52 Ancestors: Crabby Uncle Bill Massey

I'm writing about my Uncle Bill Massey as part of Amy Crow's Challenge: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks .

 

Bill Massey in WW2

Every family has its characters and one of the characters in my family was my Uncle Bill. Everyone called him Groundy but I don't have a clue how he got the nickname or what it meant. A life-long bachelor, he was one of the crabbiest people I ever met! 

He was my grandfather's brother and was the second oldest of 9 children. I remember Uncle Bill vividly because my grandfather took me to visit him frequently. But I didn't know him well at all because I was very young and he never spoke to me, nor did I speak to him. I just sat and listened. He probably didn't care for children much. And I was only 13 when he died.

What I remember most is the image in my head of him at the kitchen table drinking with my grandfather. Uncle Bill was a heavy drinker and always had a whiskey nearby. His house was almost empty of furniture but he kept it very tidy and clean. I remember sliding in my sock feet on his hardwood living room floor. You could get a good run at it and slide a long way as nothing got in your way. Everything had its place and nothing was ever moved.

His early life is a mystery to me but someone once told me he worked at the St. Mary's Cemetery at some point in his life. I have a vague memory of being told that he once lived in a trailer by a gas station. It seems sad to not know anything more. 

He volunteered in WW2 and I was told that he drove a jeep in Europe as the driver for a film crew. But the one and only time I asked Uncle Bill if he ever got any medals, he scowled and told me it was all a bunch of "BS". So I never asked again. My grandmother told me that the only time Bill talked about his time in WW2 was when he was very drunk. 

While Bill was a life-long bachelor I know that during the war he had a girlfriend. It didn't work out but he must have cared for her very much because he kept her photograph until he died. I now own this photo but I don't know her name.

Uncle Bill was an amateur woodworker and a blanket box that he made is in my house. 

When I was 13 years old, Uncle Bill died of a heart attack while shovelling snow. His death came as a shock to me because he was a family character and as such you figure they will always be around. In some ways he is still with us because he's one of the members of our family whose name comes up most frequently when I'm talking with anyone else in the family. Everyone remembers Uncle Bill.

Sharing Memories Week 6: Games I Played

Over at Olive Tree Genealogy blog is a Genealogy Writing Challenge. It's 52 weeks of writing your own memoirs.  Lorine will be posting a weekly prompt each Sunday on Olive Tree Genealogy blog under the topic Sharing Memories

The first week's prompt was about Kindergarten. You can read Lorine's blog post for the first week at Challenge: 52 Weeks of Writing Our Memories - Kindergarten Days

This week's prompt is "Games You Played"

I grew up in a family that didn't play a lot of games. We didn't play card games or board games but I do remember the first video games that came out. 

I remember playing "Pong" on a television at a friend's house and then when the Atari home game console came out all my friends wanted it. If you were cool you had an Atari. I didn't have one. 

The Video Game Arcades were a big hit. My friends and I would go at lunch time and after school to spend all our quarters. That was in the days of games like Asteroid, Donkey Kong and Pac-Man. 

I often wonder if I'd taken all those endless quarters I spent and invested them, how much money would I have now some 30 years later! 

Sharing Memories Prompt: Naughty Things You Did as a Kid

Over at Olive Tree Genealogy blog is a Genealogy Writing Challenge. It's 52 weeks of writing your own memoirs.  Lorine will be posting a weekly prompt each Sunday on Olive Tree Genealogy blog under the topic Sharing Memories

The first week's prompt was about Kindergarten. You can read Lorine's blog post for the first week at Challenge: 52 Weeks of Writing Our Memories - Kindergarten Days

This week's prompt is to talk about something naughty I did as a kid. Well I never liked physed, and I would use any excuse I could think of to get  out of it.

One winter day in Grade 7 I went to Physed class and my physed teacher Ray Brien noticed I was wearing my work boots. I never wore anything else - workbooks and jeans, that was my daily "uniform". He wasn't pleased and told me to get my running shoes. Not a big deal, right? Except my running shoes were at home and home was about 4 miles from the school.

So I went home. And oops I neglected to tell my teacher that my running shoes were at home and I had to leave to get them. It was a long walk and by the time I got home it was lunch time. I was hungry so I made myself some lunch. After I finished lunch I headed back to school. By the time I got back to school I'd been gone almost 4 hours and school was just about over.

My classroom teacher asked me where the heck I'd been and when I told him that Mr. Brien sent me to get my running shoes, and here they were, he just shook his head and said "Ok Brian go sit down". I never got into trouble at all because the teachers all considered me a bit of an oddball.

