Bob Boone:
CLASS OF 1966
Marville High SchoolClass of 1966
Marville,
CW Jefferys Collegiate InstituteClass of 1966
Toronto, ON
Downsview Secondary SchoolClass of 1965
Toronto, ON
Beverley Heights Junior High SchoolClass of 1963
Toronto, ON
Crosby Public SchoolClass of 1961
Richmond hill, ON
Bob's Story
And here we goÿÿ.
I was born on the Miramichi River, near Chatham in New Brunswick; literally on the river! The big day was Easter Sunday, March 28th, 1948. My mom and my Uncle Bud were in Lower Derby, on the north bank of the river and the maternity ward of Chatham hospital was on the south bank. It had been freezing rain; the bridge across the river was covered in ice and was closed off to traffic. The river surface was frozen solid. Uncle Bud deemed it safer to drive across the ice rather than to attempt crossing on the bridge which was a high one and not very safely railed. Apparently it wasnÿt an uncommon practice to do this. It seems I was a rather impatient youngster, back then; I really donÿt recall. I presented while crossing the river instead of waiting for the security and warmth of the hospital. My Uncle Bud parked on the river, and delivered me in the back seat of his car. My birth certificate says I was born in Lower Derby, New Brunswick, as opposed to Chatham; so we must have been closer to the north bank when it happened.
Some documents list me as Robert Charles George Boone and some leave out the George. Iÿm kind of partial, so I tend to include it when prompted to give my full name.
Dad joined the Royal Canadian Air Force at the onset to the Second World War and served near Leeds at an RAF aerodrome as an Air Frame Technician during the war. Dad quit the military after repatriating with his war bride and worked for a few years as a Sawyer in New Brunswick and Quebec. He re-enlisted just prior to the Korean conflict in the Pacific and remained in the air force for the next 2+ decades.
I was the third, of five children born to my parents. My oldest brother, Ken, was born in Leeds, England, in 1944, where my mom was born and raised and my parents were married on Dec. 24th 1943. My second brother, Gordon, had come and, unfortunately, gone, before I was born. He died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (crib death) in 1947. Christine Eleanor followed after we moved to Aylmer, PQ in 1949. My younger brother, Wayne Dennis, was born in 1950, after dad re-enlisted and was stationed at Centralia, ON. Wayne was born with a speech and hearing aphasia, which has made his, and in some cases, the rest of our lives, very difficult, at times. I have no strong memories of our lives in Lower Derby and Aylmer. I do have vague memories of enormous snowdrifts in winter and having to tunnel through snow to get out of our house. We have one photo of Christine sitting on a snow lion, with Ken standing beside it, and Dad and I behind it, in our front yard in Aylmer.
We were in Centralia, just north of London, ON, in late summer of 1952. Hurricane Hazel came to call. She actually lifted the roof off of the curling rink down the road from our PMQ and deposited it in our back yard.
On December 24th, 1953 our car was southbound on highway 4, returning to Centralia from Christmas shopping in Exeter. Four of us, Dad, Ken, Wayne and I were in the car; Mom and Christine were at home. We were hit head-on by a vehicle driven by a drunk driver. All my life I had thought he was killed instantly and was driving without car insurance. According to newspaper reports Iÿve found recently (July 2004), in library archives, in Exeter, Clinton and London, he suffered only bruises and facial lacerations.
The Exeter Times Advocate article says he was treated at South Huron Hospital, in Exeter, arrested on release, charged with dangerous driving, jailed, then, released on bail. Dad, Wayne and Ken were initially taken to hospital in Exeter too. Dad was immediately transferred to Westminster Hospital in London for treatment. I was taken directly to War Memorial Childrenÿs Hospital (now Childrenÿs Hospital of Western Ontario). On Christmas Day doctors operated to repair my liver. None of the articles Iÿve found indicate correctly the severity of my injuries. The new information I have found will be added to the end of this narrative as Addendum 1.
