Big Bay Memories

My parents have a cottage on the Bruce Penninsula, near Wiarton. It is in a tiny village (not even a village anymore, more like one street!) and our family has roots there that stretch back 8 generations. Great-great grandparents ran the general store, great-great grandad drove the stage to Owen Sound, great-great Uncle Charlie was a sailor on the Great Lakes, and Great-great-great, maybe one more great-Grandad Garrett built the inn. Granny Pat (1858-1948), however, was famous for her flower gardens.

While spending a week at the cottage this August, we watched a crew of workers build a new cement bridge over the creek next to (what used to be) Granny Pat's house. In the process, the original cedar fence surrounding her property was coming down. Of course, I save three planks! One for me, one for my brother (who will cry) and one to hang on the wall of Bunkie Two:



The label says: "Fragment of Granny Pat's fence.
North Keppel, Ontario. c. 1900"

Here is Granny Pat, sitting on the dock with my grandmother and grandmother's twin sister c. 1912:


And here is Granny Pat's house (c. 1920), at the curve as you come into the village of North Keppel:


Here is Uncle Charlie, the sailor.


And Uncle Charlie's house, originally built as the village inn by Charlie's grandfather Garrett around 1880.

This house looks the same today. Although not in the family anymore, we are friendly with the present owner, and in fact, spent Christmas of 2007 here. Sharing a turkey dinner with family, and with the ghosts of our ancestors floating about us was a very magical time!