Norman and his father Malcolm fought a lot. Malcolm was stern and attempted to impose discipline on his son. On one occasion, he pushed Norman’s face into the ground and forced him to eat dirt to teach him humility.
Norman rebelled at his father’s strictness. As a result, they used to have a lot of arguments. These arguments were loud and angry. Malcolm always apologized afterwards. Later in life, Norman said that he and his father used to have their “usual hate together.”
Malcolm Bethune with his children, horse and buggy in pre-car days
Malcolm’s strictness left Norman with a lifelong urge to push limits—to ignore what other people told him were the rules. This made him very adventurous, but it must have been difficult for his friends, who never quite knew what Norman was going to do next.
At the age of twenty-one, Malcolm Bethune turned his back on his family and set off around the world to seek his fortune. For years he travelled and tried different business ventures. They all failed. Eventually, he ended up in Hawaii growing oranges. There he met a missionary, Elizabeth Ann Goodwin. Malcolm fell in love and decided that he too wanted to become a preacher. He returned to Canada, became a Presbyterian minister and married Elizabeth. His first posting as a minister was to Gravenhurst.