1894 Malta,
Windsor, Ontario
NAC: 82J9F Q1HZ9

     latitude:      42° 18' 23.45" N
     longitude:   82°58'56.88"W
     elevation:    elevation: 184m

Veterans' Housing, post-WWII

We moved in on 1 January, 1950 from a small war-time house on Louis Avenue. We were the first family on Malta to move in. There was no road, there were no sidewalks. There was only mud and some boardwalks to walk on when mother carried Bruce into the house and I got mud high on my shoes, walking with father. Dad had parked on Meldrum. I think Guy Street hadn't been cleared to Central Avenue, there was a large mound of topsoil piled as a ridge behind all the houses on Malta alongside Central Avenue. Mother was 29, Dad 30, Bruce 21 months, myself 32 months.

The established streets in Windsor looked vastly different then. The existed mainly as tunnels burrowed through giant elm trees (Ulmus americana). When I left there were none left at all. Windsor went from a very green city masquerading as a forest to a concrete wasteland with lawns. Oh yes, the City planted thousands of crabapples to replace the elms.

On the other three corner houses were the la Plantes, the Alsops, and the Youngs. Next to the Alsops were the Musselmans, then the Walters. Next to The la Plantes were the Fillers. Next to the Youngs were the Reids, the Pankiffs, the Nichols and the Dupuis. Next to us were the Bucheskis, the Proulx, the Campbells, the McMahons, then the Leishmanns.

We promptly became clients of a bread-man, a milk-man and an ice-man as soon as they extended their routes. Each had a wagon drawn by a horse.

The house was very chilly. I followed Father to the basement where he started some newspaper and kindling in the furnace, after which he threw in coal. The furnace was a giant octopus, occupying the very centre of the basement. It became hot very quickly, as the fire was too large. I was still too young to start a coal fire by myself when we bought a New Era oil furnace, courtesy of a loan from uncle Ernest Rondot.

Mother lived the rest of her life in the house, 44 years, dieing there on the night of 4 February, 1994. Father left after, I believe, 35 years of marriage, remarrying in 1981. He died on 4 June, 1994. The house was sold later that year.

My parents did some gardening from the first year. Mother gardened a lot more after Dad left, spending a lot of time on the lawns and hedges. She was very proud of her home. Dad had built an extension to the house himself, moving the ground-floor bedroom further back, allowing walls to be realigned to make a dining room. He remodelled the basement.

I maintained a wildflower garden tucked beside the extension for years after I left home in 1967. I missed seeing my younger brothers growing up. Mother spent 44 years in that house. I feel she was quite happy there.

In 1966, I became very ill. I had had to leave school and ended up in Hôtel-Dieu hospital for the summer of 1967; tied, literally, to a bed, with tubes going into and coming from my body. Having lost most of my stomach and significant portions of other internal organs, I was unfit for any manual labour, so I reenrolled in University and moved to my grand-parents' home while I recuperated.