2) A New Country

We arrived by the ship in Montreal around the first of July 1965. I cannot remember anything about the landing. My father had been to Canada previously and had a brother living in Vancouver. We still had a long way to go by train to get to our destination of Saskatoon in the province of Saskatchewan. I have no memory of Saskatoon either, I know that we stayed in a motel while my father looked for a job.

It was decided that this was not the place to live. The flat and treeless prairie was so utterly different from our native England. We headed back east on a train. I do remember being on the train and walking with my father at the Winnipeg Train Station.

We ended up in Niagara Falls, Canada. Staying in a tourist's bed and breakfast on Hiram Street near the falls and the Rainbow Bridge. It was run by a woman named Mrs. Fyfe.

There were train tracks nearby and when walking around the tourist area at the top of Clifton Hill, it was often necessary to wait until a train had passed. When the brightly painted caboose became visible, we knew that the end of the train was near.

Queen Victoria Park was adjacent to the falls. There were fountains with coloured lights under the water that would make it seem to glow at night. There were large coloured lights that illuminated the falls at night. First, the white lights would be turned on and then varying colours afterward. To someone who had never seen anything like it before, it was really awesome.

Next to Queen Victoria Park was the magnificent Oakes Gardens and right by the brink of the falls was Table Rock House, with an extensive gift shop inside. The Maid of the Mist was a tour boat that would approach right up close to the falls. In the upper river, above the falls, was the wreck of an old boat from which the crew had been rescued in 1918, it is known as the "Scow".

There were two observation towers, for tourists to look at the falls, nearby. The Skylon was still under construction. A hotel was also being constructed right at the bottom of Clifton Hill, it was to be the Sheraton Foxhead, alongside the older Sheraton Brock Hotel.

There were people walking around and looking at the falls from all over the world. It was rare to see a Japanese tourist without a significant amount of camera equipment. I was puzzled as to why we had round eyes but some people from other places had slanted eyes. The air was filled with not only the roar of the falls but the clattering of sightseeing helicopters.

On the Canadian end of the Rainbow Bridge was the bell tower known as the Carillon. It's chimes would become very familiar. The landscape has been changed since those days. For one thing, the Oneida Silver building was demolished and the space is now occupied by the casino. Also, there used to be a stone arch on the road that goes under the Rainbow Bridge but that has long since been removed also.

The red and green of the traffic lights around the Canadian side of the falls seemed to me to be so vivid. The most memorable falls souvenir was those plastic miniature television sets that were actually slide viewers with various scenes of the falls.

In September of 1965, I began kindergarten at the old Kitchener Street School. It was an old building that has long since been removed. I would be walked there and back every school day. My father was working at a factory called the Cyanamid, not the one that was in the north end of the city, there was another Cyanamid in Niagara Falls as well.

We moved from the bed and breakfast on Hiram Street to a house on Jepson Street. It was not far away but I would be going to a new school. I was taken to Valley Way School and met it's amicable principal, Mr. Nott.

Kindergarten was in the room with the large windows in the front of the school. Students had kindergarten for a half day, either in the morning or the afternoon. I was in the afternoon session. Behind the school was courts for people to play badminton, a sport that I had never heard of.

Aside from working at the Cyanamid, my father also began driving bus tours around the falls in the summer.

Not far from our new home was a large, old brick building (since replaced by a new building) called the Eventide Home. It was run by the Salvation Army and was for elderly people. There were large oak trees around it any myriads of squirrels attracted by the acorns.

I was away from home for several days at Niagara General Hospital to have my tonsils taken out. The room was a certain shade of green which brings back memories to this day whenever I see that shade.

There were other immigrants all around, the family who lived directly behind us was Italian and in the summer when windows were open, the scent of tomato sauce from their house would remind me that it was nearly dinner time.

The local shopping area was on Queen Street as well as Victoria Avenue. On Queen Street was Kresge and Rosberg's. There was also a hobby shop on Queen Street in which any boy would be glad to spend hours.

The supermarket, where food was bought was closer, Steinbergs was withing easy walking distance of our house. The Steinbergs were a well-known Montreal Jewish family who operated many supermarkets in Canada.

We found a favourite place to eat. La Fiesta, on Main Street, was a fish and chips shop that seemed to have been transplanted directly from the old country. It would remain a favourite place for many years.

