tell you a story- my father left Huntsville around 1915 as a boy- his mother died and the family broke up, he went to live with his uncle on the Clerke farm in Cannington.Anyway nearly 50 years later [ he hadn't been back] he took me to Huntsville-looked for the little house across the river his father had moved onto a lot by rollers and a team.Hewas looking for a house ''up a hill, with no trees around it''andyou guessed it, when we finally located it,there big trees allaround the house- and there was no hill, just a little rise.He walked around and saw a mail box with the name'' Catton''on it- he remembered he had a friend by that name he used to play with- and sure enough- it was his old friend- he had nmoved away to Toronto and retired in his parents old home.We only had the morning there- but ''Blackburns Boatworks '' was still there, and he pointed out where they used to make an ice bridge across the river in the winter as a short cut to the town.Dad said the town was pretty much as he remembered, it hadn't grown much, maybe there was no industry there and people moved away for work.He also remembered a tannery, but that was long gone.
He said there were no deer then, but they had to go''up north'' for hunting trips.Dad also told me his father had an old indian friend who he had done a favour for,make him a birch bark canoe as thanks.Funny the stuff you remember
I've never been back, but still remember the stories the old man told me- he's been gone himself over 20 years.
