The Swimming Gene

Number three child and number two son Harold John (the John for uncles on both sides of the family, was born at the Palermo farm on March 10, 1895 and would be four when the move was made to Bronte. He attended the Bronte Public and Oakville High School and was a good helper on the farm as he was growing up. I think he was always fond of growing things, as I remember a lovely patch of wild flowers as his contribution to the garden at the Lakeshore house, he made the landscape drawings for the grounds at the new house, and wherever he lived later, he always managed to have some flowers. I don’t have many specific recollections of him in the early years, though I do remember Mother’s saying that he was a great help to her, always kind and gentle with the younger children. Harold was active in sports and early developed his exceptional ability as a swimmer. He took many prizes and medals in local swim meets, much to the chagrin of Oakvillites, who couldn’t accept that a Bronte native could excel in anything over an Oakville person. I remember also seeing his picture as a member of a Bronte baseball team. I don’t know what position he played. He entered the 0ntario Agriculture College (OAC) in Guelph, I think in the fall of 1913, specializing, appropriately, in Horticulture. There he continued and enhanced his swimming career, becoming aquatic champion and setting a record that held for many years. I remember from March 1916, towards the end of Harold’s third year in college, a poignant conversation I overheard. Mother was saying to Harold, “Of course I don’t want you to go, but you’re of age now and I won’t try to stop you from doing what you seem your duty.”. Harold had come home, I think on his twenty-first birthday, March 10, to tell Mother he wanted to enlist for war service. I was only six at the time, but so charged with emotion was the scene that I remember it clearly to this day. On reading now a fascinating history published in 1919 of the unit he served in, I found that the 56th battery, Canadian field Artillery, was recruited in March 1916 at O.A.C., of students, ex-students and a few of their friends. On receiving his third year credits, Harold joined up. The army seemed to try to fit the jobs to the skills of the recruits, as they had done in Russell’s case. As a farm boy and student in an agricultural college, Harold became a driver, responsible for a team of horses hauling a heavy gun carriage. Camp Petawawa, still used today, was the first training camp. Harold and Russell must hate had their last leaves at home together. I recall a traumatic pre-dawn parting scene when they left together to catch their train. After the goodbyes, Mother was standing at the window to catch a last glimpse and crying, something I hadn’t seen before.’ I tried to snuggle up to comfort her, or to seek comfort for myself and for the only time in my life she brushed me aside, too preoccupied to give me her whole attention at that moment. I was devastated. On reaching Witley training camp in England the 56th was absorbed into the 66th Battery and went to France as the 66th, part of the 5th Canadian Division. This was on August 22, 1917. Always the thoughtful son and excellent correspondent, Harold sent many and copious letters and sent and brought many souvenirs. A special thrill for rue was the pair of Belgian wooden and leather sabots which fit me perfectly. Apparently an active sports program was kept up whenever and where-ever possible, and Harold was an active participant. Again his swimming prowess came to the fore, to the extent that it was jokingly written in the Battery yearbook that “Cud” was so eager to get home that he swam the English Channel. It was said that the 66th Battery, though taking part in some of the major actions of the war, such as Vimy Ridge and chasing the Hun across the Rhine at the finish, must have had a special guardian angel,as the casualties in that unit were a record low. Harold shared this angel, for he returned home unscathed in the summer of 1919. Harold still had a year to go to finish his College course and so he enrolled in the fall of 1919. He graduated from OAC. in the spring of 1920 with a B.S.A. (Bachelor of the Science of Agriculture). Mother and Dad attended the graduation exercises, which were held in Convocation Hall, Toronto, as OAC was then still an affiliate of the University of Toronto. The next year Harold spent at OAC. lecturing in Horticulture. In the spring of 1921, Dad and Harold bought a farm at the corner of the Nelson-Trafalgar Town Line on the Radial Road and Harold moved into the big old farm house with his bride. The bride was Ruth Elizabeth Oliver, born July 23, 1896 in Estevan, in the North West Territories, now Saskatchewan. Her father, James Elliot Oliver, born in Avonbank, Ontario, had an interesting family history. He was related on the Elliot side to Pierre Elliot Trudeau. His parents were John Oliver and Betty. Nixon. Married in Scotland, they came to settle near St. Mary’s, Ontario, where Betty was the first white woman in the settlement and recalled sewing in the evening by candlelight with Indians peering in the windows. James's sister. Ruth's Aunt Marion, was the first woman to graduate in medicine from Queen’s University, and had a long and distinguished career as a medical missionary