Dadÿs jaw was crushed by the steering wheel of our car. Ken, sitting in the back seat behind Dad, had a piece of glass cut his cheek. Wayne split his scalp open on the back of my seat. The white car, in the picture to the left, was ours. I had been standing on the front passenger seat. I flew into the windshield, shattering it. I was found, hanging, by my throat, on a jagged piece of glass in our windshield. Wayne and Ken were stitched up; kept overnight for observation; then allowed to go home. Dadÿs jaw was surgically rebuilt and wired shut to heal. He was hospitalized, but I donÿt recall for how long. I was hospitalized until September 1954! A large piece of glass from the windscreen had penetrated my abdomen and severed off a piece of my liver. Both ankles, both shins, both collarbones and several ribs were broken. My throat and right cheek were cut badly and small shards of glass had cut me all over my face. I never lost consciousness and can recall screaming for my mom as a nurse was cutting away my clothes at Exeter hospital. I was on the critical list until sometime in March and it wasnÿt until March 28th that I was allowed to celebrate both Christmas and my sixth birthday in my hospital bed. I remember being nearly buried in gifts! One name, Miss Erskine, still sticks in my mind from this period. Iÿm uncertain as to whether she was a nurse or a grade one teacher who came to tutor me during my incarceration. I think itÿs strange that I canÿt recall long periods of physiotherapy. I can remember, once, seeing a photo of me in casts on both legs and using crutches in a winter setting outside our PMQ in Centralia. Since starting to write this chronicle, Iÿve come to realize this accident happened on the day of Mom and Dadÿs tenth anniversary! Itÿs hard for me to imagine how my mother would have felt and reacted when she was informed of it!
This is a picture of Huron Park Public School in Centralia, Ontario, taken July 31st 2004. The base has not been operational for decades and the school is not used and in terrible condition now. I think we lived on Empress Avenue in Huron Park, but Iÿm not sure.
Iÿm left handed. This was never a really big problem in my life. One area in which it did have a significant consequence was in the schoolroom, particularly in the early years. Holding the pencil or pen I was writing with meant my hand followed the instrument when writing and I was invariably smudging the writing with the heel of my hand. It was a far more serious crisis when I progressed from pencil to pen. Pens in the 50s and early 60s were wooden handled, steel-nibbed instruments accompanied with an inkwell. The ink was still very wet by the time my hand reached my writing and the smears made my great compositions virtually unreadable by the end of my first line. Most left handed people of my era learned to hold their hand up off the page when writing with pen and ink. I was never comfortable writing back handed as it were so my penmanship marks suffered grievously during my early school years. Bicÿs quick drying ballpoint pens finally somewhat alleviated the problem starting in the early 1960s, though the early ballpoint pens occasionally left blobs of ink on the paper and in my shirt or pants pockets.
My first and only brush with the law occurred while stationed in Centralia. A friend and I, walking home from the curling rink on base one evening, thought it would be great entertainment to throw rocks onto a Quonset hut and listen to them rattle down the sides of the all-tin building. The military police didnÿt think it was all that funny. They put a stop to our fun by giving us a ride to the police station in their squad car. We sat on a bench in front of the Desk Sergeant in the front of the building wondering if we were going to spend a night in the ÿslammerÿ. Our dads came to pick us up and at the time Iÿm sure the slammer looked like a better alternative to both of us.
TV came to the Boone family near the end of our stay at Centralia. Very quickly routines developed around it. We almost always watched it as a family. The shows on TV then were almost universally oriented that way. Hockey Night in Canada with Foster Hewitt; of ÿHe shoots; He scoresÿ fame; was standard Saturday night fare. The Wonderful World of Disney, followed by, the Ed Sullivan Show were standards on Sunday evenings. Leave It to Beaver; Father Knows Best; Wild Bill Hickock; The Lone Ranger; Hopalong Cassidy; Roy Rogers; Howdy Doody; Maggie Muggins; Truth or Consequences, with Bob Barker; I Love Lucy; The Steve Allen Variety Show; Dan Dalyÿs Queen for a Day;
Pierre Burtonÿs Front Page Challenge and Whatÿs My Line; Leave It to Beaver, Father Knows Best, Monte Hallÿs Letÿs Make a Deal, were all fodder for our fertile minds. They were good family-oriented shows with high entertainment and family values. Later, in the decade, came Bonanza; Don Messerÿs Jubilee (Charlie Chamberlain, a regular on this show, was my Grandmotherÿs brother); Lawrence Welk; Mitch Millerÿs Sing-a-long Jubilee; the Red Skelton Show; the Donna Reed Show, Richard Booneÿs Have Gun Will Travel. One thing that so many people today donÿt understand is that television then wasnÿt 24/7! TV stations signed on and off with the national anthem and a five minute ÿtest patternÿ That test pattern; an Indian head in full head dress with circles and crossed lines; was almost like another TV show for us. They signed off about 11 p.m.; on again about 6 a.m.; off in the late morning and on again in late afternoon.
