going to live to be
100?)
P.S. Who had the last bath in the tub in the middle of the kitchen floor, Saturday night?
I don’t remember Grandpa Larabee without his cane, which he used because of his “rheumatism”. He
made them from hickory from a tree at the back of the bush and steamed them to shape them.
I loved going into Merlin with him although it was a long jarring ride. He took eggs into sell at the
grocers and bought stuff there, at the hardware and seed store. He loved to stand around and talk to
other farmers. Speaking of talking, he used to talk a lot to himself while milking cows and working
around. “So I said to him”, etc., etc.
He played good fiddling music and like to sing. Mom said he would get up in the morning to get the
wood stove going and then play the fiddle to get everybody up. I still remember the pieces he played.
Mom told me of the time he took the wagon to town and brought a piano home. A big event in their
lives! Remember the jigger on the piano that you could adjust so it sounded like a spinet? Mom told
me when she was young, Gran and Grandpa would invite friends and neighbours over on a Saturday
night. She said they watched them come down the road or through fields with whatever instruments
they had. Furniture was pushed out of the way and there was music and dancing.
Grandpa died at 75 or 76. He had fallen off a hay wagon and his injuries in the fall eventually led to
his death. He was laid out in his casket in a bedroom and I remember many people around and a long
funeral procession into Merlin.
Pat’s Memories of Aunts & Uncles

34
Gertie, Lila, their mother Mary Ann Larabee and Ina

Mom’s siblings – Eldon, Lila, Hazel, Ina and Gertie I know and was aware that a brother Walter died in
his teens of meningitis but was surprised when mom, one day, talked about a baby sister – Ruby.
Ruby was a baby and very ill and mom was sent to Uncle Jim’s for help. She said she ran as fast as
she could but when she got home, Ruby was dead. (7 months old). (Verlin. Walter was put in a home
when he had meningitis and lived many years there. A small hand suitcase (22” x 14” approx.) held all
his belongings in the attic and grandma said we must never open it and we didn’t.) (About 18 years of
age when he died)
Walter and Eldon

35
Eldon (William Eldon Larabee) Uncle Eldon, I felt, was never a farmer at heart. I don’t know why he
never married or left the farm. I remember him as a quiet, probably lonely man. He looked after me in
many small ways when I was young. He patiently tried to teach me to whistle, tie laces and tell time on
his pocket watch. He built a seat for me on one of his horse driven farm machines so I could keep him
company when he worked in the fields. I always credited him for making the long rope swing in the
tree by the road for us.

When Grandma and Grandpa were gone and he was alone on the farm, he married in his 60’s. I don’t know how
he met her but she was not what she appeared to be, and she and her sons began stripping the house of its
belongings. She tried to make Eldon sign over the farm to her but I think Gertie and Lyle got a lawyer involved.
Eldon had a breakdown and ended up in St. Thomas hospital. His wife and sons left the farm. She told Gertie at
one point she was either going after Leon next door or Eldon and Eldon was the easiest target. Eldon was
able to keep the farm but it was stripped of everything. He lived in his kitchen but the rest of the house
was closed off. Mom and I visited him and could see how much his life had deteriorated. He worked
for other farmers to manage.

Gertie and Lyle (Gertrude Angeline) were a delight to be around. They teased & flirted with each
other but we were always kind of included. Carol was the baby then. I thought they had beautiful
furniture and we were allowed to play their thick red & black records on their gramophone, exchanging
the needle occasionally. We played in the big empty barn a lot, also tried cranking to old truck in the
yard to get it going. I know Gertie and Lyle were hard pressed for money but Lyle always had a
beautiful car. Remember Gertie listening to neighbours chat on the party line on the wall phone? We
had to be quiet. I remember a forest fire one night when we were coming home from Port Alma with
groceries. I was very frightened. Lyle said it was a controlled fire.
I think we all had memories of the tomato fields, going up and down endless rows cutting tomato
worms with a razor blade on a stick. At noon we washed our hands with tomatoes and ate lunch under
a tree and then at dinner we would have tomato sandwiches. Remember the kitchen cupboard, which
was probably modern at the time, with the flour sifter built in? And the warming oven and reservoir in
the stove?

Ina and Max (Ina Louise) They were always such a pleasant couple. Dorothy, Shirley and Helen
were the kids when I stayed with them. Later came Betty Gayle, Kenny and Ronny. I understood Mr.
Dawson owned the farm (he was retired and living in Wheatly) and Max, Ina, Ray and Merle worked
the farm and lived in the divided farmhouse. Max and Ina just had the bare necessities in the house as
everything was “ploughed” back into the upkeep of the farm. I loved the barn, a majestic (?) with lots
of milk cows, pigs in pens and big workhorses in their stables. I remember the barn cats that we could
never catch and the lice in the chicken house. I remember a pig slaughter, going to a shivery and
using pots under the beds. And Aunt Ina’s baking – bread, pies and big lemon cookies! ---- and home
made yellow soap.

I remember watching a hailstorm flatten a crop from the kitchen window. Also riding with Max in the
manure wagon where he scattered it on the fields. And the old squarish brown car with the window
shades that pulled down. And the heavily graveled roads. And the tire swing and looking for pretty
glass pieces of broken glass dishes in the trash heap and the wonderful raspberry bushes.
Best of all, I remember the kindness of Ina and Max.

36
Lila and Med (Lila May) I didn’t know them well as we had no car to visit and I just knew Valda,
Marlene and Bill from going to funerals. Mom always said Lila was the artistic one in the family – very
musical and able to draw beautifully. Wasn’t she a nurse when she was married to Bill (?) and lived in
Detroit? One time we went to visit Lila, Med and their family in Windsor. Lila was heavy and sitting in a
chair laughing and her stomach was jumping up and down. My most vivid memory!

Hazel and Ernie (Christine Hazel) (She always signed her letters “Aunt Hazel” and we thought it so
funny. She had a hard life and Ernie didn’t make it any easier. There was Mona, Donna, Darlene,
Verna, Yvonne and Roddy. Aunt Hazel always had a smile for us, but it was such a sad one. Mom
always excused Ernie’s behaviour by saying he did pass on his love of music to the kids.
Didn’t the Larabee’s proliferate in girls?

Bruner Side The Bruner side of the family we didn’t see that much of, as we didn’t own a car. They
visited occasionally and I have fond memories of Aunt Bea in particular with her deep hearty laugh.
She always struck me as being a woman of the world but besides working, she was Grandma
Bruner’s caretaker. Remember Lloyd visiting after he got out of the army? He holed up in our den to
listen to Dinah Shore’s torch songs – Smoke gets in your Eyes, etc. The Bruner’s all had most
engaging smiles. It is hard to imagine Grandma Bruner having all those tall boys and girls. I don’t
know how old Grandpa Bruner was when he died (About 50 years of age.) but mom always had very
good memories of him and his wonderful personality.

