HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1999-06-23, Page 8PAGE 8. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23,1999.
These seniors’ memories tell it like it was
The biggest reason she retired was
the introduction of computers.
“Everything I had done was long-
hand. There were times when we
would go for lunch and our hands
would just be shaking.”
“I never knew how to type and I
couldn’t get used to computers. All
the automation, fax machines,
changed everything. I said it was
time.”
GLENNA STEPHENS
As the new millennium approach
es there are those who have lived
through a considerable bit of this
century. They have made amazing
contributions and recall a lifestyle
removed from the hectic technologi
cal times we live now.
Several residents of Huronlea and
the Highland Apartments took time
to share some memories and
thoughts on the way it was.
LILAH
CHESTER
FIELD
As a 19-
year-old girl
in Toronto,
Lilah Ches
terfield had
her first job in
the classified
advertising
department of
The Globe
and Mad.
“I made $17.50 a week. This was
before thfe war and really no one
could live on that even then. I think
they only hired girls who lived at
home because they were the only
ones who could live on. that.”
Chesterfield then went for a time
to The Toronto Telegram, “a crummy
place”, before moving on to The
Toronto Star in 1946. “Of all the
newspapers I was with The Star was
the easiest and the fairest.”
While people tend to assume that
work in the field you wanted was
easier to find in those days than
today, Chesterfield was amazed. “I
went there thinking I could say
where’s my desk, but that was not
the case.”
The man interviewing her asked
her a question that he would never
be permitted to mention today. “The
first thing he wanted to know was
my religion. I told him my father
was Methodist, my mother was
Presbyterian, I was raised Roman
Catholic, and went to the Anglican
Church. He told me I was not the
kind he cared to hire.”
He told her to keep calling, how
ever. “'If you can sell yourself, you
can sell advertising,’ he said to me.
So I called every day and eventually
got the job.”
So it was just a test? “No,” laughs
Chesterfield. “I think he was just a
bigotted old fool.”
Following her marriage to
Charles, having known him just one
week, the Chesterfields moved to
Sioux Lookout. She took a job with
The Sudbury Star. “When I got to
Sudbury they were so impressed I
had worked in Toronto they made
me a supervisor. It was crazy. I did
n’t know anything, particularly
about layout.”
She was, she says, good at the hir
ing and firing. “I asked one girl if
she liked to read. She said, 'Oh, yes.
I read a lot. About three books a
year.’”
Spelling presented a challenge in
bilingual Sudbury. “For every
English girl I hired I had to hire a
French girl, even though the news
paper was English. Their spelling
was atrocious, but even some of the
English ones couldn’t spell.”
By then Chesterfield was making
$60 a week.
When she and her husband moved
to Orillia she worked for The Orillia
Packet & Times, before finally end
ing up at The K-W Record. “Then I
said that’s it. That was 22 years a^o.”
A quiet,
dignified
woman,
G 1 e n n a
Stephens
came to the
Village of
Brussels with
her husband.
Dr. Russell
Stephens fol
lowing the
Second World
War in 1949. While he went on to
establish a country practice she
raised their five children.
Though her health makes it diffi
cult to converse, Stephens recalls the
life of a rural doctor 50 years ago as
a busy one. “There were late night
calls and in the winter he’d be called
out to the country. To get in the lane
people would come out and start
throwing the snow off so he could
walk in from the road.”
One memory brings a smile. “One
night after seeing a patient, the
woman said it was a bad night he
was going out into. He said, 'I’m not
going to go out. I’m sleeping right
on that couch. He phoned me and I
put out the light and went back to
bed.”
CLETA
MARRIOTT
C 1 e t a
Marriott has
always been
industrious.
“To sit and do
nothing is
quite boring.”
Married at
19 after hav
ing worked as
a stenogra
pher, Marriott recalls that being
innovative was necessary. “You had
to be or you did without.”
“There was a time when it was
awfully hard to get any soap so I
thought why not try to make some.”
That same creativity was useful on
the farm as well. “My father-in-law
bought a little farm with about four
or five cows. There was a separator
and chum there. I looked at them
and thought I might was well try to
make butter and see what happens
and it worked.”
