Indian Grove 1965/66

Because our rent was increased and we were thinking of buying a house we decided to get into a bigger apartment where we could store some stuff for the house. We found a two bedroom walk up on Indian Grove near Dundas and Annette, which we got for $100.00 per month. Later this year we would go to England on vacation. We heard of a club in Toronto called the Irish Club and through them we could get a flight for about $270.00 each return for about three weeks, and decided to take it. I was doing quite well at work because overtime was running wild. Quite a few double outs, many 24 hour shifts, some 32 hour, and 40 hr, and even one time I was on duty 48 Hrs. A friend of Anne's mother, in fact her next door neighbor in East Ham, had a sister and brother in law in Canada, Rene and Bill Costello, who we had met and they were going on the flight, as well. Bill Costello had been in the Royal Navy in WW11 and was nearly deaf, on which he blamed the cannon fire. Bill was an electrician at the Hearn Generating Plant in Toronto and in fact wired our rec. room, in the basement. Rene and Bill had the odd party in their house in Scarboro, and would invite us over, and we always had a good time. They would also invite us to dinner occasionally and it was them that got us into having the occasional bottle of wine with dinner. We got into this habit at the cottage more than home though.

We went on the flight to England together but went on our separate ways when we got there, although we would meet up a couple times during our stay. We met once by chance at Pettycoat Lane a vast Sunday Market in London, and once at a wedding when Rene's nephew was getting married.

We did the usual sight seeing while in London, Buckingham Palace, The tower of London, up the Thames by boat to Hampton Court, the Palace of Henri v111, Trafalgar Square, which is the black and white picture with Anne and me and the pigeons, and the Museum at Greenwich, near which is the Cutty Sark an old Clipper Ship, which is the picture with Anne's dad Leonard John Dyke.

We had rail passes, through work, to go to Dundee in Scotland to visit with Anne's Grandmother who was in a Seniors home there, and some other relatives, as well. On our way back we made a stop off in Edin borough, and went to the Castle, which was a fine Museum as well, then back to East Ham. Rene's sister had moved to Devon in the South of England to we decided to take a bus trip there to visit them. On the bus trip the driver seemed to be going so slow and we weren't making any headway at all, in fact after about two hours I see a road sign that says London 12 Miles and knowing our journey is eighty miles am wondering if we will ever get there. An old gentleman in the seat behind us could see that I was getting antsy, and offered me a Yachting magazine to read which I took from him with thanks, but a few times I was tempted to go to the driver and tell him, I would drive if he was afraid to speed up a little. As it turns out there was something wrong with the bus and he was just nursing it along, instead of calling for a repair or another bus. Anyway we do eventually get there, and have a nice visit with the Kerr's.

The flight over was my first experience on a big plane, it was a Douglas DC8 and the flight was quite good. I had said I would never get on one but relented when Anne wanted to go so bad. When we returned home we started thinking seriously about getting a house. After coming home, we get word that Anne's brother Malcolm who worked at the Race track at Epsom Downs wanted to come over here and try to get a job here, so we said he was welcome to come and stay with us, if he did. Malcolm came over later that year, and had a contact name at the track Duke Campbell, who was a trainer for EP Taylor. As the circuit was a Ft. Erie we had to go there to contact Campbell which we did, and Malcolm got a job at Windfield Farms, on York Mills Road off Bayview working for EP Taylor. Malcolm had been a Jockey but started to grow, and grew himself out of that job, but he liked working with the horses and continued to do so, exercising, grooming and whatever else there was to do with them, short of racing, and continues to do so today.

As we figured that I would eventually wind up at MacMillan Yard at Concord, we stated to enquire about houses in the Richmond Hill area, and looked at a few. We saw one we liked which they wanted $18,500.00 for, and we offered $18,000.00 and they countered with $18,200.00 and we decided to take it, so we bought our self a house. We had been picking up the odd piece of furniture, and storing it in our extra bedroom of our apartment, but still needed a stove and refrigerator. We went to the sears outlet store and found a stove, and Rene Costello who worked for Sears got us a refrigerator with her Sears discount. We moved into 126 Talmage Ave in November 1966. The house was built in around 1954 so was about twelve years old when we moved in. Although we never gave it a thought at the time, little did we know we would still be here in 2006, now 40 years.

In the mean time my half sister Anne gets knocked up and married Bob Crane, and my other half sister Heather, is in trouble constantly, neither one would turn out to be worth anything to themselves or there families. Heather would eventually get knocked up and marry a guy named Shaw his first name I don't remember. My mother loved kids but had no idea in the world how to bring them up properly, and both girls got screwed up for life, and this will be whole other story.