Tom Walsh (Friend)

Entered February 8, 2018 from Toronto

A kind honest guy.Who i will miss everyday forever .He is on his Harley in heaven.

The Fosters (Family)

Entered February 9, 2018 from CAMBRIDGE

You will be missed greatly and will always be in our thoughts and in our hearts

Ingrid Kutter (sister-in-law)

Entered February 10, 2018 from North York

My deepest sympathy to all the family. Michael, all my love to you at this difficult time.

Lisa Paonessa (Daughter in law)

Entered February 11, 2018

We miss you already, rest in peace.

Linda Nelson 

Entered February 11, 2018 from Orangeville

My sympathies to Mike and all the family. May he Rest In Peace

LONG BRANCH AVENUE.
Food Fight - I remember when we lived on Long Branch Avenue, Dave would sometimes cook dinner. This one time, not sure who made the mashed potatoes but they were lumpy. Dave said so to Mom and Mom being Mom said something like - “Really, well maybe if you can’t eat them, you can wear them” and threw a scoop of potatoes at him. Food Fight! We were all laughing and Dave threw some back at Mom and it started. Rick and I were just sitting there laughing until both Mom & Dave noticed, then they started throwing mashed potatoes at us! We all joined in, throwing food at each other, laughing as each scoop hit somebody. Finally Mom said “Enough” and Dave threw one more just for good measure. It was a mess to clean up, but we had fun!

COTTAGE LIFE
Our cottage only had 2 bedrooms, in one of which our Dad had built two double bunk-beds. When we had company, usually Dad’s brother Lloyd, his wife Marilyn and our cousins, Lloyd and Maureen, all the kids slept in the same room. Well you can imagine with 5 kids ranging from 6-10 years old, in one room, not a lot of sleeping was going on. Usually the boys were on the top bunk as they were taller and could get up there. Maureen and I would be on the bottom bunk. There were lots of pillow fights, fights, stealing of blankets, and a lot of laughing and giggling going on. Our parents were usually down at the beach, bonfire going, guitars playing, having a good time. Usually Mom or Aunt Marilyn would come and check on us and tell us to “Go to Sleep!” If Dad came in, he would tell Dave – you’re the oldest! Keep the noise down! We would eventually conk out and sleep.

Wasps - Our cottage had a vacant lot next door that was full of bull rushes which had all kinds of wild life living there. The property had a slope and then ran at least 100-150 feet out to the water, with the last 50 feet being marsh like. Among other things, this is where the snapping turtles and wasp nests lived. One time Dave, Rick and Lloyd were in there and found a large wasp’s nest. No way could they leave that alone! So they started poking it with sticks and naturally the wasps were not amused. Mom told me later that all she heard was a bunch of screaming, saw the bull rushes moving wildly and then a huge hoard of wasps come up out of the marsh area. Then she saw all 3 boys running like crazy, screaming, trying to get away from the wasps. She told them to go into the water, which they did but some of the wasps followed them in (wasps are nasty). All three of them had numerous stings everywhere. After that, they didn’t go bugging the wasp’s too often.

Snapping Turtles - Every 5-7 years we would get snapping turtles going go to the end of the bay by the Trestle bridge and nest, lay their eggs, soak up the sun, whatever. During this time, we usually ended up with one or two nesting under our dock. Not a good thing when you have little kids running around, feet dangling off the dock. Our Dad had to trap/kill a couple of them – they were huge! As kids we would go down to the trestle bridge and look at the turtles, get up as close as we could. Of course Dave, Lloyd & Rick had to pickup one of the smaller ones and bring it back to the cottage. We would all look at it, let it out of the box and tease it by putting sticks or rods in the turtles way to see it snap at them. Silly stuff but it was interesting for us. Dave would sometimes go on the dock and see if there was any turtles under it, and would try to snare it or make it come out.

Broken Arm - The trestle bridge was a magnet for us kids, especially since we were told to stay away from it. The bridge was the train tracks going to Port McNichol and was 2 stories high, with the train tracks on the top. We would go there, climb our way up to the first level, go to where the ladder was, and climb up to the top. I’m not sure how high it was but I would say at least 50-60 feet high. One time we were climbing up and I couldn’t get around one of the huge beams to get to the next level. Dave was on one side of the beam and I was on the other. He told me to come around and he would grab me and hoist me up to the next beam. Well, not sure what happened but I reached out, he reached out but we missed connecting. Dave lost his balance trying to reach me and fell the 1 ½ stories down into the water, hitting one of the beams along the way. Broke his arm on the way down, not to mention lots of cuts, scrapes and bruises. We went back to the cottage with Dave’s arm hanging, and our parent’s took him to Midland Hospital to set his arm. We all got in trouble for that one!! My Mom was always looking for us and would go to the end of dock and yell for us – she knew we were down by the bridge.