Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Down Memory Lane

We are in the process of doing something most married people get to experience once in their lifetime - cleaning out the family home we grew up in so that it can be sold.

In my case it is a little easier to do as my daughter and her fiance are buying my parents home so we don't have to clean it out completely and strangers will not be living in my old bedroom! My Dad is still living but old age - he is 92 - has necessitated him going to a nursing home, so my wife and I are cleaning out 52 years of accumulated "stuff" that our daughter doesn't want or need.

We came across a stack of postcards in one of the dresser drawers which caused this trip down Memory Lane. A couple of them, one from Montreal and one from Winnipeg were sent home by my older brother when he was heading for Regina in 1965 to learn how to be a Mountie which he did very successfully for close to 40 years. There was one from my brother-in-law from a hotel in Oshawa when he was just beginning his new career with GM in 1973. He retired from there in 2005 ish.

However, the very best was one Mom had sent to me in 1977, my first year at UNB. They had dropped me off in Fredericton and carried on to do some travelling around Maine and New Hampshire. The card the sent was from Clukey's (pronounced like Clookey's)  Motor Colony established by Mr and Mrs Francis J. Clukey in 1931. This was a collection of small cottages on their property in Bangor, Maine.

The first time I remember staying there I was about 4, so about 1963, and we still lived in Alma. My brother and sister  still lived at home and we went there for a small vacation. I remember being so impressed by everything about this place. Big city stuff for a little guy from Alma. Nearby was a public park which ran along the river and there was this large (at least in my mind) pool with a fountain in the middle. At night there were multi-coloured lights shining up through the water. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen!

There were things on the little black and white TV that I had never seen either. It was the first and only time I had ever seen a show called The Musketeers". I was very impressed.

I still have some more digging to do and another trip down Memory Lane may be conjured up because of it.