The Huron Expositor, 1982-09-29, Page 16�l16 — THE HURON EXPOSITOR SEPTEMBER 29, 1982
Life's better now: 90
BY SUSAN WHITE
Can you picture Seaforth and Egmond-
ville with the streets so dirty in the summer
that a cart makes regular runs, sprinkling
water to settle the dust? Or streets lined
with house yards enclosed by wooden
fences so the livestock running at large
couldn't gel in: ruin the lawn and raid the
garden?
Rena McKenzie can, because that's what
the arca was like when she was growing up
here by the 1890s,
Miss MacKenzie still lives in the home,
near the southern outskirts of town on Main
St., where her family moved when she was
seven years old. She'll be 90 on Thursday
and is marking the day with an open house
for family and frie
There'll be plc tYi y of (Me. Former pupils
who remember Miss MacKenzie from her
teaching career of 40 years, friends from
Egmondville United Church which she's
attended all her lifeand members of a big
family, descendants of her four brothers
and one sister. "People who don't have
family are sometimes lonely. 1 never am.
Tney're always dropping in and take
wonderful care of me. Now the next
generation (great nieces and nephews and
their children) are , coming Ton,", Miss
MacKenzie says.
She's a spry lady who looks 70, takes care
of the beautiful flowers at the front of her
house, does her, own cooking, and has kept
busy with housekeeping, crafts (13 quilts
she made for nieces and nephews. crochet-
ed placengats that are works of art), some
reading, and lots of visiting. since she
retired in 1951.
Until last year she drove her own car,
atter passing her test for her licence nine
tinges. Now she doesn't go out at night any
more. She misses being able to drive, but an
neighbour from Egmondville who helps her
out. Laura McPhail, "will drive me
anywhere. She's tops. I don't know how. I
was so lucky."
Miss MacKeniie's father, Donald, work-
ed in a pioneer Seaforth industry, the T.T.
Coleman Salt Works. He and her mother,
born Christina Ross, both came from
Scotland. "Mother came out two years
later. a they'd courtedbefore they left
Bone." She speaks proudly of a great -great
niece, Christina Ross Gordon, daughter of
Pam ,and Barry Gordon. who's a regular
visitor with her mother.
Although she's not a great traveller ("1
wouldn't go to Florida; I don't mind
winter"), Miss MacKenzie took a trip to
Europe, and especially Scotland, with a
niece, Marg Patrick in 1952. She has
corresponded with cousins and her last
surviving aunt in Dornoch, north of
Inverness "and we met them all." One
relative called Miss MacKenzie "the
youngest looking retired woman I've ever
seen:"
TAUGHT IN HUMBERT
Students, who still visit and write her,
helped keep her young. After three years at
SS44 Hibbert -"quite a change for me
because I'd gone to Seaforth school where
there were separate grades-" she went to
Romeo school in Stratford as a critical
teacher for the normal school in '1914.
Following the first war she moved to Juliet
school in the same city where she taught.
mostly grade twos and threes. for 33 'years.
Miss MacKenzie remembers a lot of new
immigrants in the city who'd come out as
steerage passengers from London towiark in
" Idon't think I'm
any different
than when I was 16"
the furniture industry. "They needed a lot
of help" to adjust to life in Canada and the
schools did as much as they could.
Most weekends Miss MacKenzie travell-
ed back and forth to Seaforth by train. Then
a few years after her mother died, aged
almost 95. she carne home for good to keep
house for her brother John "'who had been
batching it." He died in 1977 and Miss
MacKenzie, the youngest, is the- last
ear old days
surviving member of her immediate family.
Church has always been important to this
alert and witty lady. For the first 17 years of
her life: Neil Shaw "a marvellous man who
looked after you as if you were one of his
own" was Egmondville minister. There
were no hospitals then and 'when an
operation was scheduled on a church
member's dining room table "1'l1' be there,
Mr. Shaw said, and he always was."
SNOW SHOES
She's in good physical -`health; doesn,t
feel elderly -"1 don't think l'm any different
than when 1 was Ib" and perhaps that's due
to hard work when she was young. She
walked more than two miles on snow shoes
to her school when she taught in Hibbert 70
years ago.
On an earlier occasion, when she was
about eight, Miss MacKenzie joined a
group of kids marching along Main St.
declaring that Ladysmith. where 9000
British soldiers were besieged for 118 days
under awful conditions during the Boer
War, had been relieved. "We went down
to Egmondville to serenade a man who was
reputed to be a friend of Kruger, the South
African leader and the other kids said school
had been dismissed in honour of the
occasion,"
Much to the young Miss MacKenzie's
dismay, the gang had made the whole story
up. school was on and the next day "we wee
were all lined up in front of the teacher's
desk and 'got one slap of the strap Each.
