Memories of My Youth

By Bill Halkett

This is a book detailing the early life of Bill Halkett, alias Sonny Boy, alias Eugene Scott Landry, alias the mean little Bastard. It tells of his earliest memories of adoption by the Halkett’s and coming from St. Agathe the TB sanatorium to 438 6th avenue Verdun and only speaking French.

It details the raw side of living in Verdun a French English community. It tells of his misadventures as well as his schooling and education. The battles and stories are all true as he can remember. It also goes into detail of his dealing with death from a young age till the death of his parents.

It also goes into detail re his adventures in fishing the St. Lawrence River as well as Lake St Francis. He did experience what it was like to become a commercial fisherman as well as how to sneak a dead body across the USA border back in 1956.

He explains his efforts to further his education and the difficulties of securing his first real job. Also included is his fighting spirit which is demonstrated over and over again.

The reason he decided to write this autobiography is to leave a history of his life for the future generations of Halkett’s. This is his first attempt at writing and he believes the second book will be much better constructed. Enjoy the read.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Adambooks
• Release date: Sep 10, 2012
• ISBN: 9781927586006

Bill Halkett

Bill was born in Quidi-Vidi, Newfoundland and raised in Montreal. He is bi-lingual. He has lived on the west coast, moved to the Bridal-Wood area of Toronto where he resided for over 25 years. He has travelled extensively and was a Rotarian belonging to the Montreal Rotary Club.Bill’s career has been in the electrical and electronic manufacturing world. He went to McGill although he did not complete there, he did graduate from Montreal Teck. Bill has worked for many companies such as Siemens Canada, Klockner Moeller, Cuttler Hammer, to name just a few. He also purchased Polygon Transformers Ltd. And in his later years created a consulting company called Kilkenny and Associates.He also worked for over 13 years for a World Fortune 500 company called Omron, a Japanese electronic a manufacturing company head-quartered out of Kyoto Japan. As senior vice president it was like obtaining two MBA’S. The Japanese are excellent business people.He retired 4 1⁄2 years ago and picked Pembroke to live in. He claims retirement has not been easy, and he is presently volunteering his time as Board Chair of the Pembroke Library. He is an avid fisherman, loves Piano Jazz music and is an avid reader of many topics from Quantum mechanics, Einstein, the latest book on the life of Steve Jobs (Apple), and many business publications.

Book preview

Memories of My Youth

by

W.S. (Bill) Halkett

* * * * *

PUBLISHED BY:

ADAM BOOKS on Smashwords

Memories of My Youth

Copyright 2012 by W.S. (Bill) Halkett

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Introduction

As a new retiree I was faced with what to do to fill my days. I tried almost everything from fishing, wood carving, going back to Toastmasters after 49 years, building a shed, Fly tying, Computer games, Darts, Table tennis, Forced walking, Writing for a local newspaper, back to work (yes at minimum wage), gardening, reading, cooking, eating healthy, drinking, making wine, and finally WRITING!

I have thought a lot about my past and all the errors I have made in life some of which were real beauts. Being like most retired seniors I quickly realised that there will never be enough money and so what can you leave your children?

Money? There is not that much and it would go faster than a melting ice cube. The answer I came up with is to write a descriptive autobiography. My Life Story. This I would leave for future generations so that they can see what the old boy was really like. There is however a major problem. How do I learn this new skill set? Well I read and read and read everything I could. I took an on line course which was very disappointing, but I a joined a local writers club called "Gems of the Mind". It operated out of the Pembroke City Library.

I did find on a medical trip to Ottawa for Bernadette, tucked away in a specialty book and magazine shop a book which explained in plain language all about writing. I was hooked and immediately started to make an outline of my life in point form. I did this in pencil as explained starting a detailed outline on 3 by 5 cards. Soon I had completed over 200 cards. I wrote about myself and realised that it was quite boring. Who would read this dribble because it is boring! I decided to introduce humorous tales & stories and quickly realised as a kid I was a mean dirty little bastard, yes a bastard.

There will be two books in total. This first one is up till I was about twenty five years old, God that was so long ago. Some things are really funny and some not so. All are as accurate as I can remember. I may have altered them a bit but they are basically all true. Please enjoy the read and I will accept critique and criticism. There is no cost for this book, however I hope you will keep it as a treasure.

It is self-published, self-printed and self-bound. Copies are very limited. Please enjoy and feel free to call and ask me anything about these stories. I thank you for taking the time to read my life story.

W.S. (Bill) Halkett;

Alias, Sonny Boy,

Alias, Eugene Scott Landry.

Acknowledgements

This is my first attempt at writing and my very first acknowledgement of those who helped me along the way. I must start by saying that the staff of the Pembroke library have helped me immensely, especially Patti Stillman who encouraged me to write. I must also thank the members of the Gems of the Mind Pembroke’s writers club who have many published authors.

A very special thanks is due Mike Eadie who without his help and patience this book would not have been published. He has taught me many things including binding, publishing, and of course many writing skills. Encouragement has come from many such as Stella Madigan, Dan McPhee, Stan Harwood, Bill Bamber and many others. I would be remiss by not acknowledging the extreme patience and understanding of my wife Bernadette and Meaghan my daughter. I also along the way received ideas & suggestions from my son Douglas and my first daughter Andrea.

