From a very young age, I have always been quite creative. Starting with making mud cakes at four, I soon graduated to more widely accepted mediums. Learning to knit and crochet at a fairly young age, I soon graduated to needlepoint and…
During the 1950s, Charlie’s Barbershop was in the heart of Great Village. It was a two-story building, with the shop on the ground floor and an apartment above it. Charlie’s shop was a single room with large windows facing the road. A…
What is the first thing you think of when you see or hear the word “sponge”? The most common association is a dish sponge, specifically the yellow ones used for washing, cleaning up spills, or absorbing liquid. Some might say it’s a…
Some of you will remember back in the sixties, Art Linkletter had a television show called Kids Say the Darndest things. I wish to expand that to Kids Do the Darndest Things, and I as a four-year-old child, was no exception. In…
Mother was admitted to hospital on a Tuesday in June 1960, and a couple of days later, she had surgery. However, she had complications, and her stay would be indefinite. After getting off work, Father would drive over to the hospital, spending…
For many years there was an orphanage in Brookside, which is a residential neighbourhood within the Greater Truro area of Colchester County, Nova Scotia, often associated with the adjacent village of Bible Hill. During the 1950s, the facility, later known as the…
Monique was a little 6-year-old French girl who was a bundle of energy and endless curiosity. Her dad was in the military and travelled back and forth to Camp Debert every day. That fall, the family of three had moved into what…
Many people wrongly believe that babies do not notice or remember traumatic events. According to Mother, I never forgot this frightful experience. Mr. Barkley was in his early 70s and had been a farmer all his life—a lifetime of hard work and…
My mother and Muriel Henwood had been best friends since their early school days. Their friendship continued throughout the war years, and even after they were both married. Muriel’s husband, Henry Brine, was a miner who worked underground in the Springhill coal…
What a winter we had back in 1960. So much snow fell in December and January that it made the road behind the barn leading down to the lower field great for tobogganing on. The snow began once again at the beginning…
Lois and Howard were an old couple who lived on our road. I will always remember Lois, who as a young girl, got her hand caught between the rollers of her mother’s wringer washing machine. After surgery, she was left with just a…
After 30 years of marriage, Laura, his wife and soulmate, lost her fight with cancer. They’d known it wasn’t a winnable fight, but as a team, they’d laughed and cried through all the operations, chemo, and radiation treatments. In December, just a…
When my twin brother and I were about seven or eight, there was an outbreak of measles at our school. Measles is caused by a virus that spreads rapidly. In the early stages, when kids coughed, sneezed or talked, they would unknowingly…
A few years ago, I had the privilege of hearing this story from a close friend who was nearing the end of her life. When I was a child in the 1930s, things were different from the way kids have it…
I’m guessing I was about four or five years old the day I noticed the smoke. This time it wasn’t coming from the chimney of our sawdust-burning kitchen stove. Heavy, dense smoke. Not just a thin trail, but a substantial cloud that…
During my childhood, a shift began as families increasingly relied on convenience and credit to simplify their lives. However, my parents made some sacrifices I was not aware of. As far as I was concerned, we lived comfortably even though we had…
I always looked forward to Sundays, as we went to church every Sunday afternoon. As we took our seats, an older fellow named Wellsford, perhaps in his 80s, would come by and give my brother and me some peppermint candy that had…
When I was growing up on the farm, I never once questioned how much money my father received when he sold some calves, or one of the pigs, as it was never a topic of discussion in my presence. Honestly, I never…
Our Remembrance Day ceremonies and traditions are a way of keeping memories alive. Remembering the stories of pride and shame, bravery and cowardice, outrage and fear, comradeship and sacrifice, sadness and grief. I remember one rainy cold morning on Remembrance Day. I…
(Just a note before Marilyn’s story) We sent out a very important email on Thursday and 3/4 of you never opened it. It has to do with big changes at Canadian Senior Moment and will effect your future receipt of our newsletter…
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