Nell always took the kids and went with Bert if he had to go to get parts and if it was at night, he would sometimes try to scare the kids by driving through Hogan’s Alley. It was a poor part of town and looked dark and scary. Bert, like Ernie was quite a tease. He often gave Mrs. Chilton, the minister’s wife, a ride to town when Rev. Chilton was busy. Mrs. Chilton was a saintly little woman with a faultless reputation, so one day he parked outside the local liquor store and left her in the car while he took his time walking up the road to buy a paper. When he came back, she was crunched down in her seat with her purse up in front of her face. Sitting outside a busy liquor store wasn’t the best place for a minister’s wife to be seen. He laughed and teased her about that from then on.
Luckily, when Betty was born, Bert had bought Nell an electric Singer sewing machine in a Queen Anne cabinet. It was the most extravagant gift she had ever received. Not only did she appreciate it, but it would mean she could make the kids some new clothes. Nell made them all new winter coats by taking some old coats apart and turning the material inside out to make new ones with. When they saw there was a lot for sale on Dundas Street, they sold their house, bought the lot and rented a house across the street from it. The house they rented had been owned by a man named Eastman and from then on, they always referred to it as Eastman’s house no matter who lived in it.
The lot was on the south side of Capitol Hill and although it wasn’t at the very top of the hill it was still high enough to allow a panoramic view of Vancouver and the harbour. Nell could see all the lights at night and even see the big ships coming and going into their piers. They also had a good view of the Hastings Park racetrack and the exhibition grounds, which were at the bottom of Capitol Hill. It was the ideal location on which to build a house and Nell could hardly believe it was theirs.
The lot was on the corner of Dundas and Glynde Street. Dundas Street was paved and ran from west to east while Glynde was more of an alley than a road. Their new address was 4090 Dundas Street and the lot below it was cleared allowing even more of a view. Eastman’s house was directly across the street on Dundas, but except for a trail that went to a small shack where Mr. Hamilton, a kindly bachelor lived, the rest of the area was wooded. Mr. Hamilton was very good to the kids in the neighbourhood and would often make them buckwheat pancakes with lots of syrup. He had a little dog trained to sit up in a chair with a newspaper between his paws. Mr. Hamilton would put his glasses on the dog’s nose and then tell him to read the paper. The dog would move his head from side to side and the children believed he was reading—they were convinced that he was the smartest dog in all the world.
After they purchased their lot, life became very busy for Bert and the family. Every night after dinner, they all went across the road to work. Even the children helped by piling brush on the burn pile. Luckily, it had been logged off a few years before, so they were able to clear it by hand. One day a stranger came by and stood watching them work, especially Nell. After a time, he approached Bert and said, “You are lucky to have a wife like that.”
“Yes, she’s not half bad,” Bert replied, seriously, “If only she wouldn’t chew tobacco and spit under the pillow all night.”. A short time later Nell became acquainted with the man’s wife and learned what Bert had said. The woman was surprised when Nell just laughed. She was used to his antics by now. After they moved into Eastman’s house, Bert cut the power wire and spliced an extension onto it so he could have light while he was working on the new house at night. He was still using it a year after they moved into their new house and Nell kept at him to take it off. Finally, she told him she would report him herself if he didn’t do it the following day, so the next day he disconnected the wire. The day after that, the electric company came to inspect the line. It was a close call.
Cousin Emma had been to visit not long after Betty was born, and she had asked Nell if she would please name the baby Carol. As Carol grew older, her brothers enjoyed teasing her by calling her Carrots so she decided she wanted to be called Eliza. Nell said she couldn’t be called that, so she settled for the name Betty and wouldn’t answer to anything else. When she began school, Nell tried to enrol her as Carol, but the teacher looked up and said, “Oh you must mean Betty, Lloyd’s little sister.” Nell gave up and had to write to Cousin Emma and apologize. Lloyd, like Bruce had done with Marion, took it on himself to look after Betty, which at times left Kenneth on his own.
Kenneth didn’t do well in school but was very musical. However, money was scarce and neither Kenneth, Lloyd nor Betty was given music lessons. Kenneth learned to play the mouth organ by ear and would often entertain Lloyd and Betty. They always requested he play the last call and then Betty would cry. Kenneth also played the saw beautifully using one of Bert’s hand saws and his violin bow. Although Lloyd was an avid reader, he and Kenneth loved to listen to Nell read to Betty. Sometimes even Marion and Bruce would sit on the rug at Nell’s feet with the others and listen too. The story they always asked for was Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Nell would try to persuade them to pick another one because they always cried when she read it.