in India. James’ wife was Ella Mabel Cox from Watertown, Wisconsin, where her father was a well-to-do manufacturer of farm implements. James, Ruth’s father, was killed in a train accident while en route to inspect a fruit farm he had purchased in British Columbia. His wife was left with five little girls and pregnant. She lost the baby boy because of the trauma of the accident. Ruth, the second youngest, was three or four years old at the time. The family was split up, each of the father's brothers and sisters taking one child to raise, two of them in the United States. Ruth’s Uncle John Oliver, Postmaster in Palmerston Ontario, and his wife Agnes raised her and were very loving parents to her. Ruth attended Normal School in Stratford in the 1914-1915 term and taught two years at Atwood, Ontario, and then came to Bronte as teacher of the junior room in the two-room school. She was rather more stylish that we natives were. I remember seeing her at a party at the Lakeshore house. She had on a navy blue taffeta dress that I thought was the most gorgeous creation I had ever seen. It was probably at this party that the romance began. Harold was in France but his picture was on the piano. On seeing this picture, Ruth is reported to have said, “I’m going to marry him.”. And she did. In the summer of 1919, when Harold returned from overseas, Ruth was picking berries on our farm as part of the farmerettes organization recruited to help out on the farms when the boys were away at war. In the 1920-21 school term Ruth boarded with us at the new house. She was also my teacher. So we walked - or rather ran flat-out down the middle of the highway - to school together. Ruth had difficulty getting up in the mornings and we were nearly always late. The principal, Ellen Heeks, often stood at the window watching for us and didn’t ring the bell till we hove - or is it heaved - into sight. Anyway, the romance blossomed and Harold and Ruth were married on April 13, 1921. It was a Quiet ceremony at Ruth’s hone in Palmerston, as her uncle was in poor health, but Mother and Dad attended. They spent the summer on the newly purchased farm, but in the winter left the draughty old house as it was too hard to heat and Ruth was pregnant. They rented the “cottage” from the Beasley's and their first child was born there on January 29, 1922. The following year they moved to Windsor where Harold was manager of a firm manufacturing barrels with a machine in which Dad had invested quite a bit of money. When this didn’t work out they moved to Toronto to a house just a few doors from Aunt Amy (Dad’s sister) on Withrow Avenue. There their second daughter was born on February 9, 1925. From there they moved to a farm and nursery near Welland, which Harold operated for a couple of years in partnership with Stanley Van Every, an OAC acquaintance. For a short time they lived in Fonthill. Then they took a house in Allenburg, where Ruth taught in the junior room for a few years, and the principal boarded with them. Harold worked on the construction of the Welland Ship Canal. From Allenburg they moved to Niagara Falls where they lived in an apartment for about a year before buying the house at 1885 Delaware Avenue, which they occupied till they sold it in 1952. Things took a definite turn for the better when Harold passed a Civil Service examination with very high marks. He immediately got a position as Immigration Inspector, which he held until his retirement in 1955. Starting at Fort Erie, he worked on all the bridges in the area - the Peace, Rainbow, Lower Arch and Lewiston. He also worked on the Niagara Falls to Toronto train and in Ottawa. A highlight in his career was the year 1947 spent at Canada House in London, screening would-be immigrants, many of then war brides after World War II. While there he had the honour of being an invited guest at one of the Royal garden parties. In 1949 Harold’s respiratory problems became rather severe and his doctor advised that swimming in Florida’s salt water would be excellent treatment. This sounding like very attractive advice, Harold got a three-month leave of absence and that was the start of twenty-six winters spent in Florida and the summers in various spots in Ontario. At first they had a travel trailer and visited nearly all the states in the Union with Florida as their main base. When this became too onerous they purchased mobile hones, living in parks in various cities such as Sarasota, Dunedin, Fort Lauderdale and Lakeland. This pleasant arrangement came to an abrupt halt when Harold suffered a stroke at their apartment in Grimsby in September of 1975. He was severely incapacitated and died on January 4, 1978 at Sunset Haven Nursing Home in Welland. Ruth is still in quite good health and living in a Senior Citizens’ apartment in Welland. I mentioned the birth of the first child on January 29, 1922. She was a beautiful little girl, the first granddaughter for the W.H. Cudmores, and finally an opportunity to use everyone’s favourite name, Anna. It is reported that Ruth wanted to call her Rebecca, but Mother disliked the name intensely and dissuaded her. So Anne Elizabeth she became, the Elizabeth for two grandmothers and her mother. I remember the day well, (I was twelve then). It was a Sunday and Amy and I stopped by on our way to Sunday school. Mother came out