Bill
After moving to Sarnia, 1936, a number of summers were spent with different relatives on mom’s side
of the family, always in the country and quite often on farms. Because of no car, we always travelled
by train using dad’s railway passes. The CNR employees and their families had the use of train travel,
even though they were laid off. During the train ride, a porter would go up and down the aisles calling
out “Sandwiches, soft drinks”. I really envied the people that were able to buy the sandwiches rather
than having to eat the homemade ones like we did. Thinking back, mom’s sandwiches were probably
much better and fresher than what you would buy.

My favourite place to visit was at Gertie and Lyle Jones’s place hanging out with Don who was my
age. (Carol, a couple of years younger, tagged along on many of our adventures.) They lived in the
country in a farmhouse, but Lyle didn’t do too much farming. He worked for the Union Gas, but expect
he was laid off also as I remember him driving a dump truck periodically and we boys would
sometimes get to ride in the back. He blamed his bad back on driving the dump trucks and had to
wear a girdle for back support.
Don was more of a daredevil and tended to be the leader in most of our excursions. Sometimes Lyle
would take us in the back of a dump truck to Lake Erie where we would go for a swim. I remember the
fishing nets drying and the smell of the tar that they used for caulking, preserving nets, etc.
One day there was a lot of excitement because Gertie had found a rat in the kitchen. She jumped up
on a chair and phoned a young teenage neighbour boy who came over to shoot it with his rifle.
Their home had light fixtures mounted on the wall. They were gas jets with little chimneys similar to
coal oil lamps, but smaller and fancier. They gave a lot more light too. I believe their cooking and
heating was also done by gas. Since Lyle worked for the gas company, he probably got some kind of

37
a deal. Compared to grandma and grandpa’s kerosene lamps, it was a luxury. They also had a pump
in the kitchen, which saved a lot of running back and forth to a well. There was no indoor plumbing,
so at night we used a pot under the bed. Otherwise we used the outhouse which had the Eaton’s
catalogue for toilet paper.
There was a wind up Victrola in the living room and Don and I would play our favourite record,
“Barnacle Bill the Sailor” but they also had some other good numbers.
We never seemed to wear shoes, unless we were going into town and our feet would get toughened
up on those gravel roads, but the first few days were always difficult. One summer I stepped on rusty
nails four different times. No tetanus shots, just good old iodine.
The Jones’ grew tomatoes for Heinz and Don and I used to go along the rows looking for big tomato
worms. We would cut them in two with scissors. (We were the forerunners of DDT I guess.) When
hungry, you picked a ripe tomato, took the saltshaker out of your pocket and had a feast.
One time, Don and I cut through a weedy area near an old well and got stung all over our bodies by a
swarm of bumble bees. Aunt Gertie put mud on to draw the stingers out. I had one on the bum and
she made me pull my pants down to get at it. Embarrassing!
The Jones’ had a barn that we played in a great deal of the time, climbing up the inside to try to reach
the pigeon nests, or being brave and walking across the width of the barn on the struts that were far
above the floor.
I can only remember one time when they had an animal in the barn. It was a cow that I presumed
they kept for the milk. It broke it’s horn once and let out the most pitiful moo’s. Lyle had to tie the cow
to a tree and then finish sawing the horn off. (Would that be like when your fingernail breaks back too
far?) He then put raw salt on the wound. Boy, the cow sure mooed then.
There was a summer when Don and I stayed at grandma and grandpa Larabee’s and had a super
great time, climbing plum trees for a sour snack, going into town (Merlin) on the buckboard with
grandpa, climbing around in the hayloft, playing on uncle Eldon’s old car in the garage (the only
motorized item on the farm and it hadn’t worked for years.), helping (???) with the threshing, slopping
the pigs, etc. A city kid could not have had a better holiday.
The threshing bee involved Don and I to be on the wagons helping to load the sheaves of grain. Too
small to heft the sheaves up to the wagon from the ground, we stayed on the wagons and moved the
sheaves around. It was fun, but very hot and itchy with the chaff flying all over the place. You would
have a Mason jar with water in it for when you needed a drink. It was usually put at the side of the
field in a shady spot, but it was still very warm.
To run the thrasher, they backed an old tractor up to the machine and jacked one of the rear wheels
up. A belt was positioned on this wheel, twisted once and attached to the pulley of the thrasher. I still
don’t understand how come it didn’t go flying off and kill several people. Usually the things you hear
about harvests are the big meals they serve to the threshers. I presumed they had a big lunch for
everyone at the one we were at, but I don’t recall the eating part.
The Larabee’s family farm was probably considered pretty primitive with no hydro or mechanical
equipment such as tractors, combines, etc. but as a city kid, I didn’t think about it. It was just a
different way of living. Grandpa Larabee’s brother Jim and his wife Sadie lived on the next farm over.
(Pat They had a family feud over the gas line on their county road.)

38
Grandpa Larabee had built the house himself and once it was finished, it remained as it was for many
years. This was probably due to a scarcity of money. They had a dank scary cellar where canned
goods were stored and an attic where we had to sleep if there were too many people staying over.
William Silas Larabee and Mary Ann (MacIntyre) Larabee, Merlin

I also stayed in the attic once. Must have been for Grandpa’s funeral when space was scarce. There
were boards laid across the rafters for a walkway to the mattresses on the floor. I’m sure that if you
missed your step, your leg would end up going through the kitchen ceiling.
The farm was 100 acres and just a few miles outside of Merlin. With no automobile, Grandpa used a
buckboard to go into the town of Merlin for supplies, and Don and I would get to go. When we got
bored sitting on the wagon, we would get off and walk behind. Grandpa would quietly speed the
horses up and before we knew it, it was a race to catch up again. It always struck me funny how a trip
to Merlin seemed like such a big thing to a city kid.
There was also one summer when I stayed at the Larabee’s by myself. It must have been boring, but
I remember tagging around after Grandpa. During that stay, I slept in a large bed with Grandpa.
I also stayed in the attic once. Must have been for Grampa’s funeral when space was scarce. There
were boards laid across the rafters for a walkway to the mattresses on the floor. I’m sure that if you
missed your step, your leg would end up going through the kitchen ceiling.
The Larabee farm had a pump in their back yard and a large black kettle where the water was
pumped into for the horses. I believe the kettle was one they used for boiling down maple syrup.
Years later, a windmill was installed so pumping could be handled by wind power, but for the small
amounts of water for the house, they didn’t bother hooking up the windmill as it was quicker to do it by
hand.
They had a monstrous black wood stove in the kitchen. It had four hot plates over the fire that you
raised with a “pot lifter” in order to put the wood in to burn. On the side it had a large section to hold
water, which was always kept warm by the fire.)

39
In the city, houses had iceboxes where the upper part held the ice and the bottom kept the food and
there was a pan at the bottom to catching the water that had melted. In the country, it was not
possible to have ice, so they used their cellars to keep things cool. Max and Ina kept their butter in a
pail hanging down the well. Can’t remember a cellar at their place, but I’m sure they had one.

