HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1975-12-10, Page 4Sugar 'and Spice
by Bill Smiley
"And cousins by the dozens." That line
from an old nursery rhyme. or something
seemed to be the theme when the
Thomson clan held a family reunion at the
Old homestead.
There Was a lot of kissing and hugging
(we're an emotional family,) I was bussed
and squeezed by a lot of middle-aged
ladies and made up for it by heartily
bussing and squeezing a number of
extremely busable and squeezeable nieces
and daughters of nephews and various
other attractive young hussies drifting
about.
Most people have been sucked in, at one
time or another, to a family reunion. It can
be a ghastly experience, or a joyful one.
This one fell into the latter category.
There was no mourning for the dead,
only a great sense of being alive, and the
pleasure of knowing that all these people,
of all shapes and ages, were blood kin, all
sprung from the fertile loins of one Walter
Thomson, an Irishman of Scottish extrac-
tion, away back there in the 19th century.
Walter was prolific, and his sons were no
slouches either. One of them, Mountain
Jack Th omson, a. sometime scourge of the
Ottawa Valley during the great lumbering
days, had about 10 children by his first
wife, and when she died, married her sister
and produced another large family.
Another, William, after whom I was
named, sired 10 children. And there was
the last of them, my uncle Ivan, 84,
dancing, around like a 30-year-old,
welcoming all of us with something close to
tears of joy in his eyes.
He's as handsome as always, slim as a
boy, blue, eyes sparkling, wit bubbling,
striding about as though he'd never heard
of arthritis. A man of many talents, a
conversationist who plants trees lovingly, a
traveler Nyhose next letter might be from
New Zealand, an artist in working with
wood, a deep lover of nature and people,
and a concerned and loving patriarch of the
clan.
It is my casual boast, and my brothers'
and sisters' grudging concession, that I
"take after him". I wish I did. He
remarried at 80 and has a three-year-old
grandson. Figure that one out. No way can
I match that.
He showed me the room in the old brick
homestead, a fine house on a steep bluff
overlooking the Ottawa River, the
bedrooms in which my grandmother bore
the 10 children. No wonder she died at an
age when most modern women are just
getting their second wind, or their second
husband.
He showed me a picture of his family at
the dining table. At the head, my
grandfather, white hair and huge curly
beard. On one side, four strapping sons.
On the other side, three daughters and two
little sons, and an empty place set for
Emerson, a maverick who was in the
Klondyke when the photo was taken. How
would you like to try to feed a mob like that
in these days? You'd be bankrupt in a
week.
Another picture showed my Uncle Ivan
as the sole surviving member of the
Shawville Pontiacs, taken in the days when,
hockey was deadly serious but played, for
fun, and Shawville used to journey by
sleigh to take on the stalwarts of Renfrew
and Pembroke.
Perhaps sadly, there was no living to be
made for huge families 'on the barren land ,
of Calumet Island, and the tribe dispersed,
some of the boys joining the great exodus
to The West, the El Dorado of those days.
They were honest, hard-working, good-
looking, gregarious people,. But it wasn't
enough. They established themselves and ,
worked like slaves to build something.
Then came the Depression.
And they suffered. Boy how they
suffered! All of Canada took it in the neck,
but the prairie farmer took it in the neck
and in the guts and in various other parts of
the anatomy.
Most of my uncles went through The ,
Great War. Many of their sons went
through world War II. Some didn't come
back.
Things picked up. Some of them even
made a decent living before they died.
Their children are moderately well off,
middle-class people with warm hearts and'
no pretensions.
But they're fiercely proud of being'
Thomsons. (And don't ever try to spell it
with a "p". We have no truck with the poor
white trash Thompsons with a "p".)
And 'there we were, cousins by the
dozens, on the lawn of the 103-year-old
"homestead", looking out over the Ottawa
River, where Grandfather had been a
slide-master in the lumbering days, and
Mountain Jack, his brOther, had been a
"scrapper" known throughout the Valley
for his fists and feet, in the days when cops
were few and far between, and a man was a
man, or else.
A gang had flown in from Saskatoon.
Others had come from the States. It took
me 15 hours driving to get there and back.
And I wouldn't haN'te .missed it for the
world. I hope some of the young ones got
the sense of pride and family that I did.
