Travels and Childhood Memories

My trip to Atlantic Canada included a visit to New Brunswick. As a child I lived in Newcastle (now amalgamated with Chatham and called Miramichi). The city sits on the Miramichi River, one of the world's largest producers of Atlantic Salmon. It was fun to 'go back in time' and visit the sites I remembered as a child.

First stop was Estey's Fish & Chips - yes it is STILL there after over 40 years! The meal was amazing and just as I remembered it. This is a 'take away' place so we ate in our motel room.

Estey's Fish & Chips

I remember being 'caddy' for my Dad at the golf course. I would get bored by about the 4th hole and spend the rest of the afternoon playing with the greenskeeper's daughter in the clubhouse. This time I actually played the whole course with my husband. I'm not a great golfer but I enjoyed the walk and hit a few good shots.  This is the second course that my Dad frequented that I've played. There are a few more on the list, but that will be for another adventure.

One of my favourite places as a child was our local library. The 'Old Manse' is an historic building built in 1877. It was the boyhood home of Sir Maxwell Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook. He became a politician and entrepeneur in Britian and a philanthropist in Canada. Many of the paintings I saw at the War Museum in Ottawa earlier this year were gifts to Canada from Lord Beaverbrook.

The librarian was Miss Louise Manny. I learned that she was more than the librarian. She was a folklorist and historian who collected and recorded songs of lumbermen and fishermen in the Miramichi region. She founded the Miramichi Folksong Festival in 1957. During my time in Newcastle there was one large room upstairs dedicated to children's books. I think my friend Lynn and I probably read every book on those shelves, especially the mysteries by Enid Blyton.

It was fun to remember people and places from my childhood. Funny how things aren't always quite as you remember them - houses look smaller, trees have grown but the memories are just the same.