Anytime I stayed at Max and Ina’s, Don wouldn’t stay over, but visited periodically. Dorothy and Helen
and I would play together a lot. Remember one night we were all outside catching fireflies. Had never
seen them before.
Max seemed to always have a bull on the farm and they could be pretty ferocious. He would control it
with a pitchfork. One time, things became more crowded than usual and I ended up sleeping with the
hired hand. He was a young guy and rarely spoke. I was nervous, but felt he was nervous as well.
Max and Ina had big gardens beside the house with lots of gooseberry bushes. Don and I would eat
the sour gooseberries. Surprised we didn’t end up with stomachaches. I never recall doing any work
on their farm.

40
Sarnia 1936 and onward - Mitton & Proctor Streets

Doris, Norma, Bill, Verlin and Pat

Norma:
I was 12 when we moved to Sarnia. We read about it in our geography book, there were supposed to
be salt mines there.
Sarnia was such a big city to us, with a population of 15,000. The major industry then was Imperial
Oil, and it could be smelled 3 miles outside the city. We never did see the salt mines.
We rented a house on Mitton Street, and I began my 2nd year of high school at the Sarnia Collegiate
and Technical School. I suffered culture shock, friendships had been formed in the previous year, and
I floundered around the hallways trying to find classrooms. I didn’t know rooms starting with ‘1’ were
on the main floor, and those with ‘2’ were on the 2nd floor, and I was always in great fear of being late
for classes.
I wanted to take Art and remember mom and me in the principal’s office talking about this. He was
very kind but the school system was set up in 3 courses - commercial, home economics and general.
If I took Art I would have had to take home economics and repeat my first year. He arranged with the
Art teacher to let me use the classroom after school hours and she reluctantly agreed providing she
wouldn’t have to give me any help. This arrangement lasted for about a month. I headed into History,
Geography, Latin, and French, all of which I hated, and Science, Literature, and Math which I liked.
There wasn’t a year in my high school days when I didn’t have a teacher I wasn’t terrified of. In
Kingsville it was the Latin teacher with her icy stare and cold demeanour, and in Sarnia it was the
math teacher, Mr Mendezabel, he looked Mexican and ran his classes in a military fashion. He ran
the Rifle club in the school, and anyone in the class who took his Rifle club classes was automatically
a favourite and put in the front seats, where they stayed, while the rest of us rotated weekly. He

41
delighted in staring into space and barking out “10 to you, my lad”, meaning someone wasn’t paying
attention and was to do 10 push ups, and 2 or 3 would get down on the floor. Or he would say “To the
window” meaning he had seen someone yawning, and they were to open the window and take a deep
breath of air. He must have been delighted to have such control over us. One day he took a revolver
out of his desk to show us!
School was so boring, bit by bit I dropped subjects and ended up with many spares. These were taken
in the balcony of the auditorium, where the older boys would jiggle the floor with their foot movements
out of boredom.
Norma and Verlin Sarnia Park

Somehow, I got into Commercial and had half a year of that when I got a job at the Bell telephone
company, as a telephone operator, working 3 shifts. A few months of this led me to a near nervous
breakdown. I went to dear sweet Dr. Logie who sympathized with me, looked at my fingernails and
gave me a pink tonic to take.
Imperial Oil was hiring girls for lab work and I rode down there to apply but no luck. But I did spot an
ad for students to take a crash course in lab work, the government had placed it in the newspaper, as
the young men were going off to war and they needed replacements. The course at Western U. was
filled but a 2nd was started at Central Tech in Toronto and I was accepted there. Mom went with me to
find a place to stay. And I got a small room at the corner of Bloor and Lippincott, a few blocks from
42
the school. The Nobel Industries sponsored the 6-month course, and when it ended we were
obligated to work for 6 months at one of their war plants - either at Nobel, Ontario or at Valleyfield,
Quebec. We were given a subsistence allowance of $8 a week. We went to school from 3 p.m. to 11
p.m. and had our supper in the school cafeteria.
I loved Toronto and the school and the lab work, and made friends quickly. On Sundays I walked to
the ROM and spent hours exploring it. I must say I was happy in Toronto. At the end of the course
we could choose either Nobel or Valleyfield to work, and I went to Quebec. Another great adventure.
Valleyfield was a newly built town, with its own bowling alleys, tennis courts, and movie theatre. We
lived in dorms, and had our meals in the dining room there. There was no need to ever leave. I was
asked to make posters for a dance, and I cut out paper dolls and dressed them in tulle and glued them
on. After the dance I went to pick them up and every one was gone. Weeks later I saw them through
the window hanging on the walls of the cook’s room. Do you think they might be worth a lot of money
to-day, or maybe after I am dead?

At the end of 6 months I was ready for a change, and moved back to Sarnia, got a job at Imperial Oil
and thumbed my nose at the manager who hired me, the same one who had turned me down before.
And I was the only girl in the lab with any experience, the others were hired from high school.
Re the war: I remember dad waking us up early one morning (this would be on Mitton St.) to tell us the
world was at war. It was so shocking. I thought the Japanese would invade our country. These were
the years the yo-yo fad took over and we practiced that diligently.
I was too tall for my liking, mom would take me to the Goodwill and buy me clothing, nothing fit and I
hated the colours. What a misfit I was. Somewhere in there we moved to Proctor St.

Verlin:
After dad got laid off again, he started a window cleaning business. Once walking downtown, he
noticed dirty store windows and offered his services. That developed into quite a business – removing
and installing storm windows fall and winter, cleaning hospital windows, etc. Finally sold the business
when he returned to the railroad. He mowed lawns and pushed his own mower even up to London
Road to mow and trim lawns. 25 cents a lawn.)

I left school when I turned 16. By then I had had four years at the Sarnia Collegiate Institute &
Technical School - 2 in 9th grade, one in Commercial and one in Technical School. Always had
difficulty learning and had a short memory and short concentration span. I thought it was caused from
the high fever (mom called them fits and claimed they were not convulsions). They discontinued once
I had diseased tonsils removed. In Belleville, I slept on a mattress on the floor and would call down the
back stairs asking for burnt toast. It tasted so good and I still like it (not too black now). I’ve since
learned that carbon cleans out the system. I think now the learning difficulty might have been inherited
for dad had difficulty preparing for his engineering exams.

I’ve learned how to work at learning now so have taken many college courses. I’m very visual and see
a connection between all things and people and their cultures. We Bruner’s have curious minds and
creative ways.

43
Mom agreed to let me quit school but I had to start paying room and board and she kept track on a
calendar if I even was behind in payment, such as between jobs, or calling home collect.

My first job was at Lewis cleaners for $15 a week. At Lewis’ I had to have knowledge in sewing to do
alterations and repairs. A tailor down the street often came to visit and would show me tailoring
methods for fixing frayed cuffs, putting in new pant pockets, shortening suit cuffs, etc. This was handy
knowledge when I was married with four males in the house.

