THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT - FAMILY HISTORY

Jack

Frances K. Jean



These memories are dedicated to 1
the two beloved Jacks in my life,
my father and my eldest brother,
both very remarkable men in their
own way.

Frances K. Jean

Grandpa Frederick Griffin in 1905. Dad at two years, 1891 — he hated

the photo because of the curls.

John Howard Griffin, 26 years in 1915.

2

The House has stood for almost a century. Built to last and
with consideration of future needs. Built for a young family,
it later housed two additional families of descendants and is
now preparing to welcome a fourth generation of family.

J ohn (Jack) Howard Griffin built was no businessman; he never patented at bedtime. He would be working on an
this home in 1928 with hired help any of his inventions. The rifle sight was invention. In the morning, when she called
from Tommy Reece, a carpenter eventually patented by an American and him in for breakfast, the cocoa had not
originally from Wales who used in the First World War. been touched.
settled near the centre of town. (The Reeces
were a prominent family who built and ran Grandpa worked
a large packinghouse.) But first, just a little
history of Jack Griffin who was my father, for his brothers in ... as we picked crabapples
and a very clever, hard working man. their publishing

John Howard Griffin was born June 22, 1889 business. With no from those beautiful high
in London, England. His father, Frederick head for business he
Griffin was an inventor and amateur poet
who married Harriet Jane Gow in 1882. was short of funds
Her family was Scottish.
many times and trees he told me what a
A word about my grandparents, from his brothers bailed
information I pieced together over the years.
Grandpa Griffin was a very kind, quiet him out. I believe wonderful father he had.
man who loved to make things. He made a he was a romantic;
bicycle that five of his children could ride
on and pedal at the same time. He invented he wrote poetry, 3
the safety pin, a sight for a rifle, screw tops
for jars, amongst other things. But Grandpa copies of which I have.

He even sent one or two to Alfred Lord

Tennyson, the Poet Laureate.

Grandma, on the other hand, was an I always think my father inherited the
efficient, no nonsense, on time person. qualities of his mother, but he adored his
She told my sister how she would take a dad. One year as we picked crabapples from
cup of cocoa out to Grandpa in his shed those beautiful high trees he told me what

4 a wonderful father he had. He remembered
going to The Mall in London and watching, with
Uncle Doug and Dad, 1904 when leaving England. his father, Queen Victoria’s funeral procession.
Uncle Fred adored his mother, and I believe
inherited the qualities of his father. Always late,
kind to everyone, and a very poor businessman —
that was Frederick Hubert, the oldest son.

Sometimes, after supper, Dad would tell us stories
of his childhood. They lived in a large house
with many servants; a governess, cook general,
housemaids, and others. As I watched the original
Forsythe Saga, it reminded me of Dad’s stories,
and I could hear Uncle Fred in Soames’ voice.

During the summers, Grandma took her brood
to the seashore in Somerset. Here they met
and played with the Harries family. Dad told
us of stealing nuts from a hedge. When the
gardener confronted them, the oldest Harries boy
apologized while his cohorts quickly filled their
pockets on the other side of the hedge.

One moonlit night the six youngsters (Aunt Grace
was just a baby) sneaked out and took a donkey
from its stall and rode it on the seashore.
Some days later the donkey died. They made a

