The Rural Voice, 1989-12, Page 27A PERFECT
PARTNERSHIP
Down Memory Lane:
Bill and Gertie Mackey have been farming together
since they married 61 years ago. They remember
hard times and funny times, but most of all they
remember a good life shared on the land.
by Cathy Laird
I
n 1835, Bill Mackey's grandfather walked down into the Beaver
Valley after hiking from Barrie. Today, the Beaver Valley region produces
20 per cent of Ontario's apple crop, or about 2 million bushels of apples a
year, exporting them as far as Scotland. And Bill Mackey and his wife of
61 years, Gertie, are still sharing a farming career.
Their home, Glencairn Orchards, just outside Thornbury, is a half -mile
from the original farmstead where Bill Mackey's grandfather ended his
walk 155 years ago. Bill's father, John, bought the "new" farm in 1894,
adding 200 acres of pasture to the original 50.
This year, Bill Mackey says, the apple crop was "pretty disastrous.
There are lots of apples but they're smaller."
The Mackeys have had long
experience with the ups and downs of
the apple industry. Recently they, like
all other apple producers, witnessed
the controversy over Alar, a spray that
helps keep apples hanging on trees
longer. "We never did use Alar in our
orchard," Bill says. "But you could
never get to all those apples soon
enough. One day they'd be hanging
there, waiting to be picked, and the
next day one would let go at the top
and take a basketful with it on the way
down."
This year they're asking at the
juice plant if the apples have been
sprayed with Alar," adds Gertie.
"Apparently, the plants are refusing
Alar -sprayed apples this year."
"But if anyone's poisoned, it's
Bill," she says. "He's been spraying
apples for 60 years."
"We used to use lime sulphur for
apple scab," adds Bill. "That's pretty
miserable stuff when it got in your
eyes!"
The Mackeys have been working
together since they married in 1928.
"Gertie has driven all the farm
implements and worked right along
with the boys and me," Bill says.
"She was born in Ravenna. I married
the shopkeeper's daughter, not the
coal miner's daughter," he jokes.
Amends Gertie: "I've never plowed."
In addition to the ten acres of
apple orchard on the home farm, the
Mackeys milked cows for 25 years.
"Then we bought 40 Hereford cows,
and went into cow -calf," Bill says.
"With that set-up, along with the
orchard and 75 ewes, we couldn't
miss!"
But shortly after they married, the
Mackeys, like everyone else, were
"dumped into the Depression.'
"There was simply no money,"
Bill says. "And there was no way to
get money. If a fellow had a farm and
$8,000 to $10,000, he was a million-
aire then."
"Neighbours traded back and forth
a bit and merchants gave credit when
they could," recalls Gertie. "When we
got back from our honeymoon at the
Royal Winter Fair, we didn't have a
stove. So we went to Collingwood
and bought a "Happy Thoughts" cook -
stove for $75."
In early 1928, a cow went for $80.
A year later, the same cow would have
brought $15. Bill remembers when
pigs brought $3.40 liveweight. "At
the time, we were milking six or seven
cows," Bill recalls. "A cream can of
milk brought two dollars. One dollar
went for the gas for the car and the
rest bought the groceries. We had
pretty good credit with the storekeeper
downtown."
"We were pretty self-sufficient in
those days," adds Gertie. "We had a
few hens, so we had our own eggs. I
baked bread; we had milk. Also, we
had our own wood. We used coal -oil
lanterns. All the farm work was done
with horses."
"And they don't use much gas-
oline," chimes in Bill.
"I washed with a washboard and
hung the wash outside all year long,"
says Gertie. "I remember bringing the
diapers in frozen stiff."
"She didn't try to put them on the
boys that way, though," Bill says.
DECEMBER 1989 25