I eventually left Lewis’ and took a course in machine shop. It was Government, so we could work in a
war factory. They paid $5.00 a week to take the class and mother charged $8, so numbers were
climbing on the calendar. I used the metal lathe and drill press and planer and made some tools –
gave them to dad. A week before the course was to end, the teacher said I should move over to the
welding class because I wouldn’t be allowed to do much more than run a drill press all day in a
factory. Welding would give me a better job. They also only had one week left of learning. I took the
class and passed and went to the Imperial Oil to work.

Verlin Welding in Brantford, ca. 1942

Eventually I became restless and wanted to leave Sarnia. I searched out a place and a job but had to
get permission during wartime, from the government run employment service. I don’t know what I told
them but I was able to leave. I moved to Brantford and welded and helped assemble ribs for
aeroplanes. I boarded with Art and Grace Bruner for two years. Taught CGIT (Canadian Girls in
Training) at the church and also joined the “Y”. Then some friends were going to join the service and I

44
decided to join too. It took a while before I was accepted, but same as Norma – at Basic Training in
Galt. I had all the shots and was so sick (but I didn’t cry).

Dorrie:
Our 1st telephone (635-M) was on Mitton Street. Used for calls to work for dad mostly. I was leery of
answering it for fear I wouldn’t hear “the orders” correctly.
The summer of Polio, 1938?? We all went to the farm for a bit of vacation. With the heat of summer,
and so much polio, and ended up staying there for the whole summer. Norma became very ill and
mom nursed her until she was better. Mom was sure Norma had developed a case of Polio, but no
paralysis, and it probably was.
Pat:
I was nine when we moved to Sarnia and I thought it so exciting. The old house on Mitton Street is still
standing. It was not insulated and we dragged mattresses to the basement to sleep in the summer.
And we huddled around the stove in the dining room in the winter.

Mom worked cleaning the nurse’s residence at Sarnia General Hospital and then she was upgraded to
work in the sewing area. She got the contract for dad to do the hospital’s windows. Wally Lang helped
him. Dad was hired to wash down the 2-story house across the street on Mitton. Temple’s? I
remember him, up on his extension ladder scrubbing by hand.

I loved the neighbourhood. I learned to play Jack’s on Lang’s front veranda and we played a lot of
Monopoly at the Culley’s. Marg Culley had the frizziest red hair and had to have it thinned and tamed
at the hairdresser’s, which I thought strange. Danny ate macaroni and cheese, which he hated, to
grow hair on his chest and we watched him checking in the mirror.

45
Doris and Pat with Sarnia school logo

We used to go to Marg’s uncle across the street to play their player piano. I loved going to Foster’s
their house gleamed. They gave me cookies and clothes Betty outgrew, which I thought were
wonderful.
Remember the Rodey’s, the Vokes, Strattons and the Davidson girls? Dorrie remember our piano
lessons at Mrs. Pinzer’? They owned a candy store downtown and she kept a big bowl of hard candy
on top of the piano and would pop them into my mouth during lessons.

When kids came to play with us, they never knocked – just stood outside the door and called and
Rodey’s parrot imitated them and called Patsy.

Bill, I remember that Eaton’s bicycle we received for Christmas ($49.95). I would ride it to the library
and could hardly wait to get home with my books. One day, on Wellington Street, I was reading while
riding and ran into the back end of a parked car and people on a nearby porch were talking about
“that foolish girl”. It was dumb of me.

Dad had buried some old records in the dirt floor of the garage and it was very exciting to find them.
Bill and I washed them and put them on the grass and dad’s window-washing cart to dry and they all
warped. We had the old record player under the back veranda and would sit under there playing these
warped discs. The neighbours must have loved us.
Mom and dad saved $300.00 as a down payment on the Proctor St. house. It cost $2,800.00 and
must have been very exciting for them. They gradually remodelled, painting, papering, laying linoleum,
etc. We had a coal furnace then and the walls had to be washed down in the spring, they would get so
black.

46
Buying that house was a big event for all of us. In time, mom and dad began renovating it, removing
the hall wall to make a larger living room, sanding floors, painting rooms, enclosing the veranda, which
I never liked, and creating the room in the basement. I remember Norma painting footprints on the
ceiling of that room and didn’t you also do a wall painting Norma?
We had a vegetable garden wherever we lived, dad digging it by hand until one day he had someone
come in with a horse and plow, doing a lot of the work for him.
Mom grew all kinds of vegetables, which she served regularly at the table. She quite often made a
fresh lettuce salad, the dressing made of cream and brown sugar. I think she used cream from the top
of the milk bottles. I remember dad finally decided he didn’t want any more “rabbit food”. He could
have lived on macaroni and cheese. Wouldn’t he have loved all the pasta that we use now? Mom
must have walked miles from the kitchen sink in the pantry to the ‘frig and stove in the kitchen. What
an odd set-up.
Carl and Cecil on the side steps, Proctor St., Sarnia

Neighbours: The Davis’s next door with their yappy Pekinese dogs, the Pearsons, Scotts, Alice and
Bert Taylor and their girls the younger McClellands with their marital problems, Abbie and Mable
further north. Then there were the older McClellands to the south of us, the Eaglesons and the Greys,
the Mansers, the McKinnons, they were all so homely, including their 8 daughters. Further down were
the Wolseys, the Vokes, and across the street, Marge and Earl Brown. The Berrys. the father raising
the 6 (?) children and I think they turned out fine. I worked with Mary at the hospital and Fran was an
excellent golfer at my old golf club. I think the boys settled into jobs around this area and I saw them
occasionally over the years. Next door, the Wassons adopted a baby girl when Ted joined the army
and I worked with her, Twila, at Sarnia General. Then there were the Hathaways, and further down,
the Needhams. Neighbourhoods were important to me.

47
I was at Devine St. School one year, then three years at Johnston Memorial where I discovered boys.
A bunch of Grade 8 girls hung around together, in school and out. I occasionally see them around and
we reminisce about the spin-the-bottle parties at Joyce Fisher, and our checking out Lorraine’s
mother’s nursing books to learn our anatomy, etc. Forgive me for rambling.
High school was a whole new scene and I enjoyed it. We walked at lot in those days. To school in the
morning, home for lunch and turn around and go back to school, home again and back to school for
orchestra practice or maybe ice skating at the rink at SCITS. I remember walking to Sarnia Arena,
Kenwick Terrace, to baby-sitting, music lessons and part-time jobs.
Those were innocent days. People didn’t lock their doors. Remember Kresges, Woolworths, Walker
store and Zellers opened from Christina St. to Front? Mothers would park their babies in their buggies
in front of the stores and go in shopping. We didn’t hear of shoplifting then. But didn’t everyone litter?
There were no containers for litter and everyone tossed their chocolate, gum or cigarette wrappers
anywhere. Dogs ran loose and I know of four families who kept chickens in their back yards.
I was so innocent; I thought everyone went to Sunday school and church. (Except dad)
I saw Lionel Hampton on T.V. last evening which brought to mind the Big Band era with Jack Kennedy
bringing different ones to Sarnia. Lionel Hampton, I thought was wonderful and I bought that big
glossy print of him. I loved Frank Sinatra and Dinah Shore, not that they came to Sarnia.
Dad was called back on the railroad and ended up in northern Quebec to work.
Carl Bruner and colleague on their CNR jobs

