I had just graduated from Ryerson P.I. and was working as a Public Health Inspector for the Borough of Scarborough in 1974. To supplement my salary, I would bartender at Maple Creek banquet hall, located off of Lawrence Ave.E. directly behind 43 police station, and down in the Highland Creek valley, and drive a private taxi for Atlantic Taxi. In that capacity, I would meet people from every walk of life and every corner of the world. Inevidently, I would be asked if I grew up in Toronto or my nationality, and this was my chance to state my Canadian status.
My mother was an Acadian-French, born in New Brunswick. A family of 12 children. One of my cousins started a family tree and had to visit archives in Quebec City since the churches kept birth and census records before Canada was created as a country. The lineage went back to 1641 when settlers were given a plot of land and told to survive on it or die. I had great-grandparents who lived to 100 back in 1800. My grandparents lived to their late 90’s, and my mother was 98.5. My father’s parents arrived from Ireland in 1850 during the Potato Famine. A small family of 5 children. We are proud CANADIANS. My father and grandfather, 2 great cousins, and 1 great uncle served in the great war, WW1.