In the summer, we would go to King's Bridge Park. This was a park along where the Welland River meets the Niagara River in the village of Chippawa, just east of Niagara Falls. This would also remain a favourite place for many years, although we also went to Dufferin Islands sometimes. We once went to a place called Shalamar in Queenston but decided that it could not replace Chippawa. Another favourite summer outing was to St. Catharines, to watch the ships go through the locks on the Welland Canal.

However, at least from my point of view, there was nothing to replace the park, Leslie Park, right by our house. In the summer, life revolved around the large swimming pool in the park where anyone could go swimming for a nickel (five cents or .05 dollar). There was a smaller round pool for young children but I wanted to get into the big pool as soon as possible. There were also swings and slides and things like that, but the pool was the main thing.

Near the entrance to the Leslie Park Pool, there was the large red boulder by the flagpole that is still there today. But the original building has been replaced. The life guards had sharp memories and knew who was allowed into the deep end of the pool and who had to stay in the shallow end. To be allowed in the deep end, a swimmer has to pass a test witnessed by a life guard. I had to swim across, back and, across the shallow end in order to be admitted to the deep end.

We had a black and white television that always seemed to be on. There was, of course, shows and cartoons like Superman, The Flintstones, Popeye, Flipper (the dolphin), Dick Van Dyke, Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, Casper The Friendly Ghost and, Rocky and Bullwinkle.

Other shows of the time have largely disappeared from memory. There was Daktari, about a woman veterinarian looking out for animals in east Africa. Hercules, a cartoon about the mythical hero with tremendous strength and, Dr. Kildare, about a medical intern. There were also two wartime serials, Combat and The Rat Patrol.

Brand names of various products were to be seen on television advertisements and elsewhere. Borden is a dairy products brand that had a facility in Niagara Falls, Canada and used Elsie the Cow as a mascot as it still does today. My younger brother ate Gerber Baby Food, which also had a facility in town.

By the way, the same baby is on Gerber Baby Food as has been there for generations. The Gerber baby is surely a senior citizen by now.

Other memorable and prominent brands of then and now are Canadian Tire stores, Crisco Cooking Oil, Fresca soft drinks and, Fruit Loops breakfast cereal. There was a new soft drink called Wink. A van pulled up one day in the parking lot of Leslie Park by the pool that gave away free samples of Wink to anyone who waited in line. Green Giant was prominent in canned vegetables and all around town, there was signs from Wylie real estate. Station Wagons and convertibles were popular car styles in the later sixties. My father smoked Lucky Strike cigarettes and liked Roleflex Cameras.

It was found that my younger brother was deaf. We would take him to Children's Hospital in Toronto for specialized treatment. I really enjoyed going along on those drives along Lake Ontario to Toronto. But I was somewhat alarmed by the skyscrapers in Toronto, what would happen if someone were on the roof of a skyscraper and they could not get back down and no one knew that they were there?

While we lived on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, a relative came to visit us from England. We were driving back from Toronto Airport and as we were crossing the Skyway at Hamilton, she asked my father to turn on the radio and a whole new interest opened up, that of music. The Beatles song "Hello, Goodbye" was on and I was immediately hooked. I cannot remember for certain, but it was either that song or "A Hard Days Night" which was the first song that I ever listened to.

The later sixties was the heyday of rock and roll music. Back in Niagara Falls, there was the radio station CJRN or there was WKBW broadcasting from Buffalo on the American side. I was only a child but those Sixties classics moved me as much as any adult.

There was, of course, the Beatles. It was virtually impossible to turn on the radio without hearing them. Some other bands produced music that was as good as the Beatles, but none could match the sheer number of hits. Other good bands would get a few hit songs, but everything the Beatles touched was a hit. In fact, I cannot think of a Beatles song that was not a hit.

But the Beatles were only the beginning. Simon and Garfunkel had the three classics "Mrs. Robinson", "At The Zoo" and "Feeling Groovy" while we were living on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls.

Petula Clark had "Downtown" and "My Love".

The Monkees sang "Daydream Believer", "Pleasant Valley Sunday" and their own theme song.

There were The Hollies with "Look Through Any Window" and "Stop, Stop, Stop".

The Union Gap was probably underrated and around this time, "Young Girl", "Woman, Woman" and "Lady Willpower" were very popular songs.

