The mothers of Baby Boomers were quick to tell their broods, "Go play outside!" We ran in packs and felt very free and safe in the enclave that was St. Charles. Bordered by the Perimeter Highway on the west (after 1959), Glendale Golf Course on the east, Portage Avenue on the north, and the Assiniboine River to the south, the contained neighbourhood was a range for kids like the Frasers.
In the 1950s St. Charles seemed very rural. Unlike today's suburbs, there were open fields and several big empty lots that could accommodate the usual games like Pom, Pom, Pullaway and Red Rover. Statues and Red Light, Green Light were also popular, and none of these games required equipment (or expense).
Our back yard was especially large, and the Fraser property was half the block. Trees and large gardens prevented it from being a proper playing field, but we managed to play baseball, soccer, badminton, and the like where we could.
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Over the years, Mom and Dad sold off three lots south of our house, which hugged the north lot line. The original yard (shown in red) was generous. Whenever Dad posted his Lot for Sale sign, hopeful folks asked if the house itself was for sale. Nope.
 | 1953. The nearest house to the south belonged to the Albert and Joan Montagnon family, in an old house since replaced. The four-square brick on the horizon was called "The Nazareth" and was a dormitory of sorts for nuns from the St. Charles convent, kitty-corner to that site. The steeple of the St. Charles Roman Catholic Church marks the riverbank.
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Carole Houlden with her cousin on the sidewalk in front of our house. The view to the north illustrates how sparsely populated the street was.
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A pedologist in the making, earning his keep by digging potatoes.
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Better get used to it. Big gardens meant all hands on deck, and potatoes featured prominently in the large gardens every year.
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Dad (rockin' the aviator shades) with his three oldest kids, about 1955-56. Looks like he needs to retrofit those carriage wheels with skis.
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Mom further out on the ice. In the winter cars drove across the ice to the south shore. A ferry operated here until 1959, when the Perimeter Highway was built just west of St. Charles Street.
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| New homeowner Murray Fraser and his son in his southern back yard with his proud parents. The structure on the left is the horse-and-buggy barn, and the outbuildings on the right are those of the neighbour across the lane to the west. The house must have reminded Pete and Annie of southern Ontario homes. |
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"Go play outside." A big yard provides plenty of room for a new swing set in front of the stable. Wee Myrna clings like a monkey and her pant cuffs allow plenty of room for growth. (We're still waiting.)
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Looking south. Mom's trio is delighted with their new swing set on the southern edge of the property.
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An upturned wash tub makes an impromptu table on the back porch. By June of 1957 (Virginia's 4th birthday), the big kids were joined by twins Ruth and Karen.
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The older girls introduce twins Ruth (with Virginia, left) and Karen (in Myrna's bear hug) to their teeter-totter. The street-side garden features asparagus (great for forts when overgrown), rhubarb, potatoes, and Mom's famous midget corn. She saved select cobs for seed and over the years developed a very short plant that put all its energy into fat, juicy kernels. The Dagesse house is seen in the background, and the trees mark the edge of the eventual Charlie Bohemier lot that was sold by the neighbouring golf course greenskeeper, Cyprien and his wife Rose Montagnon. Rose tended an extensive flower garden and shared beautiful bouquets with her neighbours.
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By the summer of 1958 the Fraser girls were driving. The green kiddie-car foreshadows my 1996 Mercury Mystique. A rudimentary fence marks the property beyond Mom's west garden that featured lush raspberries. No doubt there was always laundry hanging in the distance. Mom always hung bedding on the outside to hide the, um, delicates.
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| By 1958 the twins are in the driver's seat in the grassed yard in between the two gardens. L-R: Myrna, Virginia, Karen, Ruth. |
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The Frasers out on a picnic. Always dapper, Dad's idea of casual dressing was to wear his older Harris tweeds with a shirt and tie. (I found my little tartan purse behind our backyard spruce trees years later.)
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| Ruth finds the kiddie car rolls much better on the new sidewalk in front of the house. Myrna has graduated to a tricycle. View looking south towards the river. |
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This shot was taken looking south from the back porch. In 1962, a second lot was sold, to the large DeBeer family. This lot included the old barn, and the sale meant moving the swing set closer to the Fraser house. The third and final lot (sold in the late 1960s to Henri and Mel Bohemier) was the property between the foreground tree and DeBeers' house. Thankfully, 400 St. Charles retains a good-sized yard today.
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1960. Dad (at left) screeding the concrete with a helpful neighbour, to build a new garage on the northwest corner behind the house. The pump house on the right remains, at the corner of Sansome Avenue and Gagnon Street. Rumor has it that an underground stream ran here, a boon to the Lairds' garden to our north. We played on "The Rocks" beyond Gagnon Street, a great setting for imaginative adventures or just hanging out.
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During the summer of 1969 Dad still had room in the yard to build a geodesic dome, as featured in a May 1966 edition of Popular Science, just for fun. It wasn't very practical beyond turning heads of those driving by and providing a new backdrop for a family photo.
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