little cart with two old wheels and pulled Uncle Fred had a ‘weak chest’ and was sent running to Fortnum and Mason’s to pick up
something for his mother. When Uncle Doug
Grace around in the cart. I do wish we’d to Scotland to stay with Grandma’s sister. was born the family lived at 281 Regent Street.
His father’s occupation on his birth certificate
gotten more memories from Dad, but I She was married to a Spaulding, the founder was listed as ‘Comptroller of the City of
London’. When Bernard and I first visited
know they ate tea in the nursery and then of the sports firm. Uncle Fred said, “He was London in 1979, a Boots drugstore was at the
address, but Fortnum and Mason still stands
came down to see their parents before their so tight, he squeezed every penny.” after four centuries. Each time I visit London
I try to have afternoon tea there.
dinner. Most of the Griffins were musical In 1902, Uncle Fred joined the Barr
and Uncle Doug sang in the Boys’ Choir at Colonists. He took a ship over the ocean We will never know the reason that the Griffins
St. Paul’s Cathedral. Aunt Minnie, the eldest, and then crossed Canada by train to settle came to Canada at such a young age. I suspect
went to Holland as a governess. There she on a homestead near Lloydminster. that Grandma and Grandpa separated and the
perfected her sewing skills and learned how home broke up. Grandma told Aunt Annie once
that her brother, a sea captain, said, “Give me
to make the most marvelous hats. One of Dad’s special memories was taking your boys and I’ll take them to sea and make
men of them.” Grandma would have none of it.
the train from
And so Dad at 15, Uncle Doug at 14, and Aunt
London’s Charing Margaret, came to Canada by ship in 1904.
Dad told us that he played chess with the
Dad told us that he Cross station down captain and was the only one on the ship that
to Sevenoaks in Kent could beat him. My sister Annie told me she
thought they played for money, and that gave
played chess with the to his uncle’s dairy Dad a stake in the new country. I have no idea if 5
farm. His love of the this is true or not.

captain and was the land and nature was
nurtured here and he
went to Sevenoaks

only one on the ship as often as he could.
He always wanted to

that could beat him. be a farmer.

One of his other

memories was of

I do know that when Aunt Magdalene arrived her mother describing the trip and all her The three brothers, Fred, Jack and Doug
at the homestead she said Jack was ploughing adventures, even to trying smoking with had neighbouring homesteads at Delisle,
with a team of six horses, and broke five fellow passengers on the deck! Saskatchewan. One Saturday Dad went
to six acres a day. After her arrival they into Saskatoon and heard a Salvation Army
all had a picnic and she admired the boys Eventually the whole family, except for preacher on the street corner and accepted
in their whites playing cricket. Aunt Mag Grandpa, came to Canada. Grandpa died in Christ as his Saviour. Brought up in the
had crossed the ocean by herself in 1907, at 1917 and his sister-in-law signed the death Church of England, the children had had
22 years old, and sent a journal home to certificate. I have not been able to locate contact at the seashore with ‘brethren’, but
where he is buried. did not know the gospel. The other brothers
and sisters got saved as well and they met
weekly in a New Testament manner, thinking
they were the only people who worshipped
this way.

In 1915 or 1916 Dad and Uncle Doug moved to
Michichi, Alberta and took up homesteads
there. It wasn’t long before Dad fell in love

6 with Annie Johnson, who rode her horse each

day to teach school in Delia. Dad helped his
father-in-law build a barn and it still stands
on the Johnson farm in Michichi. At the
100 year anniversary, Murray presented his
cousins with a board from the barn with
cattle brands used over the years by Uncle
Fult, Jim and himself.

Dad building Grandpa Johnson’s barn in Michichi.

When I was sixteen I found a bunch of old 7
letters in the trunk upstairs. They were from
Mom with baby Annie Johnson to her sister Lois (my mother)
Jack at Uncle Dave’s who was in Westbank nursing her father,
house in Westbank. then dying of tuberculosis. Mom and
Grandpa Johnson were living with Uncle Dave
in the house that Uncle Doug’s family was
raised in. Dad bought this property and when
Uncle Doug’s family came in 1931 he sold it to
his brother. But I am ahead of the story.

I loved reading the letters from Aunt Annie
to her sister describing the young Jack
Griffin, with whom she was very much in

love. Mom burned the letters. I always
thought she should have given them to
my brother Jack.

