#Florence Bilton

[nobelmemories]

More Nobel Memories Along The Nobel Road

Part XII

I received a reminder a couple of days ago that I had not submitted any stories for a considerable length of time. The reminder was a picture of Crawford’s Garage at Nobel. That picture brought back a flood of memories for me of one of my favourite people Uncle Sarnie Crawford. As a result I am going to attempt to write a little history of Sarnie, the Crawford Family and some memories I have about him.

The Crawford homestead was located on Jones Road at Hurdville. Being on Lots 28 & 29, Concession 4 of Mckellar Township. This land had been located by Sarnie’s grandfather. The Reverend James Crawford in 1871 and was a grant under the Free Grants and Homestead Act. Sarnies Father David inherited the land on James’s death in 1883. David and his wife Hannah Elizabeth nee Hurd had seven children. They were Robert, Sidney, Olive nee Sly, Ronald, Ralph, William, and Florence nee Rosewell.

A Child’s Death

A tragedy struck the family in July of 1903 when William died as the result of eating the seedpod of a blue flag flower.

Sarnie was born on the 27 of June 1897. His given names were Ronald James. I asked my father, Sidney one time where the name Sarnie had come from. His reply was: “ one time when Sarnie was a very young boy, (three or four years old) they had brought him down to Parry Sound and stopped at the North Star Office on James St. There was a printer there at the time whose last name was Sarnie. Ronald James was quite taken by this printer. He suddenly climbed up on a table and announced: “ When I grow up I want to be just like Sarnie.” From that day forward he was always called Sarnie.”

Father’s Gone

In 1903 Sarnie’s father David was working on the building of the CPR trestle at Parry Sound. He became ill and was subsequently diagnosed with bone cancer. His one leg was amputated and in April of 1904 the cancer took his life. This left Hannah Elizabeth on the farm where she continued to raise the six remaining children on her own.

The boys worked on the farm and each of them worked in the bush camps at a very young age. I know my father Sidney, only had grade three educations and went into the bush camps at age 14. He was 11 when his father had died. In the summer following harvest they would take the Harvest Train out west and work on the harvest their until it was time to come back to go into the bush. Sarnie was what my father called a natural Mechanic. It didn’t seem to matter whether it was a clock a motor or any other mechanical device. He loved to figure out how it worked. If it were broken he would fix it. I believe his first vehicle was a very early motorcycle. Which he would travel up and down the Hurdville Road. He moved on from the motorcycle to automobiles.

Cupid’s Visit

The Crawford’s next-door neighbours were the Jone’s. A frequent visitor to the Jones household was one Elsie Jane Bilton who I believe lived in Toronto in the early 1920’s. Sarnie was taken by Elsie and on the 19 September 1927 the two were married. This union resulted their having 4 girls. They were Elinor nee Christie, Margerie nee Bowering, Mavis nee Leadbeater and Jill nee Wilkinson

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A Great Loss

In July of 1914 the First World War started. Robert enlisted with Sarnie following a short time later. Robert was killed at Vimy Ridge in France on the 13 May 1917. Sarnie told me one time that he (Sarnie) marched into battle carrying a Louis gun and was carried out on a stretcher as the result of being gassed. This gassing haunted him the rest of his life.

I remember for many years Sarnie and his comrades who survived from his initial company would meet yearly for a reunion. I believe one of those was Len Hailstone from Carling.

Sometime after Sarnie’s return after the war, Sarnie bought the south part of the lot originally owned by Billy Hammel. It was the property lying south of Hammel Ave, that is now bound on the west by the road to the Nobel Village for a quarter of a mile east. On the north side by Hammel Ave and on the south by the CPR tracks. This was either in the late 1920’s or early 1930’s. He built his home on that property, about half way between Hammel Ave and the present Nobel Rd.

He also had a small garage located on Hammel Ave. When the Second World War came along. Sarnie’s property that was between the Nobel Road and the CPR tracks was expropriated for the war effort and Glenrock Subdivision was built to house employees of Nobel Plant. When the war ended the land was given back to him. Most of the houses were sold off at that time. Sarnie also sold much of the land back to the people that lived there.

