# Memories of Niagara Peninsula

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-18 — 1 clipping.*

---

> As I start to write this I wonder, who is ever going to read it? Very few, I'm sure. Therefore I will
> write this, not for an audience, but for myself, to recount those events and tell of people who were
> special to me and stand out in my memory these forty odd years later. If you read this, you will
> encounter names of people that mean not much to you, but everything to me.
> 
> 
> 
> As my job with Ewbank and Partners, Consulting Engineers in Toronto was in jeopardy because of
> a shortage of work, I applied to Foster Wheeler Limited in St Catharines, Ontario. They offered me
> a job as an estimator in their design department (at about $500 per month) and I accepted. Shortly
> after agreeing to accept that position, Atomic Energy of Canada phoned, offering what sounded a
> more interesting, higher paying, high-tech position in Chalk River, Ontario. Until now my philosophy
> had been that companies would look out for their own interest and I would look out for mine. I was
> not a very ethical person at this period of my life, but suddenly I took the moral high ground and told
> the Atomic Energy people that I had accepted another position. They persisted and so did I until
> finally their representative said "I am not going to beg you," and I said "Fine," and that was the end
> of that. How different my life could have turned out had I accepted that job.
> 
> In Toronto, our apartment had been furnished for the vast sum of $300, by haunting auction sales on
> Saturday mornings. Eileen and I were rather proud of that. We moved these few belongings at the
> end of November 1959 and I started work in December. We rented a small apartment in a large older
> house in the centre of St Catharines, near Montebello Park. On our first New Year my sister Isobel
> and her husband Paul paid a surprise visit and we welcomed the New Year together, just like old
> times. 
> 
> Our landlords were a wonderful old couple, Lee and Susie Houston. Lee was a grizzled old man
> working for the General Motors plant and Susie was a homemaker. Lee was close to retiring and both
> of them loved baby Jackie and couldn't do enough for us. Jackie was christened at the St Paul's
> United Church with an old school friend of Eileen's, Mary Davy, and her husband Ray acting as
> Godparents. Somewhere we still have black and white pictures of that occasion.
> 
> Both Lee and Susie had stories to tell about rural Ontario life in earlier times, providing a memorable
> connection to a past we knew nothing about. Susie grew up in Orangeville and told of taking a cow
> to market in Toronto. Overtaken by darkness, she simply knocked on the nearest farmhouse door,
> and said I am Susie from Orangeville, taking my cow to market. Very naturally she was welcomed,
> invited to stay for supper, and given a bed for the night. In exchange for the hospitality she was
> expected to give them the news from her home community. The world seemed a much kinder, more
> trusting place in those days. Susie could remember seeing a headline in a newspaper that Christ had
> not returned. Apparently a date had been prophesied and set and He failed to appear at the appointed
> time.
> 
> 
> 
> On my first day at work, as I was introduced around, a lean handsome engineer asked me "Are you
> from Clydebank?" That was very close, only three miles from Duntocher, so I was really surprised.
> This was Charlie Grindlay, who was to play a huge role in our lives, and whom I still love dearly these
> forty odd years later. Charlie was a brilliant man, a deep thinker and something of a futurist. On my
> first lunch break he and I got into an argument which I apparently won -- won the battle and lost the
> war perhaps. Charlie proclaimed that truth was different, like light seen through different coloured
> glass, like a church window. I insisted that the truth was the truth, and that was all there was to it,
> it could in no way be different and still be the truth.
> 
> When Charlie left our group the rest of the men patted me on the back and made a big fuss as I had
> successfully argued with Charlie. It seems that they were tired of always being on the losing end of
> debates with him. Charlie belonged to some religion, but he seemed like a really nice guy despite that.
> We were new in town and it was Charlie who invited us for Christmas dinner and a house party
> afterwards. I told Eileen about the invitation and said that he belonged to some religion that began
> with the letter "B." Eileen was curious and suggested Baptist or Buddhist or B'nai Brith. I said that
> it sounded a bit like that. We had a marvellous time at the party. They played a lot of goofy games,
> including charades, until we were quite sore from laughing. Later, at home, Eileen astutely observed,
> "Those people have the same spirit that the early Christians must have had."
> 
> Charlie and I took to spending our lunch hours together, having wide-ranging discussions on world
> affairs, history and ethics. I was still on a spiritual quest of sorts since the big fall down Ben Nevis
> in Scotland, but I was still very macho and refused to use such words as "God" or "love" -- Charlie
> could use them, but not me. I recall a few years before this, one morning early at Paisley Technical
> College a young man had asked "Have you been saved?" I damn nearly jumped out of the window.
> 
> Of course Charlie was a Bahá'í and another really nice man, Don Dainty, also a Bahá'í, was head of
> the design engineering department. I took all this for granted. At the time I did not know what a
> blessing it was to be in such company. Two spiritual giants and one ethical midget. I have to think
> that God was looking out for me and steered me. Another very bright young engineer worked there
> named Michael Yovanovich. Mike was not a Bahá'í but had read widely in Bahá'í literature and loved
> the Faith dearly. It was to Mike that many turned to ask questions they did not wish to ask Charlie
> or Don. Mike later went on to MIT to design hydraulic systems for platforms in space and ended up
> with his doctorate, a professor of Engineering at Waterloo University. To this day I don't think Mike
> ever became a Bahá'í, but I don't know why. (Many years later I was counselling a young engineer
> in Sudbury, Ontario, going out of my way to be helpful to him. He said, "You remind me of a
> professor I had at Waterloo University." I asked "Would that be Michael Yovanovich?" He was
> amazed. "How did you know?")
> 
> Charlie soon invited us to join a study group in Niagara Falls where he lived, discussing World
> Religions. They studied a book I still love, by Huston Smith. I knew very little about World Religions
> apart from what I had learned in comic books as a kid. This included such interesting things as
> sleeping on beds of nails, the Indian Rope Trick where a mystic plays a flute like a snake charmer,
> charming a rope to uncoil and stand vertically upright, at which time the mystic climbs up the rope to
> disappear completely at the top. I had a vague idea that Mohamed was a murderer and Confucius was
> someone that jokes were told about. 
> 
> While my education as an engineer was quite advanced, in the fields of the humanities and literature
> it was sadly lacking; after all I had left high school at age fifteen. To my amazement I found the
> same spirit in Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam as I had seen in Christianity at its best. The very same
> spirit. Taoism and Confucianism were all so profound too. It was a whole new world for me.
> 
> I read in Hinduism about the Fivefold Path in which the desire for material things was like a huge fire.
> Acquiring material things, rather than quenching the fire, was like pouring butter fat on it. This hit
> me very hard as I realized how I had changed from an ethical teenager to a man who so badly wanted
> to get "ahead." I did not like the man I had become.
> 
> We started going to fireside meetings in St Catharines, always bringing 
> little Jackie along in a portable bed. There we got to know many people who 
> remain friends to this day. The first noticeable thing at a Bahá'í meeting 
> was the number of Volkswagens parked outside. In 1960 a new Volkswagen 
> "Beetle" sold for $1,588 and the upscale version for $1,735. Firesides were 
> held in the home of Doug and Ann Wilson. Doug had an important position in 
> the Personnel Department of Ontario Hydro and told a couple stories I 
> remember. When he was studying at Queen's University in Kingston he was the 
> lone Bahá'í there. Someone who was at Queen's at that time commented "there 
> was a huge Bahá'í community there when I was studying." Some of these 
> Bahá'ís were like an army. 
> 
> Doug had been an athlete while at Queen's, a sprint hurdler. He qualified for the Canadian Olympic
> Trials and figured that while he had no chance of winning since one man was much better than he
> was, if everything went perfectly he could finish second. He decided to pray about it, which in
> hindsight he thought was not a very spiritual thing to do for something so trivial as a sporting
> competition. Finally, on the big day Doug got off to an excellent start and was leading the field, but
> he hit the last hurdle and finished second.