My Dad, Jack Griffin and Annie
Johnson were married in Michichi.
Soon after, Annie became ill
with tuberculosis. She was also pregnant.
The doctor advised that she go to the
Tranquille Sanatorium at Kamloops, B.C.
Grandpa Johnson died that summer of 1918

and Lois went from Westbank to Kamloops the ground was frozen

to be near her sister. Grandpa Johnson was and Dad had to dig the Dad prayed and read
buried in the Peachland cemetery. Mom had grave. Only Dad, Lois,

always wanted a headstone for his grave and (my mother) and the from the Bible and as he

some years ago I ordered one to be made gravedigger were there.

and placed there. It has his name, years of Dad prayed and read

birth and death and the words: Father of from the Bible and as was filling in the grave
Frederick, Harriet, Lois and Lena, Annie, he was filling in the

Fulton. I encourage my reader to take a trip grave the church bells the church bells all over
to the cemetery overlooking Lake Okanagan all over Kamloops rang

and visit their ancestor’s grave. out. It was 11 o’clock Kamloops rang out.
and the news had
In August they moved Annie from the
arrived in the west that
Sanatorium to the Kamloops hospital where the Great War was over.
her son, John Howard Griffin, Jr. was born.
He remained in the hospital and Annie was Dad had to go back to the prairie and finish And so my wonderful oldest brother arrived
moved back to the Sanatorium. Annie’s sister, the harvest. Mom went to the hospital in Westbank where he was to live and raise

8 my mother, boarded with a kind lady and to pick up the three-month-old baby. 16 children. He was kind and wise and knew

visited her sister daily. In early November it The doctor said, “Miss Johnson, this baby his Bible better than anyone I knew, and

was apparent that Annie would not live and will never live. You will be wasting your was a wonderful influence on many. But his

Mom wired Dad in Michichi that he should strength.” Mom lined a grape basket with first months were a trial for all in the house.

come. He arrived too late; his wife of two cotton batten, put the baby into it, and He cried constantly and nothing would satisfy

years had died. took the train to Kelowna. The conductor him. Finally Mom found a recipe in an old book

came by, saw the basket on the seat and that was said to be like mother’s milk. My sister

My Dad, at the age of 26, buried his wife on said, “All luggage must go in the luggage car.” Isabel gave me the recipe when I wrote my

November 12th, 1918. The gravedigger was old, Mom said, “This is not luggage, this is a baby.” cookbook and I included it. Jack thrived on this

Our family in front of The House that Dad built in 1928 to replace the small house that stood on the property he bought in 1920 for $18,000.

9

Dad planted a Virginia Creeper on a trellis in front of the basement door by the back porch.

10 Dad had a large roll-top desk in the parlour. The clock
has Westminster chimes. A picture of the King, Queen
Mom always kept flowers on and two Princesses hung on one wall.
the dining room oak table that
seated 12 — Isabel and I played
ping-pong on it.

Brother George in the rocking chair
beside the kitchen stove.

milk but never grew as quickly as his siblings young orchard. It had a small house, with up the generators for the power company.
and did not start school until he was eight. green shutters, and here he brought his new We, however, had a Delco generator in the
wife and young son. He paid $18,000 for the basement for use on washdays for Mom, and
In 1920 Dad proposed to Mom and they were property in 1920. Fred, Annie and Isabel were for long winter evenings. Fred was usually
married in Vancouver on December 16th. all born in that house; George was born in in charge of starting it and shutting it off.
Aunt Margaret Griffin looked after Jack while the Kelowna hospital.
Mom and Dad took a boat trip to Seattle for At this time we had our own packing
their honeymoon. In 1928 Dad, with help from Tommy plant to pack apples and during the busy
Reece, built the two-storey house that still season we had three boarders. Mom had a
Because it was thought that the prairie stands. With great foresight, he wired it live-in helper and in 1932 when I was born,
climate was too harsh for Mom, Dad looked for electricity with light bulbs in every Kathleen Logan, Aunt Stella’s sister, was
for property in the Okanagan Valley in B.C. room. Power did not come to Westbank with our family. I was born at home on a
He took the train to Penticton and a taxi to until 1942 when Dad, Fred and Annie drove stormy winter night. The lake was too rough
Westbank where he viewed and bought a our three-ton truck to Vancouver to pick for the ferry to cross but Mr. Drysdale, a

Dad, with help from Tommy Reece, built 11
the two-storey house that still stands.
With great foresight, he wired it for
electricity with light bulbs in every room.

