Just found this board thanks to Lynn Voortman and thought it would be fun to re-connect with old friends and school mates if there are any left around. So a little about me, I started out on the beaches at Cresent Beach around 1953. That's the area where the wave pool is and in fact the pool would be in our old front yard. After Hurricane Hazel wiped out most of those houses circa 1954 we and many other families were forced to leave the beach by the city so that they could have the land for Confederation Park. Well we didn't go far moving up to Van Wagner's beach directly across the road from the school which is now Barranga's. After few years there again the city moved us on and we moved to 987 Beach Blvd this would have been around 1963 and I lived there until 1969 when I moved to Burlington with my then wife. In 1971 we were relocated to Vancouver and stayed there until 1984 although we did visit often, at least I did as I consistently came back on business. Unfortunately after having 4 daughters, 3 born in B.C. my first marriage came to an end and as we were both from Burlington she decided to return and I followed quickly after not wanting to be that far from my children. After a hiatus from marrriage of about 6 years and while living in Hamilton I was planning at age 40 to return to school and a change in profession. I had been accepted by Conestoga College into their Nursing School. It was about this time still in Hamilton, I was living around St Joseph's Hospital, that I met my current wife Patti. I was going through a mid life crisis apparently as I found myself with a incredible lady that was 16 years my junior, but the harder this dirty old man pushed her away the harder she pushed me to the alter and the best thing that ever happened to me. This all worked well as Patti at the time was just finishing her residency in family medicine at McMaster Hosp. and planning to return to her home town of Waterloo to open her practice. This was all to much kismet as we were independantly making the same plan. So we picked up our tent and moved to Waterloo marrying on December 28, 1991. At this time my eldest daughter had returned to Vancouver which really was her home as she was only abou 16 months old when we uprooted her and moved to B.C. There she eventually met a young American sailor and one thing led to another as they do and off she went to San Dieago with stars in her eyes and a ring on her finger. Unfortunately her marriage also broke up and around 1994 she returned to Burlington and at that point had never met her set mother. Of course her 3 sisters had met Patti very early in our relationship and fell as much in love with her as I had. Patti and I were prepared for a very rocky road with the girls asking them to accept a new stepmother that was only 7 years older than their eldest sister. Well we over thought the situation as about 4 months after we started dating and before there was talk of marriage the trio at that time living with their mom in Burlington started lobbying for a little brother. Our getting married to them was not important what was important was a little brother and positively not a little sister. Well about 23 months and 14 days after our wedding we gave them their wish and presented them with a little sister. What did you really thing that after 4 girls in a row that I was capable of a boy, not much of a chance. Since then, there have been 2 granddaughters actually there is a 3rd but with special circumstances. She is my eldest daughter's eldest daughter and she was born 6 months before mine and Patti's daughter. So the special circumstances are that Patti was a grandmother before she was a mother and our daughter was an aunt before she was born. My first family is now all old enough to be on their own with my eldest Heather a nurse her spouse and 2 daughters living in Hamilton on the mountain, Jamie living in Kitchener and working as a office manager for a family doctor, Erin her ex and daughter live in Kitchener where she is a fitness consultant with Good Life and then Lindsay who lives in North Bay where she has just finished her B.A. She hopes to go onto teacher college and is currently working as a personal assistant in a group home for which she has a diploma. Patti and Alex our y daughter now live in New Hamburg and Patti's practice is 20 min. away in Kitchener. I am now stay at home parent but mostly just retired as Alex a almost 16 doen't really need a stay at home parent very much. Now after all of this I guess I should tell you who I am. My name is Dick Mattinson and as I said most of you if you are around will remember me from Bell Cairn which I attended from approx. 1961 to 1963 moving on to Delta for 3 years 2 of which were the shift years because of fire at Central and then ending up at Sir Winston Churchill graduating in June of 1968. I am not aware of any of my old friends still living on the beach but hopefully there are some of you out there that remember mewhether living on the beach or not. With every one using avatars and handles (or is that a C.B. radio term) it is impossible for me to guess who is whom. Don't worry about offending me if your not sure you know me ask as many questions as you like and we will figure it out. I promise I will answer all serious questions and hopefully we can re-connect.
Hoping to talk soon Dick e-mail <mattinson@kw.igs.net>
Hoping to talk soon Dick e-mail <mattinson@kw.igs.net>
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