There wasn't a millionaire present.
There wasn't a famous person present. But
there they were, salt of the earth, backbone
of Canada, a lively, loquacious, witty lot,
and I was glad 'to be one of them.
Social footnote to Westerners. My first
cousin, Jack Thomson, and his wife Louise,
of Saskatoon, were not, respectively, in
their underwear and nightgown, as they.
were last time I met them, a couple of
years ago in Germany.
Morris requests
payment dates
Morris Township authorized
the sale of Part 7 of Lots 70 and.
72, Plan No. 9 of Morris Township
as on Plan 22 R 414 at their
meeting last Monday.
Connell asked Huron County
Board of Education and Huron
Perth Roman CathOlic Separate
School Board to make two dates
for paytnent of rates, June 30 and
December 15,
A tile drain loan in the amount
of $4560. was accepted.
Art Clark Of Winigharn was
instructed to Make reports on the
three drains that Jas. A. Howes
WAS unable to survey and also
repairs On the Mills Drain,
RON, Granby was named
CeitimiisSionet On Workman
brain.
AtcOunts paid Welt!' Roads
$6,125.06i. General 6S,/.40 10 for
a total Of $61,865.2&
44-4HE BRUSSELS POST, DEOEMBEll 10. 1915
The
Children's Aid Society
requests your support for its •
Christmos..aureau,
Any new or good used toysigifts
'and clothing may' be left at
SALVATION ARMY, .WINGHAM
December 8...to 12
income-44k receipts issued for all
financial donatiOht,
(Registration NO,.9184192,010
Re(
Town
.ning
prop-
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at last
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5150(
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to
.300. atienc, Winghom,
meeting on violence
Judy LaMarsh and her Royal
Commission on Violence in ,the
Communications Industry got an
earful at their only Western
Ontario stop, in Wingham last
Wednesday night. ,
About 300 people turned out to
hear 'about ten briefs that gave'
the commissioners suggestions
on what should be done about
violence in the media.
Commission meniber Scott
Young said the Wingham
meeting was a repeat of what the
group has heard at their eight
other hearings so far. TV violence
was a major target.
One woman told commissioners
that TV's role should be "to
influence society to have highet
moral standards.' Morris Twp,
councillor Evelyn Demeray,
speaking for the Bluevale -
Whitechtirch pastoral charge,
said editors and broadcasters
should perhaps ask themselves
"what good does this teach?"
before using certain stories,
Both women felt the recen
stabbing of an, elderly woman i';
Listowel is related to the upswin,
in violence which can b
attributed, to the influence of th
media.
'We have found that rarely
week goes by some crime isn
committed that seems to b
similar to a crime depicted in th
media," Mr. Young said.
'Sally Campean of the Wingha
Pro-Life Association told th
commission that her group call
abortion "intro-uterin
violence." She condemne
abortion advertisements that
carried on Windsor radio statio
CKLW for Michigan abortionists
Wingham Advance Time
publigher Barry Wenger said th
Ontario Press Council is the bes
vehicle to police excessiv'
violence in the newpapers. H
added that no weekly paper
belong to the press council.
Wingham Memorial Shop
QUALITY
SERVICE CRAFTMANSHIP
Open Every Weekday
Your Guarantee for Over 35 Years of
CEMETERY LETTERING
Box 158, WINGHAM JOHN MALLICK
WEEKLY SALE
BRUSSELS STOCKYARDS LTD.
EVERY FRIDAY
At 12 Noon
Phone 887-6461 Brussels, Ont.
r Can IDB
help you?
Mr. Wayne RoUnding
_one of our representatives
will be at Wingham Motel, WINIGHAM
on the 3rd Tuesday of each month
ljeceniber 16th 9A.M.-4P.M.
IVIziny businesses including
Agriculture • Manufacturing
Tourism • Construction
• Professional Services
• Transportation • Wholesale
and Retail Trades,
have obtained loans from IDB to acquire land,
buildings, and machinery, to increase working
capital, to start a new business,
and for other purposes
If you need financing for a business proposal
and are unable to obtain it elsewhere on
reasonable terms and conditions, perhaps IDB
can help you
IJELTIOPMENT BANK
For prior Itiforthatlittett.Ati '1/1 -5656- or write
I0860fitatio.tfreet, Stratford,
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