Memories Of Locks Road

There were rewards sometimes too. My dad would occasionally give me a dime. I would hurry off down the road to where Locks Road began at Waverly Road. It was a main paved road that lead into Dartmouth. A few buildings down Waverly was Greeno’s store. I would go in and buy 10 cents worth of penny candy, 2 for a penny. Mr. Greeno would scoop the assorted candies into a small brown paper bag and hand it to me. My favourites were the black licorice babies. With my loot in hand, I would walk back down Locks Road toward home.

Many times, I would be off in the woods around the village. I enjoyed the forest, the smells, and the little pine needle-covered pathways. You could look through the deep green trees and see the lake in the background. Our elementary school, Michael Wallace Elementary, was a long walk up a hill. I was easily distracted and started wandering off into the woods my first year. I did not mind school and was probably an average student, but I loved being in the woods alone. I would stay close enough to the school to see when the students were being let out and would go home myself. It was a good system until one day only the senior kids were sent home. When I showed up there, Jean wanted to know why I was home. I tried to say the teacher sent me home because I was ill but Jean phoned the school to ask about it. The teacher told her I had not been to school for a week. For some reason there wasn’t any physical punishment that time.

My family was 5 boys, of which I was the youngest, and 4 girls, and Dad. My mom died when I was 2. We were more or less in two age groups. The four oldest boys and two oldest girls were 11 to 20 years older than me. My 2 remaining sisters were Agnes, 2 years younger, and Olive, 2 years older. As the oldest siblings left home, looking after us younger ones fell to Jean.

Christmas memories come to mind often these days. Remembrances of when my older brothers and sisters lived at home and how we would celebrate. When the ads came out for Christmas season, Olive, Agnes, and I would cut pictures of Santa out of the papers and we each had our own stack of Santa clippings pinned to the wall. The one with the most by Christmas was the winner.

My dad and brothers would decorate the house with streamers and paper bells. We all would get together with the Sears wish-book catalogue and we would flip through the toy pages to pick out what we wanted.

There was a bit of magic to the letter writing to Santa. We would dictate the letter to Dad then he would seal it in an envelope addressed to the North Pole. Then us three younger ones would watch as he placed the letter in the oven and we would all retreat to an upstairs bedroom. We had to keep silent and listen for an elf. In an old house there were lots of noises and we’d get excited when we heard something. Everyone would rush to the kitchen and open the oven, and the envelope was gone!