Same here Tom. My mother used to say to me.... Arthur, if I dressed you up in top hat and tails you'd look scruffy. It's a gift I have.

It's a strange thing but virtually every mother always calls their kids by their full name, they never abbreviate them. That's what you were at the Christening and that's how you'll stay as far as they're concerned, so I was always Arthur.

I have just recently started wearing pants again.

Thank goodness.  People were beginning to talk.

I have just recently started wearing pants again.

Thank goodness.  People were beginning to talk.

Not one young lady complained and a few asked me for my autograph and my phone number. Cheeky things the lot of them they were.

It's a strange thing but virtually every mother always calls their kids by their full name, they never abbreviate them. That's what you were at the Christening and that's how you'll stay as far as they're concerned, so I was always Arthur.

That's why I like the name Mark, it can't be shortened, lengthened yes to Marcus or Marconius as some called me at work.

It's a strange thing but virtually every mother always calls their kids by their full name, they never abbreviate them. That's what you were at the Christening and that's how you'll stay as far as they're concerned, so I was always Arthur.

That's why I like the name Mark, it can't be shortened, lengthened yes to Marcus or Marconius as some called me at work.

So you never got called Markie or Markey by your friends as a kid? You must have lived a sheltered life.

I got called all different names from Andrew's Liver Salt by my friends to PB by my history teacher to Andy and Pistol Pete in the military and to Great Dane Pete by my neighbours. I never got called Stud Muffin though like Tommy got called my his girl friends.

Markie too yes. The oddest was Marcusta. I also get called Paul a lot, I must look like a Paul.

It's a strange thing but virtually every mother always calls their kids by their full name, they never abbreviate them. That's what you were at the Christening and that's how you'll stay as far as they're concerned, so I was always Arthur.

That's why I like the name Mark, it can't be shortened, lengthened yes to Marcus or Marconius as some called me at work.

So you never got called Markie or Markey by your friends as a kid? You must have lived a sheltered life.

I got called all different names from Andrew's Liver Salt by my friends to PB by my history teacher to Andy and Pistol Pete in the military and to Great Dane Pete by my neighbours. I never got called Stud Muffin though like Tommy got called my his girl friends.

I forgot one name I was called for a few years, it was scar face. It happened after I was bitten in the face at 7 years old by a large Lassie dog that jumped up at me for no reason and bit me on the face. 

I had to get 2 stitches above my right eye brow and 12 more down my nose from the corner of the inside of my eye across the nose and 2 more  under my jaw at the top of my throat. The only good thing at the time was it missed my eye by less  than a quarter of an inch. Of course when the owner brought me home my mother seen it and started to cry because I was covered in blood down my white t-shirt. My parents drove me up to Emergency at the closest hospital were they took me right away and a female Doctor stitched me up. She told me that it would hurt first and I thought to myself it does already but she added because were it was in the 3 spots it's hard to freeze those areas. She was right, the freezing never seemed to work like I had hoped for. The next day was a school day and I hadn't made it through the schoolyard before the questions started

Then the bell rings and off to my classroom I go and on the way the Principal stops me and asked me about it. Them my teacher asked me and I'm sure ever one of the 30 other kids in my class had to ask me something about it. Next came my relatives who had to hear the story and then my neighbours wanted to hear. You would have thought I had been mauled by a bear by the time the story was over. It's now 67 years later and you can only notice the scar if I'm squinting.

Tomorrow night if you are all good I'll tell you the story of when I went to jump up on the stage in my junior high school auditorium and didn't quit make it. Now that 10 inch scar I still have.

Life insurance must be a problem.

Life insurance must be a problem.

I made the mistake of taking a policy out when I first joined the military and it was all find an dandy until I read through the policy and it had a war clause in it. It said if I was involved in a war, training for a war or in a place that there was a war I wasn't covered. I phoned up the company and they tried to tell me it didn't have a war cause in my policy so I told them what page # it was on and read it off to them and they told me just to disregard what it said and I said I'm in the military, how and I going to just disregard that. We argued back and forth till finally I said just cancel it. I still don't have it to this day and don't fell I need it because if I go now we have enough saved to cover the cost of a good shovel and the kids can bury me in the backyard in the pet cemetery with all our past family pets. Who could ask for better company than them.