> 
> Ann Wilson was a wonderful hostess and was not a Bahá'í at this time. She always prepared foods
> that were favourites of her guests. I remember Don Dainty was very fond of buttermilk and she had
> that in too. Ann was also excellent at meeting new people and bringing them to the firesides where
> she made each person feel that he or she was a very special guest. Ann and Doug had a little boy named
> Bradley, a year or so older than little Jackie, who was very fond of Charley Grindlay. Bradley had a
> foghorn voice and would sometimes wake up in his crib wanting to see "Mustache Charlie."
> 
> The St Catharines Bahá'ís included Doug Wilson, Don Dainty and his wife Diana, Gale Burland,
> who had recently returned from living in Bermuda, Ted and Tiny Denholm, Ross Ransome and others
> whom I now forget. A group of seekers started attending firesides most of whom had a Foster
> Wheeler connection, including Doug Sheldrick and his wife Patty, Winnie Norton and her two sons,
> Paul and Dennie, and Eileen and I. One by one over a period of weeks or months all of us became
> Bahá'ís. Many others at Foster Wheeler were strongly influenced by this spiritual movement but never
> made the journey themselves.
> 
> Others joined the Faith in St Catharines about this time. One lady, Olga Earwaker, who was very
> talented in making silver jewellery, had been coming to Bahá'í events for a long time and was quite
> enamoured with the teachings. She had a neighbour named Claire Wolfle who was down in the dumps
> about world affairs. Olga told her "You can mope about it if you like, but you should know that the
> Bahá'í teachings can solve all those problems." Claire of course wanted to hear more, and got very
> excited about it. Then she asked Olga that critical question "If the Bahá'í Faith is so wonderful, how
> come you have never become a member?" Olga thought about this, and both became Bahá'ís at the
> same time and were joined by Claire's husband Walter.
> 
> Olga was a member of the St Paul's United Church in St Catharines and this church had been losing
> a few of its members to the Bahá'í Faith. Olga told me a story of how the clergyman came to see her
> and she was telling him she had become a Bahá'í. She was rather nervous, but the minister for some
> strange reason was even more nervous and said he had to hurry away. It was afterwards that Olga
> realised that in her nervousness she had been fumbling with the buttons on her blouse and undoing
> them one button at a time. In hindsight, it is no wonder that the poor man ran off.
> 
> 
> 
> Now for a story that Eileen is doubtful should be told. While I draw no conclusions about it, it seems
> to me to be so strange that it should not be left out. It was Olga's church where the minister decided
> to deliver a service about the Bahá'í Faith, on the theme of "Modern Heresies." It was a Sunday night
> he delivered it and not too many people turned out, but most of the Bahá'ís showed up to hear what
> he had to say. He made some points about it "smacking of nepotism" ( Bahá'u'lláh, Abdu'l Baha, and
> Shoghi Effendi being of the same family), how much money the temple in Wilmette must have cost
> that could have been spent to help the poor, and some other points I wish I remembered. Anyway at
> the end of the service he prayed to God, saying, "If we are wrong, give us a sign. Let us know clearly
> if we are mistaken."
> 
> That night St Pauls Church, one of the oldest and most historic in Southern Ontario, burned to the
> ground. It was caused by faulty wiring and no one was hurt. This was one of three times that such
> a thing happened. The other times were the Catholic Church at West Bay, Manitoulin Island, where
> a boiler blew up after the priest had attacked the Bahá'í Faith, and the St Peter's United Church in
> Sudbury, where Heidi Lakshman stood up and boldly told the members that she was leaving the
> church and had recognised Bahá'u'lláh as the return of Christ. There was no response but that church
> burned to the ground too. The Fire Marshal attributed that one to "an act of God." 
> 
> All of those churches were rebuilt to be even more beautiful than before, but all in all, it is a very
> strange tale.
> 
> 
> 
> Meanwhile in Chippewa, Joyce Edmonds had joined the Faith while her husband John was
> investigating it. John told of the two of them reading in bed, John trying to concentrate on God
> Passes By, rather heavy reading, while Joyce was making the bed shake as she tried to suppress her
> giggles reading Bill Sears' God Loves Laughter. John and I became Bahá'ís over the same weekend
> so we were some kind of spiritual twins.
> 
> Shortly after moving to St Catharines, we bought our very first car. We did not need one in Toronto
> as the public transportation was so efficient. I heard that a young engineer who worked at Ewbank
> and Partners in Toronto wanted to sell his car and was returning to England. He brought the car
> along for me to see, a 1953 Chevrolet, green and white. In Scotland we could never have dreamed
> of owning a car at this time, and I had no idea of how to drive, but we bought it anyway. It was very
> sad, the young engineer selling had terminal cancer and was going home with his wife to die. 
> 
> A fellow engineer working at Foster Wheeler, a Dutchman named John ter Horst, kindly offered to
> teach me to drive, and his method was very effective. He drove himself to our house en route to
> work, and I drove us the rest of the way. We both went home for lunch so I got to drive in traffic four
> times each day, and pretty soon was confident enough to get a driver's licence. 
> 
> This opened up new vistas for us and pretty soon we were able to take Jackie to the zoo in Buffalo,
> New York. Actually I suppose it was Eileen and I who went to the zoo as Jackie travelled there in
> a car bed. She became very ill while in Buffalo and we took her to a doctor who said she had picked
> up a virus. It turned out later she had picked up her mother's cigarettes, and eaten one. That could
> have been serious but she soon got over it. The zoo had a very cute baby gorilla whose keeper told
> us it had taken eight men to hold it down for its first baby shots.
> 
> One day I came home for lunch and saw a crowd standing in our street blocking my way. I asked
> what was happening, and was told it was a fire and that the Fire Department had been called. Then
> I realized it was my house they were staring at. I burst in to find Eileen safe, but an oil-filled pan of
> french fries was on fire. Eileen had turned off the burner but was at a loss about what else to do. I
> grabbed the burning pan and headed for the front door holding it in front of me. When I shoved the
> door open, the flames shot higher and blew back very close to my face, singing my hair and eyebrows,
> so I was forced back and put the pan back on the stove, also at a loss what to do. Then the firemen
> arrived and one guy picked up the pan and walked out the door backwards with it. The solution was
> so simple, but it's hard to think when you are excited.
> 
> I resumed training, preparing for competition in the discus. Charlie assisted, tossing the discus back
> and marking the good throws. Much later I found he had a chronic back injury and that this effort
> cost him a good deal of pain. Sometimes I would go off on my own into a field near Foster Wheeler
> and practice, spinning around and throwing. One day a young woman who worked there cautiously
> asked me "What is that little dance that I see you doing in the field?" She had seen the spin, but failed
> to notice the discus. I suppose with the shout I gave when throwing hard, she thought I was
> completely nuts. 
> 
> The best throwers in Scotland were throwing about 108 feet at this time and I had got close to 100
> feet, so felt I was ready to compete. My first competition was in a sports field by Lake Couchiching,
> near Orillia, Ontario. In the changing tent a large man sat down on the bench next to me. I was very
> intimidated when I noticed as he bent over to tie his shoelaces that his arms were bigger than my
> thighs. This was Stan Raike, a Toronto policeman who was Canadian and British Empire champion
> and could throw more than 155 feet. I was humiliated in the competition, but Stan was a very nice
> guy and gave me a few pointers. He told me that nobody had used the technique I used for the past
> thirty years. I had learned how to throw out of a book -- an old book.
