HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1975-06-26, Page 29In the preamble of letter • to,
Mrs. Pearl McFarlane-in which he
reminisces concerning his y outh
." in Seaford', J. Clifford Bell says.'
"My good true friend over many
years. I say .all hail to you and the
progressive citizens of Seaforth ,
for setting up y our 197S reunion.
There is apparently lots of life in
the old town yet".
Mr. Bell grew up in Seaforth
and graduated with a scholarship
from Seaforth Collegiate
Institute. After gradution from
S.P.S., University of Toronto he
held senior poMtions with a major
international company as
manager for Australia and later
for Europe and other countries.
He retired a number of years ago
and presently lives in Cobourg.)
(By J. Clifford Bell)
My dad. was a gOod lacrosse
player. He was 17 and was on a
team which won the Senior
Championship of Canada in 1871
in I think Vancouver. Other more
senior players ;were McDougall,
the 'Jacksons from Egmondville,
Dr. Chas. MacKay who walked in
6 miles from Baucefield every
night to practice Lacrosse for 2 or
3 hours, however, long it was
li ght.
Mother and Dad had $75.00
between them when married in
1895. Dad went to Toronto and
bought a hand operated shirt and
collar ironer and they started a
hand laund ry.
I arrived in August 1896 three
weeks early and with a hole in my
head which perhaps never did get
quite closed up.
Dad was always very fond' of a
good h orse and except for
acquiring bronchitis at ' a very
early age and a couple of bangs
from a horsewhip for running
away up to Dick Smiths and
Findlay Rossie's, early- lite
uneventful. I used to harness the
horse, by getting up on the side of
the stall and putting "on the
various eqUipMent from there.
One day I had gotten him
harnessed and was leading him,
'Sid' out of the stable door and he
stepped On my right big toe,
flattened it and the nail still grows
in two parts. • •
By this, time or somewhere in .
there Dad ha d acquired a st eam
plant; which set the back place on
fire one day. I can remember '
seeing the burning. However the '
reliable Seaforth fire brigade got .
It out. We were.ky then living in a
cottage beside the laundry.. Later
Dad moved downtown behind
Harry Edge's hardware store and
they had fixed up the old laundry
on North MainSt. and we lived
there quite comfortably. I think
the Johnsons were Still opposie
us . In 1908 wfien I was 12 we
started high school. 5 \kids in that
bunch won scholarships and I was
surely the least able.
Brenton Kerr, Prince of Wales
NO. 1 in the province later a
professor of. Classics at the
University of Buffalo. , Jimmy
Gillespie from Staffa, Lorne
Hutchinson, one or two girls and
Ale. Joe Sills was there and Joe
and I were already very close
friends and still were as long as
he lived. Joe became a very good
pro hockey player. His father had
a hardware store next to Chas.
Aherhart's drug store.Charlie
grew choice strawberries which
one y ear just when they were
ready a number of us raided
Charlie's patch and in the dark
tramped the bushes. He was the
maddest druggist over that. I
think he knew who did it but could
not prove a thing.
Joe of course knew his way
around the roofs above the stores
and he found out that a skylight in'
Cardnos Hall looked down on the
girls dressing room. "Sunny
Smith" was a negro minstrel
show which came every
November or December so Joe
and I decided to see what was
going on through the skylight.
God knows how we got, up and
back without falling off the
slippery roof. I don't know but
we did see our first naked women.
For two ( 8 or 9) year olds that was
something. My teenage years
were more or less badly spent and
in 1920 Dad sold everything. He
was the most unselfish man in the
world. God bless him.
Jack Hinchely and I had
become very proficient pool
players. Jack tried it a year or so
ago and said it was no game for
anybody with double vision. In
Toronto we acquired a small
grocery store as I finis rd up my
' years at S.P.S. haviii lost my
scholarship in 1916 or 17. I could
not get in the army. At
conscription they told me I had
emphysemtt and rated me for 4Y
or somewhere like that.
Many of our mutual friends are
still' in Flander's Fields. A few
came back including Brenton
Kerr whom they rescued one .day
over theie after he had spent 3
days in a foxhole. He was reading
a latin book which he probably
carried over his heart. Jimmy
Gillespie later did a magnificent
job as head of theTinhnical School
in Toronto in organizing and
(Continued on Page 20)
Smiles
Principal to harried second
grade teacher: "I appreciate your
feelings, but you simply cannot
send 'thank you notes to your
pupils when they stay home
because ' of illness."
AFTER THE GAME = ArOther Lacrosse team
relaxes after a game in the early years in. Seaforth. It
It's hard to say, but it looks as if some of the men are
in costume. Perhaps though, they are wearing the
sports clothes of the 1880's. Can any of our readers
identify the field where the game was being played?,
Seaforth Community Hospital
Congratulates
The. Town of Seaforth
on its
100th Birthday
St. Thom& Anglican Church at the time
it was eentitruefed, in the early 18509o.
6--TilfE1-1URON EXPOSIT° JUNE 26, 11975
and looks forward to
progressing with the town and
continuing to make available
modern hospital facilities for
the people of Seaforth and District