Fred with our new International truck.

12

boat builder, took the doctor from Kelowna her she had a baby sister and to go back
to the ferry landing where Dad met him in to sleep. She was eight and had no idea an
the truck. Fred recalled coming down to addition to the family was imminent.
breakfast in the morning to see Dad cooking
bacon and eggs and Dr. Underhill sitting in Some years prior to this the farm needed a
the big rocking chair by the stove smoking barn. Dad bought a log barn from someone
a cigar. After breakfast, Dr. Underhill said, at Shannon Lake and numbered the logs,
“My, Mr. Griffin, you have a well behaved took it apart and hauled it with horses to our
family.” Fred said that changed when I came farm and erected it. Over the years so many
along! Annie recalls hearing a baby cry and animals have called this barn their home.
wondering why Aunt Lena was at our house Our horses, King and Jerry, and Fred’s horse,
with David so early in the morning. Dad told Blackie, who was sold to the army in 1939,

Truck loaded with
packed apple
boxes going to train
in Vernon.

13

Dad and truck in
front of our garage.

Logs cut at Smith Creek.

had stalls there. Next to them was our dear
little Shetland pony, Drixie, who pulled a red
cart to take us to school. Later in the ‘50s
Dad had beautiful Holstein cows and shipped
milk to the Kelowna dairy. He sold the herd
to my cousin Harold on the Douglas Griffin
farm, half a mile down the road. And we
usually had pigs; Dad would stay in the barn
all night when they were farrowing. Once we
had 22 lovely little piglets. I mustn’t forget
the sheep and lambs, chickens and ducks, for
we had a mixed farm and what a wonderful
place to grow up.

After Dad built The House, with plastered
walls and hardwood floors and a bathroom
with a real tub, he planted a lawn on two

14 sides and put a hedge of nut trees around it.

In summers most of our meals were eaten on
the lawn under the nut trees. I don’t recall
any other families we visited having a lawn.
There was a laundry chute from the top of

An apple tree was just outside the far window —

I often chose that route to go down to breakfast.

the stairs to the basement where we threw Across Canada the 1930s were a tough time For many years Dad was the only one in the
our dirty clothes for ‘Monday Washday’.
The washing line ran from the back porch but we always had enough to eat and Mom area that had a vehicle. He was often called
to a pole by the icehouse.
made our clothes. The big event of the fall on to take neighbours to the hospital, and
Yes, one of the farmyard buildings was an
icehouse. Every winter Dad went to Shannon was when the parcels from Eaton’s arrived on Sundays Uncle Fred’s and Uncle Doug’s
Lake to cut ice and brought it back for
storage between layers of sawdust in the with new long underwear, felt boots and families rode in the back of the truck, sitting
icehouse. In summer he would carry a block
with the ice tongs to the tap just outside the flannelette for new nightgowns that Mom on apple boxes, to the meeting in Glen Rosa
back porch and rinse off the sawdust before
putting it in the icebox. We youngsters made. One wonderful
always asked for chips. Not only was sawdust
used for fuel and to insulate the icehouse, shipment contained
but Dad also insulated the entire house walls
with it. He kept five-gallon pails filled with a china tea set for me, I climbed up to the attic
water in the attic just in case of a chimney bought by my brother
fire. I climbed up to the attic once hoping to
find a treasure trove but found just pails of Jack with his egg once hoping to find a
water and my old baby crib. money. My cousins

and I had many a tea treasure trove but found
party in the playroom

with cocoa and then

I gave it to Violet and just pails of water and
Elaine. Years later I
15
found a duplicate in my old baby crib.
an antique shop and

paid $65 for it!