> 
> 
> 
> We had been in Canada for three years when Eileen's parents, always generous, sent her a ticket to
> go back to Scotland for a visit with baby Jackie, about ten months old. We had been attending Bahá'í
> firesides for some time and I had come to think of the Bahá'í Faith as something that was really good
> for everyone else -- everyone else but me that is. While Eileen was away, I became very ill with an
> imbalance of the inner ear, leaving me seasick once again, very seasick. It took me two weeks to
> recover and I was really impressed when Don Dainty knocked at my door on his way home from
> work and handed me a chicken (cooked already). He said "I thought that you would not feel like
> cooking." It was a simple thing, but touched me deeply. Don was always a kind and gentle man.
> 
> While Eileen was away, I decided to become a Bahá'í -- or I should say it was decided for me. It
> happened on October 27, 1960, a Bahá'í Holy Day in fact. I had decided I was going to a movie that
> night.  I still remember the title: "The Girl on the Golden Swing." I was reading the book by George
> Townsend called Christ and Bahá'u'lláh, and before going to the movie I took time to read the last
> chapter. I loved the book and totally agreed with it, and at the end Townsend asks "What are you
> going to do about it?" I had been going to the show, and had no plans to do anything about it, but
> since he asked, I realized that one by one, all of my barriers had been falling. Charlie had given me
> a prayer book (which I have to this day) and in desperation I started to read the prayers. I read all of
> them all the way through the book, then I felt as though a great big foot was on my rear end giving
> me a hearty push and impelling me to become a Bahá'í. I phoned Charlie, who was at Don Dainty's
> home celebrating the Holy Day. It was about 11.30 on a Friday night. I sounded so distraught that
> Charlie felt sure that something terrible had happened, maybe an accident to Eileen or the baby, and
> he came rushing over.
> 
> Charlie was extremely happy when I told him of my decision to become a Bahá'í. This was on the
> Bahá'í Holy day known as the Day of the Covenant, in the year 1960. I was 26 years old and had
> just become one of only about 750 Bahá'ís in all of Canada. Charlie insisted that I stay with him and
> his wife Florence that night, so we headed off for Niagara Falls where he lived, Charlie leading the
> way in his Volkswagen and I following in my own 1953 Chevrolet. I remember thinking that I had
> to be very careful driving as I was very tired and emotionally charged. Then I thought "Nothing can
> happen to me. There are too few Bahá'ís and I am needed!" Just at as that thought occurred I
> suddenly became aware of a Coca Cola bottle, standing upright in the middle of the road. I could not
> avoid it and it struck the underside of my car with a huge "bang." I realised that I had to change my
> way of thinking. I was not indispensable.
> 
> Early next morning, a Saturday, I had a golf date with Jack Thewliss, whose wife Ella was a Bahá'í.
> I did not tell Jack at the time about me becoming a Bahá'í but when he found out about it afterwards
> he said that he had noticed a big difference in me. It seemed to be based on the reduced number of
> swear words I used as I played golf. I may have retrogressed since then. 
> 
> Eileen returned from her trip to Scotland with baby Jackie, who had changed so much during her
> absence that I did not at first recognise her. She was in the arms of a stewardess as Eileen cleared
> customs, and I saw this young child staring at me, but did not know who she was until Eileen claimed
> her. Jackie had learned to walk and talk and it was a long time before the talking slowed down. Of
> course I unloaded all about my newfound faith to Eileen. She had been through a bout with a Billy
> Graham campaign in Scotland some years before, and told me something like "I know what you are
> going through and I know it will come to nothing." It took Eileen about another six months to decide
> that she too was a Bahá'í.
> 
> For years I had been an agnostic. Perhaps the main reason I was not an atheist was for insurance
> purposes. If God existed, I didn't want to make him mad. For a few days after becoming a Bahá'í I
> would wake up in a panic thinking "My God. What have I done?" Then I would think more rationally
> about what I had done. The image that most comforted and assured me was remembering how
> Bahá'u'lláh, in a dreadful dungeon, cut the bottons from his clothing, semi precious stones, and sold
> them to pay for a funeral for his followers who had been murdered.
> 
> Doug Sheldrick and his wife Patty became Bahá'ís a couple of weeks after I did. Doug was about 25
> years old, very athletic and also worked at Foster Wheeler in the Contracts Department. Doug had
> a serious problem as his eyesight was failing. He had qualified for a white stick and discounted fares
> on public transportation. He was legally blind, had difficulty reading the small print on contracts, and
> was soon going to have to quit his job. He had been told that nothing could be done. Then Doug heard
> about a possible eye operation in the United States and agreed to give it a try. Hearing about it later,
> it sounded like a fearful procedure which had to be performed while the patient was conscious,
> watching the needles being used on the eye. I remember all of the Bahá'ís along the Niagara frontier
> praying desperately for the success of the operation. Doug came out of it with 20-20 vision in the eye
> they worked on and went on to an illustrious career, both as a Bahá'í and in business, where he finally
> retired as Vice President of a major pulp and paper company in New Brunswick.
> 
> As I became involved in Bahá'í life, my life changed too, bursting with enthusiasm for something I
> loved and felt was so obvious and vital.  I am sure I scared away many of my friends. I just could not
> stop talking about it. A few months passed and Ridvan was coming up, April 21, 1961. Eileen was
> still not a Bahá'í but we heard of a need for the town of Niagara Falls to make its numbers to form
> a local spiritual assembly. The Local Assembly of Niagara Falls had formed for the first time in 1960,
> but now three more Bahá'ís were needed in order to reform.
> 
> The adult Bahá'ís living in Niagara Falls at this time were Joy Carter, Vi Dutov, Charlie and Flo
> Grindlay, and Herb and Gerry Trip. Herb and Gerry Trip were mainstays in Niagara Falls. Maybe we
> all were. Anyway Gerry was a school teacher and Heb drove a locomotive for CN or CP.
> 
> John Edmonds had just become a Bahá'í and he and Joyce, who lived in nearby Chippewa, were
> considering moving to the Falls. One morning Joyce saw a large rat in her basement and took that as
> a sign that they should move. Despite the fact that Eileen was not a Bahá'í, she was willing to leave
> our nice apartment in St Catharines, and move to help make up the numbers, so we ended up sharing
> a very large old home in Niagara Falls with Joyce and John Edmonds and their family, which then
> included Jennifer and Timothy. We had daughter Jackie, and within a year or so adopted Jim,  two
> years older than Jackie. All of us lived together in that house with their dog, Shane, a large black lab,
> who was soon joined by a West Highland Terrier puppy we acquired, and named Charlie. Joyce,
> John, Eileen and I were all about the same age, and for years Bahá'ís outside our community could
> not sort out who was married to whom. Some still cannot, but they are dying off.
> 
> I endured a lot of good natured teasing from my friends at work about becoming a Bahá'í. I was not
> sure if I would manage the first fast I was undertaking. It was John Edmond's first fast too and he
> ate an enormous fried breakfast. The rest of us had uncertain stomachs early in the morning and I
> remember we built a small wall of cereal boxes around his plate so we did not have to see what he
> ate. John later said that he ate so much, he was still not hungry at supper time. Eileen, on the other
> hand, had been told that the sun would set at a certain time and when that time rolled around the sun
> was still high above the horizon. She watched it impatiently, saying that she expected it to suddenly
> disappear -- zoom! 
> 
> During that fast my friend at work, Eric Ahermae, walked with me at lunch time, deliberately taking
> me past bake shops with their enticing smells. Eric was a proud Estonian and John ter Horst, who had
> helped me get my driver's licence, a Dutchman. Eric had a socialist bent and John was politically
> more conservative. Each loved the Faith for what they saw as the socialist and conservative principles
> it espoused.
