Summer Cousins

By Eunice Perneel Cooke

World War 2 was a time of disruption and family separation. In

Canada, the extended family came to the rescue, especially for the mothers who were able to take their fatherless children to stay with relatives during the school holidays. Disorienting as this was, it was still less severe than the situation overseas, where many children were evacuated to the countryside for safety. It was a lonely and often scary time on both sides of the Atlantic.

Summer Cousins is an account of that time in Canada.

Grandparents will remember this time in history with bittersweet nostalgia, and todays children will be interested in how life used to be.

The episodes are based upon the authors own life experiences. She wishes to acknowledge the contributions of her siblings for augmenting and jogging her memory.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Apr 18, 2008
• ISBN: 9781481712194

Eunice Perneel Cooke

Encouraged by the reception of her first book, “Foxfire”, Mrs. Cooke hopes that “Summer Cousins” will find a place in the hearts of all readers, from five to ninety-five.  She lives with her husband in Oakville, Ontario, Canada, and enjoys gardening and travelling, when she isn’t writing. 

Book preview

© 2008 Eunice Perneel Cooke. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 2/11/2008

ISBN: 978-1-4343-6738-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-1219-4 (ebook)

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Contents

Introduction

The Family

Shoebox Lunch

Peach Pits and Auntie O

The Horse Farm

Ooga, Ooga said the Horn

Bee Room and The Dunk Tank

Equine Loyalty

Strawberry Jam

Kittens and Dolls

Bip and Bop

Blueberries and Black Bears

Boo!

Pies and Flies

The Power of Flour

Goodbye –Until Next Summer

Dedication

First, to my husband Joe for his support in editing and graphics production, as well as for his encouragement.

Second, to all cousins.

Introduction

World War 2 was a time of disruption and family separation. In Canada, the extended family came to the rescue, especially for the mothers who were able to take their fatherless children to stay with relatives during the school holidays. Disorienting as this was, it was still less severe than the situation overseas, where many children were evacuated to the countryside for safety. It was a lonely and often scary time on both sides of the Atlantic.

"Summer Cousins" is an account of that time in Canada.

Grandparents will remember this time in history with bittersweet nostalgia, and today’s children will be interested in how life used to be.

The episodes are based upon the author’s own life experiences. She wishes to acknowledge the contributions of her siblings for augmenting and jogging her memory.

The Family

Grandpa and Grandma Gray have five children, four girls and one boy.

The girls are Anne, Evie, Jessie and O. The boy is Norman.

Anne is married to Bill Gorman and they have three children: James, Elsie and Mary Lou.

Evie is married to Private Pete Williams and they have three children: Arnie (Arnold), Maggie (Margaret) and Lizbeth (Elizabeth).

Anne is married to Sgt. John Baird and they have twin sons: Fred and Alfred, also known as Bip and Bop.

O is the youngest sister, unmarried but dearly hoping to be.

Norman is in the army, somewhere in Europe.

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Shoebox Lunch

Mama, can we eat our lunch now? asked Lizbeth Williams. The family was seated in the coach of the train, two facing two, with the window pulled down an inch. Even that much allowed the black soot from the belching engine to find its way in.

Are you hungry already, you little pig? teased her brother, Arnie. However, he was also eyeing the white shoebox on the floor of their space. He was imagining the egg and salmon sandwiches with their crusts cut off and wrapped neatly in waxed paper.

I can wait, sniffed Maggie, smoothing the skirt of her new print dress and checking to see if her big hairbow was still attached. Away down the aisle at the end of the coach she saw the water cooler with its dispenser of cone-shaped drinking cups. She remembered how pleasant the cool water tasted from one of those special cups. I think I’ll get a drink though. Can I Mama?

Mother nodded her head.

It was high noon in the summer of 1943. Their father was in England, serving in the armed forces and their mother was again taking them to visit her parents and sisters for the summer. They had boarded the train in Ottawa after an early-morning bus trip from Morrisburg. The destination was North Bay but there would still be a taxi ride before they arrived in Redbridge.

Everybody was looking forward to seeing Grandma and Grandpa Gray again. And after that Lizbeth, Maggie and Arnie would spend most of the summer with their cousins. Since they only played together during July and August, they called themselves the Summer Cousins.

I wonder if Bip and Bop still have their raft? mused Arnie, We sure had a lot of fun with that last summer.

Well, I hope they don’t, Mother said, that thing wasn’t safe at all.

Bip and Bop were ten-year-old twins, really Fred and Alfred, but they were so bumptious as toddlers that their father started calling them Bip and Bop. Nobody but their mother ever called them by their given names and sometimes even she forgot.

Mother wore a pale blue dress with bumpy flowers of the same material on the shoulders and down to the waist on both sides of the buttoned front. She had a big floppy pink straw hat that she now placed over the shoebox lunch. She pulled off her white gloves in order to