The new verandahs — in summers, we slept in the upstairs one.

Isabel and I with our morning catch
under the grape arbour.

At night Dad would
tell Isabel and I the
names of the stars
that shone so brightly.

16

Cousin Don was much too big for our pony. At the back porch on my lovely pony — Bonzo bringing the horses home after morning
Jack held the rope in the porch. drink at Davidson’s Spring.
17

Gospel Hall. All three families went in the Kelowna customers. He also supplied it to his Cousin Don suffered from asthma at his
truck to Penticton in 1939 when the aunts lawyer, doctor and dentist in trade for their home in Nova Scotia and came to live with
came from Toronto. Dad had gone east in services. One winter Jack and our cousin us for several years. He joined the army in
our Hudson Terraplane to pick them up. Donald Johnson camped in a tent for a week 1940 but was sent home from England as
cutting wood. With Mom we drove up the that climate was too damp for him as well.
During the winter months Dad cut wood up logging road on Saturday to take dinner and He worked for CN in Kamloops for the rest
the mountain by Smith Creek and sold it to watch them load the wood onto the truck. of his life; he was always a favourite in our

family. Often when there was a long stop over
in Kelowna, Don would take the ferry across
the lake and come and visit for a few hours.
One of the jewelry stores on main street in
Kelowna had a chronometer in their window.
It kept exact time and the railroad people set
their watches by it.

Our kitchen was large and most family meals
were taken there. The dining room was
always used on Sundays and when company
came. We youngsters sat on the window
seat. Often Uncle Fred and Uncle Doug’s
families came for supper and we had a
singsong afterward in the parlour. Uncle Joe
and Aunt Minnie with Doris and Norman

18 Bunty, one of the lambs we bottle fed.

Mom, George, Isabel and

I spent many happy weeks

in that little cabin... The cabin on
Lake Okanagan.

Dad bought a pony and cart to take us to school... there was a barn at the bottom of the school hill and it housed the horses while we learned.

19

came for two months one winter. Another The early forties were good times for farmers
winter Uncle Fult and Aunt Stella came in the Okanagan. We no longer had our
from Michichi. Both the bay window in the own packinghouse but shipped our fruit to
dining room and the south kitchen window B.C. Fruit Packers, managed by Dick Young.
had window seats that opened for storage. Dad bought trucks and hauled fruit to Vernon,
One side of the kitchen window seat was Penticton and the Westbank wharf. Here he
for Mom’s sewing materials and the other and the boys loaded apple boxes into boxcars
side for newspapers. If he heard a vehicle that were picked up by barges going up the
coming up the drive Dad would take any of lake. We were so proud when Dad brought
our schoolbooks and/or jackets and toss them home the first brand new International three-
into the window seat; he hated clutter! ton truck to come into the Okanagan Valley.

The early forties were good times for

farmers in the Okanagan. We no longer

20

had our own packinghouse but shipped

our fruit to B.C. Fruit Packers...

Fred and Jack making boxes for
transporting our apples.

Dad loved nature and we went on many picnics,
sometimes just up to the back lot under the
pine trees, but often to the lake where we all
learned to swim before we went to school.

As well as our fruit trees Dad and Mom grew 21
a large garden in the ‘back lot’ between
the newly planted trees. Dad sold peas to
Overwaitea in Kelowna as well as nuts from
our Filbert hedge. Dad loved nature and we
went on many picnics, sometimes just up to
the back lot under the pine trees, but often to
the lake where we all learned to swim before
we went to school.

It was in these years too that Dad built the
front verandahs, and in the summer months
we enjoyed sleeping in the upstairs verandah.

Isabel and I put the boxes together and stacked them.