> 
> At this time an extremely difficult Scotsman named Bill Orr worked with us at Foster Wheeler. He
> was the rudest person you could imagine, loud, aggressive, and argumentative. He would cut people
> off and slam down the telephone -- seeming to work hard at being really unpleasant. After I became
> a Bahá'í, for some reason he went out of his way to be particularly unpleasant to me, and I resolved
> to wear him down. If a conversation was being held, he would ignore anything I said, treating me as
> if I were invisible and insignificant. I continued to be pleasant to him for two years, then something
> strange happened. 
> 
> A group of us engineers went on a tour to the new Richard L. Hearne Electric Generating Station in
> Toronto. It had new technology everywhere, including the toilet, where they had a birdbath type of
> sink for hand washing. It was there that Bill was peeing, thinking it was a large urinal, when he noticed
> someone washing their hands further around the sink. I laughed my head off, and Bill suddenly said
> to me, "I could become a Babi, but never a Bahá'í." No one had any idea that Bill had any interest or
> notion in anything about the Faith, but he had secretly been reading about it on his own. From that
> day forward he became a different person, although he was still rather direct.
> 
> Bob Steele was newly arrived from Scotland, another engineer at Foster Wheeler. Bill said to him
> "You should go to the big picnic the Bahá'ís are having at Queenston Heights." Bob asked "What are
> the Bahá'ís?" ... Now when we tell anyone about the Faith we usually start with things with which
> they will be in general agreement, saving some of the stickier points until the person at least knows
> a little about it and is somewhat attracted. Not Bill. He said "They have an annual fast, you need
> parents' permission if you want to get married, and they don't drink at all. If you are still interested
> after that, you will probably become a Bahá'í yourself." Well, his words were prophetic. Bob went
> to the picnic, later became a Bahá'í and now some 40-odd years later is still faithfully serving the
> Faith. 
> 
> Bill, too, became a Bahá'í, and all of the people at work held their breath, watching the kind,
> thoughtful, polite man he became. They were waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it never
> happened. This was as close to a miracle as many of those people will ever witness. A few months
> later, Bill and his wife moved back to London, England where he became a mainstay in that Bahá'í
> community.
> 
> While living in Niagara Falls, I was saving my money in order to buy a pair of golf shoes. You could
> get a pair for $20, and as we did not have much money it had taken a while to have that much extra
> cash, but now I had it. Then something came up in the Bahá'í community where $10 was needed for
> something important and I bit the bullet and donated half of my little savings. One day I was driving
> home from work, dropping Charlie Grindlay off at his home then going along Main Street in Niagara
> Falls I noticed a shoe store that was having a sale. I parked the car, walked back, and there in the
> window were golf shoes for $10. This was unheard of.  I just could not believe it. I went in and asked
> the salesman about the shoes and he said "We only have one pair." I asked what size they were,  and
> sure enough it was size 11, my size. Feeling somewhat like Cinderella, I tried on the shoes -- a perfect
> fit! Leaving the store in a bewildered state, I thought, "I have never seen that store before. I wonder
> what is the name of the place?" Looking back over my shoulder, I saw in big bold letters above the
> storefront: GODSELLS.
> 
> Another incident centred around a Bahá'í named Roger Lilly, who lived in Welland. Roger was about
> four feet six inches tall, with a hunched back and totally blind. He gave a wonderfully inspiring
> fireside on the theme of the Lord's Prayer. Roger was giving his fireside at Herb and Gerry Trip's
> home in Niagara Falls. When I arrived, I looked in my wallet for some reason and found that I had
> lost a twenty-dollar bill. I was silently furious but tried to calm myself as I listened to Roger speak. 
> 
> He told us how he had just lost his job which involved lifting and stacking a few cases of Coca Cola.
> He was fired because he did not have the physical strength to do that simple task. He went on to
> speak of sacrifice and how God took sacrifice from us and as far as he was concerned if God wanted
> more from him, He was welcome to it. I felt ashamed of my internal tantrum, realising what I had lost
> was so small compared to Roger, and I was able to come to terms with it. It did not matter. On
> leaving the fireside, having learned that valuable lesson I was walking along the garden path in the
> dark when I saw something blowing on the ground. It was my twenty-dollar bill.
> 
> The St Catharines Bahá'ís had been hosting a successful series of lectures on World Religions based
> on a Life Magazine series. The series was very well attended, with about forty people showing up for
> each lecture. One day Don Dainty showed up at my door and informed me he had laryngitis. Don was
> to be the guest lecturer on the religion of Confucius in two days time -- he asked if I could replace
> him. I knew absolutely nothing about Confucius, but reasoning that no one else at the lecture would
> know anything about it either, I reluctantly agreed to take it on. I slept very little in the meantime,
> studying night and day, and was very nervous on the night of the lecture. As I sat on the platform
> watching the audience gather I was horrified when a Chinese man sat in the centre of the front row.
> It all turned out rather well, as I later discovered he was a Christian who knew nothing about
> Confucius.
> 
> In Niagara Falls I usually played golf weekly. Don Dainty was an honest and fun partner. Whenever
> he had an unusually good shot, instead of acting cool as though he expected it, he would fall down
> laughing. I played with John Edmonds on one occasion. We had a very early tee time at Niagara
> Parks, a popular and beautiful course. John did not own clubs, so had arranged to borrow a set from
> a friend in Chippewa. We arrived in the right street but John was unsure of the address, so he ended
> up knocking on a door at 6 a.m. on a Saturday morning. It turned out to be the wrong place, so he
> had to apologise to a disgruntled and irate neighbour. He finally got the clubs and we were playing
> along when John took a mighty swipe and the head came right off the driver. John stuck the head in
> the bottom of the borrowed golf bag and played on. 
> 
> It was an extremely blustery afternoon and I waited in my car as John returned the clubs to the owner.
> It played out through my windshield like a silent movie, as John knocked on the door, the man
> opened it, John started to apologise and explain about the damaged club then John turned the golf
> bag upside down to retrieve the head, tumbling out a huge number of score cards, golf tickets, pencil
> stubs and tees, which blew all over the manicured lawn and across the one next door where we had
> wakened that householder earlier in the day. We were very glad to escape from there.
> 
> I saw in the "in memoriam" section of this month's issue of Bahá'í News (April 2004) that Bill Basset
> has died. There is a name from the past. Bill the best friend of Charlie (brother-in-law of Carol
> Bowie) and both became Bahá'ís in Niagara Falls at the same time, around 1962. Bill came to our
> flat one day where he gave me a hand bathing our West Highland Terrier also named Charlie. This
> dog hated being bathed. As soon as he got out of the bath, he raced outdoors into a neighbour's
> garden where he rolled on a pile of manure. Bill thought this was hilarious and later told his friend
> Charlie's mother the story. She did not realize he was talking about Charlie the dog, not Charlie, her
> son and had a strange image of us holding Charlie down and forcing him to have a bath. The rest of
> the story left her truly dismayed.
> 
> 
> 
> When the Bill Sears' book Thief in the Night was first published 
> we decided we should promote its use. We discussed releasing hot air 
> balloons with prize certificates inside but decided against that. In 
> Niagara Falls we started a campaign to let all of the clergymen know that 
> Christ had returned. We attended church service usually on a Sunday evening 
> when it was least busy, visiting the clergyman afterwards, briefly trying 
> to establish our sanity, and then let him know that this was one of our 
> central beliefs. This information was not always received with joy, but 
> mostly with a lukewarm remark like "That is interesting."An Anglican 
> clergyman, Bob Blackwell, a very pleasant man, was the most impressive of 
> the ones we met and liked to debate. When I was sharing the Faith with 
> someone (such as Bob Steele or Bill Orr), I would often take them to meet 
> Reverend Blackwell. I would point out to them, "You have heard our 
> viewpoint about why you should become a Bahá'í. Now come and see this 
> clergyman. Ask him to tell you why you should not do that." It worked very 
> well.
> 
> Eventually the Bahá'í National Assembly sent Doug Martin along to ask us to call off this project.
