A Most Ordinary Life

Chapter 1 - Fleeing the Coop

As they walked from the beach on Lake Memphremagog towards Main Street, the sun was high in the sky and was warming them up and drying them off after a quick cool swim. Billy Hackett and Eddie Redden had hitchhiked from Rock Island to Newport for something to do. It was the beginning of summer 1951.

Billy  turned to Eddie as he always did when there were decisions to make, and said,

"Wadda ya wanna do now"

Eddie kept on walking as he thought about the summer ahead and what his plan was,

"Oh, I dunno, let's go back and play some tennis at the College. We cun hitch a ride just at the end of Main Street"

"Ok, the courts should be free. There's not many players around right now", Billy said as he knew tennis was Eddie's passion and he was being used as a practice partner.

When they got to Main Street and started walking towards the edge of town to find a good spot to get a ride back home, a small notice caught Billy's eye.

BOY NEEDED FOR LIGHT FARM WORK

Billy stopped, "Looka that Eddie, they wan boys tah work on farms. Let's check it out"

"Nah", said Eddie, "I wanna play tennis all summer. I'm hopin ta win the championship this year."

Eddie and Billy used to play tennis in all their spare time. Hitchhiking to different towns around Stanstead with their tennis rackets. The Ripplecove Inn in Ayer's Cliff, Quebec was the closest with a good tennis court and it was twelve miles away, They also went to North Hatley and Magog, Quebec and Newport, Vermont, often walking for hours if there were no cars. They passed the time on the highways singing Johnny Rae's latest hit songs like "Little White Cloud that Cried". 

There usually was no one around as they walked so they sang at the top of their lungs. Eddie, even though he was a year younger at 14, he was bigger and stronger and a much better player than Billy, but they both got a lot of practice and improved their games. It was good for them both. Eddie never let up on his game. He wanted to win every point, and usually did. Billy had trouble following Eddie's aggressive style of playing to win and would often let up when he had the advantage, but then usually lost the game. He lacked the killer instinct, and Eddie went on to win the senior boys tennis championship the following year.

"Well du ya mind waitin? I'd like tah see what the deal is"

"OK, I'll wait fah ya outside", said Eddie, as he sat down on the sidewalk.

Billy walked into the employment office where there was just one counsellor behind a desk talking to a boy about a farm job. He could hear the conversation with a farmer on the telephone saying that he had a fifteen-year-old boy who could work for $15 a week.

As Billy waited for his turn he thought about the summer before when he had gone to a farm near Stanstead, Quebec to look for a job. He had heard about it from a friend who had worked there the year before. The farmer, Mr. Lemon, was a Swedish immigrant who talked to him about the work and said he could pay $30.

Billy didn't know if it was by the week, by the month, or for all summer, and wasn't about to show his ignorance, so he just said, "ok, that'll be fine".

Whatever it was, it was more than he had made when he was fourteen and worked all summer for his uncle in Ontario. With his uncle he got a room, lots of good food, and the fun of being on the farm milking the cows, feeding the turkeys, bringing in the hay, and hearing the stories of all the many drop-in dinner guests. It made him feel more grown-up and useful. It was another world for a kid who dreamt about a more exciting life outside his small village in the Eastern Townships of Quebec.