PRICES EFFECTIVE
UNTIL CLOSING
SATURDAY,
OCTOBER 2,1982
R
MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY 9.6 PM
STORE HOURS: T URS. & FRI. - 9.9 PM - SATURDAY - 9-6 P
—FROM THE DELI
BURNS PRIDE OF CANADA
COOKED
HAM
BURNS PRIDE OF CANADA
OLD COUNTRY
SALAMI
BURNS PRIDE OF CANADA
VISKING
BOLOGNA
BURNS PRIDE OF CANADA
EYE OF THE ROUND
PASTRAMI
ROLE.N UTILITY GRADE We Will not be undersold
on Turkeys
TURKEYS
6.16 LB. AVG.
SEAF
T
"Ladysmith was relieved a few days
later."
Another highlight in her youth was
Queen Victoria's Diamond Jublilee. "An
arch of barrels, wound with cedar ropes was
set up on this side of the tracks." In the
procession, Mrs. Edward McFaul was
Queen Victoria and a young friend of Miss
MacKenzie's, Jennie Murray, sat at the
Queen's feet. "Very elegant I thought...
and having a friend so close tothe queen..."
A good memory, and reminiscences, are
a jay to Miss MacKenzie and she quotes a
tiny pupil, "little Audrey", who climbed up
on her teacher's knee and said "I just do the
best.Lcan and then 1 don't worry."
Life is much better for older people now
than years ago: "there were so many
reduses, biddies we called them, nobody
cared about them and there was no cheque
every month."
Life for Seaforth and area people is better
now too, she says_'The town has improved
a great deal. There's a lot of resh paint on
Main St. You n ter heard of a (dowtown)
Clower bed in the bld days,"
As the conversation ends, she's looking
forward to seeing old friends on Thursday,
but sorry she can't have at least an -hour
with each of them, And planning a dinner
she'll serve to a friend dnd her daughter
who can't 'make the party but are coming
from Toronto earlier this week. The menu?
Well, likely chicken. sweet potatoes cooked
in orange juice, and. the 90 -year-old adds "1
can still bake a lemon pie,"
WITH EACH
$5.00
PURCHASE
YOUR CHOICE OF PATTERN
voIlabIe at".
THF
ET
Seal ,r$h
!)
ISI)
11)
ARKET
I ERY WEDNESDAYS 5 SENIOR CITIZENS' DAY - 5% ! 8SCUNIT
FREE DEANERY -SSE RESERVE THE RIGHT TD 6IMIT DiUANTIYTIES4
KIN ECHTEL
2.38
LB.
1.88
.8
PEPPERIDGE FARM
ASSORTED VARIETIES
LAYER CAKES 1.3
13 OZ. PKG.
CHOCOLATE OR BUTTERSCOTCH
CHIPITS
CIPS
350 G PKG.
3 LB,
TIN
1.89.
3.98
LB.
Lb.
GRADE "A" MIRACLE'BASTE
TURKEYS
6-22 LB. AVG.
1.29
CANADA GRADE A BEEF 1.48
BLADE STEAKS
I IH1 CHUCK
RT RIB
OAST
LEAN 8 TENDER
CROSS RIB
ROAST
IRON
EEF
STEW
BEEFBEEF
LEAN, BONELESS 1 BURNS PRIDE OF CANADA
STEW
t4
411
Lb.
Lb.
Lb.
arnation . Assorted ,Varieties
HOT:.- CHOCOLATE
Javex
LIQUID BLEACH
1.78 Lb.
68
1.98
BURNS PRIDE OF CANADA SLICED •
ASSORTED VARIETIES
LUNCHEON
MEATS 175 G PKG. fi�8
BURNS PRIDE OF CANADA
BEEF
BURGERS 3.99.
1 KG. PKG.
BURNS SWEET PICKLED CORNMEAL
BACK Lb
BACON 2.48
DINNER STYLE BONELESS
s°ouLDERS1.8818
HALF CRYOVAC
BURNS
"CAMPFIRE"
BACON 2.48
500 G PKG.
BURNS PRIDE 01 CANADA SLICED
HAM
1.38
175 G PKG.
BURNS PRIDE OF CANADA
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HMS 388
Lb.
SUGAR CRISP
POST
CEREALS
250 G
BOX
AUNT JEMIMA ASSORTED VARIETIES
DUCES
PROD USA PROD ONTARIO 1(1
FRESH 12 OZ BAG COOKING
CRANBERRIES .791 ONIONS
10 LB BAG
1.29
BAG
PROD ONTARIO 111
PROD USA
CANTELOUPES .79
LACH
HALF CRYOVAC
kith" lf1
TURNIPS 3/1.00
PROD ONTARIO
CHERRY
TOMATOES
.79
PINT
ae