The Dundas Chronicles

As titled, this book is a Memoir of a Young Boy who grew up in a small town in that truly nostalgic age of the 50's and 60's and most importantly, was raised by a Single Parent. Accordingly, the Book is dedicated to all Single Parents everywhere who sacrifice so much with their absolute dedication to raising their children. Minnie Marguerite Duffin graced this earth from September 21, 1911 thru August 4, 1989. It is to this Woman, my Mother, who instilled so many values in me that I owe my later successes in life to. Widowed at 41 years of age with Three Children, my Mother continued a life of extreme challenges that began far back in her childhood. Being the eldest of 6 children, the heavy weight of responsibility enveloped her from an early age. Her Father, Sherman Huff was an unemployed Carpenter when he signed on with the Great Canadian Expeditionary Force in World War 1 as the pay commenced immediately. She was but 5 years old when he left for overseas. Her Mother, Jessie Arnold Huff, managed to scrape by with the monthly income which for a Canadian Soldier at entry level was about $1.10 per day, less than that of a routine laborer in Canada at the time. My Mother's childhood was one of hardship such as being sent out with her younger sister to walk the Railway Tracks near their central Hamilton Home to collect coal that had fallen from Trains. This was desperately needed to heat the home and provide cooking fuel for meals. Occasionally if a Train came by and the girls were noticed, the railway men would throw a few shovelfuls off for them to gather. Then as their fingers turned numb from the cold, they would head back home with their buckets amply filled. As she turned 17 in 1929, the Great Depression commenced a mere number of weeks later and as history records was fraught with hard times. In 1935, she married William Duffin, my father who would go on to join the Hamilton Police Service and serve from 1941 thru 1949. They came to Dundas next though early in 1952, came my Father's untimely death at 39 years of age. Though he was a Police Officer, the municipal police wages were not significant and benefits if any were very meager until the Province of Ontario took over police responsibilities in the 1960's. Though this book recounts a number of humorous family and personal memories it also illuminates my Mother's adaptability in managing to successfully raise our family by herself. Single Parent statistics of the early 1950's reflect a volume of only 9%. For my Mother, the fact she could not work beyond our home made her struggle even more so though it was blissfully unapparent to us children who never really went without. While she appears in numerous scenarios described as overly strict and authoritative, it wasn't without love and after all, she had to be.