Mom was a great cook! I knowÿÿeverybody says that about their mom!ÿ The difference here is that she was hired and recognized throughout our for...Expand for more
mative years as a cook. Hot suppers, as a family, every evening were a given. Fish and chips every Friday; a pork or beef roast on Saturday and either chicken or turkey on Sunday were normal. Some of her other specialties were Shepherdÿs Pie; cabbage rolls; meat loaf and chili. Lunches were usually soup and sandwiches, both of which were always homemade. Momÿs Yorkshire puddings, which always accompanied roast beef, were superb!
In the spring of 1955 we sailed aboard the White Starÿs Empress of France from Montreal to Southamton, in England; then crossed the English Channel; on our way to Baden Solingen in Germany. The Empress was a classy ocean liner with lots of exciting things for us to discover, and keep us busy. It was a seven-day, continuous, adventure for us children. We played shuffleboard on deck; saw movies in its theaters; ate like royalty in its dining rooms and watched icebergs float by, from its decks. The photo here shows the dining room aboard ship on the final night, prior to landing in England. Ken isnÿt in the picture, so he must be taking it!
We were stationed in the geographic center of continental Europe and we, happily, took every advantage of it for the 3 years we were there! We explored castles and blown up 2nd World War bunkers in the hills along the Rhine River every weekend. Once running up a hill to explore one of these I stepped on a nest of hornets in a small crack on a rock face. They took exception to my invasion. The American doctors in Heidelberg took 38 stingers out of my face and neck. My cheeks and forehead were so swollen I couldnÿt see out of my eyes for 4 days! We toured Holland, Switzerland, Luxembourg, France, Belgium and Germany in our summer holidays. Dad bought and outfitted a Volkswagen bus as a camper for our constant excursions and we had a ball! The borders of these countries were all within a two-hour drive from home. I remember Dad playing hockey for the base hockey team with us cheering him on from the sidelines. Ken joined Scouts and went on numerous jamborees Later, back in Canada, he achieved Queen Scout status!
In Europe, in the 1950s, there was a black market in both Canadian and American money. Canadians serving in Europe were not paid in Canadian dollars but in deutschmarks. Canadian money, where needed, in the Base Exchange, grocery store or messes, for example, was exchanged in script. It was like monopoly money but with real purchasing power. Paper nickels, dimes, quarters and bills could only be used on the base and not in the local economy. In this way, the black market trade was controlled to some extent.
We did a great number of things, together, as a family. Mom had a great singing voice and taught us many of the English, Irish and Scottish folk songs she learned while growing up in Leeds. We passed many happy hours singing along with her on our camping trips in Europe and Canada. We learned, at an early age, many card games; Poker, Euchre, Canasta, Rumoli, Pass the Ace, Gin Rummy, Sargeant Major (9, 5, 2) and board games like chess and Monopoly.
In 1956, the whole family, less our Dad, moved to Leeds in England. We lived with our Gramma Mark (Momÿs mom). I remember waking in the middle of cold, damp, winter nights and feeding pennies, ÿtuppencesÿ and ÿthrepney bitsÿ into an electric heater on our bedroom wall to keep us warm. I had to wear shorts, a blazer, and a beany cap at school there. We also learned to love a whole new bunch of relatives we hadnÿt known we had.
On July 30th, 1957 we boarded the Saxonia in Liverpool to repatriate to Canada. Again it was like a 7-day vacation. More shuffleboard, icebergs, cinemas, elegant dining, and, this time, three on-deck swimming pools! There were also three bands of American Indians on board to entertain us with full-dress traditional dances during the trip. The Volkswagen bus we had used to great advantage in Europe came back to Canada with us and had a facelift; Dad painted it red and white.
Dad was now stationed at Uplands in Ottawa. The first year there we lived in two motel rooms in the small village of Carlsbad Springs, just south of Ottawa. Wayne, Christine and I went to a one-room schoolhouse about four miles up the highway. It was quite a hike after heavy snowstorms that plagued the Ottawa Valley that winter. It had a wood-fed stove in the back of the room and an outhouse in the back yard. There were seven rows of desks with each row assigned to a different grade. I remember doing a Christmas Nativity pageant in that room where I played the part of one of the three wise men who visited Jesus in the manger.
