Rare Family Photos: Dad & Mom - Hamilton

In 1941 my dad quit the Co-op in Norwich (eight years before I was born) and joined the Navy. He signed up at HMCS Star in Hamilton, worked at a clay factory and took night classes and drills. After a Christmas leave in Norwich he travelled to Halifax for more serious training.

Here’s something else I know: He lived with his sister Gertie (and niece Joyce) while in Hamilton, at a house on Bay Street. Gertie lived upstairs over Mrs. Brown, a tea-leaf reader of some renown, and, as one can see from the first photo, the house seems quite substantial. I see a pillared porch with canvas awnings (perhaps the house faces east or south); not too shabby.

Recently I matched another photo to the same setting; it is of my mother at age 18. The photo shows the same porch, minus the awnings, and was likely taken in the fall. 

Would she be visiting Gertie and Joyce? Not likely. More likely she was visiting her sweetheart. He’d signed up for two years, ‘HO’, or ‘Hostilities Only.’ Who knows where he might end up?

[Photos by GH]

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Live on Bay Street? Recognize the house? Look for one with a frosted-glass window to the right of the porch.

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