The Association was there with "Along Comes Mary" and the haunting love song "Cherish".

There was The Seekers with "Georgy Girl" and "A World of Our Own".

The Doors had "Light My Fire" and the unique rocking instrumentals of "Hello, I Love You".

One of the most cheerful and light-hearted songs of the Sixties would long be a favourite of mine. "The Rain, The Park And, Other Things" by the Cowsills was a Sixties classic.

If any band could match the Beatles, it was the Rolling Stones. The song of theirs that I remember the most from around this time was "Jumping Jack Flash".

There was also a popular song that was not considered as rock music, "Strangers In The Night" by Frank Sinatra.

Other Sixties classics were "MacArthur Park" by Richard Harris (There really was a MacArthur Park, in Los Angeles)

"Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" by the Buckinghams

"Expressway To Your Heart" by the Soul Survivors

"A Lovers Concerto" by The Toys

"Love Is Blue" by Paul Mauriat

We would drive around and explore the area with the radio always on. Eventually, my parents bought a radio for the house so that I could listen to music at home as well.

Music was not all that I was interested in. I had been given a world atlas that I studied with great interest. I also had a street map of our town and I memorized every street in Niagara Falls, Canada. There some really nice parts of town, such as Cherrywood Acres.

I was interested in books although I usually just looked at the drawings and pictures. I had a book about animals with drawings of all the great animals of the world. There was going to be a karate class and my father bought me the book "Super Karate Made Easy" by Moja Rone.

At school, we had the world-renown Dr. Suess books in first grade (usually age 6-7). There was a girl named Nancy Rand that was in school book stories.

Finally, I remembered the story in school of G.I. Ant. This ant had a large family and thus a large house. But when he put up a sign in front of his house identifying himself, he alarmed the other ants because he forgot to use punctuation. The sign read "GIANT" and the other ants thought it was a giant that lived there who might step on them.

In fact, I was already fascinated with ants. I watched them whenever I got the chance and I learned all of the parts of an ant's body and how an ant nest functions. There were grasshoppers around too, particularly in the field by the school, along Homewood Avenue.

There was one book that was by far the most important that I had at the time. At Steinbergs, there was the encyclopedia of world history being sold titled "Universal History Of The World". I only got the first volume, the one on ancient history. I merely looked at the drawings at this time but the book would prove important to me later. As far as ancient history goes, near the falls was a musuem with all manner of exhibits, including some of artifacts from ancient Egypt.

Books were not all, there were also games. I spent quite a bit of time with the children's classics Lego Blocks and the drawing contraption, Etch-A-Sketch. I had another toy called the Green Ghost. From somewhere I got a periscope with mirrors, like they use in submarines, so I could crouch down in the car and watch what was happening outside the window.

The neighbors next door gave me a large, plastic beach ball. They also had a jet-black female dog with the appropriate name of "Jet", which would be the first dog I would get to know. For a while, I had a pet turtle. Among other diversions were a train set and an expandable watch.

One boy had a fort at the end of his backyard built between two of those straight larch trees and bordering a large, open field with electric transmission lines overhead. Another boy near there had a massive, old willow tree at the end of his backyard that had several possible ways in which it could be climbed.

I heard of the idea of putting a message in a bottle. One day, I tried it. I wrote my name and address and put it in a bright red plastic bottle. It was one of the bottles that hold the liquid that children use to blow bubbles. When we went to see the falls, I threw the bottle over.

Several months later, I got a letter in the mail from a boy in Toronto. He had found my bottle on a beach there. The bottle had made it's way right across Lake Ontario.

There was another field further away than the one with the electric transmission lines. Where the Laura Secord Apartments are now located, next to Houck Park, there used to be a field with a pond in it and many large boulders, which were probably dumped from some construction project. To any boy, it was a delight to explore.

One side of Leslie Park was made for summer. This was the side with the pool. But the other side of the park had a slope and was made for sleds and toboggans in winter. I was given a sled but I left it in the wrong place and my father accidentally ran over it. While sledding one night, I noticed a bright star to the east (probably Sirius). It was the first star that I remember noticing.

Canadians often have a better attitude toward winter than Americans do. Canadians try to make the best of winter while the American ideal is to get on a plane and get away from it. Or better yet, move to where there is no snow.

