I was born in a town called Barrie, Ontario in Canada, on June 25th, 1964, about 1 1/2 years after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. What a glorius time it was to be born during this era and to grow up and live in one of the most beautiful parts of Ontario that there is. This relatively large, northern Ontario town is nestled in a beautiful part of Ontario, Canada, known as the Muskokas. My parents are Charles A. Devlin and Anne Devlin(nee Pittman). Dad, who goes by the name of Chuck(where anyone come up with that from Charles, I'll never know)is an electrician and worked at the time for the Canadian Armed Forces and because of this, we moved quite a bit from the time I was born until we finally settled for a while in another town located in the Muskokas, named Orillia.
My father then quit the forces and started working for a local construction company. Mom, who is simply known as Anne (or Annie by our relatives in Newfoundland)was an R.N.(registered nurse). Before she met my father, she worked at the Kirkland Lake General Hospital. After meeting dad and dating him for a time they decided to get married and shortly afterwards, I came along. Yes, I was present at the wedding apparently, however, just not out of the oven at the time. They were very happy together and had quite a good deal of fun together from what I remember and what I've been told and seen through old black and white pictures of them together, acting silly or just holding onto each other like they were the only two people in the world. It's so weird sometimes when I see those old photos of two very young, fashionably dressed people and compare them to the two almost elderly husband and wife that they are now, today. This is something that I will delve into shortly.
My father was so good looking then-tall at perhaps 6'1", slim with a large, muscular build, with dark hair in a crew cut, large, dark eyes with a straight but rough looking irish nose that had been broken a time or two from a couple of boxing fights and a great smile with perfectly straight teeth that I managed to inherit from him. Mom on the other hand, was petit at 5'2" and also fit, with long, black hair that she wore in an elegant updo that was popular during that time period. Her eyes were also large and green, with freckles across her face that have managed to keep her appearance much more youthful looking than her age. She has a beautiful smile with perfectly straight teeth as well(thank god, I won the lottery as far as having a great smile goes)and full lips that I also inherited from her, thankfully. Yes, my mom was and still is a very pretty woman who has always had an pixie-like cuteness and charm. She has also been lucky enough to never look her age.
After I was born, we lived in Barrie until I was a few months old. We then packed up and moved up to Kirkland Lake, where we lived in an second floor apartment that was owned by our neighbours downstairs, Mr. and Mrs Marczcuk, an older polish and russian couple, respectively. I later in life learned that Mrs Marczcuk made the best perogies in the whole wide world. I was only an infant at the time we moved in and a toddler when we moved out, but my parents became good friends with them and we often visited them when we came back up to Kirkland.
My parents and I then moved to a place called Iroquois Falls, again up in Northern Ontario and yes, it was another very pretty little spot that is also considered part of "God's country". You see, most of Northern Ontario, is referred to as this. The reason I suppose is, because of it's unspoiled beauty that has not given way to subdivisions and having the natural part of it taken away, torn down, mowed over to become nothing but streets, highrise buildings and all things things concrete, glass and pavement. Once we left there, when I was 3 years of age, we finally moved and settled down in Orillia for about 7 years. During this time, my two brothers were born in Orillia. Sean came along the same year we moved there, on May 30, 1967 and Paul was born another 3 years later, on February 26, 1970. We continued to live there, up 'til dad got a new job working as the head of maintenance, for the Trent Severn Water Systems and then, we packed up again and moved to a really pretty but crappy little town called Campbellford, Ontario. I will explain about it's crappiness in another part of this little writing exercise of mine.
After living in Campbellford, dad got a much better job working in St. Catharines, Ontario, for General Motors of Canada as an electrician. Yup, you guessed it, we packed up, yet again and moved there, where I and my parents would continue to live and still do.
Ok, if you are still with me thus far, bless you. If not, then I will continue on as some form of strange therapy for myself. At any rate, I will have to take my leave as I am now in the middle of cooking supper and need to attend to this.
If any of you ARE still with me and have anything to comment on, please feel free to do so. This would make me happy and I would love to meet some of you, sort of.
Much love and happiness to all.....
Lisa
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