Ray Y. C. Miller - From Coal Oil Lights to Satellites

From Coal Oil Lights to Satellites

Memoirs of a Haliburton County Redneck

Ray Y.C. Miller

Copyright 2005 Ray Y. C. Miller].

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

Note for Librarians: a cataloguing record for this book that includes Dewey Decimal Classification and US Library of Congress numbers is available from the Library and Archives of Canada. The complete cataloguing record can be obtained from their online database at:

www.collectionscanada.ca/amicus/index-e.html

ISBN 1-4120-4894-x

ISBN 978-1-4122-3208-1 (ebook)

Offices in Canada, USA, Ireland, UK and Spain

This book was published on-demand in cooperation with Trafford Publishing. On-demand publishing is a unique process and service of making a book available for retail sale to the public taking advantage of on-demand manufacturing and Internet marketing. On-demand publishing includes promotions, retail sales, manufacturing, order fulfilment, accounting and collecting royalties on behalf of the author.

Book sales for North America and international:

Trafford Publishing, 6E2333 Government St.,

Victoria, BC V8T 4P4 CANADA

phone 250 383 6864 (toll-free 1 888 232 4444)

fax 250 383 6804; email to

Book sales in Europe:

Trafford Publishing (UK) Ltd., Enterprise House, Wistaston Road Business Centre,

Wistaston Road, Crewe, Cheshire CW2 7RP UNITED KINGDOM

phone 01270 251 396 (local rate 0845 230 9601)

facsimile 01270 254 983;

Order online at:

www.trafford.com/robots/04-2702.html

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

This engrossing book is an autobiography of a man living in a time of unprecedented change. Following thousands of years of slow scientific advancement and comparatively minor inventions, we live in a time when change is evident daily.

Born in the Highlands of Haliburton County, Ontario, Canada, in a house on a dirt road, with no electricity or indoor plumbing, Ray Miller takes the reader through the many phases of his life filled with financial, medical, and emotional challenges.

Read how the rapid pace of modern innovation took him from transportation by horse and buggy to supersonic air travel and from word of mouth to cell phones. Follow his experiences; sometimes moving, often humorous, as relationships and hard work take him through his fascinating life.

Dedication

This book is lovingly dedicated

to my grandchildren,

Kayla, James, Jason, Kevin, Erik, and Sakura

in the fond hope that they may read it

and come to know where their Grandpa is coming from.

About the cover

Renowned artist David Alexander Risk

has skilfully depicted the house where I was born.

It shows the coal oil lamp that lit our front room

in the early days of my childhood,

and the bright star in the upper corner is a satellite.

Acknowledgements

I must acknowledge the people that have supplied me with information and facts to verify the happenings that I have written from memory.

Jack Brezina-Editing, and guidance.

David Alexander Risk-Front Cover.

David Dollo: Carl Dugan: Carolyn Emmerson::

Michael W. Gilbert: Ruby Gilbert: Mabel Hewitt:

Hazel Johnson: Floyd Miller: Scott Miller:

Yvonne Newell: Bill Prentice: Laurie-Lee Steels:

Special mention to my wife Caryl for proofreading and her loving guidance and understanding.

I believe there has been greater technical and environmental change during my lifetime than in any other time in known history.

I will attempt to take you through these changes by relating interesting experiences during my life. You will notice the changes taking place as you read. It will become evident that there is gradually more money, fantastic inventions, and more travel as vehicles and roadways improve.

Every chapter is an event that actually occurred, based entirely on memory, verified by entries in my Fathers, Mothers and my own diaries. I have vivid recollection of things as they happened. About Me

I was born on May 25, 1937 in a house on a dirt (not gravel) road between Minden and Kinmount, Ontario, Canada, to a couple struggling through the Depression, with rumours of another war on the horizon. I was the youngest of four children. Hazel was then 16, Floyd 9, and Mabel 5.

We were not sheltered from the real things in life as children. My parents often said, If theyre old enough to ask the question, they are old enough to know the answer. We were not told that storks delivered babies. We were present when animals produced their young, and often were called upon to assist at a very early age. I helped turn a calf in the birth canal when I was seven, and the procedure was explained as we went. We were not sheltered from the breeding process either.

Slaughter was a way of life. We raised animals so we would have meat.

War was not kept a mystery. Our soldiers went to war, where they would be shot at and could be killed. If I didnt understand what was happening when news came of the war, my parents would take time to explain it. There is no need to lie to children. Lies only have to be explained later, and they cause a child to distrust everyone.

During my pre-school years, we had to make use of all sources of food or income in order to survive. My parents sometimes spoke of a time before my birth when they went to town to do the weekly shopping with ten dozen eggs, which they hoped to trade to the local grocer, and fifty-eight cents. This was all the money they had to their name at that time.

We lived on two hundred acres of which only thirty was workable for agricultural purposes. The remainder was woodland or pasture, and like most of Haliburton County, consisted of a thin layer of sod clinging to rock. Indeed, as I look back now, the land that we cultivated was only a few inches of soil with rocks showing above ground in several places. We would work the fields for crops, and many stones appeared. We would pick those by hand and pile them where the land was not workable. Although the fields are grown up now with trees, these stone piles are still evident.

Everyone in the neighbourhood was the same. No one had much, but friends and neighbours worked together for a united cause. That cause was survival. There was no jealousy or envy. Neighbours admired each other and were happy to help each other get ahead in any way possible.

Times were tough, but thanks to hard work, which the family shared, we never went to bed hungry, and there was always a trace of humour to cheer us through rough times.

Things are better now; people have many more material things. Nevertheless, I sometimes look back and cherish the simpler life of my childhood.

Ray Y.C. Miller, Author.

The house was on the west side of the road, five miles from Minden toward Kinmount. The Hillier brothers built it sometime before the turn of the century. They also built No. 5 School two miles north from there, and the house that Mrs Fred Barry lives in now.

Grandma Millers maiden name was Carolyn Schroter. She married Bill Scheffee and moved into the house. Scheffee died of cancer.

In the 1890s she married my Grandfather Ernest Miller who was fresh from Germany at the time. Grandpa left Germany as a stow-away because he didnt believe in what was happening there. His name was Mullar. Grandma gave birth to eight children in that house, (including my father).

Therefore, the house was built well before 1890.