Rosemary, Max, and Allan arrive at 22 Willow St

When we arrived at 22 Willow St in Waterloo, we were introduced to, Miss Dankert Head Matron. Miss Dankert had very wavy hair, which seemed to be flattened to her head as though she had been wearing a tight cap after having her hair done. I seemed to giver her a severe look, or the impression of a no nonsense lady, but she was really a pussy cat, with a good sense of humour . Miss Dankert advised us, and stressed that we should not play in front of the house that we had to play in the rear all the time, that there was plenty of room back there, which there was. There was also a Mrs. Geisel, a seemingly humourless lady, another Matron who seemed to be in charge of the girls, who also had three of her own children living there, Jean, Barbara, and Donald. Another Matron was Mrs Beare, a good natured woman, who was in charge of the boys, and she had three of her children there as well, Raymond, William [Mutt], and Irvin, who seemed to get picked on by his brother Ray a quite a bit. Irvin was approximately my age and we became almost like brothers. There was another Matron, Matron Ruth Cherry who seemed to be an all around helper, who was a good natured woman who, the children knew they could go and ask her anything. There was an older girl Margaret Clarke, about 18 yrs old when we got there who also worked there and helped out wherever she could, I remember she used to iron the sheets with a big industrial mangle, and I got to have her teach me how to use it which I liked doing. There was also a cook, whose name I can't remember but who seemed to take a liking to me, because she seemed to find extra treats for me once in a while, but a short time after we got to the home she left and was replaced by Karen Constable, a tall blond Nordic looking woman who also seemed to take a liking to me, it's funny how I always was in good stead with the cooks. There was also, what we called a janitor, who also left a short time after we got there, and was replaced by Clarence Kane. There was also a lady who came in two or three times a week to darn the socks and do any sewing that had to be done, there were a couple sewing machines, and a darning machine. Each of the women had their own room in the home, and I used to gravitate to Margaret Clarke's room because she had her own radio and seemed to like the programs that I liked, my favorite being "Bigtown", but a close second was "The Shadow" played by Orson Welles, and Victor Jory, but we liked a wide variety of shows, Michael Kane, Michael Shane, Boston Blackie, Fibber McGee and Molly, Amos and Andy, Henri Aldrich, and I could name another dozen. Margaret always seemed to have candies that she bought at Smiles and Chuckles Candy Factory, on Weber Street in Kitchener.

The only difference from the picture, was that the trees were full of leaves, as it was late August 1946.

The orphanage in Waterloo was at 22 Willow St. and was certainly an imposing building. It had been the home of the Seagram family of distilling fame, and sat on nine acres of land and had 65 rooms, and a barn out back which was originally stables, and a carriage house. The property was bordered by Willow St on the west, the Snyder property, to the north, and behind the Snyder property waslo bordering on the orphanage was the Devitt property, Allen St. to the east, and to the south, the CNR Branch Line that led to the small freight yard, and the Waterloo Team Track.

There were even names for the rooms some of which I had never heard before, besides that is bedroom, kitchen, etc. There was a Billiard Room, no pool table, but a piano, and a large Stromberg Carlson cathedral type radio, which seemed to emit more static that recognizable sounds. There was also a conservatory, which was all glass and into which we would take the radio, if Inner Sanctum, or some other spooky program was on during a lightning storm, talk about special effects. In the reception area there was a phone, and most importantly for me, an Edison wind up Gramophone, with 48 quarter inch thick records, which fit neatly into slots under the playing devise, mostly classical, and semi classical music. The William Tell overture, which we referred to as the Lone Ranger, The Poet and Peasant Overture, The man on the Flying Trapeze, etc, etc. No one ever seemed to use it but me, and there were only a few needles which seemed to wear out quite fast. When I heard they were called needles, I thought, why wouldn't the sewing machine needles work, and it was almost like finding a treasure when I discovered they would, but wouldn't last as long. I have been a lover of and have been infatuated with machinery my entire life, so when Mrs Martin came in twice a week to do the sewing and darning I would make a point to go and watch her, and used to hear her wonder aloud, where were all the needles going.