> They were very nice about it but their reasoning was that the clergy no more deserved to be singled
> out for special attention than the butcher, the baker, or the candlestick maker. They also encouraged
> us for our initiative as their job is to steer Bahá'í activity, as, if local groups are not in motion, it is
> not possible to steer inaction.
> 
> Speaking of Doug Martin reminds me of a story. Doug, has had a very distinguished career, first of
> all for many years as Secretary of the National Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Canada, and more recently
> as a member of that most supreme Bahá'í body, the Bahá'í Universal House of Justice, in Haifa,
> Israel. In earlier times Doug was a high school teacher, teaching history in the town of Niagara Falls.
> He came back to visit on occasion, and once was asked to speak there at a public meeting. Doug was
> a well-known historian by this time, very knowledgeable in the history of the Christian Church. I was
> sitting in the midst of a relatively small group with Charlie Grindlay's mother, a devout Christian, on
> one side of me and a fundamentalist Christian lady on the other. Gail Burland introduced Doug saying
> that his talks were usually dynamic and surprising so we should fasten our seatbelts. Doug asked what
> we would like him to speak about, listing some options, then adding "I could speak about
> Christianity, but I prefer not to speak about something that is dead and gone, and nothing is deader
> and goner than Christianity." I tried, unsuccessfully, to sink through the floor.
> 
> Many parties were held in the Chippewa area, and this was perhaps our most successful teaching
> method. David and Flo Robertson were always front and centre at these, as were Ella and Jack
> Thewliss, Charlie and Flo Grindlay, Jeannie and Jim Mason, and Pearl and Alex Birrell. Except for
> Jeannie and Jim, all were from Scotland. Alex was a Glasgow man, kind, gentle, and perhaps the
> funniest person I ever met. We played simple games like charades, but Alex had a wit that could take
> your breath away. I remember one Hallowe'en party where Ella danced an amazing "Me and my
> Shadow" with a sheet as backdrop.  Sometimes a serious comment can be funniest of all. I still
> remember David Robertson saying, "I really believe in life after death, but I'm not counting on it." In
> summer we had many picnics by the river in Chippewa, often being joined by Michael and Elizabeth
> Rochester and their children.
> 
> One summer most Bahá'ís in the Niagara Falls community were away at Bahá'í summer school with the
> exception of Joy Carter and me. We were running little short teaser advertisements in the Niagara
> Falls newspaper for a few weeks. One evening Joy and I got together and decided we would pray
> until somebody telephoned us to ask for information about the Bahá'í Faith. In previous weeks we
> had some crank calls for a while and with one person all you could hear was heavy breathing. We got
> around them by putting two-year-old Jackie on the phone. She loved to talk at length and we could
> hear our crank caller breaking up at the other end. They never called back. Anyway here Joy and I
> were taking on a bold venture, determined to see it through to a successful conclusion. Starting at
> the beginning of the prayer book, taking turns, we worked our way almost all the way through,
> including such seldom heard prayers as "The Tablet of the Holy Mariner" until finally after two hours
> the telephone rang and there was a genuine inquiry.
> 
> Joy was single and shared an apartment with another single lady, Vi Dutov, probably the only Bahá'í
> in Canada at this time with a Doukhabor background. Vi had gone through a university in the
> teaching profession and was finishing a two year probationary period, teaching in Niagara on the
> Lake. Someone in the system did not approve of her, (probably because she was a Bahá'í), and her
> contract was not renewed. So after all that study and effort, it seemed that her life was in ruins. Short
> of funds, out of work, feeling really depressed, she decided to go to a Bahá'í summer school at
> Greenacres in Maine. Since she could not afford the fees, she went to work there for the summer as
> a waitress. In the course of her stay she met a fine man. I don't know what happened to her teaching
> career but they married and to the best of my knowledge, lived happily ever after. Somehow those
> adversities, taken in a good spirit can turn out well. 
> 
> 
> 
> Studying the Bahá'í Writings provides people with a crash course in the humanities and a good
> knowledge of what makes society tick. Knowing nothing about philosophy, I started attending an
> ongoing philosophy discussion group which was held weekly in someone's home. This was not a
> Bahá'í group. The basis of their study was an excellent text by Marcus Long of the University of
> Toronto. During the second session I attended, the discussion leader announced that it would be his
> last as he was leaving the area. The group asked me to take over as discussion leader and I boldly
> agreed. All I had read on philosophy until now was a half page about Jean Paul Sartre. The group
> continued very well for some months before breaking up for the summer. During the summer I was
> contacted by the YMCA wanting to know if I would facilitate a course on anthropology. They heard
> how well the philosophy group had gone and were very confident that I would do a good job, so I
> agreed. I had to ask Eileen after the phone call "What is anthropology?" They had a text book and
> extended play records with situations for discussion so that went off quite well too. 
> 
> There is one last remarkable thing about the philosophy group. An electrician in the group dabbled
> with inventions. He brought along large black plastic bags asking us to try putting our garbage in
> them, and let him know how they worked out. He later adapted tearaway sections to use to tie the
> bags. I do not know if he was ever credited with the invention when plastic garbage bags became
> popular, but I certainly hope so. He was a nice guy.
> 
> Charlie Grindlay was both a wonderful Bahá'í teacher and a wonderful man. He was somewhat of a
> role model for me. Charlie volunteered for all kinds of tasks, so pretty soon had Eileen and I serving
> with him on the Ontario Teaching Committee, responsible for co-ordinating Bahá'í teaching activities
> throughout Ontario. We were still "wet behind the ears" but there were so few Bahá'ís in those days.
> The next year saw us serving on the Canadian National Teaching Committee with scant knowledge
> of Canadian geography, much less awareness of Bahá'í activities across the nation. Co-ordinating
> dates for travelling teachers was a bit of a problem and we sometimes set impossible dates for their
> travel between events and places, especially in British Columbia and Alberta.
> 
> In Niagara Falls we  got involved in two major Bahá'í events. One was an annual picnic which had
> been going for some time before the 1960's, the other the Arts, Crafts, and Critics event which we
> in Niagara falls and Chippewa inaugurated. Both were to grow in size and scope beyond those
> humble beginnings.
> 
> In 1961 the Bahá'í Assembly of Niagara Falls was asked to host the annual picnic held at Queenston
> Heights, near Niagara Falls, a relatively small event. Queenston Heights had been the site of a major
> battle in the War of 1812, when the Americans tried to liberate the Canadians from the British, but
> they did not want to be liberated. The British General Brock was killed on Queenston Heights but
> the Canadians repelled the attack.
> 
> Abdu'l Baha visited Niagara Falls on the New York side in 1911, travelling there by train from
> Buffalo.  He dipped His hand in the water of the Niagara River, then had a simple lunch of fruit. While
> in Niagara Falls, we participated in a commemoration in 1961 celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of
> that event. This annual picnic was a kind of  celebration of that visit. It had been held for years before
> this, but always on a small scale. There was a tradition that regardless of the weather leading up to
> it, there was never rain during the picnic. I saw several examples of stormy mornings and sunny
> afternoons myself on the big day.
> 
> Of course Charlie Grindlay was at the centre of the planning and 
> working, with us hard on his heels. I remember all of the men being asked 
> to furnish old unwanted neckties for the children's three-legged race. 
> That will give you and idea of how small an event it was. While we were few 
> in number, Bahá'ís and their friends from both sides of the Canada-US 
> border took the opportunity to get together, to enjoy each other's company. 
> Over the years the picnic grew until I heard of ten thousand people showing 
> up for it. I don't know if that figure is an exaggeration, but the last 
> picnic I attended was huge. I heard that eventually it was cancelled 
> because of the difficulty of providing insurance for the event.