onto the veranda and said “nothing yet”, but on our way back we were allowed in to view the new arrival. She was lovely, pink and white and pretty, with enormous blue eyes, and didn’t have that just hatched look at all. A few months later she won the award as the best baby in the show at the Oakville Fair. Anne started school at Allenburg. After one year there she attended Barker Street public school in Niagara Falls and then graduated from the Stamford Collegiate and Vocational School. That fall she spent a few months as a technician in the Biology lab. of the University of Guelph, staying with Amy. She then spent six and a half years operating a Burroughs bookkeeping machine in the payroll department of Norton Company of Chippewa, makers of abrasives and commercial cutting tools. In the summer of 1946, Romance entered, aided by Herbert Russell Baines (Russell), a student in Electrical Engineering at S.P.S. who was doing his field work with Ontario Hydro at the Falls and boarding next door to the Cudmores. Evert and I were part of that happy summer, as we were boarding at the Cudmores for a few weeks while outfitting one of the new stores that were being opened under the Rainbow bridge. We were working for Spencer Clarke, owner of the Guild of All Arts, now the Guild Inn, Scarborough, and brother-in-law of Louis Breithaup, then Lieutent-governor of Ontario. Mr. Clarke is currently prominent in the news, negotiating the sale of the Inn property to Metro Toronto for use as a park. Both the work and the party atmosphere in the evenings were fun. Russell was born in Regina, Saskatchewan on January 31, 1925, son on Dr. Herbert Russell Baines. His mother was Freida Fleming, who was a nurse in training in Regina General Hospital when she met Russell’s father. The family lived in various places in the West, Qu’Appelle being the last stop before Russell came East to attend U. of T. Dr. Baines was severely injured in a car accident and never regained his health completely, but was able to take up psychiatry as director of the mental hospital at North Battleford. After his death, Mrs. Baines returned to nursing,holding positions of responsibility such as Director of Nursing Health in the Regina General Hospital and Residence Director of the YWCA. at Calgary and of the YWCA chalet at Banff. While at S.P.S., Russell enlisted in the R.C.A.F. By this time, the war was winding down and in 1945, along with a large group of airman, be was transferred to the army. With the war over, he returned to his studies, and that is how he arrived at Niagara Falls in the summer of 1946. Anne and Russell were soon engaged, and were married on September 6, 1947. I had the honour of pouring tea at the trousseau tea. Evert and his pal Alex Murphy dropped me off and went “over the river” , where they decided to make a survey of all the bars. Fortunately most of the guests had left when they reappeared and so the family wasn’t disgraced, though the party became decidedly less formal. A guardian angel guided Evert’s driving so that we arrived home still happy and dumped flex onto the couch to spend the night. As this was the year that Harold was in England, a distinctive feature oC Anne’s wedding, in Lundy’s Lane United Church, was that she went down the aisle alone, unwilling to have anyone take her father’s place. A record was made and sent to Harold, complete with the minister’s saying Herbert Russell Barnes and Anne’s stage whisper “no, not Barnes, Baines”. Our friend Ron Stewart was the soloist. After a sample of Evert’s driving on the way over he decided to go home on the bus! The reception was held at Queenston Park restaurant, a picturesque place overlooking the Niagara River, ,with a magnificent view from the bluffs. That evening many of us, including the bride and groom, had a fun party at Club Henley in St. Catharines. Russell spent most of the next day, Sunday, studying for an exam that he had to write on Monday. After that they were able to go on their honeymoon, spent in a cottage at Grand Bend. With the post—war dearth of housing in Toronto, the bride and groom were squeezed into one room on Avenue Road while Russell finished his engineering course. After graduation they were able to get a bed-sitting room and sun porch kitchen on Geoffrey Street. This was near Westminster Ave. where the Harold Beasleys were babysitting a fine house belonging to Helen’s aunt, while Harold was attending, Chiropractic College. A frequent and welcome invitation to the Fames was “Come on over and have a bath and some dinner”. This was the start of a firm friendship for the four cousins. After graduation the Baines spent a month in the West with Russell’s parents, after which Russell started work in the sales department of Turnbull Elevator. They bought a house in Islington , where they spent five years. In 1955 Russell was made Hamilton Branch Manager and they bought a house in Port Nelson, where they lived for two and a half years. The next move was to Ottawa as Branch Manager. They lived in Pita Vista, a very pleasant residential district of Ottawa for five years. Then came the move up to Branch Manager at Montreal, and they lived in Pointe Claire for twelve years. Towards the end of this time severe labour problems arose in Quebec. The Baines had to have police living in the house for a time. Russell was glad to escape to Toronto, but Anne had enjoyed the community life and her friends there and still tends to look back with nostalgia, and still clings to her loyalty to the Alouettes and Canadiens, though it isn’t so easy in these times of poor standings for both. At the time of the move the U.S.