Written By John Caverhill
My first submission to the Banner is a personal sketch to inform (forewarn?) you what you may expect in future articles.
I was born in 1936. My Father recorded my birth as follows: “May 23 – Took Susie to St. Joseph’s Hospital yesterday afternoon and a boy was born at 11:30 last night. Fine and warm yesterday and today.” That my father, a farmer, in recording this event gave precedence to my birth over the weather should indicate to the reader the importance of this momentous occasion.
An old farmer, when asked if he had lived his whole life on the farm answered, “Not yet.” I would give the same answer to, “Have you lived your whole life in Middlesex County?” Our farm was on the southwest corner of Vanneck and Ivan Drive. Only the house, built by my Grandfather Wm. A. Caverhill, remains. His carpenter shop is now at Fanshawe Pioneer Village.
Father’s siblings attended Queen’s University and I think he wanted to do likewise, but he was kept home to run the farm and became a carpenter-farmer like his father before him. Susie Boyd, who grew up on a farm north of Appin, boarded with the Caverhills while teaching at Bear Creek School. She and father ‘clicked’ as the saying goes and they were married in 1921. My brother Ron was born in 1928.
I completed grades 1 to 8 at Bear Creek in seven years. You should now be exclaiming, “Wow! This kid was hot stuff, completing eight grades in seven years!” Actually, this was far from unique. It was still the era of the one-room school with all grades taught by one teacher, making a huge workload. If the pupils involved were reasonably intelligent, two grades were combined, making one set of lessons to prepare instead of two. Three of us from grade one and one from grade 2 were combined into one grade 3 class, which meant that three of us ‘skipped’ grade 2. Today I blame my notable lack of computer skills on the education missed by skipping a grade. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
In 1949 I entered grade 9 at the newly-opened Medway High School. While I enjoyed my years there, my academic performance didn’t meet my parents’ expectations. My marks were just high enough for me to dribble into the next grade each year. I did apply myself enthusiastically to sports, being on the football, hockey and track teams.
After graduation I bounced around several jobs then finally saw the light and went to Teachers’ College, then taught at Centennial Central in Arva. During that time, I acquired in the following order: a wife, two remarkable daughters, and a B.A. from then University of Western Ontario.
I enjoyed teaching but approaching my 50th birthday I wanted a change, so I enrolled at Fanshawe College and took the 3-year landscape design course. It was stimulating, to say the least, to leave the security of a good job with the benefits and pension plan, and go back to school to learn a new career. I graduated in 1988 and enjoyed many years of designing and building decks, gazebos, water features, and various kinds of stonework. Now, writing for the Middlesex Banner, I can indulge in the old man’s penchant of telling stories about the ‘Good Old Days’.