> 
> Bahá'ís are asked to observe Intercalary Days (Ayyam-i-ha, March 26 to April 2) as days of
> hospitality and gift giving. Especially encouraged is giving gifts which are made, thus encouraging
> creativity. Realizing many Bahá'ís in our small community were engaged creatively during this time,
> we decided to reach out to the Niagara Falls community and stage an Arts, Crafts and Critics evening
> (we included "critics" to give a role to those not comfortable in trying to make anything), giving us
> a chance to see each other's creative efforts. It was open to the public, arts and crafts by everyone
> being displayed. 
> 
> The first event, held in the home we shared with John and Joyce Edmonds, was very popular, so we
> repeated it the following year when even more people participated. A newspaper journalist who
> attended the event wrote an article about it in the local paper in which he observed "the art was
> interesting but the people were fantastic." After we left the area, other Bahá'ís developed this event,
> holding it annually for many years with a great deal of success. It was for a time held in the old
> courthouse at Niagara on the Lake, and may be going yet.
> 
> It is very encouraging to realize that by us simply making a start in both these programs, others with
> more skill and talent built them into something so succesful.
> 
> Niagara Falls community was asked to plan a teaching trip for a very special lady. Her name was Ella
> Quant and she became  a Bahá'í in 1903. Ella, who never married, was now 84 years of age,
> pioneering in Niagara Falls, New York,  sharing a home with a "younger" woman, Marion, in her mid
> 70's. Ella was an inspiring person to visit, not only because of her connection with the past, but
> because of her simplicity and charm. She had witnessed the development of the Faith from very early
> days and over the years had personally received something like five letters from Abdu'l Baha and
> about thirteen from Shoghi Effendi. 
> 
> The memory of which she was most proud was of having lunch with Abdu'l Baha during his visit to
> North America. Her account of this meeting is published in one of the Bahá'í World volumes. In
> 1911, Ella attained the presence of Abdu'l Baha, sitting across the table from Him, feeling very
> spiritual. Suddenly He looked directly at her and asked after the well being of a lady whom Ella
> particularly disliked. Her spiritual bubble burst as she realised that Abdu'l Baha had very kindly
> indicated that she still had work to do.
> 
> We feared the strain of a teaching trip would be too much for her but Ella could not be dissuaded.
> Eileen and I travelled with her and I remember her starting three different stories, each of which
> seemed to be left unfinished, which I put down to her age and memory loss, but at the end of her talk she
> very nicely tied all of the stories together in a complete package.
> 
> I told the following story in my "Memories of Yellowknife" account, but it bears repeating.  On those
> occasions when we visited Ella in her home, it became apparent that many people had given gifts to
> her, but she always gave them away, in the process transforming the original gift into something really
> special. During the first Intercalary Days that came along after we moved to Yellowknife I made a number
> of replicas of "The Greatest Name," a short Bahá'í  prayer.  I made these by buying 1/8 inch thick
> cork sheet gasket material, carving the shape out of the cork. With this profile mounted on a board
> I could make two pictures, one raised, the other inset. I then painted them gold and white and put
> them in a gold picture frame.
> 
> I sent one of these as a gift to Ella, telling our fledgling Yellowknife community how Ella always
> transformed a gift into something much better. A month or so later I received a loving letter from Ella
> thanking me for the gift and saying that she had given it away. A lovely young blind Bahá'í woman
> came to visit Ella. She had heard about the 'Greatest Name"and always wondered what it was like.
> She was able to put her fingers in the shape and trace the outline of the letters. Ella gave it to the
> blind girl and hoped that I did not mind. While she never visited Yellowknife personally, Ella certainly
> inspired the early Bahá'ís there.
> 
> The last time I saw Ella was at the huge International Bahá'í picnic at Queenston Heights when she
> was in her 90's.  She had Alzheimer's, her memory gone, and she did not recognise me, but  told me
> that I had a very kind face. That was because I was looking at her and the love that I felt showed.
> 
> A group was gathered around her chair. She still remembered every detail of her story of the lunch
> she had with Abdu'l Baha and was telling it with a shining face. Ella died shortly after this. She was
> a luminous soul whom we feel privileged to have known.
> 
> 
> 
> About 1962 Charlie Grindlay and his family decided to pioneer to Iceland where the tiny Bahá'í
> community was in difficult straits, primarily because of the activities of one of its members who was
> a recluse, living in the mountains in summer and in someone's garage in winter. This man was
> mentally ill and his imaginings and delusions caused no end of problems for the other four or so
> members. 
> 
> Charlie came to the home we shared with the Edmonds in Niagara Falls to say farewell. We had
> recently got a little puppy, a West Highland Terrier, named Charlie (for Bonnie Prince Charlie).
> Charlie Grindlay went upstairs to the toilet and meanwhile Charlie the puppy dropped through a
> broken return air vent in the floor and wandered off along the duct which led directly to the furnace.
> Of course there were filters and other barriers which would prevent him from going into the furnace,
> but Eileen was unaware of this. Terrified, she started shouting "Charlie, Charlie! Come back Charlie'.
> Charlie Grindlay must have thought that Eileen was overcome with grief at his leaving and came
> racing downstairs. All ended well though and little Charlie the puppy wandered back to the hole
> through which he had fallen.
> 
> 1963 was a landmark year for the Bahá'í Faith. The Faith had met its many goals, becoming
> established in so many countries world wide that for the first time, we were able to elect the Universal
> House of Justice, the governing body responsible for Bahá'í activities around the globe. 1963  also
> marked the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Bahá'í Faith. A World Congress was planned
> in London, England and Eileen and I determined to get there. 
> 
> Having two young children, the idea seemed like a pipe dream, but a wonderful Bahá'í family, Ron
> and Edna Nablo, had moved to St Catharines with their three children. They were loving and
> hospitable and big-hearted Edna happily agreed to look after our two youngsters to let us get to the
> Congress. Ron was Industrial Commissioner for the city of St Catharines, responsible for attracting
> new industry to the town. They were kindly and attractive people, nice to be around for affection as
> well as intellectual conversation. Anytime I had a spare half hour, I spent it drinking coffee in their
> kitchen. Anyway, they made it possible for us to get to this historical event.
> 
> About 6,000 Bahá'ís attended the event, which was held in the Royal Albert Hall. Accustomed to tiny
> Bahá'í communities, I had never conceived of so many in one place at one time. People had come
> from all over the world, many having made great sacrifices, including one lady from Cyprus who had
> sold her only cow to help finance her trip. A Dayak headhunter was there with his tally stick, a notch
> for each head he had taken. 
> 
> Having had some experience working with Canadian aboriginal people, I was interested in others in
> similar fields of endeavour. I  spoke to a man who had pioneered along the Amazon, where there
> were still headhunters and asked him how he went about it. He said "You have to get to them, before
> they get to you." Uncle Fred Murray, an Australian Aborigine, spoke at length. No one knew what
> he was saying except every now and then he said "I'm so happy, so happy." My face muscles ached
> from smiling by the end of the first day. We met wonderful people from Ethiopia, and the Scottish
> Bahá'ís who were mostly Persians in kilts. I probably could write a lot about this World Congress but
> maybe will save it for another time.
> 
> After the Congress we went to Scotland to visit family, and while I was so close, I popped over to
> Iceland to visit Charlie and Florence Grindlay in Reykjavik. I saw a pile of books in their hallway
> about four books across and maybe five feet high. These were copies of the book "Bahá'u'lláh and
> the New Era" translated into Icelandic, which is a version of ancient Danish, close to that spoken by
> the Vikings. Iceland has the oldest parliament in Europe. At that time the value of their currency
> fluctuated with the success of their fishing fleet. Charlie and I climbed a mountain together,  sharing
> our news and memories. Half of Reykjavik in 1963 was heated by water from their natural hot
> springs. All in all it was a very interesting place.
