History of the Cottage: Part Four

Guest post by Pat Grafton.

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As you might by now have gathered, H.A. ruled the roost at the cottage, and no changes or improvements could take place without his approval.  He always had a dog, the last one named Kipper.  Kipper was not a particularly loveable dog, but I think it was due to the fact that he had to do what his master wanted at all times.  I can still see H.A. forcing raw liver down his throat and sometimes cod liver oil – enough to make any dog snappy!  However, H.A. walked him regularly, rain or shine, up and down the main road.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when it became obvious that H.A. liked me very much, as I was the only newcomer to the household in many years.  One day he decided that he would teach me to drive his 1940 Oldsmobile.  He drove us into the village of Vaudreuil and ordered me to take the wheel.  Unfortunately, he forgot one important thing as we were on a slight incline; to put on the brakes!  As I was walking around to get in the driver’s seat, the car slowly started moving with H.A. in the passenger seat.  Due to the fact that he was quite deaf, I was screaming and running after the car at the same time.  Finally, I caught up and all was well, but I told him I would be taking formal driving lessons from then on.  When we got home, he smilingly told his daughter, Alberta, that I appeared to be very nervous!

My old Oldsmobile residing in its garage where it spent the year except for being driven in the summer months.

Soon after this time, Elizabeth had to give up working, and a new housekeeper took over.  She was very efficient and a good cook, but things were never quite the same without old Elizabeth at the helm.  By now, too, H.A., was getting quite feeble, and at age 92, having had a slight car accident, was no longer able to get his license and gave me his old 1940 Oldsmobile.  It was offered first to his two sons, but they were too embarrassed to be seen driving such an old car.  I was thrilled and used it until 1968.  I drove it only in the summer, but it was very handy to take the children around in and always caused quite a sensation because of its age.  Sadly, the old car was sold in 2003.  It was very hard for me to part with it, but as I was no longer driving and the family wanted to have use of the garage for storage, the deed was done.  I still have visions of it being driven away at the back of a truck.  The new owner, a French farmer, was very excited about getting it so I was happy about that.

A New Generation

In 1958, H.A. was now 96 and his health had failed, so that he was no longer able to go to the country.  He had already left the property to his daughter Alberta, but she did not wish to go there any more.  She was a very private person and once her duty to her father was over, she preferred to stay at home in Montreal.  Consequently, Geoff and I took over from that time and his father joined us for most of the summer.

Clockwise: 4 Generations, H.A., Geoff holding Scott, Uncle Army, Ross.

Father and son age 5 weeks at back of cottage.

Mother and son

It was quite a move for us, as we now had two children, Scott and Diana, both very young.  We had to bring two cribs and all the paraphernalia required to move from the city to the country.  My mother joined us from time to time, but generally it was more comfortable for her to be at home with a friend or to go to Doris and John’s at Ste. Adele. 

One time when she decided to make the effort to be with us, we had to leave the country in the middle of the night, as I thought I heard bats.  But she was a very good sport about it and thought it was a big joke.  We all got home at about 2:30 a.m. and were greeted on the stairs by Bill Miller, our upstairs neighbor, wielding a very large stick.  He thought we were burglars!  He and his wife Betty were so relieved that they came down and joined us for a drink, and the children had fun running around in the middle of the night.  The reason for my fear of bats was that we had discovered one in our house two weeks previous to the above event.  We also heard some squeaks in our attic crawl space.  Our hero, Geoff went on the attack wearing a safari helmet and carrying a broom, opened the space in the living room ceiling and sprayed the area with Raid.  Of course, the obvious then occurred:  as the poor things were looking for air, they all swooped down into the house!  It was impossible to catch them all, so we moved back home to the city.  Geoff had the place fumigated the following weekend and they all appeared to be gone when we returned with my mother.  That was when I thought I heard bats again, but it was no doubt my vivid imagination.  I’m happy to report that we have never again had bats in our house – they must have passed the word down through the generations that our house was not a welcoming one!

A feature attraction at our parties was the raccoons.  They arrived at dusk on the front lawn and gathered around eating the peanuts and bread bits we had put out for them.  There were usually two families of parents and 3 babies and they put on a very good show, coming right up the front stairs to say hello.  One time a foolish friend of ours picked up a baby before we could stop him and of course was bitten.  As we had tried to tell everyone, these are wild animals and not to be touched.

As mentioned earlier, Geoff’s mother no longer came to the country but was lured out for a weekend by Ross to watch him feed the raccoons in the house.  He did this regularly while he was out on his own as he found it too uncomfortable to feed them on the front stairs.  He left the two back doors open and eventually his little friends would come in. He knew all their temperaments and would tell me about his favorites.  All he did was sit in a comfortable chair by the fireplace and they would come to him and eat from his hand and when all were finished would quietly march out again.  He was never bitten by them as he knew how to handle them.

Around this time we decided to make the cottage more comfortable and attractive.  We purchased new carpets and curtains for all the rooms, recovered the three chairs in the living room, bought white wicker furniture for the back porch and more wicker chairs for the front porch.  All this extra seating was necessary as we were never without guests, both family and friends, on weekends.  Geoff loved having company, possibly because he was not allowed to have anyone in the past.