By 1967, my father had gotten a job on the American side in a medical supply company, Jeffrey Fell. He worked in Buffalo and one day there had been a lake-effect snow storm there while it had not yet snowed in Niagara Falls. He drove to get me from Valley Way School so that I could see the snow before it melted. Other children coming out of school were also delighted by the sight of snow and could not wait to make snowballs out of it.

Skating was a part of school and we would be periodically marched with our ice skates to the ice rink which was next to the old Kitchener Street School.

In first grade, we were taken to see a farm outside Niagara Falls on Thorold Stone Road. To this day, it is the only farm with animals that I recall being on. I was taken horseback riding once around this time but that is the only time I have ever been on a horse.

My great fascination at this time, maybe even more than music, was aircraft. I really wanted to fly in a plane. It did not have to be any type of special airplane, a simple Piper Cub would do. I had a model of a military jet and a book about airplanes.

I wonder why, if kids could build a fort, why couldn't they build a plane that would fly as well? At any rate, I set my ambition for when I grew up to be a pilot, possibly a cropduster pilot. The Beatles song "With A Little Help From My Friends" always reminds me of airplanes.

Other technology that impressed me was the first time I went through a door that opened automatically. It was at a store on Queen Street.

One day, a really large new store opened in Niagara Falls. It was at the intersection of Dorchester Road and Morrison Street. The store was called Towers and it became a magnet for shoppers. It was also exciting when the first tunnel under the Welland Canal opened. I believe it is called the Thorold Tunnel.

On another day, we went to see a new concept in shopping known as a mall. The Pen Centre in St. Catharines is now known simply as The Pen. It's most important store of this time was Simpson-Sears. I was impressed with the apartment buildings with balconies near the mall.

This may have been an idyllic time for me, but there was news of the wider world in the sixties. America, the country just across the river, was involved in a war in a distant place called Vietnam. America had plenty of trouble at home as well. News on television showed an American city on fire because of rioting.

In both America and Canada, there was a new type of people known as Hippies who disagreed with the existing order. In fact, I later wondered why the summer of 1967 is known as "The Summer of Love", there was a war in the Middle East as well. In Canada, there were signs all over with a triangular logo promoting Expo 67, which was held in Montreal.

We would read the Bible in school and I had a Bible that I would bring. I would sometimes begin to read it at home, not any particular book I would just read the first chapters of Genesis. The most memorable reading from school was the well-known 23rd Psalm. There were some other children who would go to some type of Bible class and would then be talking among themselves about the wonders of God.

One day, I was in the field with the electric transmission lines overhead near the intersection of Valley Way and Homewood Avenue. I was just looking around with another boy. There was a cloud overhead, one of those fluffy cumulus clouds. The cloud seemed so bright, I was amazed at how bright it was. I am not saying that this was a miracle, but it started me thinking about where God was.

I had wondered if there was a place where a guy could go and he would become super-strong just by going and receiving the energy there, a kind of "Powerland". But I began to think that maybe the real object is to form a connection with God.

At last, I got what I had really wanted. My first bicycle was gold-coloured and had what used to be called angel handlebars and a banana seat. It did not have hand brakes, but stopped when the pedals were reversed. The logo on it was of the Canadian tire manufacturer, Uniroyal.

My father took me to get it at the Canadian Tire store that was on Queen Street. The scent of fresh rubber would always remind me of the new tires on that bike and the catchy instrumentals of the song "Tighten Up" by Archie Bell And The Drells would remind me of how delighted I was to ride it.

I did not like to be told how far I was permitted to go on my bike, I rode all the way to Hamilton Street, which was the extent of our neighborhood. Another time, I rode to the street that goes around in a circle, Epworth Circle, with a school in the middle.

Sometimes, me and another kid would ride to a store called "The Shady Nook", which was behind the Eventide Home. The store is still there today but under a different name. A delicious blueberry pie cost a dime there. I was also fascinated with cherries at this time.

But no matter what other diversions there were, music had become extremely important. There were always new songs on the radio that I was hearing for the first time.

There was "Can't Get Used To Losing You" by Andy Williams

"This Guy's In Love With You" by Herb Alpert

"Green Tambourine" By the Lemon Pipers

"Delilah" by Tom Jones

"Little Green Apples" by Roger Miller

"Those Were the Days" by Mary Hopkin.