> 
> 
> 
> Hands of the Cause: We first met Hand of the Cause, Mr 
> Zikrullah Khadem, in St Catharines. I was a new Bahá'í, Eileen having not 
> yet declared. He came to our home for dinner before giving a talk in the 
> evening. I had heard about Hands of the Cause and understood them to be 
> something like the disciples of Jesus. When I first saw this slightly 
> rumpled looking man, I was a bit disappointed as he did not look very 
> spectacular. No halo! He had been appointed by Shoghi Effendi in 1957 just 
> months before the Guardian died and was extremely modest, having no idea 
> why he had been chosen for this important role. When the Guardian asked 
> him, he had said that he could not afford to accept this position as he had 
> to work to make a living. Mr Khadem then showed us a little black purse 
> wrapped in tissue paper which the Guardian had given him. This purse had 
> belonged to Abdu'l Baha. The Guardian had told him that as long as he had 
> this purse, he would never want for money, and that had turned out to be 
> true.
> 
> Baby Jackie crawled all over Mr Khadem and he really enjoyed that. He told us a story about how
> when leaving Alexandria, Egypt, on a train, he shared a carriage with a priest. Many Bahá'ís had come
> down to see him off and they were obviously grieving to see him leave. The priest asked "Have you
> lived here very long?". Mr Khadem replied "I don't live here. I just arrived yesterday for the first
> time." He told us that the priest did not believe him. I must confess I did not believe this either, until
> the next morning after we had spent an evening with the St Catharines friends listening to this modest,
> shy man. As Eileen and I looked at each other over the breakfast table and thought of this loving man
> leaving, tears began to fall for us, just as they had in Alexandria, and no doubt in many other places
> that were honoured by his visits.
> 
> The next time we saw him, we lived in a small two-bedroom apartment in Niagara Falls. Mr Khadem
> had just returned from a visit to Iran, where the Bahá'ís were being terribly persecuted. He had
> escaped through the backdoor of a home, just as an angry mob broke down the front door. 
> 
> Mr Khadem stayed overnight with us.  Jim and Jackie shared a small bedroom and we slept in the
> living room, giving Mr Khadem our bedroom. He was extremely tired so we wanted to ensure he had
> a chance to rest undisturbed. Unfortunately, when I rose to dress for work I had no clean shirts and
> my clothes were in that bedroom. What to do? I reasoned that if I knocked quietly on his door, if he
> was awake, he would let me in. If he did not answer, I could assume that he was sound asleep, and
> sneak in and get the shirt. 
> 
> Knocking quietly produced no response so, quietly as possible, I snuck in and tiptoed across the
> room. Just as I opened the drawer, poor Mr Khadem woke up, saw this shadowy figure lurking in his
> room and got a great fright.
> 
> Over the years I occasionally met him at large conferences and he always remembered to ask for
> Eileen and the children by name. I don't know how he could remember so many people in detail. I
> was asked to give a workshop in Oakville and wrote to Mr Khadem asking if he would like to send
> a greeting to the friends there. He sent such a loving greeting that everyone was moved. He told me
> that he was sorry not to be there to sit with the group and learn from me. In all my life, I never met
> a more humble man.
> 
> I suppose that it is more than coincidence that it was at a National Convention in Winnipeg, where
> Mr Khadem raised the call for pioneers that led us to pioneer to Yellowknife. The power of love can
> move mountains.
> 
> Sometime during 1960 Hand of the Cause John Robarts passed through St Catharines on a cross
> Canada tour. He was speaking with Bahá'ís only, encouraging them in the use of prayer and stressing
> daily use of the Prayer for Canada, the Tablet of Ahmad, and the Long Obligatory Prayer. As I was
> not a Bahá'í at the time, I was unable to attend his talk. Around 1964 we were living in Niagara on
> the Lake and I was asked to give a talk about the Bahá'í Faith to a grade eleven class at the high
> school in Virgil, near Niagara on the Lake. I wanted to convey to the students something of the global
> reach of the Faith, so I wrote to Dempsey Morgan in Vietnam, Mr P.N. Rai, Secretary of the National
> Assembly of Bahá'ís of India (whom we had met at the World Congress in London, England in 1963)
> and to Mr Robarts who was now pioneering with his wife in Rhodesia (now called Zimbabwe). I
> asked all of them to send a greeting to the class and say something about where they lived.
> 
> In the letter to John Robarts I started off saying "You don't know me, but I lived in St Catharines
> when you came through there in 1960". John replied "Of course I know you. We all prayed for you
> in St Catharines, as you were still clinging to your old outworn rigging."
> 
> Eileen and I pioneered to Niagara on the Lake in 1963 which had only one Bahá'í at this time, Rene
> Bailey, an older black lady. She had been a nanny to a little girl in the southern United States, now
> adult and married a doctor. The couple moved to Niagara on the Lake taking Rene along as a faithful
> helper. Quite elderly by this time, Rene's health was not good. 
> 
> Helen Hazen was very interested in the Faith and soon became a Bahá'í. She was married to Oz and
> had three fine boys, John, Ward and Bill, ages about nine. eleven and thirteen. The boys were
> courteous, intelligent and adventurous. I almost had a heart attack to see Ward swaying in the wind 
> near the top of a huge old tree in their backyard. I remember Oz telling me that their neighbours were
> very quiet. Their property was adjacent to the Anglican graveyard. Helen was a school teacher and
> a real spark plug. Then, as now, she had many bold ideas on how the Faith may be advanced.  We
> started children's classes for Helen's three plus our two children, Jackie and Jim. I was fortunate to
> be at Helen's home in Mitchell , Ontario in 2002, when her oldest son, Bill celebrated his fiftieth
> birthday. I found it very moving that Bill and Ward could still tell stories about events from those long
> ago children's classes. 
> 
> 
> 
> Our faithful contact in Niagara on the Lake was dear Joan Moore, a very fine lady of English
> background. Joan had two sons, David and Michael. David was a quiet, scholarly boy who used to
> find arrowheads and musket balls around the fort in historic Niagara on the Lake. Michael was an
> outstanding sprinter, excelled in many sports and full of fun. He came to our youth dances and was
> very popular with the other kids. Joan supported many of the efforts we attempted, including starting
> a branch of the United Nations Association of Canada. We used to get together on Sunday evenings
> to discuss what was termed "the balance of power" between the superpowers, studying the threats
> caused by nuclear warheads, delivery systems and silos, using a book provided by United Nations. 
> 
> At this time the world was  going through what was called "The Cold War." John F. Kennedy had
> faced down Soviet Premier Nikita Kruschev, who was trying to ship nuclear missiles to Cuba just a
> very few miles from the USA. For thirteen days the world teetered on the brink of World War Three.
> Civil rights marches were taking place in the southern US, then John F. Kennedy was assassinated,
> then Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, then Robert Kennedy. The world seemed to be in a state of
> turmoil, but despite this, few people accepted the Faith as the viable alternative to war and social
> unrest. I don't know what it will take eventually. 
> 
> While all these major world events were taking place, Eileen and I were plugging away in our feeble
> attempts to fix the world. I started the track and field club on the Six Nations Reserve (see another
> report about that) and it was going along well. I was trying to teach those kids to be proud of who
> they are, and in the tradition of long distance running, never to give up or give in. 
> 
> The youth in Niagara on the Lake had very little available to them in the way of entertainment, and
> some of them were getting into trouble. A police chase of a stolen car at 90 miles an hour ended with
> a 14-year-old boy captured. He had taken his Dad's car to help his friend deliver newspapers! He was
> tiny and could hardly see over the steering wheel. 
