The Dowson Family Memories

Here are some emails I have had the pleasure to receive - from various members of the Dowson family. I went to Earl Haig Collegiate and remember Mary Dowson as a bass fiddle player in music class.

I also knew Mary's older brother, John, as a bass player from when I played rock n roll sax back in the 50's. Their younger brother, Mike, is also a musician who plays fantastic piano, going by the stage name, Michael Keys.

Then there are a couple of other siblings, Richard and Charles, that I have not met, but we are cyber friends.

So, here's some of the stuff that regularly comes through my Inbox, I thought you might appreciate if you grew up in Willowdale in the 1950s or 1960s.

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Re: Memories of Our Dad - Smog Clouds and the Rat Race

Richard Dowson 4:01 PM (3 hours ago)

Howdy Charles --

As kids I remember laying on the grass at McKee Avenue School with Johnny Ryan and others and looking for faces or objects in the clouds. Smog has been a wonderful feature of Toronto life for a very long time. When I was working for the Township (1958-59) we were way over where North York connected to Scarough - sort of up on a hill there - and you could look into Toronto to the west-southwest and see the smog over the city. Actually, I think you live over near there -- The Smog was bad and that was in the fall of 1958. As kids we also talked about getting away from the "Rat Race" which was life in Toronto as we saw it. I don't think people in the GTA really think about the Rat Race any more. I suppose if you are in it long enough then you think that is all there is. In Moose Jaw we have three rush-hours; in the morning - at lunch time because everyone goes home for lunch and then in the evening. In the thick of rush-hour, like this morning, there can be upwards of twelve cars in front of you. The question now is, "Is there a rat race in Toronto anymore?" Out here a day has 24 hours. In Toronto, the young people spend 3 to 4 hours going to and from work - and 8 hours at work -- so days must be longer in Toronto - like a Toronto day has to be 27.5 hours long to be the same as a Moose Jaw day where it takes only 15 minutes to get to work -- or all the way across town for that matter. But 2 hours one way to work ---whew -- that is a big part of the day. You can buy neat - fancy stuff with all the money but can only mess with your stuff on the weekend - as long as you don't drive to Muskoka - because then you are screwed because of driving time. So Charles? Is there a Rat Race any longer or was that just old 50s talk. And is cloud watching no longer a passion for young kids? And why am I not nostaligic for Toronto? Now Newmarket is different - I love that place! And Gravenhurst! And Dunchurch! And Parry Sound! - is there a theme here --- div>

  Richard 

----- Original Message -----

From: charles dowson

To: Richard Dowson The second

Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2014 9:57 PM

Subject: RE: Memories of Our Dad

Thanks Rich...nice memories.

I was thinking today about something we don't experience any more here, strong enough sunlight and wind to make cloud shadows move across the street where you are standing. When we were kids this was common place but now with all the stooly weather modification and chemtrails there is not that drama anymore.

Chuck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA5w7YWuum0

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From: dowsrich2@Sasktel.net
To: hasti90@hotmail.com
CC: dowson@rogers.com
Subject: Re: Memories of Our Dad
Date: Thu, 22 May 2014 18:16:38 -0600

Greetings Charles - very nice memories. Of course, we knew his at different times so the memories are different. I recall he liked to bring home old cheese sandwiches where the cheese was warm and had started to bend and it really tasted great. Still like to heat up my cheese in the microwave oven. I don't recall him having a really nasty temper so I knew if I made him mad I could take off for an hour and he would be calmed down when I got back. But he was away so much when I was growing up that I felt I did not know him. He was around for you guys and he was around when the others were home but he went to the hospital when I was little and didn't come home until I was six. And then after that he worked out of town. He' be gone for two weeks - home for the weekend and then gone again. I recall one time when he showed me how much money he have - over one hundred dollars in cash. And he did take me for hair cuts when I was little - to a baber who was in a shop by the Red And White. And when he would go to the Red and White he would touch two fingers to the cuff of his jacket. I asked him why he did that and he said it meant "put it on the cuff' meaning charge it. And he did all his business with the Toronto Dominion Bank. And the old guy loved stone - anything made with stone. And he made extra money by casting his own concrete 'brick' for fireplaces and the 'facing them up' with a chissel. He did a lot of the fireplaces in Willowdale. He took me to a house on Shepard just in from Yonge Street on the west side and they talked about dong a fireplace. While we were there a bird flew into the big front window.

 

Nice to have memories Richard

----- Original Message -----

From: charles dowson

To: Richard Dowson The second

Cc: John Dowson ; Wesdyne Wesdyne ; Patrick Folkes

Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2014 10:00 PM

Subject: RE: Memories of Our Dad

Dad always pissed mom off every time he had to chance to swish the old tea bags in the tea pot and cast them in the direction of the garage, when you cried too long as a kid his favorite expression was.."Awe dry up!". He liked to snap his glasses case shut as loud as possible from time to time. After work in the winter he kept his work pants on with the suspenders contrasting nicely with his old long beige underwear top, looked great at the dinner table. He'd sit down in front of the coal furnace at night sometimes, his feet propped up and stare at the glow from the open furnace door for more than an hour. "What are you doing dad?" "Hhmm? Oh, just meditating", was always the answer. Then I'd turn to my friends and say "See I told ya" I still have that old coal furnace door. I remember one spring when the snow in front of the garage had receded enough to expose the many tea bags he had tossed out over the winter. They were sitting on high on their own individual ice perches, scattered about like frozen tea bag mushrooms.

Chuck

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From: dowsrich2@Sasktel.net
To: hasti90@hotmail.com
CC: dowson@rogers.com; wesdyne@shaw.ca; folkes@golden.net
Subject: Memories of Our Dad
Date: Wed, 21 May 2014 09:07:14 -0600

Greetings - I was making tea yesterday and realized I had done something our Dad did - and that got me thinking. Here are some of the things I remember -

 

Turning the stove burner off under the kettle as the water comes to a boil -

 

Warning me that the water pipes in the bathroom were lead and that I was not to drink the water from the bathroom taps (true according to Ray Harris) -

 

Scrapping the last of the butter off the butter wrapping paper

 

Telling Patrick Folks he would become a Priest 

 

And his name - William (from his grandpa Chicpchase) Clifton (from his grandfather Dowson) and Herbert (from his grandmother Dowson's current husband, Herbert England)

 

Got any memories of the "Old Man" - Please add and circulate 

 

Richard