Adjacent to the motel we lived in was an old building lived in by an old lady, of European extraction, by the name of Andre. She was a potter and had one ancient working kiln. We kids used to help her with the heavy lifting involved with her livelihood and in return she taught us how to make little clay figurines; allowing us to fire them in her kiln. A hundred yards down the road from our motel at a sharp bend, a small creek ran under the highway. It eventually emptied into the Ottawa River. Ken caught a 30 lb. salmon with his bare hands. It was trapped in a small deep pool just a few feet from the culvert under the road. His picture, fish in hand, was published in the Ottawa Citizen.
We traveled, toured and camped often in Canada too. Frequently we visited relatives and friends in New Brunswick; Bathurst, Chatham, Newcastle, Douglastown and Moncton. We spent many weekends in Algonquin Park while stationed in both Ottawa and Toronto
Late summer of 1958 saw us move into a PMQ at CFB Uplands. Christine and I attended Elizabeth Park Public School on the base there. Wayne, because of his aphasias, was deemed unteachable and kept home. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip visited Canada and we were in the parade welcoming her to our country. Behind our school was a long, steep hill down which we sleighed in the wintertime. Once I fell off of my sleigh and was run over by another close behind. Luckily I was relatively unscathed, suffering only a chipped front tooth in the altercation. Saturday afternoons at Uplands were normally spent in a wing of an empty H-hut on base that was used as the base theater. We sat in folding metal chairs, which we had to set up ourselves. A huge screen was pulled down, covering the whole surface of one of the shorter walls. A 35-mm projector was used to show the movie after we had pulled down all the window shades. It was great! Our own do-it-yourself movie theater!
To the left is a photo of Christine, Wayne and I outside our PMQ at Uplands. That fall, I started a career as a newspaper delivery person working for the Ottawa Citizen. My route quickly grew to over 120 subscribers, all in the PMQ area. I dragged a wagon full of papers around the entire MQ area daily and three loads every Saturday of the extra large weekend edition. It was quite a chore hauling that wagon around especially through snowstorms in the wintertime. I caddied at the golf and country club on Hunt Club Rd. in the summer months and still kept up my paper route, as well.
In 1959 Dad was posted to CFB Downsview, ON. Mom and Dad bought their first house on Ashlar Rd. in Richmond Hill, ON. It was one half of a duplex in the northwest part of town, east of Yonge. Richmond Hill was a relatively small sleepy town at that time.
Just north of our house, on the north east corner of Yonge and Elgin Mills was a huge open field, several 10ÿs of acres large and mostly grass. This was a kind of wetland with five natural artesian wells throughout the property. Two of the wells were active enough to create substantial ponds in the field. We swam in the bigger pond and built a raft to play ÿpiratesÿ with and to dive from as well. The smaller pond was our biology lab, as, in fact, was the entire acreage. We watched frogs lay billions and billions of eggs in the water. We watched the eggs develop into tadpoles. We watched the tadpoles grow legs, back ones first, then, front legs as well. Then we watched their gills disappear and the little frogs began having to bob to the surface to get air. When they finally emerged onto dry land they were perfect miniature frogs. We spent many happy hours chasing, catching, and releasing them, all summer long! The field was replete with milkweed inhabited with Monarch caterpillars. We saw them munch away at the plantÿs pungent leaves, on which they grew fat. When fully developed they spun a chrysalis around their body and went dormant. Weeks later a stunningly beautiful butterfly would emerge. I havenÿt seen a live nature show like that for decades!
Cable TV was still way off in our future! Dad started a part-time business installing rooftop and tower TV antennas; I helped. On weekends and during summer holidays, when not helping Dad, I would hitchhike to Maple Downs Golf and Country Club, on Dufferin St. between the Maple side road and King City side road, to caddy. I went to Crosby Heights Junior HS while we lived in ÿThe Hillÿ.
A PMQ opened up for us at Downsview in 1961. To cut down on Dadÿs commuting time, to and from the base, we moved there. To the left are photos of Mom and Dad in our back yard there. During the period 1961, through 1966, I worked variously as; a TV antenna installer; an assembly line worker for Lady Patricia Hairspray; a caddy; a stock boy at Savette City and a garden nursery salesperson for White Rose Nurseries (at Savette City). I also spent a considerable amount of time in the Base Theater in the Recreation center at CFB Downsview assisting Mr. Bushell maintain control of the wee ÿBeastiesÿ at Saturday matinee shows. I was a full-time pinsetter at the base 5-pin bowling alley, as well.
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