Memories of my Father:
A Young Man

My father had a difficult life. His own father was brutal and severe. He was physically and emotionlaly abusive, and alcohol made the problem even worse. When my father was only 12 years old, his mother was savagely beaten by his father. One of the older brothers had to run upstairs, jump out of a window, run to a neighbour's property and call the police. It was too late; his mother died in hospital. Once his mother had died, my father's family and family life (such as it was) all but disintegrated.

He dropped out of school in grade 10 to find work. He needed to do this just in order to get by-- he couldn't rely on his father to provide food or necessities. Most of the rest of the children left soon thereafter.

My father had a number of jobs, but the one that made an impression was being an assistant to a surveyor. It was something he would parlay into a career.

He was known as something of a wild sort as a child, and this carried into his early adult life. Minor troublemaker and carouser, he had then and always maintained an excellent sense of humour.