-based Dover Corporation had bought out Turnbull and Russell was made Toronto Branch Manager under the new arrangement. He very soon became Vice-president and then President of Dover Corporation, Turnbull Elevator Division. Anne and Russell have a lovely home in Mississauga, complete with Holly-wood—style swimming pool which they keep at eighty degrees so that their aged Aunt Marjorie can enjoy swimming in it. The “corporate image” demands that poor old Russ do his commuting in a Cadillac and entertain other corporate executives and go on frequent shooting and fishing trips. He is also a member of the Credit Valley Golf Club and an avid golfer. His and allied firms seem to need lots of conventions, which he and Anne have enjoyed attending in most of the major cities of the U.S.A. and Canada. An important one last year was in London, England, after which they took a two weeks’ tour on the Continent. Anne is now what Russell calls a “Mississauga Housewife”, keeping a big household going, enjoying the many friends she has made, and doing volunteer work at the Mississauga General Hospital. She inherited her father’s love of growing things. Her pride and joy is her gorgeous compost heap, and she makes excellent use of her new food processor to pulverize garbage for it! Russell also likes to have lots of colourful flowers around, so that their garden around the house and pool is a veritable bower. Both Anne and Russell love to play bridge for recreation, and belong to two bridge clubs. But what about kids? Yes, three boys and a girl. Number one, Peter Russell, was born on October 1, 1952, in Toronto. He attended Alta Vista Public School in Ottawa and John Rennie High School and C.G.E.P. in Pointe Claire. No one seems to know what words these letters, are the acronym for, but High School ends at grade eleven in Quebec, and C.G.E.I. seems to be a post—secondary school operating partly as a preparation for University and partly similarly to our Ontario Community Colleges. Peter then started with Dover Elevator in materials control in construction, the new Palais de Justice being one of the important jobs he worked on. A very interesting time was the few months he spent in the far north on a huge construction project at Fairmont, just outside Labrador City. Later he suffered a rather severe injury to his am while at work. Partly because of this and partly to take advantage of a new sales training program, he went into the sales division, still in the Montreal Branch. Unfortunately, the current recession has caught up with him, and he is at home at present. Peter married Linda Bell Patterson, daughter of Jack and Patricia Patterson, Jack an Air Canada pilot working out of Montreal. Peter and Linda have three children, Jason Russell, nine, Christopher Graham, seven, and Kelly Patricia Elizabeth, three. They were divorced a week after Kelly’s birth, the children remaining with Linda in Montreal. They are already good swimmers and enjoy their grandparents’ pool. Peter is also a good swimmer, having swam competitively as a youngster at the Pointe Claire Swimming Club. A good thing, as he now gets a great charge out of the comparatively dangerous sport of white water rafting on the Ottawa River. The only daughter, Brenda Anne, was born on February 10, 1955, in Toronto. Anne worked a good scheme. Brenda arrived on a Thursday, leaving Russell and his sister Mardi to make the move to Port Nelson on the Saturday while Anne loafed in the hospital. Brenda started to school in Alta Vista Public School in Ottawa and continued in John Rennie High School in Pointe Claire. Her C.G.E.P. school was John Abbott College at St. Anne de Bellevue on the MacDonald Campus, a part of McGill University. While taking courses she also worked as a lab. technician setting up experiments for the students in the biology lab. There she met her finance, Martin Chance, now head of the Biology Department at John Abbott. Brenda has now transferred to the Pulp and Paper Industry Research as a Lab. technician and enjoys her work very much. Brenda loves swimming and golfing in summer and downhill and cross country skiing in winter and has her grandfather’s and mother’s love of growing things. Brenda and Martin are now busy with plans for their wedding, which is to take place at the Old Mill, Toronto, on Saturday, July 10, 1982. The third child and second son, Donald Scott, was born in Hamilton on May 2, 1957. Russell waited till his birth and then went on alone to Ottawa. Anne had a few busy weeks with the three little kids to care for and the house to sell before she moved to Ottawa. When Donald was thirteen months old he had a very critical operat3.on. It was found that he was born with an opening in .his brain pan and tissue had come through into his nasal cavity causing blockage-. He was sent to the Montreal Neurological Institute for diagnosis and then to Royal Victoria Hospital where the operation was performed to close the holes and remove the tissue. Dr. Hollie Mac H ugh then recognized as the best in North America in