Memories from Myra - a Mini series

by Myra Matthews

  The loss of a close friend or family member brings back a flood of memories and Myra Matthews (Hines) has shared with us some of her fondest memories of growing up along the 215 in the 60s. The stories she is sharing with us over the next few weeks are a tribute to “calmer”  times and the loss of a very close friend, Marjorie (Densmore) Thompson.

Memories from Myra:

   Marcia Hines, Ora and Valerie Densmore, Lynne Tomlinson, Gloria Densmore, Erma and Avis McLellan, Marjorie Densmore and myself, Myra Hines were all the same age group and the little one room schoolhouse in East noel is where we got to know each other.

  Back in the 50s and 60s growing up in East Noel was pretty basic. We had CGIT, Sunday School, and Marjorie’s favourite, the 4-H Club.

  Kay Densmore, Ora and Valerie’s mum was our 4-H Leader. I don’t know how she pulled it off, but it ran like clockwork. It was fun for us and we knew we had to behave ourselves. Our lives revolved around training our calves for 4-H, swimming, and in the winter coasting and skating.

  Any new clothes most always came from a catalogue. A trip to Halifax or Truro was an event that rarely happened.

  We all had jobs picking strawberries; that is until Judy Hines (Kazonie) Beach, decided we should stage a strike, for more money. We were asking for one cent more per box! My mother was mortified at the thoughts that the whole strawberry crew was sitting on her lawn with picket signs – “ON STRIKE!”

  Mum, Lil Hines, told Sadie Densmore, our boss and her best friend, to fire all of us! So, here we were, we had staged East Noel’s first and only labour strike and it had failed miserably and we had been fired from our first job – thank-you, Mum.

  Well, you know here’s that old saying that when you hit rock bottom all you can do is go up. AND up we went – we went up to the falls swimming for the rest of the summer.

  Growing up in East Noel  “back in the day” there was not a kid around who didn’t have nine lives and go through most of them. The good ole days were before safety rules were enforced!

  Our group was no exception – we lost a couple of those nine lives while up at the falls swimming – that’s one big secret we agreed that our parents must never know of. We were “free range” kids, just like free range chickens. We just roamed wherever we wanted to go , as long as we were home for supper, all was good.

  BUT we were NOT to leave East Noel on our bikes, so we got off them. Walking past the East Noel – Noel signs meant we were breaking no rules. That is until one day when Marcia Hines, Marjorie Densmore and I almost had our angelic faces plastered on milk cartons as missing children!

  Thank God the good people of East Noel were saved from munching their cornflakes every morning and seeing our mugshots on the milk bottles. We resurfaced down in Moose Brook and Rita and Mac Laffin weren’t long getting the word out, “They’ve been found – call off the search party!” No internet in those days, but the switch board was just as good and Aileen Fahey made sure to get the word around.

  Times were different then, like the time my Dad took Marjorie and her grandfather, Roy, my younger brother and I to see a real monkey at a canteen out in Noel Road. After we saw the monkey we all landed at the bootlegger’s. As my Dad and Roy drank a beer or two, I don’t think it ever crossed their mind they shouldn’t – this was family bonding and making memories – 60’s style.