Nell had a canary that sang most of the day. She was very fond of it and any cats that came near she would shoo away. She didn’t want a dog either. After Champ passed away, she said she didn’t want any more dogs in the house, but when a stray dog came by and wouldn’t leave, she finally gave in and allowed the children to keep him. He was a white Jack Russell with big brown spots and the kids named him Corky. Nell wouldn’t have him in the house though, so Bert made a nice doghouse for him. Corky was an exceptionally clever little dog and he soon won Nell over. The doghouse was given away and Corky moved in. He loved all the family, but especially the children and he took on the job as their protector.
One day, a large Doberman came into the yard where Lloyd and Betty were playing and Corky attempted to chase it away. A fight ensued and poor Corky got the worst of it. He had a very deep wound on his back leg and Nell thought he may have to be put down. Most people who owned pets couldn’t afford to pay a veterinarian and Bert hadn’t a gun. Even if he could borrow one, he didn’t think he could use it, but he couldn’t see the dog suffer either. Fortunately, Dr. Craig came to see Nell in the nick of time.
Lloyd and Betty begged the doctor to save the dog even though Nell tried to tell them he was a people doctor and didn’t fix animals, but the doctor was fond of Corky too and knew they couldn’t afford a veterinarian’s fees. He asked Nell to clear off the kitchen table and bring him a basin of warm water and some clean cloths. Then he lifted Corky up on the table and told Bruce to hold his head and talk to him while he cleaned, dressed and stitched up the wound. Before he left, the doctor told the children that this would have to remain their secret forever. They never told anyone about it and Corky survived.
Nell was having a lot of pain and she had to have a hysterectomy. It was at that time she learned that she had cancer. The doctor said she might live if she had radiation. The cost for the treatment was five thousand dollars, which was at that time, a fortune. The treatment was very harsh, and it took her a long time to recover. It took ten years to finish paying for it and then when Nell mentioned it to her sister Jean, Jean said, “Why on earth didn’t you tell me, Nell? I thought it was free. I donated that much money to the cancer clinic and if I had known, I would have given you the money instead.” Nell’s pride had come at a high price.
Bert and Chris were excited when their oldest brother, Sidney, wrote saying he was coming to Vancouver on business and would be staying with them for a week while he was in town. He had invented a carburettor and one of the big car manufacturers in the States had wanted him to fly to Detroit with it. Sidney said he would fly as far as Vancouver, but no further, so they agreed to send a man out to meet him at the famous Hotel Vancouver on Georgia Street. Sidney arrived a week early so he could spend time with Bert and Chris. Nell had been told about his idiosyncrasies, so she had no idea what to expect, but although he looked a lot like the fictional Rip Van Winkle, he had a very likeable personality.
The children thought he was wonderful because he came loaded down with English cookies and toffee for them. His long hair and beard were badly in need of a trim and his white shirt, black tie, wool vest, outdated suit and overcoat were all in need of a cleaning. He had one small suitcase, so Nell realized that he hadn’t even brought a change of clothes. Bert, who always took pride in his appearance, tried his best to talk Sidney into buying a new suit and having his hair and beard trimmed before his meeting with the manufacturer's representative, but Sidney said he hadn’t come all this way to enter a beauty contest. When it came time for his meeting, Nell and Marion went with Bert when he took Sidney to the hotel, because it was considered one of the grandest hotels in the British Empire and they hoped they would be able to see the inside.
They were there an hour early, but when the hotel manager saw Sidney, he must have thought he was a tramp and was about to ask him to leave. Then Sidney mentioned the name of the man he had an appointment with, and the man’s attitude changed. He even gave them all permission to look around the hotel and Sidney a key to the room that was reserved for him for a week. The room had a bathroom with a marble sink and gold-plated faucets and all the furnishings and bedding were of the finest quality and it also had a grand view of the city.