Mom took in four male boarders without telling him and she was stashing the money away. She
always had a big garden and regularly took the bus downtown to buy groceries. There were 10 of us
for dinner at night and did she pack the men’s lunches? (Bill I seem to recall that she did.) I remember
we all helped make fish and chips (from scratch) on Fridays. (Bill She probably did this because in

48
those days, Catholics never ate meat on Fridays and our boarders, all from Quebec, were Catholic)
She always stepped lively and I still have memories of her heels –click, click, clicking in the kitchen
and her whistling. When the four of us eventually married, they sold that home for $7,200.00 and then
built on Murphy road.
When the boarders were no longer there, the four girls shared the big bedroom and Bill had his own
room. We were all dating and it was fun having 3 older sisters and comparing notes.
Verlin remember two dates showing up the same night to take you out and the three guys giving you
presents on the same Christmas?
Elaine Gray, Wanda Mounce and Ruth Gifford and I would try to sort out the facts of life but you
Norma, gave me a good library book that told it right. Mom never talked about those things.
Remember how we would shut the doors and with music from school, try to play music together – the
piano, two violins, the clarinet and the drums? Yikes!
I made money babysitting, working weekends and Christmas holidays at Woolworths’, and made a
quarter for each uniform I ironed for Miss Holiday, my home-economics teacher. I think dad gave us a
dollar on payday.
And then when I graduated from high school and worked for Mr. Mattingly, I was paid $17.50 a week
and paid $5.00 to mom for room and board. Times have certainly changed.
Bill
When we first arrived in Sarnia Dad took us all in a taxi to show off the new city. My first time in a taxi
and I was so impressed. Actually, riding in any car was a wonderful experience as my parents never
owned a car until I was about 16. The St. Clair River was beautiful to me. Such a dark blue.

I think I was going into grade 2 at the time. I remember starting out at Johnston Memorial, but couldn’t
do the work, so had to go back a grade which was at Devine Street School. Then the next year, got
to go back to Johnston until grade 8. One of my first teachers at Johnston was really special and very
beautiful to me. I think it was Bill Brushes daughter, but I’m not sure. Her name was either Bush or
Brush. (Helen?) Years later, when I was in high school, she would always call me by name whenever
she saw me on the street. That was impressive to me.

I also remember a grade three teacher, Mrs. Richardson, who was very nice and looked to be 70 or
80 years of age. I remember she had to give the strap to Bill Brain and Bill’s mother coming into the
school to give her hell. As far as I was concerned, Bill probably deserved it. He was a show-off and
she was a nice motherly lady.

Mitton Street – Two story home with bedrooms on the second floor. The mayor of Sarnia owned it,
along with a lot of other properties. This was depression and mom always talked about what a good
and kind landlord he was.

When we first moved in, Lorne Vokes and Don Lang, two neighbourhood boys, came over to visit.
They would walk with me to school, along with Danny Kelly. They were all several years older than I
was (except for Danny who was about a year older) and they were very special to have taken me
under their wings. I have a feeling that mom asked them to. Can remember Don’s mother having him
practice his spelling before going off to school. Couldn’t understand why anyone would have trouble

49
with spelling and felt sorry for him. Also remember calling on Danny while he was finishing his
breakfast and his mother urging and urging him to finish his milk. It looked so good, I would have
gladly drank it for him on the spot.
The back yard had a large hole for garbage, which was pretty common for most homes. There was
the big vegetable garden at the back of the lot on top of the buried garbage. I seem to recall that we
burned some of the garbage in an old barrel too. I wonder when we stopped burying garbage and let
the garbage men start taking it?
Our back yard and the alley behind were special playgrounds for me. We seemed to be there a lot.
Hannah Memorial Park was just down the street and had swings and slides, etc, but I recall spending
more time playing in the backyard and alley rather than in the park. This is where I was playing with a
rake, holding it straight up over my head, turning round and round, and then letting the rake drop on
its tines. The one time I did it, Pat was underneath and got her head hurt very badly. I still remember
this vividly and how badly I felt that I had almost killed her.
Remember dad’s large aquarium with gold fish in it in the dining room on Mitton Street? It looked like
well done home made job.

Bill Bruner in Sarnia

There was a big red brick house next door to us on the corner. They had rain barrels under the
spouts from the eaves. Loved to watch the wriggly things go up and down. Had no idea they were
mosquitoes. On the other side of us the neighbours were the Rodeys. They had a large parrot in a
cage and in the warm weather it would be outside. Doug Rodey was a teenager and always seemed
so quiet to me.
There were horse drawn wagons for daily door-to-door deliveries of milk and bread. The milk wagon
horses got to know where to stop for the regular customers and the deliverymen could do several

50
houses at a time, knowing their horse would be waiting for them at the proper place. Canada Bread
was just down the street from us on Mitton Street and they had their horse stables in the back off the
alley that ran behind our house.

Occasionally, there would be other peddlers for things like scrap pick-up for iron, brass, etc, fish
peddlers and, about once a week, an ice wagon delivering blocks of ice for the ice boxes. There was
also a man who had a handcart with a grinding wheel asking to sharpen knives and scissors. In the
summer, kids used to follow the ice wagon around in hopes of getting a chip of ice when the iceman
had to break a block of ice into smaller sizes. Most families used iceboxes and I never saw a
refrigerator until we visited grandma Bruner in London. She gave me an ice cube to suck on. What a
marvel. It tasted so good to me compared to the ice chips off the wagons, but expect that was my
imagination.

I also remember tall-sided, very smelly horse drawn garbage wagons that picked up garbage on a
weekly basis, but since we had a garbage pit, I expect this was not a free service. We must have had
garbage pickup on Proctor Street, as there was no pit that I could recall.

The garbage men were very scruffy looking, especially when compared to today’s drivers. . Once, on
our way home from school for lunch, one of them whipped his horses up to get them running fast. I
think it was to impress the kids. The garbage was really flying. Occasionally there would also be fish
peddlers and scrap dealers on horse drawn wagons
After being laid off, Dad started his own window cleaning business. He had a big handcart with large
wheels, which held his extension ladders. He would roll it up Mitton Street to do the hospital windows.
I believe mom was scrubbing floors there also.
I knew we were poor and had reached a point when I didn’t believe in Santa Claus anymore until that
Christmas, when we got a tri-light lamp, which I had never heard of before. Knowing how poor we
were, I just knew that this present had to have come from Santa.

Once I needed a new ruler for school. The rulers with a wire edge cost a nickel and the ones without
the edge cost two cents. The temptation was to ask for a nickel for the better one, but ended up
asking for only two cents instead.