An apple tree was just outside the far
window — I often chose that route to go
down to breakfast. At night Dad would tell
Isabel and I the names of the stars that shone
so brightly. When he built the verandahs,
Dad used a new material just on the market —
plywood. He thought it was a great invention
over shiplap boards. He painted it white and
then rubbed the drying paint off so the grain
would show through. About every other
winter Dad would paint the whole house
and we got to choose our bedroom colours.
The smell of paint made Mom sick and so
she’d go to Mrs. Oliver’s in Penticton while it
was being done.

Dad built a grape arbour that ran from

22 the front steps of the front verandah to

the driveway. He bought Concord grapes
and Mom made jelly and juice and we ate
quantities of them. The vines grew up over
the arbour providing wonderful shade in
the hot summer days.

Dad had The House stuccoed. A contractor George on our new Fordson
from Kelowna did the work, and I remember tractor in front of the garage.
they were impressed with Dad’s idea of blue

Dad had The House stuccoed.
A contractor from Kelowna did
the work, and I remember they
were impressed with Dad’s idea
of blue with a white splash.

Mom and Dad with their first grandchildren, 23
John Charles and Lois Mary Stutters.

with a white splash. At this time Dad built the back lot and main orchard. But Dad to fill the cistern. A large hot water tank in
the new garage that would hold two vehicles. wanted something better and in 1946 or 47, the bathroom supplied us with all the hot
He was so tidy; every tool had its own place. in his late 50s, he dug by hand a four-foot water we wanted! What a treat those first
ditch from the hill on the back lot, across baths were.
We had always had running cold water in Mr. Elliot’s vacant lot to Davidson’s spring.
the kitchen from a cistern filled every fall He laid pipe and built a huge cistern on the The House was heated by a sawdust furnace
from the irrigation flume that ran between hill and once a week we started the pump and we used sawdust in the kitchen stove

as well. Each year Dad hauled sawdust There were two different features of The pantry, also off the kitchen, had many

from the mills and dumped it beside the The House. One was a playroom just off shelves, a standing tin bread box and in

basement window to be shoveled into the the kitchen and Dad built five lockers for the north corner an insulated cupboard to

basement. Some winter afternoons my each child to store their own treasures hang meat with a vent that could be opened

cousins and I would play hide and seek in (as the sixth child, I wasn’t born yet, to the outside. When a beef or pork was

the basement and what patience Mom had but when I was three Jack gave me his). killed it would hang in the cooler. Mom also

as we tracked sawdust into the upstairs. Later the lockers served in the hen house canned beef and pork as well as jars and jars

There was a large grid in the hallway right for nests, and the room was a sewing of vegetables and fruit. It wasn’t until the

above the furnace and this allowed the room – then for a short time, when Mom ‘50s that a building with ‘frozen food lockers’

whole house to be well heated. The sawdust had a broken leg, it became a bedroom. was built downtown and most families

was carried up from the basement in five- rented a locker and put meat and vegetables

gallon pails and dumped into the hopper. into their locker. And later of course

When I was five and six, my Saturday freezers came on the market.

morning job was to sweep the basement

steps using a dustpan and goose wing. It wasn’t until the ‘50s that a
When the furnace was cold in the spring

24 Mom would raise the grate to clean the roof building with ‘frozen food lockers’

of the furnace. One Friday the Fish Man

came and Mom asked Annie to get her purse. was built downtown and most
Annie ran into the hallway and fell into the

furnace badly hurting her leg. Mom felt

terrible and we babied Annie for a day or two. families rented a locker and put

meat and vegetables into their locker.

Dad went by train to Michichi in 1930 or 25
1931 with my brother George and helped
move Uncle Doug and Aunt Lena’s family Our family in front of the
to Westbank. He sold them the farm he had dining room window in 1939.
bought from Uncle Dave. And then in the fall
of 1932 Uncle Fred and Aunt Evelyn moved
from Saskatchewan with their young family.
How wonderful it was growing up with three
families of cousins, best friends all of us, and
each family just half a mile from our farm.

