Our first baby was due April 3rd 1956, our first anniversary, and in January my in laws suggested we move in with them to save money. That worked until about 2 weeks before my due date when they decided it was too cramped and we moved back to my parents place, so there I was back to square one, in my old bedroom. Cher was born on March 27th a week early, we didn't enjoy our living situation and it was impossible to find a place to call our own, they just didn't have apartments that they do here.
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| Cher at 2 weeks. |
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| Cher at 3 months |
We got the bright idea we would emigrate to Canada, his Uncle Fred had lived there and had done really well. At first we were going to emigrate through the government, this meant, going where they wanted us to and what ever work was available. So... Ray was going to become a miner in Red Deer, Alberta! Now I was pretty naive but not totally dumb, when I saw the little dot that represented Red Deer on the map, plus the mining part, I suggested we better pay for our passage over.
We left our family and went by train to Dover and boarded a ship, owned by a Greek Line. The Queen Mary was docked at the time and our little ship was close by, it looked so small I thought it was a tug boat to move the Queen Mary. That ship was nothing like the cruise ships I've been on since. Cher was 6 months old by this time and traveled well, me not so much.
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| sailing away to Canada |
We docked in St. John's and took the boat train to Toronto. Union Station was huge and I had my first realization of what we had done, it seemed everyone from the ship had someone to meet them. We were on our own. I don't know if Ray felt the panic I did, but first thing we did was to go to a bank in the station and deposit our life savings, all $150.00 of it. The teller said, "Is this all you have?" When we said yes, she wished us luck. Realization number two?
Ray took off searching for a job in the garment district, and Cher and I waited in a cafe in the station. I remember seeing a big, burly man, I imagined he was a lumber jack, he had a bowl of tomato soup and took a big handful of crackers crushed them and tossed them into his soup. Little did I know that I would come to love tomato soup and crackers.
Uncle Fred had given us an address for some friends of his. It was in Scarborough, some how we found our way there by street car and bus, no one was home. We thought they'd moved so we walked until we came to a cafe and had coffee. The owner came to our table and asked where we were from. We told her our sad story, and she said when her son came home he would drive us back to the house to see if they were home. That was when I cried. She was just so kind.
We went back, and Maxine and Harold had come home from work, they took us in and let us have their guest room, they had 2 children so it was pretty crowded. The upstairs was rented out as an apartment and after a few weeks their tenants moved out and we moved in. One of my most embarrassing moments happened in the first few weeks, I had never used a washing machine but because they had been so kind, while everyone was at work I decided the least I could do was the laundry. The clothes to be laundered were on the floor in front of the machine, so I set to work. It didn't occur to me that Harold's three piece wool suit was not washable, I mean it was with the rest of the stuff, what did I know? Some days I was so lonely and homesick, I would sit on the front step and pray someone would walk past that I knew.
Ray found work as a pattern maker in dress factory, and also worked with Harold in construction. He got so thin from over working, that I decided I had to find a baby sitter and get back to work. I hated leaving my baby, one place I checked out a child was on a leash tied to a tree?
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| Cher aged 2 with her first dog. He didn't poop. |
My first job was at Addressograph/Multigraph. We used to make address plates, and later I was making credit cards, I hated that because we had to wear white cotton gloves to handle the plastic cards, so slippery.
Harold was also an amateur artist and I had always loved to draw and he taught me how to paint in oils. I loved it and sold several paintings.
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| the only Nude painting I sold it for a book case. |
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| Bull fighter wish this was in color. |
Harold and Maxine were real characters they would get into spats, and Maxine would say, "Harold kiss my a**." A totally new expression for me, but, what made me laugh was Harold's standard reply, "Maxine how could you speak of love at a time like this?"
Our $150.00 just about covered a down payment on a few pieces of furniture and our very first refrigerator. We lived there for about a year and then moved to a bigger, basement apartment. Not the happiest of times, walking to the baby sitter through snow drifts, and commuting by street car.
I changed jobs and was working in a nice office, one of my tasks was to go to offices downtown and pick up import papers from the USA, by then I had learned to drive, but drove a company car. I was driving the president's car, a big shiny black town car, that made me nervous, on the way back I had to break really hard and skidded into the car in front of me, and sat in horror, as the chrome trim on the hood rose up to meet me. I was able to drive it back, the police called the office, and when I got there, all the guys were hanging out the windows to see what damage I'd done. No I didn't get fired. My boss was so nice about it.
It's hard to remember everything in sequence, but I do know in 1961 I was pregnant with Steve, and he was born in November at St. Michael's hospital in Toronto.
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| There we were with Steve yet to be born. |
We had some good friends from the church we attended. I converted and was baptized a few weeks before Steve was born, and then I had to really obey the church rules, hence the arrival of Kim in 1963 and Karen in 1964. Steve's God parents were Valentino Rapone and his Irish wife Joan. We called him Dean but I loved the Mafia sounding name. Steve was named Stephen John Dean. Had to have some Saint's names in there. I had quit work by then and didn't go back to work until Steve was 9 years old. Longest break from work I ever had.
In 1962 we decided to back to England to find out if we really wanted to stay in Canada. That will have to be in my next blog. Writing is something like talking to me - I need to learn when to shut up.
