Summer

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I bumped into a folder of slides marked "summer of 1997" and thought I ought to scan them — it's 26 years later. Scan them if only to find out what's there. What follows is some commentary on the contents. They are interesting to us and might be to you.

The slides start with a lovely picture of Kate smiling in sunglasses; it's a very good picture and nice to have found it. There's some photos in and around the town of St Marys. This would have been before we moved there in February of 1998.

Our home was in London but, beginning in 1990, we had a park model mobile home, with an attached sun room, parked at the Science Hill Golf course north of St Marys along the Thames. We spent our summers there. It was a great time, but this would be our last year at the trailer. In the fall I resigned from Western, took a position at Waterloo (effective January 1998) and we found our home in St Marys. When we moved here we had no need for the trailer. We ended up selling it to some people who moved it to another park near Severn River. They got a very good deal.

I note that the pictures of the train trestle over Rice Lake in St Marys are from before it was converted to a walkway with lights and railing. At the time it would have been off limits. Pictures show the Creamery was busy on a sunny summer day.

Next there's some pictures of Jack and Doreta (Kate's parents) at Westport. They had a cottage on a lake not too far from Westport and we spent a lot of our time there. Jack and Doreta sold the cottage when they were no longer able to tend to it. They had offered to give it to their 3 children (Bill, Gord and Kate) but none of them wanted to deal with it. There are a lot of cottage stories to tell — like the time Jack threw me in the lake and more!

There's some pictures of a weekend at our trailer. Pat and Cindy are there. Ken, our nephew, and his two sons Mordecai and Kane who stayed with us for a week or so. Our nephew Mark and his wife Kathy (they parted) are there. Ken had recently had a brain aneurysm and a stroke following surgery. He's in pretty good shape in these pictures but the stroke left him aphasic — he has real trouble finding his words. Ken and his wife Jeananne were parted at this time. Shortly after Jeananne and the kids moved to Victoria, BC. So this would have been the last summer we had with Cai and Kane. 

There's a couple of pictures of rides at the St Marys Agricultural Fair. The fair shut down not too many years after. We took Ken and the kids to Rock Glen Falls, near Parkhill. And then onto Grand Bend where we played in the sand and had another swim.

One of our favorite adventures with the kids was the water slide at Sportsworld in Kitchener (long since gone). Kate loves the water slide. There was also a wave tank crowded with kids. No chance for Kate to do any of her swimming laps around the pool! The two kids tried out the rock climb. It was a busy and successful operation for many years.

Lastly there's a visit to the African Lion Safari which is near Cambridge. There are quite a few interesting animals to see up close and personal from the safety of your car. Some of the apes (baboons maybe?) like to sit on your car, rip off the wipers or rubber from around the windows. Lions and tigers too. I recall they used to have an elephant parade that we had seen with Kaitlan and Alana (another pair of nieces who would visit in the summer) on another visit.

There are many family and friends in these photos we sadly miss. But it's nice to see them again and recall the fun times we had back in the summer of 1997 when we were much younger — I was a lad of only 45 years. Doreta always said that your 40's were your best years. Perhaps she was right.

— Slides scanned and notes prepared April 2023 from hazy memories of fun times.