No but my daughter has a cat that when you tell it no it has to start and argument with you. Never heard a cat that's so vocal.

One last story of when I was a kid. I was staying for the weekend with my Aunt and Uncle at what we called the farm which really only had the old farm house standing but was used in the summer months as a cottage in the country away from the city for Sunday family get togethers. 

I wasn't that old but old enough to be doing stupid things if my chains were off. 

It was a warm night outside and I went to use the outhouse and on my way back I noticed that the moths were all flying around the outside light which didn't have a cover, only the bare light bulb.

My mind went into attack mod and I got the fly swatter from inside the house and went back outside to knock a few off.

I found that even with the fly swatter and my arm extended that I couldn't quite reach them to get a good swing, so there was a small wooden railing around the back deck and I decided to get onto it to be able to have a better reach.

All was going well until I lost my balance on the narrow railing and fell off over the high side which was a 6 foot drop.

That's all I remember until I heard my uncle voice yelling to my aunt that wee Pete had just killed himself which woke me up. 

I had not only dropped the 6 feet but fell on a cement well tile open legged.

Now the guys here will appreciate more when I tell them that from the inside of one knee completely around to the inside of the other and all parts in between had turned not only blue purple but darn near black by next morning.

The tile like above had been left over after the family had dug a new well.

It took over a month for my body parts to turn back to their proper colours.

Found a picture of that back deck but picture is not wide enough to see the rest of the deck and light but you can see a bit of the railing which was only made from 2x4's. Notice the ground is sloping down to the left making the end of the deck you can't see much higher. The farm was big enough that the family built a 9 hole golf course on it and also a baseball diamond and a badminton court for all us kids. After the big Sunday dinners and later in the day teas, all the family and kids would take a walk to what we called the back of the property. Across the road and in a bit was a place called the Scout pond where us kids could swim. There was also a lot of winding creeks on that side with speckled trout in them. We never used fishing rods to fish but only a pole with a line and a hook on the end. Dew worms were the bate and we could catch them on the lawns the night before. A lot before my time an older sister of my father had her wedding reception there and she got married on Jan 31st. Anyway, after the partying started it began to snow and by the time it stopped none of the guests could leave for the next two days.

A picture of that aunt who had her reception there years after this picture was taken. They are using wooden clubs and we even got to play gulf with them many years later.

 A picture of where the Scout Pond emptied before entering the creeks again. This aunt grew up in the age of the flapper styles.

Found a picture of that back deck but picture is not wide enough to see the rest of the deck and light but you can see a bit of the railing which was only made from 2x4's. Notice the ground is sloping down to the left making the end of the deck you can't see much higher. The farm was big enough that the family built a 9 hole golf course on it and also a baseball diamond and a badminton court for all us kids. After the big Sunday dinners and later in the day teas, all the family and kids would take a walk to what we called the back of the property. Across the road and in a bit was a place called the Scout pond where us kids could swim. There was also a lot of winding creeks on that side with speckled trout in them. We never used fishing rods to fish but only a pole with a line and a hook on the end. Dew worms were the bate and we could catch them on the lawns the night before. A lot before my time an older sister of my father had her wedding reception there and she got married on Jan 31st. Anyway, after the partying started it began to snow and by the time it stopped none of the guests could leave for the next two days.

Body Language 101 - If you cross your leg toward another person you like them. 