After mom had moved form her apartment into the Sarnia senior’s complex, Vision Care, I remember
telling her that I knew we were poor, but didn’t remember being unhappy. She told me those were
some of the happiest days of her life but…SHE NEVER WANTED TO GO THROUGH THAT AGAIN.
We had wind up Victrola with a bunch of records and dad couldn’t stand the records being played
anymore, so took all the records and buried them under the dirt floor in the garage. Pat and I
accidentally found them. What a treasure trove. Not realising where they had come from, Pat and I
carefully washed them and set them out to dry in the sun. Boy did they dry! They warped and took the
shape of the boards they were lying on.
Also remember setting fire to garbage in the garbage can. Unfortunately it was under the back
wooden porch. Don’t know who caught it and put it out or how much damage it created.
There was also a big to-do regarding a stone fight in the alley. I think the Bruntons and their friends
were at one end of the alley and my friends and I at the other end. Don’t think we were mad at each
other, just got caught up in the moment. Everybody involved got hell from his parents.

51
Can’t remember who did the gardening on Mitton Street, but do remember the four girls and myself
pushing our old cast iron lawn mower up to London Road and working on a yard and clipping bushes.
Verlin commented on dad doing yard work and wonder if this was a one-time fill-in job to help him out.
You girls got a bike between you one Christmas. Boy was I envious. Used to steal it anytime you
weren’t looking. Finally I got my own bike by taking an old, large tricycle of Stuart’s and working and
working to convert it to a bicycle. It was a pretty stupid bike, but I was proud of having created it
myself.
Verlin and Norma on their bikes

Contacted chicken pox and didn’t know it, until I went down for breakfast. The spots must have given
me away. In any case, I stayed home from school and thought it was a great holiday. Don’t remember
being bothered with any itch.
Occasionally we would have special treats of bread broken up in a bowl and milk with some sugar on
it. Think these were bedtime snacks. The corner grocery store had large bags of puffed rice with a
free tumbler inside. Mom used to get these occasionally, probably for the tumbler.

Made friends with Stuart Underhill. He was an only child and used to get picked on and teased by
other kids, including my friends Don, Lorne and Danny. I became his protector, although he probably
could have looked after himself. The house was on Proctor Street and he had a wonderful bedroom
where we used to play with his Mechano set, marbles and other neat things. I thought he was so
lucky to have such a nice room. Shortly after that, mom & dad bought this house and the room
became mine. WOW!
On Proctor Street, we all had our chores to do. Spring time required that I scrub down the front porch
with a strong scrubbing solution.

52
Every home we lived in seemed to have a garden, but the one on Proctor Street was the largest.
When the war started, it became a “Victory” garden. I loved pulling up a big carrot, washing it off
under the outside tap and eating it. As mom used to say, “You’ll eat a peck of dirt before you die.”
Once mom decided to have the whole back yard tilled. A fellow with horse and plow did the job and
then it was up to me to break up all the clods and level the ground. The longer the summer went on,
the harder the clods became. It was not a fun summer for me that year.

Another responsibility was clearing the table after dinner. The four girls had to wash and dry the
dishes. When mom was in her 80’s, she apologized for that, saying she felt bad that I had to do all the
clearing by myself, while the washing and drying were shared by the four of you. I explained to her
that the arrangement was to my advantage as I learned to clear the table very fast and was able to go
out and play while you four were still stuck working. I also remember mowing the lawn with that
terrible old heavy cast iron lawn mower. It always seemed to need adjusting to stop the blades from
sticking. Fortunately the grass was not thick, so we were able to get through it.

There were only two bedrooms up stairs on Proctor Street. One was very large that the four girls
shared and the other was a small narrow room with a sloping ceiling and a small storage room
attached which was mine. My room was special to me. The Underhill’s had left a few of Stewart’s old
toys in the storage room, including a box of Mechano pieces. I would play with the Mechano pieces
and Chinese checker marbles for hours creating little forts and using the marbles as soldiers, the
different colours equalling different armies. The pattern on the linoleum floor acted as different
landscape scenarios.

The girls, in their big room, had a lot of great fun, working on different projects, talking, giggling, etc. I
know I was a very terrible tease and the girls would occasionally be so fed up, they would lock me out
of the house. I used to set up special wires on basement window screens so I could sneak back in.
There was an old pedal Singer sewing machine just outside their room in an alcove in the hall and
mom would let us use the machine any time. It seemed to get snarled a great deal of the time, which, I
expect, was my doing. Remember the Button box? (We have one now, but never seem to need it.)
Mom told me years later that Mrs Davis next door accused her of snooping. Mom figured out that
fabric in the sewing machine must have moved the curtains and Mrs. Davis felt we were looking in
their upstairs window. With four girls, mom and myself all using the machine, it must have created
real nightmares for Mrs. Davis. Also, you were never allowed in their back yard, but one time Mr.
Davis took me in to show me his lily pond. I really felt honoured.

Dad had been given a home made woodworking shop set up. It consisted of a table saw, lathe, band
saw and drill press on a long bench. All the machinery was operated from a single rod that ran
underneath the length of the bench with appropriate pulleys to run each piece. When you wanted to
run a machine, you attached the belt to the pulley and away you went. Dad probably thought he would
get a lot of use out of it, but it ended up that I was the only one who used it. Dad had also got a load of
left over 2 x 4’ building material. A coal furnace heated the house and he tried to save money by using
the wood instead of coal. Since it was softwood it burned too fast in the furnace. The wood came in
handy for me to use on woodworking projects. At one point a friend and I made two golf clubs and a
golf ball. The clubs weren’t bad, but the ball was tricky to make and came out almost round, but
wouldn’t roll on a flat surface. I often wonder if all those miscellaneous things dad got, the aquarium,

53
woodworking machinery, leftover 2 x 4’s, etc. were the result of him helping people, or payment for
some work he had done.

I learned a lot about sewing, gardening, woodworking and tinkering on Proctor Street and have found
those skills very useful through the years.

French boarders arrived took over the large bedroom. I still had the small bedroom. One night I woke
up smelling smoke. Mom had woken up also, so we went down into the basement together and found
that one of the boarders had left his overalls hanging over a furnace pipe to dry and had forgotten
them. The pipe got too hot and the overalls had started to smoulder. Mom and I got them off and I
went back to bed. I hadn’t been frightened until I got back to my bedroom and saw someone coming
out of my room right at me. It was my reflection in the shiny varnished door.

I remember two of the boarders, Mr. Thibedou, who carved out a wooden peg trick for me and Red,
who was a big good looking and friendly guy. Don’t remember the others.
I got a Star Weekly paper route that lasted for a couple of years. It involved walking downtown,
picking up my bundle at Manley’s Stationary Store and deliver some of them on my way home. Some
of the customers lived in the south end of town around Imperial Oil. I never knew when I was going to
be chased by dogs or other kids. Collecting could be quite a problem, as they never seemed to have
any money.
Christmas was celebrated in the dining room. There were no imitation trees in those days. There was
also a good and generous friend of the family, Abby Hillier and his wife, who always gave us a bushel
basket of oranges. You had the wonderful aroma of a live tree and those beautiful big oranges. That
was the only time we ever got oranges, so that helped to make Christmas special.