In the basement there were three furnaces, only two of which were in use. They were fired with automatic stokers, using pea soft coal in the hoppers, which had to be filled daily in the heating season, the clinkers removed, and the flues brushed out. The janitor Clarence Kane , a Mennonite gentleman did this, as well as most of the maintenance work, including the filling of the water softener with rock salt. The water was extremely hard, coming as it did from Cartesian Wells just down William St. from the PUC, Public Utility Commision,yard. Clarence never seemed to mind the kids looking over his shoulder, in fact he seemed to enjoy the company. Because of my interest and learning how to operate and take care of the furnace, when Bruce Wellum left the orphanage because of his age [you had to leave when you reached 16 yrs.], I inherited his job of taking care of the furnace at Mrs. Devitt's house behind and to the side of the orphanage. I would get about 25 cents a week in heating season and some extra if the sidewalk had to be shovelled. The Devitt house was a big house but only about one third the size of the orphanage, and had only one furnace. Mrs. Devitt was an elderly lady, and I was told, she had come to the area with her grandfather in a Conestoga Wagon. There was a big hill on her property, which the kids would put to good use in the winter time, using sleighs, toboggans, and cardboard boxes to slide down the hill. Other kids from the neighborhood would also use the hill and everyone seemed to get along just fine, and have a great time, and I think that Mrs. Devitt, a rather stern looking lady, liked the activity, and to see the children having fun, because we were never told to not go there. Coal delivery days were exciting when we would see the big truck back up to the window of the coal bunker, which was in the basement and fill the entire room with coal, as only two of the three furnaces were being used, making steam heat for the rooms, only two of the bunkers had to be filled. The basement also held two large industrial type washing machines, and a water softener, which had to be filled with rock salt from time to time. The basement also had a cold room, with much of the canned goods, which had been prepared by the women of the home, it also had a couple large bins which they would fill with potatoes and carrots, that had been grown on the property by Clarence Kane, there were also a couple large rooms that the laundry would be hung in on rainy days, and which the children would run around in yelling just to hear the echo of their own voice. There were rooms in that house that I don't think the women knew about, but the kids in their exploring found out about, one such room held a huge pitch lined tank, which would have about 1000 gallon capacity, which we used to thing was for beer or wine because of it being previously owned by the Seagrams, but in all likelihood was for water storage before the house got town water pressure. There were two big attic rooms used for storage and in which the kids would play hide and seek. One of these rooms had a sky light, more about which in the future.

Up to the second floor from the main entrance to the building was a large circular stairway which was like something you would expect in one of those Southern Mansions, like Tara in "Gone with the Wind" and it would lead to the girl's floor, and the circular stair way would continue on to the third floor where the boys had their rooms, about six to a room, with the ages grouped. On the second floor was also a convalescence room where you stayed when you were sick, and I was in there once in my six years for a few days with German Measles. I did go once to the hospital to have my tonsils out.

There were nine acres of land half of which was planted by Clarence with, potatoes, carrots lettuce, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes and virtually everything that could be grown. The rest of the property was lawn which had to be cut with hand mowers, by the children with large trees mostly maples. The children would play games out back, tag, red rover, etc. The was croquet which we would set up on the lawns and play the women. There were trikes for the young children, and a variety of games for the other kids, including, various sizes of stilts, which took a while for me to try and use, which I eventually did. In the winter boards were set up for two skating rinks on the property, and when cold enough workers would come in and flood the rinks using the fire hydrant, near the home. A box of old skates would be dumped on the floor and we would try and get a pair not to old, that half way decent fit, but that was almost impossible, but we had a great time with it anyway.

Everything done at the home, or needed to be done, had to be run by Mr AR Kaufman, of Kaufman Rubber, Mr Kaufman was Chairman of the CAS, Childrens Aid Society Board, and from time to time he would show up to see if anything was needed, or just talk to Miss Dankert in general. Mr Kaufman was a very tall, unsmiling, austere looking man, who always looked, and acted like his shorts were to tight. Mr. Kaufman's mother had been on the Orphanage Board since it's inception, and was in part instrumental in getting the Seagram property for the home. Mr Kaufman once brought in a shoe box full of liquorice alsorts, which were harder than jaw breakers, as they must have been sitting around his house for a year, but Miss Dankert said to thank Mr Kaufman for them if we saw him. Mr Kaufman turned up at the home a few days later, and I went up to him and said, thank you for the candy Mr Kaufman, but they were stale.

I don't remember a lot about the diet, but there wasn't a lot of meat, maybe once a week, there was porridge in the morning or cereal, sandwiches at lunch time, and perhaps pasta, or soup for supper, every once in a while there would be extra meat when some unobservant motorist would kill a deer. What did happen from time to time was when there was a picnic anything left over would be brought to the home, and one thing we used to get on a yearly basis which I really liked were spare ribs wrapped with dressing in the middle, and large padded bags with dry ice and ice cream in them. When a lot of ice cream came in Miss Dankert would say have as much as you want because it won't keep, and we would sit on the back porch and pig out.

On the property was the two story coach house with a brick wall around it and a courtyard inside. The entrance to the courtyard was between two parapets onto which had originally hung a gate but that had long since been removed. On the top of the cone shaped parapets was a green copper flashing under which was a wasp nest, and which the kids took great delight in banging with a stick running away and watching them swarm. The second floor of the coach house was where the feed for the horses had been stored but was now empty. The kids would pile leaves in the fall and snow in the winter and jump out the door and pretend they had parachutes. One day after one of the kids hit the wasp nest with a stick and left, I unknowingly went through the swarm getting stung many times and when he heard me yelling, Clarence who was painting his car at the time came out to see what the commotion was, and when he saw how upset I was he went to the edge of the swarm and put his arm near, and a couple wasps came on his arm and we watched them sting him. I thought he was crazy, but he then says something that I never forgot, he said that the venom from wasp stings would be good for arthritis, and there would be less chance of getting it in the future because of those stings.