I thank you all! Domo Domo Domo

Table of Contents

Earliest Memories

My First Love Dolly

First Days of Woodland School

Jimmy Miles

Donny Lloyd

Good & Bad Times at Heron Island

Learning to ride a Two-Wheel Bicycle

Stealing from the Iceman

The BB Gun

The Torchy Wharf Boys

Starting Fires

The Dead Cat Story

Peeping Nine Year Olds

Cigarettes & Cigars & Money

Learning to Fight

What’s a Blind Pig?

Gardens Flowers & Tomatoes

Fire, Ash & Dust

License Plates & Detectives

Harassing the Police

Bending License Plates

Beat the Garbage Man

Fighting to Save a Woman

Hockey

Foot Ball

Heebie Geebie Man

Making Friends with Hookers

The Marshall Bishop Incident

High school Years at Verdun High

Sickness at 13

Memories of Breezy Point

Uncle Dick Green (a special man)

Bill Halkett (Senior): The Early Years

My Teen Years with Him

Turning 21 with Bill Halkett (Senior)

My First Muskie

The Big One That Got Away

Fishing with Muskie Hunters

Eeling on Lake St. Francis

The Body Snatchers

Studying to become a Draftsman

So you’re a Draftsman how do you find your first job?

Charlie Hall - Plant Superintendent

Cancer Strikes

Death Comes Christmas day 3. A.M.

Christmas Funeral

Life in Pincourt

Birth of Andrea

Andrea as a Young Child

Teddy Bear Boots & the Sand Pile

Earliest Memories

In starting to write an autobiography one must I believe, start at the very beginning? My earliest memories are recollections only and can be wrong at my present age of over seventy.

The first thing I remembered was coming home to 438 6th avenue Verdun, Quebec. This was the home of Bill & Peggy Halkett & Dick Green who had lived there for over 22 years. I remember seeing this black dog which I later learned was a cocker spaniel. His name was Buddy, however I called him Mineau or UN chat (cat in French). Remember I came to the Halkett’s as a very young boy probably between two and three years of age and only speaking French.

I was adopted by the Halkett’s a fact which I did not learn about till I was thirteen years old. I had lived in St Agathe at a TB sanitarium which was 100 miles north of Montreal. My natural mother had died of TB as a very young woman. All the people I had come in contact with were nurses whom only spoke French. There apparently was a cat that I played with which I called Mineau.

I also remember sitting in a high chair and rocking it going over backwards and forwards several times. I fell several times till eventually they made it tip proof by installing a brace so it would not tip. I also remember sitting on a very small chamber pot to pee. Everything was so big and tall. There are other memories but all are at this stage in my life a little cloudy.

Earliest Memories as a very Young Boy.

As a young boy I wore boots not shoes. They were brown dark brown in color with many eyelets making it difficult to learn to tie. I hated those boots as all the others boys wore shoes. I was a chubby kid and played with a small steel gray car. It had come from England and this was my main toy. I remember running it up and down the hall for endless number of hours.

I also had a Scottie dog as a bedtime play toy. It was Scottish plaid and red in colour and made of very soft cloth. It was hand made by Aunt May. I had this till it wore out at age ten. One story about the dog was that one night I would not go to sleep. I cried and cried and cried. They checked on me and still I cried. I could hardly speak and kept sobbing and crying about my Scottie. Finally I guess after many hours they finally out of exasperation spanked my bottom and I finally fell to sleep out of exhaustion. I woke up in the morning and started crying again and they finally examined the bed totally and stripped it and found that the button eye had come off the Scottie dog and that was why I cried. I bet they felt pretty bad.

I was only allowed to play in the back yard up till age 5 and never in the lane where all the kids played. I remember looking through the wrought iron gate like it was a prison. The lane held at any one time had over 100 kids of all ages.

It was a little intimidating as there was French and English and the fights were a lot and very often. I had a three wheel bike which I used till I was seven years old. I was the only seven year old without a two-wheel bike. In this book at the back is a photograph of all who played in that lane.

You can see from the photo, which my dad had taken that we were all urchins.

We all wore old hand me down clothes and I always wore a French tam on my head. Although we all may have looked so nice and innocent we were really

Nasty Little Bastards.

My First Love, Dolly

In the winter I played in the back yard as a kid. We were dressed in snowsuits, boots, mitts and scarf and were so bound up that I could hardly move. In the back yard was the family boat, a Vercheres flat bottom 18-foot wooden boat. It was battle ship gray in colour and had dark green trim. It was stored upside down on trestles and all the snow would pile on top.

In Montreal we had tons of snow every year. I remember playing in the snow and breaking away through the piles of snow to get into and under the boat. It was my little fort.

The next-door kid was Dolly. She was same age about 5 or 6 years old, I cannot remember exactly. Dolly was a little girl with bangs like me. She had dark brown eyes and was always smiling. She was my best and only friend. We played almost every day. She was a ward of the Quebec province and was being looked after by Mrs. Lillian Tate who was a large rolly Polly woman.

Both she and Mr. Bill Tate were originally from Newfoundland. Dolly and I played for about 2 full years and one day she just disappeared out of my life. I never knew what happened to her and I cried for months about Dolly. Later when I was eight years old Mrs. Tate had another girl called Margaret. She stayed with the Tate’s till she was eighteen.

What I remember most about Dolly was when we were five, we were play sliding on a sled that my Dad had made. It was a steel sled and went real fast. I placed it on top of the boat and we would slide down. I let Dolly use it