Our plates would be set on the dining at our usual places and would have the presents piled on top. I
don’t remember the presents, and expect they were limited, but never remember being disappointed
except once.

There was a long (one meter) box, which I could imagine what was in it. When I opened it there was a
bright silver clarinet inside. Didn’t know what it was about, but pretended I really liked it. Mom
explained that she had been to the bandmaster of the Pressey Boys’ Band and said she would like me
to learn to play the saxophone. He told her that I should be taught the clarinet. This would be a basic
source for learning any woodwind, such as saxophone, oboe, flute, etc.

Mom apparently had always loved the saxophone and her wish was that I would become a
saxophonist. First, however, I had to learn the clarinet, which was not something I wanted to do. In
any case, I ended up in the Pressey Boys’ Band. This was a band with about 40 or 50 players. We
had bright yellow uniforms with black trim and was very colourful. Shortly after joining, they were
giving a Sunday night concert at the Imperial movie theatre. The conductor told me that he wanted
me there, but because I didn’t know hoe to play yet, to just move my fingers on the keys and pretend I
was playing, which I did.

I was not a happy camper, and really didn’t like clarinets, but knew that my parents had probably
saved their pennies for this and were also having to pay for my lessons. It wasn’t too long before I
was skipping lessons and eventually dropped out. Mom never said anything, but she must have

54
known. She asked me if I would consider taking lessons from Mr. Brush. My sisters had taken music
lessons from him and he was a very nice person, so I agreed. Eventually he had me playing fairly well.
When I entered high school, I was playing in the school orchestra, the Sunday school orchestra, the
school band, the army cadet band, the air cadet band and the local city band, The Lambton Garrison
Band. That meant four uniforms to keep neat and tidy as well as having to keep my black shoes shiny.
I seemed to be wearing uniforms all the time.

Mr. Brush also wanted me to compete in local music festivals as well as the well known Waterloo
Festival, but I was not comfortable being in the limelight, so declined. He kept giving me any solo
parts in the school orchestra, so must have thought I was pretty good.

When I was 16, Mr. Brush asked me if I would be interested in learning to play the oboe. I jumped at
the chance and pretty well forgot about clarinet. Years later, a jazz band asked me if I would play
saxophone for them and I tries it for a few weeks, but didn’t enjoy it.

Cecil Bruner ca. 1935 and Carl Bruner 1939

55
War Years - 1940 - 1944

Norma:
Here I go with my final addition to my biography - remembrances of my life up to my marriage. I will
write what I remember of the war years.

I was working at Imperial Oil when I decided to join the navy. Verlin had finished her basic training at
Guelph, and was stationed in Halifax, and gently nudged me to join. Our basic training took place in
Guelph at a correctional institution there. This was the place my aunt Jean had been sent to for
offences not connected with the Services. Our family didn't talk much about it, so I don't have the
details.

Basic training was a series of humiliations as far as I was concerned - being sent many times to the
barber to have my hair cut, as regulations were that the hair had to be 1" above the collar, scrubbing
the washroom floor [alone] with a toothbrush, [this actually happens in the services], polishing big
sheets of glass windows that were sparkling clean before starting. One experience I will never forget
was when I became very ill from the many shots we had been given the previous day and went to Sick
Bay. As the Dr. approached me I broke down and cried and the Dr. groaned and said 'Oh God, not
another one!' I was not a happy camper at this place.

I was to be trained as a Dental Assistant, and was sent, along with several others, to Toronto to study
at the Dental College there. We were bunked in large building with CWACs, the Army women, and
were not much liked by them, as they felt the Navy was given special privileges. We marched every
morning to the Dental College where we were given a crash course; we learned the names of the
instruments, where they were to be placed in the drawers in the cabinets, and how to sterilize them
[they were boiled for 20 minutes in a Sterilizer]. We watched dentists at work, and had our own teeth
checked and worked on. I had 20 cavities!

After a few weeks we assembled in a lounge and had our choice of being posted. To Halifax or
Vancouver. Three of us opted for Halifax, my choice because Verlin was there. After a long harrowing
train trip, and a rough boat ride across the Bay of Fundy, where we sang "Don't Fence Me In" over
and over again to prevent sea sickness, although the song itself could do that after an hour of it.

56
HMCS Stadacona Wren Block

We got to the Barracks at Stadacona base in Halifax. We were lined up and assigned to our rooms,
and as luck would have it, I was put in Verlin's room, shared with many others. There were several
bunk beds in 2 rows in the room. It was nice to see Verlin, but after a few days she had to tell me that
she had been transferred to St. Hyacinthe, Que., and would be posted there soon. Of course I was
disappointed.

The Dental Clinic on the base was a short walk from the barracks, and the dentists, 20 of them, each
had a small open-ended room off a long hallway. Some of them used drills that were operated by foot,
like an old fashioned sewing machine, and learned to like them, as they felt they had more control
[now there's a scary thought]! The patients were sailors coming back from duty. Some of them had
sad stories to tell of their war experiences.

57
Norma and Verlin on leave with siblings in Sarnia

The major event in Halifax was the end of the war, when the sailors on the base went AWOL into
Halifax and there was major damage done by rioting seamen, especially to liquor stores. The Wrens
were confined to the base, but we could watch the men as they returned, some roaring drunk and
bringing in their loot. No one tried to stop them [who would?]. The following day their quarters were
searched, but nothing was found, so it was said. The Haligonians would not soon forget that day.

Sailors began to come into the clinic for final check-ups and had their discharge papers and happy to
be going home. It seemed to take forever for ours to come through. We had been given a list of
schools where we could go for courses, and I chose to go to Montreal to take Dress design.

There were no openings at Imperial Oil or Polymer as we had been hired as replacements for the men
who had to go to war, and of course they came back to their jobs, and the women were let go. Those
were strange times.

58
I loved Montreal and found a room, which I shared with another WREN I knew from Halifax. The
course was what I expected. We learned to make dress patterns. And sew them up in our choice of
fabric, and did fashion drawings. The school organized a picnic and had a 'beauty' contest where the
girls strolled down a beach and I reluctantly entered it, and won. The prize was a pair of SILK
stockings, silk was very precious and hard to find, but I eventually got them. The course was fun but I
didn't learn anything.

This was about the extent of my adventures during the war years, and after. I didn't feel that the war
had really ended. I had nightmares that it had started up again and that I had to report for duty. Many
boys I knew never returned from the war, some came back with English wives. But life goes on
regardless.

Verlin:
I was sent to Halifax, Nova Scotia and worked shift work at the signal office downtown. Took the
trolley to and from work. My classification was as messenger so was sent to the ships with sailing
orders. The officer of the day couldn’t open the message until he was 24 hours out to sea. I explored
Halifax, riding the trolley to end of lines, walking and read a lot of history of Halifax and Nova Scotia. I
loved it when Norma eventually came to Halifax.

