Rosemary and Max 1953

Shortly after coming to Toronto in 1952 and shortly after all of the excitement had died down resulting from my running away from the orphanage mother started to talk to me about getting Max and Rosemary and bringing them to Toronto. In the summer of 1953 I decided to go back to Waterloo, and get Max and Rosemary. When I went back Max had gone to Camp and I wouldn't be able to bring him back, so I told Rosemary to pack her stuff into a shopping bag and go with me. She took all the stuff we could carry and off we went. We told her friends what we were doing but not to say anything for a while until after we had left. Rosemary was slated to go to Camp the next weekend, and so would be missing that. We got on the train and came to Toronto, leaving Max on his own. Rosemary enrolled in Alexander Muir Public School on Gladstone Ave in Parkdale and that September began public school in Toronto. After all of the excitement with the Childrens Aid Society calmed down, mother started to talk to me of getting Max. Mother was happy to have Rosemary with us as she was able to help with the two younger girls Anne and Heather, neither one of which was really hers. Rosemary would have been about 11 or 12 years old at the time. Although I'm repeating myself and never realized it at the time, mother was more interested in what we could do for her, than what she could do for us. I was working at the time, but not yet with the Railroad, and paying $15.00 per week board out of the $25.00 I was receiving. Eventually I went back, I don't remember how long later, but I went back to Waterloo to get Max and when I got there I talked to the kids, and asked where Max was and they said that my father had taken him out of the home, probably anticipating what was going to happen. It was lunch time and while talking to the kids I found out that Max was now in Victoria School in Kitchener, so I went to Victoria School and waited for the kids to come out for recess, and found Max and told him to come with me, which he did, so now the three of us were in Toronto on Northcote Ave. Max by this time was of High School age, and enrolled in Central Technical School as I did. About a year later Max would be encouraged to get a job which he did as a Telegraph Boy for the CNR, and b y this time I was working at Bathurst St for the CNR, and Max would come to me at work the odd time to see how he liked it, and would eventually transfer to Transportation our department and become a Car Checker as well. When Rosemary was old enough probably about 16 she was encouraged to get a job which she did, as an apprentice book binder for Bryant Press on Adelaide St in Toronto, and stay with them until her retirement. Rosemary was a lot like me, more of a happy person than Max. Max was always a sullen person and in the rare occasion that he was happy it didn't seem to last very long. If Max was mad at you he might not speak to you for weeks, and seemed to perpetually go around with a long face. Rosemary eventually met and married Emile A. and they had a couple of apartments until they bought a house on Browns Line just south of the QEW. Max met and married Hilda G. and they moved into a couple of apartments until they bought a house in Oshawa. I always surmised that part of the reason they were happy to get out of the house was because of George's up and down alcoholism, and drunkeness. George was also a snow plow operator in the winter time when it snowed and one night he was plowing down Shaw St. when he came upon a Car stopped on the street, and instead of going around the guy, George starts blowing his horn in front of the houses. Now George could have gone around the guy, and gone on his way but he stays there and blows his horn. This would not have been the worst thing in the world except that, the Guy was in a Police Car and George was drunk. They pulled George out of the truck and ran him in for drunk driving, and who could blame them. George lost his license for 3 months again, and his insurance went up, and he lost his drivers job and had to go back to slinging the garbage. As was said George had a horseshoe up his ass because he is approached on the job one day and asked if he would like to become a Building Inspector, at which he says yes, and is told to report to classes at the University of Toronto for one weeks training. George goes one day, and goes to the hotel for a few beers which turn into a dozen and comes home bombed. George doesn't go next day because of a hangover, goes the next day until noon when he goes to the pub for lunch, and never again goes back. That was the end of his Building Inspector gig. George was offered a few jobs that he didn't seem to be able to take advantage of. I neither drank or smoked, never took time off, and in my 40 years with the CNR was never offered a job. George would eventually be fired from the DSC for hitting one of the bosses, probably while he was drunk. George eventually got a job with Husband Transport as a service sort of person helping out in the shop, changing oil, etc. Rosemary had two children David and Susan, and Max went on to have four children Hollyanne, Tina, April, and Christopher. Max eventually sold his house in Oshawa and bought one in Gravenhurst, where he lives at present. When Max and Hilda went to get a marriage license and they filled out the application in the name section Max wrote Charles Mark Miloff, and Hilda says who the hell is Charles Mark Miloff. Although they had been going out together for a year or more she never knew that Max wasn't his real name, it was only a nickname my father gave him, because he liked Max Schmeling the German Boxer. Rosemary eventually retired and went to live in New Brunswick.