“I didn’t know anything about
farming,” says
Marriott
adding, that
she did quite a
few things,
“none of which
were too spec
tacular,” but
you learn how
to do things
and make do
when you have
to.”
JACK MCCUTCHEON
“I sold those cones for five cents.
Those were the days. They were a
lot of fun.”
Some 40 years ago Jack and his
wife Margaret McCutcheon came to
Brussels and opened a grocery store,
despite the dire predictions of his
previous boss from the Ingersoll
Cheese Factory. “I told him what I
was going to do and he didn’t want
me to leave. He said, ‘God man,
You’ll lose your shirt.’”
“Those days we didn’t have much
money and we didn’t make much
money,” says McCutcheon, “But
there were five of us in the grocery
business in town and we all made a
living.”
Despite the competition there was
no animosity. “We all got along,”
says McCutcheon.
Doing business then was personal,
he recalls. “We did a lot of charging
then,” he smiles. “I got stung a few
times.”
Closing time didn’t mean much
either if you could help out a neigh
bour. “We stayed open on Saturday
night and people would come in at
closing time. But we enjoyed it, talk
ing to folks.
My wife was
better at it.
She was real
ly good at
getting along
with people
and a great
one to talk.
They were
good old
times.”
JIM MAIR
Sixty years ago Jim Mair came
down to Huron County from
Chesley to work on a farm. He never
left.
Marrying a local girl he bought his
own farm which started as a mixed
operation then later as a beef cattle,
cash crop farm until his retirement in
1974. He moved into town in 1985.
“Farming has changed drastically.
It’s easier in some ways I suppose.
But anybody with 150 acres was big
then. Now he’s only getting a place
to live.”
Mair believes the changes started
after the war. “We became machine-
oriented.”
The village has changed too, he
says. “Saturday night was a big
night, years ago. We came to town
with 25 cents to spend.”
What that got them was an ice
cream and a bottle of pop. “When
our three girls were growing up ice
cream at Jack’s was five cents. I
think he just did that for the kids and
I'm not sure you see that type of
kindness today.”
Mair’s daughters all live in the city
now. “Like a lot of young people
they head where the jobs are. But
while many people think cities
aren’t as friendly as small towns
they may not be right. The neigh
bourhoods the girls live in are just as
friendly as anywhere else.”
For Mair, however, that’s not the
case. Having moved away awhile
ago to live nearer to one of his
daughters he returned last
November.
“It never seemed quite like home
to me.”
P.O. Box 100
26 Jordan Drive
Belgrave, Ontario
INOG 1E0
Phone:
(519) 357-3010
Fax:
(519) 357-3143
• Oxygen Therapy
• CPAP Therapy
• Suction Equipment
• Apnea Monitors
• Aerochambers
• Allergy & Asthma
Control
• Compression
Stockings
• Enteral Feeding
Professionals...Committed to Excellence
Stratford
342 Erie Street, Suite 114
Jenny Trout Centre
272-0202
1-888-559-0572 Toll Free
Clinton
58 Mary Street,
Clinton
482-7405
1-800-387-4214
Questions you should
ask your doctor
(NC)—You are your best defense against osteoporosis.
By arming yourself with information, you can help take
control of your health. What you have to do is know
what to look for, and what questions to ask. Clip out this
page and lake il to your next check-up with your
physician.
• What can I do to help reduce the risk of osteoporosis?
• How much calcium should I get on a daily basis?
• Am 1 getting enough calcium in my diet?
• Should I be taking a calcium supplement?
• Which calcium supplements are best?
• What kinds of weight bearing exercises are right for
me?
• Should I have a bone density test?
• If 1 need more information, who should I contact?
For more information about daily calcium requirements, contact the
Osteoporosis Society of Canada at 1-800-463-6842 or www.osteoporosis.ca.
- News Canada
CALCIUM COUNTS NOW!
We Deliver Your Freedom
with:
■ Home Oxygen
■ Wheelchairs
■ Electric Scooters
■ Hospital Beds
■ Bathroom Equipment
■ Electric Reclining
Lift Chairs
MED-E-OX
282 Suncoast Drive, Goderich
(519)524-2020 1-800-265-5500