Neighborhood Names

Isabel Ave. and Vicinity.

The neighbors around my home that I knew were the following: On the same side of the street to our left lived the Knight family, Bill, my best friend growing up, had a younger brother Ross and two older sisters Carole and Merle. On our right at the corner of Empire lived my grandfather John J. Hineson and his daughter Annie, who married Lou DeSerres. Anne was very involved in the junior choirs at St. Paul's Church, and often put on big spectacles for the Park that entertained the whole town in the 1930s and 40s. My Uncle Lou was often conned into making the props for these shows. My brother Mike, late sister Pat as well as Ross and Bill Knight made great use of the empty lots on both sides of our house.

Across the street to our left next to "The Field" lived the Williamsons. Mrs. Williamson taught dance in her house and was a competitor of Lorna Wallace Cameron. Mrs. Williamson had three children George, Dinty and a daughter Beverley. I could have that wrong Dinty might have been George's nickname. Right across the street lived the family of Jim and Dolly Highfield. They had three daughters, the late Irene, Lynn and Joan who was a close friend of my sister. When the Highfields moved they sold the house to Rob Moir. Next came the Whalen family. They had a daughter Maureen and an adopted son Jimmy Coles who was always getting into some kind of trouble. On the corner of Empire lived the family of Bob and Noni Freeman. They had four children, the late Marylou. Rod,Heather and Kim. When the Freemans moved to Mary Blvd. they were replaced by the Gunhouses. Mr. Gunhouse always had one of, if not the best gardens in the community.

On Empire going toward Churchill were three Miller families, one after the other. The third one, the farthest from my house later was the home of Bob Hawkins. Then on the corner of walker were the Fieldings.

Working our way back towards Isabel starting across the street from the Fieldings were the MacGregor family. Next to them were the Pratts, who had two sons Barry and Patrick. I don't know who lived in the next house, but then came the Newbury's - Fred and Suzanne's family. Then came the Argue house, originally home to Evelyn, Doris, Pete, Jimmy and Dick. When Evelyn married Herbie Holmes their family of Cheryl, Robbie, Kenny and Judy (another of my sister's friends) moved in. The Roach family was one of two that lived in the red square brick building next door. Now we're back on the corner of Isabel at the home of the Fontaines, a huge French speaking family. They had tons of kids, most of whom I didn't know. They included Jacques, Pierre, Micheline, Yvon, Pierrette, Michel and I think Jaqueline to name some.

Across the strret from them were the Plantes. Joseph was mayor around 1950. He and his wife had a son who was a taxi-driver in the town. Their house was later owned by the Deschamps family. The next house, on the corner of Third was owned by a French family who had a son named Bernard. Later the house was bought by the Veyseys and became a Montreal Star depot. It is now the home of Fred and Lori Newbury.

Across the street on the Churchill side of Third and Empire lived Mr. Dupont. The back of his property bordered on My grandfather's land. So I have made a complete circuit back to my starting point.

I hope one of the McShane's will do the other end of Isabel. I will now finish up with the houses on Third that backed on our property. Beside Mr. Duport lived the family of Arthur Coote who passed away two years ago. He and his wife had a daughter named Debbie. Then came the Buster Tombs family who had a son Brian. Behind the Knight's two lots were Mrs Jeanotte and Dorothy Burgess. Bill Knight and I were constantly retrieving baseballs, golf balls and footballs that ended up in their properties. The path into the field that was a shortcut to St. Edmund's School and the Perras' stables came next.


Thanks John Riley