Nell and Marion thought it was fit for royalty. After they saw the room, they found a roof top dining room and dance hall called the Panorama Room and an assortment of lounges, meeting rooms and ball rooms. There was an adjacent opera house that left them all awestruck, that is all but except Sidney, who wasn’t the least bit impressed. “I shall more than likely be through with my business by tomorrow, and if you don’t mind, I would prefer to spend the rest of my time with you,” he announced as they were leaving him to go to his meeting.
After they arrived home, they were all anxiously waiting to hear from him. It was even more exciting than Ernie’s invention, but Bert had to go back to work. He said he would come home early in case Sidney called. When he came home, the first thing he asked when he came in the door was, “Have you heard from him?” Instead of answering, Nell nodded her head toward the front room. Bert looked puzzled, and then he went in. Sidney was sitting in an easy chair drinking a cup of tea. “I didn’t expect to find you here, Sid. How did it go?” Bert asked.
“I caught a cab home,” Sidney replied, then had another drink of his tea and added, “The man was a bloody idiot and I told him so.” That’s all he had to say about it until a few days later when he confessed that the fellow had behaved in such an arrogant and disrespectful manner that he hadn’t even showed him the invention. Bert knew that he couldn’t talk Sidney into changing his mind, so he and the rest of the family just enjoyed the visit. As for Sidney’s invention, it took a few years before the automobile manufacturers had anything as good, because they had to wait for someone else to invent it.
Not long after Sidney returned to England, he wrote and said their father had passed away. Bert and Chris were sad to think they would never see him again and Nell knew she would miss his letters, but then Bert’s twin sister, Dot, began writing, so she kept them up with the news. Dot sent a picture of herself, and everyone thought she looked exactly like Bert except for a full head of curly black hair. In spite of looking like one of Dickens’ characters, she was as attractive. As they were growing up, the children, especially Betty, would ask Bert to tell them more stories about his parents and his siblings. The stories were always so much more colourful than those Nell had to tell since she believed that family skeletons should be left in the closet where they belonged and not brought out to air.
Nell loved Vancouver and her new house even though it wasn’t finished. She was very busy directing plays for the church’s young people’s group and organizing outings. Bert was the church’s Sunday School Superintendent, and the children loved the stories he told. When the PNE—Pacific National Exhibition—was on at Hastings Park, all the different churches were allowed to put up stalls and sell food to make money for their charity work. Nell and her church friends would spend days there cooking roast dinners and other meals. They always tried to cook a better meal than the other churches and organizations, but it was a friendly competition.
While she was working at the PNE, Nell’s family was allowed in free if they helped. During the depression Nell could only afford to let the kids go to one sideshow. Betty always picked the snake show and Lloyd and Kenneth usually gave in and went with her. Oddly, when she grew up, Betty developed a phobia towards snakes and was terrified of them. Going to the barns to see the animals was a treat too, but Lloyd and Kenneth always made sure Betty wore something red and then when they went past the bulls, they would tease her saying bulls always went after anything red. She’d spend the rest of the time hiding behind them.
When the church dinners were finished, Bruce was apprenticing as a machinist, Marion was apprenticing in a millinery shop and Kenneth was delivering papers so they were making a little money and could afford to go to the PNE, but Lloyd and Betty couldn’t. One day they decided to walk down to the grounds behind the racetrack and try to climb the ten-foot fence that ran all around the park. Mounted police often patrolled the fence and if they caught kids trying to climb over, they would knock them down with their billy clubs. It could be very painful.
Lloyd and Betty had just started to climb up when a policeman came by. They were ready to drop down and run when the policeman, who felt sorry for them, told them not to worry and he lifted them up on his horse and dropped them over. They didn’t have money, but they had a wonderful day going to all the exhibit buildings and eating samples and then through the barns looking at all the animals. They were late getting home and received a stern scolding, but they both thought it was worth it.
Nell loved the horse races and sometimes she would talk Bert, the Forbes and the Peters into going with her. She read the racing news in the paper and studied the horses, so although she could only afford to bet two dollars on one race, she usually won. One day, Bert, who seldom bet on a horse, liked the look of one in the paddocks and he bet on it to win. The horse’s name was “Little Broom” and the horses were barely out of the gate when “Little Broom” dropped dead. It was very sad, but for years, whenever they went to the races they would laugh and say, “Don’t bet on any horse Bert picks because it’s sure to drop dead.”