> 
> There was an old community hall behind our house on Luther Street, so we decided to start a youth
> club, and try to give them an outlet for their energies. We had weekly meetings with dances, snacks
> and games. Their ages ranged from 13 to 17 and a couple were a bit rebellious and out to cause
> problems. The oldest and the natural leader was a muscular boy, proud of his physique, so I got them
> into a wrist wrestling competition. After he had beaten the other youth, he turned his ambition in my
> direction, just as I anticipated. I was evasive, saying "No way, I'm too old for that" and so on. I finally
> let him talk me into a match. To his surprise I managed somehow to put down his arm. That brought
> respect -- from there on, he was very supportive and the other rebellious kids got in line. 
> 
> We branched out into community projects with a points competition for performing acts of service,
> like assisting old people, cleaning up parks, etc. We rebuilt two tennis courts and got them back in
> service which gave them another alternative for activity. Meanwhile, we had heard about a group of
> black Bahá'í youth in Rochester in the USA and invited them over for a visit. Then we expanded to
> include the Six Nations Track and Field Club with the Rochester youth and the Niagara on the Lake
> club, and they all had a wonderful time together. Eileen fed the whole crew. 
> 
> All of a sudden things came to a screaming halt. The Niagara parents did not want their kids
> associating with blacks or Indians. The word was out that we were COMMUNISTS. The worst thing
> you could say about any group at this time. A clergyman in Niagara Falls backed up this allegation,
> saying "I don't know much about them, but I do know this. They are a front for Communism!" We
> found out the lady spreading the allegations had already been in trouble with the law for slander. We
> thought about taking action, but after researching the Writings, decided to let it go and just wait to
> see what happened. 
> 
> One parent was Lillian Penteluke, a close friend to this day. Her daughter Marlene, about fifteen years
> old, was a member of our youth club, and also our babysitter. Lillian went to the other parents and
> told them, "They certainly cannot be Communists, for they believe in God." One by one the club
> members returned and we carried on with our program. 
> 
> A study carried out by students from Waterloo University at this time concluded that the only
> worthwhile organisation of this kind in Niagara on the Lake was our little youth club.
> 
> 
> 
> When World Religion Day came along, we thought it a good idea to get all of the various religious
> groups and churches together to pray for peace. This was a time before the ecumenical movement had
> gained momentum. The idea of getting together alarmed the clergy as they had never done anything
> jointly before. The main concern was "Where are you going to hold it?" Nobody wanted to attend the
> church or synagogue of another faith. The black church known as the British Methodist Episcopalian
> was most amenable, but made the others nervous too. Eventually  they agreed to come if it was held
> in our home, so that was what we did. All the participants seemed to get along very well at the event.
> 
> Ron and Edna Nablo came to visit us one day in Niagara on the Lake. As usual they were helping
> someone out. This time it was by looking after a friend's very large Collie dog. He was black, brown
> and white with a large hook nose. We all went out for a walk when suddenly there was an uproar
> ahead of us. The dog had got into a fight with another identical Collie dog. Ron bravely waded into
> the fight, kicking away one combatant, putting a lead on the other, dragging him away. It later turned
> out that he had taken the wrong dog so the situation had to be rectified. No good deed goes
> unpunished.
> 
> Many wonderful Bahá'ís visited Niagara on the Lake in the early 60's. We worked together across
> the US border with the Chernievsky family, with the brothers John and Jim Yates, and Ella Quant.
> Agnes Harrison, an Inuit from Alaska, visited. She was the first Inuit to be appointed a judge in
> Alaska, appointed by President Dwight Eisenhower. Firuz Kazemzady came through. He had headed
> up Radio Free Europe and was now a special advisor to the US president on Soviet affairs. If there
> was a change in the Soviet hierarchy, Firuz had 24 hours to tell the President how the US might be
> affected. Author and historian Stanwood Cobb gave talks, as did Mehdi Firuzi.
> 
> I still remember Mehdi speaking in the village of Queenston. When he was attending school in Iran,
> his teacher said "We are Persians and our fathers before us were Persians." Little Mehdi thought about
> this and thought "It must be a lie. It is too obvious!" Then he thought about the various people who
> had occupied Persia over the centuries. "The Romans! I bet they did not bring along their wives!" 
> 
> Returning from Yellowknife in 1969, we spent a week in Niagara Falls, where we attended a public
> talk given by Stanwood Cobb. After the talk he was introduced to Eileen. When shaking hands with
> her he looked suddenly very concerned. He told her she was very ill and should get medical attention
> as soon as possible. It took 18 months of tests to diagnose, but the arsenic in Yellowknife's drinking
> water was in her system and Eileen was in the first stages of Hodgkin's Disease. How did he know?
> 
> Dear Nancy Campbell gave several talks in Niagara on the Lake, often despite severe pain from
> arthritis. Nancy was one of the leading ballet instructors in Canada and had taken her training in New
> York, where she lived round the corner from poet Kahlil Gibran. As a student, Nancy was in the
> library one day and heard a girl crying at the back of the bookshelves. Nancy asked what was wrong,
> and the girl said "I'm a Bahá'í and I'm supposed to tell people about it. I cannot find anyone who wants
> to know, and I feel like such a failure." Nancy said "Well, you can tell me, dear,"and so began an
> illustrious Bahá'í career spanning more than fifty years.
> 
> We lived very happily in Niagara on the Lake, until in 1965 I was elected delegate to the National
> Bahá'í Convention in Winnipeg. The task of the delegates was to elect the nine members who would
> form the National Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Canada. During that convention Hand of the Cause Mr
> Khadem, whom we loved so much, raised the call for pioneers to go to the more remote areas of
> Canada and of the world. About twenty Bahá'ís came forward in response. I telephoned home to
> Eileen, then we offered to go anywhere in the world we may be needed. A few months later we were
> on our way to Yellowknife in Canada's Northwest Territories.
> 
> We had bought a beautiful two bedroom house in Niagara on the Lake for 
> $8,200, with a 30-year mortgage at 3.5 percent. The garden, which 
> had been landscaped by a retired professional gardener, had a variety of 
> blossoms which appeared in rotation for three seasons. At times the perfume 
> was magnificent. There was never a harsh word spoken in that little home, 
> and many wonderful people flowed through its doors. We have revisited the 
> spot occasionally and one time saw this home, now forty years older, for 
> sale at $280,000.
> 
> I sometimes think of Terry Fox, that wonderful young man who had lost a leg to cancer. He was sure
> that cancer could be beaten and vowed to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. He
> put his foot in the ocean on the East Coast then started out, running about thirty miles every day. All
> the way through the maritime provinces and Quebec he raised almost nothing, then coming into
> Ontario he caught public attention and was joined by Maple Leafs Captain, Darryl Sittler and other
> famous athletes and hockey players who jogged along with him for a few miles. The money started
> to pour in. He did not manage to run across Canada. Cancer struck him again and he had to stop near
> Thunder Bay, Ontario, where a beautiful statue has been raised to his memory. He went home to die
> with his dream unrealised, yet he raised more than twenty million dollars for cancer research, and each
> September the Terry Fox runs are held all across Canada, and continue to generate millions every year
> for cancer research.
> 
> In a way his story reminds me of our time in Niagara. We were young and healthy, we had a dream,
> and nothing seemed impossible to us. Dear Joan Moore and Helen Hazen have continued to follow
> that dream through family tragedy, illnesses and old age. This is true of Ann and Doug Wilson, Doug
> and Patty Sheldrick, Joyce and John Edmonds, Don and Diana Dainty, Herb and Gerry Tripp, Charlie
> and Florence Grindlay, Ron and Edna Nablo, and the others in this story.  Some are dead, some still
> carry on but they never gave up, nor did Eileen and I. Just like Terry Fox, we never saw its realization
> but all of us continue to follow that dream.
> 
> In many ways our hearts stayed behind in beautiful Niagara on the Lake.
> 
> 
> return to Jack Boyd's Memoirs (home page)
>
> — *Memories of Niagara Peninsula (Used by permission of the curator)*