My earliest memories

When I was newly born my family lived in a house on Lansdowne Street in Sackville, New Brunswick. (Sackville has several streets named after Canadian Governors-General, also including Lorne and Dufferin.) We moved to our West Avenue house--that street's named after a guy called West, though it is in the western part of town--when I was about a year and a half.

Naturally, I remember very little about that first year and a half, but I think there are actually two things!  We had a tire swing attached to a tree, and I remember noticing the water that accumulated in it. (At least I think this was on Lansdowne Street.) Also, there were three French-Canadian boys living next to us called Patrice, Daniel and Rene.  The last one we called "Weenie," and I remember this name.

When I was three and a half, we moved to Brighton, England for a year while Father, a physics professor at Mount Allison University, was on sabbatical.  We sailed there and back on the Greek Line ship the ARKADIA.  I remember when we boarded the ship and entered our cabins for the first time.  I also remember that we had a comic book based on the Disney movie THE MONKEY'S UNCLE, which I'd seen not long before, possibly the first movie I went to. (I recall that when we left the cinema it had gone dark outside.) I also remember the swarthy Greek waiters serving tomato juice, which I've never liked.

I also have memories of Brighton, especially the smells of coal smoke, diesel bus fumes, and butcher and grocery shops, which have a different smell from their North American counterparts. (I recognized those old smells when I visited Britain years later.)

Some of the other movies I remember seeing as a pre-schooler include MARY POPPINS, THE GREAT RACE (which we saw on Donald's birthday) and THE THREE STOOGES MEET HERCULES.