Oct 7, 1960- October 7, 1965

1960 October 7th at approx 6 pm I came into life; We live in a little house above my grandpas; I read a newspaper sort of.
1961 I am walking and talking; I give my dad a black eye; Queenie and Prince keep me from getting run over
1962  My mother has a stillborn child; she becomes sad and withdrawn; Sometime this year Janet comes to live with Aunt Lena; I am running and climbing
1963 In July of this year Mom brings home a baby brother for me, he is called John Henry; I have a conversation with a shepherd on the rocks behind our house
1964 In December of this year my second brother arrives he is called Francis Ralph; This is also the first year I am molested; I started school in September of this year
1965 I complete my first year of school; I discover ballet; I dance with shadows; I get chicken pox; Our house burns down; I spend the summer with relatives; We move to a farm in the middle of nowhere; I go to a different school where I am the only girl in my grade 2 class.

My father's mother died shortly after I was born, my grandfather followed her sometime in 1964 I think. Aunt Lena had a husband but I always thought of her as a single parent because he worked in the lumber camps and I don't remember him being around until after grandpa died. He did not like me much though Janet and I were nearly inseparable until middle school. Dan did fine wood work and I own several pieces he did for my parents.

Janet was my best friend for a long time. Her story is much more complicated than mine. Born into a family of ten, about eleven months after her nearest sibling she was given to my Aunt Lena to raise, one to ease the burden on her parents and two to replace the daughter Aunt Lena had had to give up to the childs father a few years earlier. I am not sure why Aunt Lena had to give her up but my guess is Dan did not want to raise another man's get on his wife especially not a girl as he seemed to have no problem with Aunt Lena's oldest son also another man's child or with Janet who had a completely different set of parents.

My own story is simpler in that though I was not his child my father asked my mother to marry him; "to make an honest woman" of her. To his credit I was well into my 30's before he told me so though I knew I didn't quite fit I never knew why. He was my dad; when I asked mom who my father was she said the one that raised you. Her way of saying he was a sperm donor and not much else is what I think now.

1965-1970

In September of 1964 I entered school, I was younger than my classmates by a year since most of them had birthdays in the first 3/4 of the year while mine was in the last quarter, why my parents wanted me in school early I don't know. Perhaps because by then both my brothers had been born and they were just over a year apart.

Highlights:

1964-1965

I learned how to read and began to devour the small school library
I had perfect attendance right up until the last four days of the school year and I was out because of chicken pox
I started my trip towards being a loner with a dance, some cheering and a fever that messed the memory all up
I had a best friend but I lost her to the new girl, I even had a boyfriend who gave me a ring.

1965-1966

Our house burned down the summer of 1966, so I spent most of the summer with my cousins in Trenton and came back to a new home near the end of August. The new home also meant I had to go to a new school which is one of the reasons I lost both my best friend and my boy friend to someone else. You can't maintain a good relationship if you don't see each other much or at all. 
I chewed out the ends of my mitten thumbs and ended up freezing them pretty good
I saw fossils for the first time that year, one of the families I went to school with lived near a fairly large stone quarry.

1966-1967

Due to dwindling population the school in Lakehurst was closed and so were a couple of others. Myself and my classmates from the Lakehurst school began to be bused to Buckhorn as the largest population centre in the area. That is when I found out for sure my best friend had formed a friendship with another girl who had come the year I was gone and my boyfriend had a crush on someone else. On the upside I met the boy I would have a crush on for most of my pre-teen years.

The girls in my age group (there were only three of us), came home with me one night for supper but didn't stay long. They met my grandmother and got scared cause they thought she was a witch. My dad had to take them home as soon as he got home from work.

1967-1968

1968-1969

1969-1970

I do not remember many specifics of those three years. I beleive that my depression began around this time, I remember playing with my cousins but for the most part is was me and a book in a little grove I found near the back of the school grounds. By the time I graduated from junior school to intermediate school I had read all 100 or so books that were in the schools library.

1960-1965

There are a few stories that were told of me at family get togethers from between the age of nine months to the age of two and a half. According to my family I was walking by nine months . I have seen a picture of me standing on a couch holding my dad's hand and I was pretty small so it is possible.

One of the first stories to be told has to do with my climbing ability. In those days mom hung her laundry on a line outside to dry. That line was held up by a two by four. The story goes that somehow I climbed up that board all by myself without disloging it from the line or falling. No one saw me do it and they have no idea how I did it. The first time they heard about it I was screaming my lungs out because I couldn't figure out how to get back down. At a guess I would say I climbed about five feet at a 45 degree angle without any assistance.

That is always the first story they tell. The second is fairly similar except that it took place at my aunt & uncles across the village from where we lived.

I have tried to find a photo of the cupboard in the story but have not really found one that is similar enough to illustrate what I'm talking about so I am going to try a word picture. It was a cupboard about three feet high with two doors and two drawers on the bottom a small prep counter then a hutch that stood another three feet or so high. In all it was about six feet from floor to top. On the hutch were two sets of two doors and several small drawers. This cupboard was my aunts pantry & dish cupboard. Near the top of one of the door units on the hutch part was where the margarine & sugar were kept. Without the aid of a chair, (at least no chair was ever mentioned) I climbed up this huge thing all the way to the top to reach the margarine. Don't ask...I guess I really liked margarine. Anyway my mom and my aunt found me happily eating margarine from its container. Again no explanation as to rather I was literally hanging on like a monkey or if I had some how gotten back down with my treat. I was around two and a half I was told.