I don’t know from whom or when Dad bought
the ‘back lot’ that he later sold to Jack. but
in the early ‘40s he bought ten acres on the
lake. He planted an orchard and one summer
Isabel and I stayed in the cabin to irrigate
the trees. Mom, George, Isabel and I spent
many happy weeks in that little cabin and
for two summers when I was 14 and 15, Dad
let me take my cousin Frances M and two of
my girl friends to stay for a week. He dug a
hole in the sand and we kept milk, butter and
bacon there to keep it cold. I may shock the
reader, but one moonlit night I persuaded
my girlfriends to go skinny-dipping. I told
them if we didn’t do it now, we never would.
And it is true; I’ve never done it again.

We had a rowboat and Isabel and I used to of an end and I got letters from Australia, through The House and out the front door.

row out to meet the barges as they went up Scotland and England. Also from a Canadian One Halloween, just before Jack went out

and down the lake. In the evenings we would soldier who thought I was older. He wanted to milk Jersey, Fred and cousin Don put

row over to Hitchener’s Bay where there were a photo and so I sent him one of my cousin the saddle on the cow.

water lilies and Mom would read to us. When Pearl and me. Dad and Aunt Girlie, who
Fred and Merle were married, Fred bought often stayed, would go
the lake farm and later sold it and bought Fred was sometimes a jokester. at dawn to look at the
Elliot’s orchard next door to the home place. One time he led our pony flowers that they both
Drixie from the

In the summer we made apple boxes under back door enjoyed so much. Dad had

contract for the packinghouse. Dad set bought daffodil bulbs,

up tarps for shade near the nut trees. so rare, and we

The ‘shook’ came in pieces: two

ends with the packing house name,

two sides, and the bottom was three

light boards nailed in by cleats that we

soaked in water. Dad paid us by the box for

26 making them and in the heat the sawdust

was irritating. Isabel and I would

write our name on the inside

watched eagerly each spring Dad was a monarchist and very patriotic. In attempting to write a little about the
for them to come through We always had photos of the royal family in history of the family farm and The House
the ground, and then each the parlour. War was declared on Sunday in I’ve digressed into family stories. But what
day bent to smell them. They 1939. Monday morning Dad had me ride the wonderful memories I have of growing up
pony to the post office to get the Province. in The House and Farm. I always enjoyed my
were never picked, except I took it to him at the crabapple trees and Sunday afternoon walks with Dad through
for once when Dad let Jack we sat on apple boxes as he read the news. the orchard, especially at blossom time.
have one. He took it on his We had never had a radio so Dad bought one The rare daffodil bulbs Dad planted under
motorbike, with a Sweet to hear the news. He had to get a radio license. the nut trees. The summers the Aunts came
Marie chocolate bar to He built a small shelf above the kitchen to stay and our many meals under the nut
visit Mary, his future wife. window seat for the radio. During the early trees. The huge Bing cherry trees on the side
forties Dad had cows that had to be milked at of the drive with hollyhocks underneath.
six in the morning and six at night. But the And the abundance of wild asparagus under
BBC news came on, with Big Ben striking at the apple trees when we irrigated by using
six, and so I listened to the news, made notes ditches. Always a leader, Dad was one of the
and went to the barn and reported to Dad. first to install a sprinkler system.

What a wonderful childhood we had and 27
how privileged we were to grow up with
I always enjoyed my Sunday parents who honoured God. And now of the
afternoon walks with Dad through the 16 cousins in the photo taken on Coronation
orchard, especially at blossom time. Day on our lawn in 1937, there are, in 2017,
just four of us left.

There is a time for everything, the Good
Book says, and we had the best of times.

28 Coronation Day (May 12, 1937),

all the families gathered at our
place for the day.

Back row: Fred, Margaret,
Pearl, Don, Annie, Jack,
Hattie and May.

Second row: Harold, George,
Gordon and Isabel.

Sitting: Frances M, David,
Frances K and Donald.



I always enjoyed my THE  HOUSE  THAT  JACK  BUILT
Sunday afternoon walks with Dad

through the orchard, especially
at blossom time.