Sharing Memories of Grade 2

I'm 8th from the left in the back row

Over at Olive Tree Genealogy blog is a Genealogy Writing Challenge. It's 52 weeks of writing your own memoirs.  Lorine will be posting a weekly prompt each Sunday on Olive Tree Genealogy blog under the topic Sharing Memories

The first week's prompt was about Kindergarten. You can read Lorine's blog post for the first week at Challenge: 52 Weeks of Writing Our Memories - Kindergarten Days

I don't remember all that much about Grade 2. I do remember that it was not fun. My teacher was John McCallum. Nice guy. He played the guitar. I think he had a sailboat.

I remember that was the year we started playing Math Baseball. You had to answer math questions to move around the bases. I was never very good at Math. How I hated that game.

 

Sharing Memories: Learning to Drive

1974 Ford F150

Over at Olive Tree Genealogy blog there is a Genealogy Writing Challenge. It's 52 weeks of writing your own memoirs.  Lorine will be posting a weekly prompt each Sunday on Olive Tree Genealogy blog under the topic Sharing Memories. I've joined in and today's post is about learning to drive.

At age 16 I went to Ray's Driving School and learned to drive. Most kids in town went there. Mind you  I'd already been driving a truck for many years on my grandparents' farm where I stayed every summer. It was a brown 1974 Ford F150.

Having the experience of driving on the farm coupled with going to Driving School made getting my licence pretty easy.  I also live in a small town and I think that helped. However there was one strange incident that could probably only happen in a small town. I wasn't the only student in the car when I took my driver's test!

As the instructor and I were heading to the car he asked me if I minded if another student came with us. Of course I said I didn't care. It was a little old lady! She was in her 80s and was there for her renewal and I guess the instructor was in a hurry and thought it would make life easier if he could take us both.

So she sat in the back seat while I drove for my test, then we switched and I sat in the back seat while she drove. I felt bad for her because she failed!

None of that compares to my grandfather's driving test around 1930. His test was him and the instructor  (who he knew) driving the back country roads of southern Ontario drinking. Yep, times were different back then.

Week 2: Sharing Memories of Grade 1

I am 5th from the left

Over at Olive Tree Genealogy blog is a Genealogy Writing Challenge. It's 52 weeks of writing your own memoirs.  Lorine will be posting a weekly prompt each Sunday on Olive Tree Genealogy blog under the topic Sharing Memories

The first week's prompt was about Kindergarten. You can read Lorine's blog post for the first week at Challenge: 52 Weeks of Writing Our Memories - Kindergarten Days

As to my time in Grade 1 the first thing that comes to my mind is my teacher Mrs. McMinnimey. I thought she was a Witch. No she was NOT a nasty person. I was actually really fond of her.  However she always wore what I thought of as witch's boots. They had high heels and were high up her legs. She almost always dressed in black and she had very long hair. I guess at some point I figured out she was not in fact a Witch but the image still sticks in my mind almost 40 years later.  Mrs. M. was really strict and she didn't tolerate a lot of shenanigans. She expected a lot from her students and would let you know when she was not pleased.

It was in Grade 1 that I started to get an interest in art. The Teachers were impressed as I was way ahead of most people my age when it came to art. However as far as the other subjects went I was no Rhodes Scholar. It was at this time that I also started to realize I didn't really like school. This stayed with me until I graduated from Grade 12. School was not my favourite thing!

I have a weird memory of the smell. The primary end of the school with K, Grade 1, 2 and 3 had dirty orange shag carpet and it smelled musty. In fact I am told that a few years later the school had to remove the carpet for health reasons. Too much mold and must in it.

Accepting the Challenge to Write My Memories

I am back row, 6th from left. Blonde hair, weird smile

Over at Olive Tree Genealogy blog is a Genealogy Writing Challenge. It's 52 weeks of writing your own memoirs.  Lorine will be posting a weekly prompt each Sunday on Olive Tree Genealogy blog under the topic Sharing Memories

The first week's prompt was about Kindergarten. You can read Lorine's blog post for the first week at Challenge: 52 Weeks of Writing Our Memories - Kindergarten Days

I'm accepting the challenge and here is my memory of my Kindergarten days:

I remember my teacher, Mrs. Peet. She was really nice and we all liked her. I also remember my friend Greg Scott. He was the only kid I hung around with and played with in Kindergarten.

The Christmas Pageant sticks in my mind the most. I played the Innkeeper and had to tell Joseph and Mary there was no room in my Inn but they could sleep in my barn.

I still remember the ride to school on the bus. It was my first time on a bus and going somewhere. There was one little kid who was crying and didn't want to get on the bus!

Lorine will be posting a weekly prompt each Sunday on Olive Tree Genealogy blog under the topic Sharing Memories