The third story has to do with my favorite aunt. The shack that we lived in was on top of a small rise. Below that rise was where my aunt, her boys and my grandfather lived in an old clapboard house. My dad always laughed about this because even though I was small I had a big appetite. I would have a meal with my parents and then I would run down the little rise and have the same meal with my aunt and her family. Nearly every day I did this. He always said he used to wonder where I put it all because i was solid but I wasn't heavy.

I loved spending time at my aunts house, I was introduced to ballet there because she had a TV. Her sons acted like big brothers to me for a long time until they grew up & left home.

One last story and this is a much my mom's story as mine. My mother always looked young for her age and she was almost nineteen when this event happened. The first thing you need to remember is that she was the female half of a set of twins, the second thing you need to remember is that back in the 1950's & 60's you had to pay to go to highschool much the same way as we pay for college and university now a days. Her parents couldn't afford to send both her and her brother so she was finished school when she was 14.

On this paticular day we were at my aunts house. Mom was watching TV and I was sitting looking at a newspaper, even turning the pages like I was reading it. The truant officer came looking for one of my cousins and when he asked mom why she wasn't in school. She just smiled and pointed at me. It always makes me smile because apparently the truant officer apologized and left in a hurry. For my part I guess that was when I first realized that reading was an important thing. Even at so young an age I had already fallen in love with the printed word. I was 18 months old.

1960-1965

In my first year I went through all the normal things a baby goes through. There are a couple of stories about things that occured between the ages of nine months and 18 months that my family laughed about for years. I call them stories because they were things told to me not things I remember.

For the record it appears that I was walking at nine months and began climbing just as soon as I figured out how to co-ordinate my hands and feet. The first thing my mom always talked about was the board I climbed. It was upright at about a 45% angle holding up our clothes line and it was not more than 3" wide and I climbed that thing all the way to the top then began to holler because I couldn't figure out how to get back down again. Mom always smiled when she told it though I was never sure if it was my courage or my fear that made her smile

Another story they tell is about when and how I began to read. I am not sure how old I was probably still less that a year. The truant officer came to my aunt's house to find out why one of her boys was missing school. He spotted mom and me in the living room. Mom was watching TV and I was lying near her doing what appeared to be reading a newspaper. Turning the pages looking at it and turning the next page. Of course I was too young to know what the words were but I suppose I could have been looking at the pictures. When the truant officer asked mom why she wasn't in school, (she was quite young looking), she pointed to me and apparently both did a double take when they saw what I was doing. It is no wonder with a start that young that when I did learn to read I read without ceasing well into my 20's and continue still to this day to read a fair amount.

There is one other thing that dad spoke about sometimes. I suppose it was quite embarassing to him. He was throwing me up in the air and catching me. In those days when children began to walk they were put into hard white shoes like the one above. I was wearing mine and I guess I got a little excited. I kicked dad with one of them and gave him a black eye. I am not sure how he explained it to the guys he worked with but I'm pretty sure he didn't tell them I gave it to him.

And finally there are the dogs. I guess I was quite a dare devil in those formative years. My dad kept hunting dogs, big strong hounds for the deer hunt. When I began to walk Queenie apparently adopted me. My mom said she always felt comfortable letting me out to play by myself because Queenie and her son King would watch over me and if I headed towards the road or any other dangerous place they would put themselves between me and my target until I gave up. Talk about your useful baby sitters.

October 7, 1960

I was born at St. Josephs hospital in Peterborough, Ontario before its services were all moved to the Regional Hospital. The approximate time was 5:00 PM. That is only a guess. Dad says that mom missed dinner so he had to go find her something to eat after she woke up. In those days they didn't just freeze your lower half they put you under. You were awake enough to hear them tell you to push but not awake enough to feel the pain. I was a small baby just a bit over 5lbs again I am not sure exactly because I never thought to ask my parents and now they are both gone. All I know was that I was a tiny thing and have remained small my whole life. At least height wise :)

My father was Milford Ralph Marois, age 30 born Nov 1, 1929. He was a labourer. He had spend his younger years doing a bit of travelling. He had worked in a lumber camp, did his bit in the army as a cooks helper and assisted a jewelry maker. These are the ones he talked about the most I'm sure there were others. He was also an alcoholic from an alcoholic family. Soft spoken unless he got really angry. Shortly before he died I also found out that he was a long time sufferer of depression.

My mother was Margaret Faye Creighton, female half of a set of twins. Their birthday was March 25, 1942. She was 18 when I was born. Of the two of them she had more brains than her brother but he got to go to high school while she stayed home. I do not know what if any jobs she had in her younger years before I came along she never spoke of them. Her family moves around a lot because her father was in the army. The other things I know about my mother is that she was molested by her father several times and that like me she had many boyfriends though how many she had sex with I have no idea. She was a cold and distant parent, I do not remember getting hugs from her or kisses or any of those other things you would expect a parent who loved a child to do, but I know she loved me she showed me in other ways which I will discuss as we get to those parts of my life.

As you can see I know more about my mother than I do about my father. I think that is because she was a stay at home mom so we spent a fair amount of time together

My parents got married because my mother was pregnant and dad was the only one who offered to marry her. Rather he was the sperm donor who created me has never been answered for me but he was the one who raised me so he is dad.

I have always loved the story of the proposal. Mom had climbed up into her favorite tree to think and dad found out she was there. He climbed up the tree and asked her to marry him. They always said that was why I was such a climber in my younger years because of that day. I just find it incredibly sweet that my father would go to that extreme to save her reputation.