Another Tragedy

In January of 1934 Sarnie and his brother Ralph were working on a snow plod caterpillar tractor In his garage on Hammel Ave. Ralph hand cranked the tractor and it started. It was still in gear. It moved forward and pinned Ralph between the wall and the V-plow. Ralph died as a result of infection that developed a number of days later. He is buried in the graveyard at Nobel. Left to mourn was his wife Annie nee Hardie and their four children: Dorothy, Robert, Jean and Gordon.

Many of the older readers will remember that old tractor. It was on tracks. It looked like a caterpillar tractor and had a steel frame that boxed in the tractor. It was equipped with a V-plow and wing

plow. There was a running board walkway around the outside of the frame that would allow the operators to walk around the frame to hand crank wenches that lowered and raised both the V-plow and the wing. I was born in 1936 and I can remember seeing that snow plow used on the Side Road now Hammel Ave., and Portage Lake Rd., now Pineridge Rd.

The Bus Line

I believe Uncle Sarnie got his first school bus in the early 1920’s. I can remember my mother talking about that bus. My mother was Violet Calow. She was raised on a farm located in Carling Township across Hwy 559 and in the bush a quarter of a mile north of the Old Carling Twp. Office, on West Carling Bay Road. I believe she travelled in that bus when she attended grade eight at the old brown Nobel School house that was located near the circle at the north end of Hammel Ave. I have included a picture of that bus with this article. Sarnie originally had two buses that he hand built. I believe the one was a rebuild of the bus in the picture. The second was a little wider and built on an old truck frame. It was framed in with wood and covered with sheet metal. I rode in this bus all through primary school. It had a bench that ran around the outside on the inner area. In the winter, one of those old round wick oil stoves was fastened in the center of the bus for heat. I can still remember the feeling as we bounded along over the frost boils. The looks of the frost on the windows and the smell of kerosene from that stove. A far cry from the buses of today. They probably would not pass inspection in today’s world; there are three drivers I can remember. Our bus (the south bus was usually driven by Ken Scott or Ivan Hunt. Uncle Sarnie usually drove the north bus. Rules were pretty simple. You did what the bus driver said or you walked. If you caused a problem that the walk wasn.t going to solve, the driver told your dad. Then you really got it. I don’t remember having a snow day. If the bus got stuck while turning around the kids were piled out of the bus and they shoved. That brings to my mind memories of our grade one teacher Ms. Ruby Cook. She had what was called a Taraplane Hudson Coupe that she drove to school. It had an electric gearshift that looked like a toggle switch in a letter H. She would get stuck in the school yard and a bunch of us kids would go out and push her while she moved that switch back and forth using that switch, I don’t remember any of us ever getting run over.

Another memory was the line-ups we had to form while waiting for the bus to go home. One day a bunch of us were fooling around in the line-up while waiting for the bus on the south corner of the schoolyard. The Principal at that time was a teacher named Orr. He was in the Teacher’s Room located on the second floor on the south side of the school about half way down its length. He was quick to anger. He could see us out the window. He opened the window and yelled at us to settle down and form a proper line-up. Some one made a smart remark; I think he thought he was far enough away. Suddenly the window opened wider and Mr. Orr jumped out of that second story window and it seemed like four more strides he had me by the arm and I got a little cuff on the side of the head. Yes things were different in the fourties. I remember. LOl.

Sarnie’s Cottages

Uncle Sarnie built three cottages over the years. The first one was on Shebeshekong Lake. I remember it was framed then sheeted with galvanized corrugated metal. Uncle Sarnie worked fourteen hour days most days at his garage. He didn’t get to use his cottages as much as he would have liked to, but he was very generous with his family. I remember us getting it for at least a week every year. I remember Mavis would usually come up for at a couple of days when we were there and we would go exploring in their old rowboat. Uncle Sarnie sold that cottage in later years and built another one at Snug Harbour. It was located on top of the cliff on your right when you stop at the Snug Harbour dock. He called that one “The Crow’s Nest”. We had holidays there every year too. It was my favourite; it had a great view of the outer Bay. Red Rock Lighthouse could be seen from there and I remember watching the spray go over the Lighthouse whenever we had a storm. At that time Walter Graham was still operating his fishing business out of Snug Harbour. There was always something new and exciting to see there.