Verlin in the navy- standing at lower left in photo on right

VE (Victory in Europe) day all the ships came into port, French American, etc. and every shop was
closed. They couldn’t buy food, drinks or cigarettes. A riot broke out.

Eventually I put in a request for change of category. I wanted a new or different challenge. An officer
gave me tests and was surprised at my intelligence and wrote that I was being wasted as a

59
messenger and needed a better posting. The first time anyone ever said I was intelligent. I grew up
thinking I was stupid for that was a common moniker given me.

Thirteen Wrens from across Canada were chosen for a special category and sent to St. Hyacinth
Signal School. The other Wrens had been to college and some had been schoolteachers I was in their
group. It was frightening.

We worked with radar and mapped flights to intercept enemy aircraft or used asdec to track
submarines and learned how to intercept them. Our learning was to help train sailors in mock battles.
This was for the Japanese war and we worked with a nearby airfield. On some of those exams, I got
the highest mark. What a morale boost that was.

It was there that I discovered books. The library on base was such a cosy and small one. It didn’t
overwhelm me. We went into Montreal on weekends and explored. Loved the city and was glad to
move there in later years.

Pat:
Remember when the war broke out, Norma and Verlin’s friends coming to the house and talked about
joining up and they were very excited? At that time I don’t think we realized how terrible a war could
be.
My first job after high school was at Mattingly’s at $17.50 a week, with $5.00 going to mom for room
and board. At l6, 7 girls my age went to farmerette camp in Beamsville and worked for the farmers
who hired us by the day at 25cents an hour. This was l944, during the war.
We lived in Quonsets, four to each, and totalled 60. In a converted barn, we wrote letters, ironed,
played records and danced with the local boys who dropped in. We worked with Japanese who were
moved from camps in B.C. On the weekends we hitchhiked to St. Catherines and Hamilton, and then
had very little money to spend. We paid $10.00 a week board and at the end of summer we came
home broke. We worked and played hard and it was an excellent experience.

Bill
Polymer was being built and there were a lot of construction workers from Quebec in town with no
place to stay. Walking downtown, you would all of a sudden hear people speaking in French and it
sounded so strange in a small city that had only been English. They eventually built a French school,
which again was a novelty.

Verlin was moving away and sold me her bike, which was a man’s, I think for five dollars. I greased
that thing up and painted it a royal blue. Was I ever proud of it. There was a big black carrier on the
front and with that I was able to get a daily paper route with The Sarnia Observer. My route was the
north end near Russell Street and London Road. One customer was in the old age home on East
Street and the smell of that place was pretty bad. It was not a nice sight with the old people sitting in
the halls groaning, moaning and staring.

Norma or Verlin also got me a job picking up samples at Imperial Oil and delivering them to the
railroad station for 25 cents each. I also did a little baby sitting which gave me extra money. One of

60
the things I saved my money for was a microscope. It was fun to look through, but don’t remember
learning anything with it.

61
Peace Time - 1945 and on

Verlin:
After the navy I managed a craft shop in Wyoming, Ontario. The “Y” in Sarnia set it up for the
surrounding areas and their small churches. It eventually failed for the minister overseeing it was
stealing the money.
Then to Oil Springs to work in a doctor’s office.

Then to Dow Chemical as receptionist and switchboard operator while their plant was being built.
(Later the manager told me he had hired me because I wasn’t afraid of him when he barked at me.)
When the plant opened I moved over there. Plastics had arrived. If you walked into the plant you
could see 15-18 foot strings of coloured plastic stretching down from the high extruders – such
beautiful crystalline colours. (Like the cellophane we use to use on candy.) They’d be cut into pellets
and shipped in containers to be made into products. You know the rest of the story – I moved,
continued to move – to study and learn and raise four children.

Bill:
After the war, and the girls were married, mom and dad decided to build a two-bedroom cinder block
house just outside of the city limits on Murphy Road. There were about 8 or 9 lots that someone had
developed.

Dad bought an old Hudson to be able to get out there as he planned on building most of it himself. He
hired Norm Sergeant to do the cement work and cinder blocks.

Dad decided to teach me to drive. DISASTER. We were coming back from working on the house
when he pulled over to the curb not far from home and told me to drive the rest of the way. All I knew
about driving was what I had observed him doing. Other than a lot of jerks, going down the street was
OK, but trying to turn the heavy steering wheel to get in the drive, I missed and hit the curb. Dad let
out a few expletives and he took over. (That was my last driving lesson until years later when I was
25 and Phil helped me to buy a new car and then gave me driving lessons. I will always appreciate
and remember Phil’s generosity and patience. It must have taken a lot of time from his family life.)

When the house had its roof, the three of us moved into the garage. Mom hung a blanket across the
garage and my room was on one side and theirs the other. Beds, dressers, etc. were crammed into
that small space, but we managed. I was probably about 15.

Dad and I laid the hardwood floors. There was no plywood underlay, just the strips of hardwood
across the joists. Without a basement it probably wasn’t needed. It was a slow job as each nail had
to be slanted into the wood and then set in with a nail set.

I also worked on shingling the roof with him and remember pulling out the roll of tarpaper with dad
hanging on to the other end. A gust of wind came up and the tarpaper acted like a sail and was
pulling me off the roof. Dad yelled at me to “Don’t let go.” He was more concerned about the extra
work in recovering the tarpaper than any injuries I might sustain. I did manage to barely hold on, but
was really frightened.

62
Cecil and Carl on the front porch of the Murphy Road home they built

In my last year of elementary school, no one talked to me about high school and what the different
sections were all about. At Devine Street School, most kids were going to the Technical side, so
that’s what I put down. (I didn’t realize that the word technical meant machinery and manual labour.)
I did not enjoy Technical and realized I should be in General. At the beginning of grade 10, went to
the principal’s office to see if I could change. Don’t think mom or dad ever knew. The principal told
me that it wasn’t possible and I asked him why. He said that the courses were too different and I
would have to start over in Grade 9. I said that I would repeat Grade 9 if that was necessary, but he
wouldn’t let me. I was so angry at the system that I started to rebel. For a few months I played hooky
at least once a week and wrote my own notes. Eventually the absences showed up in the report
cards and mom commented on me being sick a lot. That stopped me and in Grade 11 started to work
harder even though I knew I was in the wrong course. Failed Grade 11 and dropped out of school at
that time.

My first job was at American Optical grinding lenses. There was only the manager and myself. He
had to be out selling a lot, so I did most of the grinding. Eventually learned to read the doctors’
prescriptions and transform them into angles for grinding.

American Optical decided to close the Sarnia branch and a partner at K-W Optical offered me a job in
Kitchener. I stayed with them for about 9 months and then ended up with an office job at Mutual Life.
Knew this was the kind of work I wanted when I had gone to the principal’s office so long ago. Only
lasted at Mutual Life for 41 years.

63