Detective Tommy

Found a picture of that back deck but picture is not wide enough to see the rest of the deck and light but you can see a bit of the railing which was only made from 2x4's. Notice the ground is sloping down to the left making the end of the deck you can't see much higher. The farm was big enough that the family built a 9 hole golf course on it and also a baseball diamond and a badminton court for all us kids. After the big Sunday dinners and later in the day teas, all the family and kids would take a walk to what we called the back of the property. Across the road and in a bit was a place called the Scout pond where us kids could swim. There was also a lot of winding creeks on that side with speckled trout in them. We never used fishing rods to fish but only a pole with a line and a hook on the end. Dew worms were the bate and we could catch them on the lawns the night before. A lot before my time an older sister of my father had her wedding reception there and she got married on Jan 31st. Anyway, after the partying started it began to snow and by the time it stopped none of the guests could leave for the next two days.

Body Language 101 - If you cross your leg toward another person you like them. 

Detective Tommy

It is my father sitting beside the oldest daughter of his older sister who had her wedding party at that Farm house. She is still alive but in her upper 80's.

Will send you another picture of them together when she was around 3 and the letter she wrote about the picture that she still remembers being taken. She was the one in the family that kept a lot of the older farm pictures and wrote stories about them and made copies for my mine and her families. They may not we great because I just only took a picture of them a few minutes ago without a tripod.

No but my daughter has a cat that when you tell it no it has to start and argument with you. Never heard a cat that's so vocal.

One last story of when I was a kid. I was staying for the weekend with my Aunt and Uncle at what we called the farm which really only had the old farm house standing but was used in the summer months as a cottage in the country away from the city for Sunday family get togethers. 

I wasn't that old but old enough to be doing stupid things if my chains were off. 

It was a warm night outside and I went to use the outhouse and on my way back I noticed that the moths were all flying around the outside light which didn't have a cover, only the bare light bulb.

My mind went into attack mod and I got the fly swatter from inside the house and went back outside to knock a few off.

I found that even with the fly swatter and my arm extended that I couldn't quite reach them to get a good swing, so there was a small wooden railing around the back deck and I decided to get onto it to be able to have a better reach.

All was going well until I lost my balance on the narrow railing and fell off over the high side which was a 6 foot drop.

That's all I remember until I heard my uncle voice yelling to my aunt that wee Pete had just killed himself which woke me up. 

I had not only dropped the 6 feet but fell on a cement well tile open legged.

Now the guys here will appreciate more when I tell them that from the inside of one knee completely around to the inside of the other and all parts in between had turned not only blue purple but darn near black by next morning.

The tile like above had been left over after the family had dug a new well.

It took over a month for my body parts to turn back to their proper colours.

We've all got that stage in life where bruises take weeks to disappear.

No but my daughter has a cat that when you tell it no it has to start and argument with you. Never heard a cat that's so vocal.

One last story of when I was a kid. I was staying for the weekend with my Aunt and Uncle at what we called the farm which really only had the old farm house standing but was used in the summer months as a cottage in the country away from the city for Sunday family get togethers. 

I wasn't that old but old enough to be doing stupid things if my chains were off. 

It was a warm night outside and I went to use the outhouse and on my way back I noticed that the moths were all flying around the outside light which didn't have a cover, only the bare light bulb.

My mind went into attack mod and I got the fly swatter from inside the house and went back outside to knock a few off.

I found that even with the fly swatter and my arm extended that I couldn't quite reach them to get a good swing, so there was a small wooden railing around the back deck and I decided to get onto it to be able to have a better reach.

All was going well until I lost my balance on the narrow railing and fell off over the high side which was a 6 foot drop.

That's all I remember until I heard my uncle voice yelling to my aunt that wee Pete had just killed himself which woke me up. 

I had not only dropped the 6 feet but fell on a cement well tile open legged.

Now the guys here will appreciate more when I tell them that from the inside of one knee completely around to the inside of the other and all parts in between had turned not only blue purple but darn near black by next morning.

The tile like above had been left over after the family had dug a new well.

It took over a month for my body parts to turn back to their proper colours.

We've all got that stage in life where bruises take weeks to disappear.

As you get older you become thin skinned and you bruise easier. 

Was a shock to say the least to look in the bathroom dressing mirror after a bath and see your bag and dong an angry dark purple.