Crawford’s Nobel Garage

Like most of Uncle Sarnie’s Family and Friend’s I worked at the service station when I was about 12 yrs. I have included a picture of the garage, which shows the old pumps that I used to serve gas. The pumps worked on a gravity system the long glass tubes that were at the top of the pump was marked off in gallons. The hand pump was on the side. When a customer came in you would asked him how many gallons he wanted, then you would hand-pump those gallons up to that mark on the glass tube. You would then insert the nozzle into the cars fill tube and gravity would drop the gas into their vehicle. You always asked if you could check their oil. In those days most cars burnt a little oil. If they needed oil you went into the little room behind Uncle Sarnie’s counter. There was a very large tank in that room that held the oil. You would then take a glass bottle that was tapered and had a long tapered funnel cap on it. You would hand pump the oil into the jar, replace the funnel cap then run back out to the pumps and pour the oil into the cars motor. That little room I have mentioned also contained a workbench where Uncle Sarn would rebuild carburetors. They would be sent to him from all over. He was one of the few people to do that in those days. If you walked further and out through the back of that little room, you would come to another room where he would charge batteries. In those days, most car batteries were 6 volt and were used for other things besides cars. Many of the old radios used six-volt batteries. There was also a small metal lathe in that second room that was used to make different parts. There was a small building behind the garage that housed a Delco system that produced electricity for both the garage and the house. Hydro didn’t arrive for most of us Nobel residence until 1947. I can picture Uncle Sarnie standing behind the counter with an unlit cigar in his mouth or hand. He always had a little smile on his face. To his right and behind the counter was the black cash register. On the counter was a large peanut butter jar that was full of packages of Planters Peanuts. The knob for the lid of that jar was a large peanut molded as part of the clear gas lid. The counter itself was full of all kinds of cigarettes and tobacco including chewing tobacco, papers and some candy.

At that time Uncle Sarnie had installed a sawdust-burning furnace to heat the house. It had an auger system that moved the sawdust from a hopper into the furnace firebox. I haven’t seen another one of those. Oil burning barrel stove that he had built heated the bays of the garage. The barrel was on its side. It looked like an ordinary barrel wood stove, but he had taken and placed a horizontal steel plate about four inches off the bottom inside the stove. Used oil was saved and placed in a five gallon metal pail that hung over the stove with a copper tube running out of the bottom side and inserted through a hole midway on the top of the stove. There was a petcock valve on the tube. A bit of oil would be run into the stove, a rag would be placed under the plate to act as a wick. The oil soaked rag would then be lit. It would then heat the plate, the valve would then be turned so it just let a drop come through and drop onto the heated plate, the oil would then ignite as it hit the plate causing a roar. The oil was free as it came from oil changes.

Later Years

Uncle Sarnie kept his bus business for over fourty years, I think it was in the sixties he gave it up. He had gone for a driving test that he had to do every year, When parking the bus he touched the curb. He decided to give up his bus-driving license at that time. He told me that touching the curb was a sign to him that he was getting older and should give it up, as he was concerned about the children’s safety. He sold the bus business to Ivan Hunt. A few of you should remember driving with Ivan.

In time Uncle Sarn sold his garage business too. During the 80’s he had built a third cottage about half way out the bay at Snug Harbour on your right. He kept busy maintaining landscaping and spending time with his daughter Elinor and his son in law Don Christie and grandchildren Anne, William and Robert who lived at Snug Harbour.

Uncle Sarnie always had a quick wit and was good for a laugh. Near the end he was afflicted with problems with his legs and was confined to bed in Belvedere Home. Aunt Elsie had developed Alzheimer’s and had been placed in a secure area at Belvedere. They initially were allowed to visit each other every day, but they had come to a time where Aunty was wondering so they kept her contained and had not allowed Uncle Sarn to visit. One morning he demanded to see the administrator. He told them he wanted to see a lawyer. When they asked why his reply was. “ I have been married to this woman for over sixty years and now you say I cant see her. I want a divorce.” They suddenly seen the light and Uncle Sarn was allowed to see Aunt Elsie every day. I remember how good I felt when I went in with my wife Rhoda to visit. There was a small-enclosed grass section in the secure area with a bench in the middle of it. Their sat Uncle Sarnie holding Aunt Elsie’s hand the both of them staring off into space. I thought that’s how I want my days to end.

Uncle Sarnie passed in the early spring of 1989. Aunt Elsie passed two years later. They are missed.

Garry Crawford