ear, nose and throat was the surgeon. After Donald’s recovery the worried parents were told that they were among the lucky few to have success in such a case. Donald started his schooling in Cedar Park Public School in Pointe Claire and continued in John Rennie High School. When the family moved to Mississauga, Peter and Brenda were launched in their careers and stayed in the Montreal area, but the two younger boys were still in high school. Donald found the change to grade ten in Port Credit High School very unsettling. After a variety of jobs since High School, he tent “west, young man” to seek his fortune in Calgary. But finding the “boom has bust” and the atmosphere- decidedly chilly towards easterners, he returned home. The youngest of the four, Richard David (David) was born on March 30, 1060 in Ottawa. He was two when the move was made to Pointe Claire, where he attended Cedar Park and John Rennie. On the move to Mississauga he was mortally insulted when he was put back into elementary school for the loss of a year before entering Port Credit High School. He took his grade thirteen in residence at Appleby College in Oakville. After a year at the Erindale campus of the University of Toronto he decided to take a year off. He worked for the Hammond and Champness Lift Company in London and Glasgow, finding the experience interesting and satisfying. He did much sightseeing in England and Scotland and enjoyed two visits to Paris, staying in youth hostels On his second visit, being an old hand in French from his first time, and from having lived in La Belle Province, he had the fun of escorting four American girls around Paris. David is now back at Erindale College in Arts with a view to an M.B.A.. He enjoys an active social life and is an avid skier. The three brothers had a great time on a white water rafting trip on the Ottawa River last summer. David has just recovered from having a knee badly scrambled in a skiing accident which necessitated surgery and six weeks in a cast. New back to Harold and Ruth and their second daughter, Marion Evelyn, born February 9, 1925 in Toronto when they were living on Withrow Avenue. She was named Marion for her mothers aunt, sister and cousin on the Oliver side and Evelyn for her aunt on the Cudmore side. Her Aunt Evelyn is credited with saving Marion’s life. When the baby was just a few days old she was choking and had turned blue. Evelyn with her little finger ejected the mucus from the infant’s throat and restored her breathing. By the time Marion was of school age the family was in Niagara Falls, and she attended Barker Street Public school and Stanford Collegiate, incidentally, in a class with the well-known Judy La Harsh. She chose nursing as her profession, graduating as an R.N. from Toronto Genera]. Hospital in 1947. She has had a full career of nursing, mainly as an industrial nurse at Atlas Steels in Welland, but partly at Welland General Hospital and the Welland Cancer Clinic. She was able to use her contacts to get her father into Sunset Haven Nursing Home in Welland after his stroke. She gave up her nursing temporarily to be able to supervise his care and visit him every day. She had to retire again last year because of a cataract operation. It was while at Atlas Steels shortly after graduation that Marion met another employee, John Adelbert Shantry of Welland. They were married in Lundy’s Lane United Church in Niagara Falls on August 7, 1948, with the reception, as was Anne’s, at the Queenston Park Restaurant. The two sisters looked especially lovely that day, Marion in a Quaint organdie bridal gown and Anne in pale green organdie. It was a perfect summer day and the colourful gardens made a delightful setting for the guests to mingle. The couple lived in an apartment in Welland until they purchased their present home on Pelham Street in the suburbs. Their large garden was a setting for one of the Cudmore family reunion picnics when they were held annually a few years ago. Another important event celebrated there was Harold and Ruth’s fiftieth wedding anniversary in the summer of 1971. Many guests were entertained, including local dignitaries such as Ellis Morningstar, the then M.P.P. for the riding. The traditional congratulatory telegram was received from the Queen. Harold and Ruth had the distinction of the only ones in the family to celebrate their fiftieth anniversary. Evelyn was alive on her anniversary, but the planned reception had to be canceled because of her illness. Another use for the Shantry’s large garden is to accommodate the kennels where Johnny keeps his beloved coon hounds, for he is an ardent hunter. John and Marion also have a cottage near Parry Sound where they spend many happy times hunting, fishing, and just relaxing. For his working hours, John is still with Atlas Steels, where he is head of transportation. Marion and Johnny have one child, Judith Anne, born October 23, 1949. Judy got away to a slow start, as her mother’s blood was RH negative and her father’s positive; she was a breach birth, premature, and under five pounds. But she survived all this to grow into a very attractive young woman. She was married briefly and divorced while still quite young. But she has now found happiness with Marc Provencher and their son Sacha, now two years old. They live in Welland near the dotin grandparents.