Other memorable songs were "The Good, The Bad And, The Ugly", which was a movie soundtrack.

"Out Of My Head" by Little Anthony And The Imperials

"The Look Of Love" originally by Dusty Springfield

There was the pleasant instrumental "Cast Your Fate To The Wind".

One of the catchiest Sixties-style tune that I liked was "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight" by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. Although I was, of course, too young to comprehend why a guy would care enough about what some girl was doing tonight to make a song about it.

Other things that got my interest were colours. I was fascinated by the turquoise of robin eggs and also by how people had different eye colours. The blueprints used by architects was also something of great interest to me. Lilac seemed to be the most beautiful scent in the world and I wondered if Heaven might be filled with lilacs. Some people that lived not far away had a backyard pond with brightly-coloured goldfish such as I had never seen before.

One thing that I wanted but never got was one of those bright yellow plastic raincoats that people used to wear, there was another type of raincoat, called oilskin, but I preferred one of the yellow plastic ones. I also wondered why I had not been given a middle name and I thought of assigning myself such a name, maybe Andrew or Kenneth.

One boy had learned how to say "Do you speak French"? in French, "Parlez-vous francais"? One day, when my parents were out, it seemed like fun to pick names at random out of the phone book, call them up and, ask "Parlez-vous francais"? Most people just hung up on us.

I pondered a question about the depth of water. One day, near the Welland Canal at St. Catharines, I filled a candy box with small stones and threw it in water. But I did not know how deep the water was and how long it took the box to get to the bottom. There is even a possibility that it is still sinking today. That is unlikely but how can I know for sure?

One word that really mystified me for a while was "catalog". At first, I thought it was something to do with a cat and later that it was something to do with a log.

It was obvious that there was a much bigger country nearby, at least in terms of population. We had learned Canadian geography in school but on the news, there were so many place names that we had not learned in school. One day, my father confirmed that there was a place called "Louisiana" that I had never before heard of.

My brother began going to a school on the American side, St. Mary's School For The Deaf. It was on Main Street in Buffalo, not far from where my father worked.

We sometimes visited the American side. In Buffalo, we went to the zoo and to the large Sears store that used to occupy the building at Jefferson Avenue and Main Street. In Niagara Falls, NY, just on the American side of the Rainbow Bridge, there was another Sears store and another store called Neisners, near a prominent building titled "The Imperial Hotel". (This was before urban renewal). One evening, the police were chasing a car along this street, called Falls Street.

The time came when the decision was made to move to the American side. It may have been that St. Mary's School For The Deaf made it more complicated for non-residents of the U.S. to attend the school.

In the summer of 1968, we had to go to the U.S. Consulate in Toronto to get approval to move to the United States. The consulate is the one on University Avenue. We waited for what seemed like most of the day. There was an older couple waiting near us who were moving to New Jersey. There was a man there who looked like the Riddler on Batman, but he wasn't laughing like the Riddler. I was told about the man with the double name of Sirhan who had shot the brother of the former U.S. president, who had also been shot.

One thing that I wanted to do in Canada but never got around to is to swim at the Cyanamid Pool. Those who had been there said it was much bigger than the pool at Leslie Park. I also had only been to another nearby park, Oakes Park, only once and I had wanted to go there again. There was some type of religious instruction or scouts for children beginning in the church across the street from the Shady Nook, but I would be moving away.

During my last summer living in Canada, a veritable earthquake rocked across the airwaves. "Born To Be Wild" was a song by a band called Steppenwolf. It was about motorcyclists, but it may as well have been for us seven and eight-year olds riding our bikes.

Another memorable tune of this time was "I Got To Get A Message To You" by the Bee Gees. It was about a guy who was about to be executed for a crime and was trying to contact a girl one last time.

There was also "Hurdy Gurdy Man" by Donovan

"Time Has Come Today" by the Chambers Brothers

"Sunshine Of Your Love" by Cream

"Dream A Little Dream Of Me" by Mama Cass

"Angel Of The Morning" By Merrilee Rush.

I was the last one in the family to see what would be our new home on the American side. The daughter of the couple from Scotland that lived in the home adjoining ours worked in real estate and had gotten us connected with the home.

Around the time that we were leaving Canada, a new name appeared that would be possibly the most prominent Canadian in history, that of the Liberal prime minister Pierre Trudeau.