Aunts, Uncles and Cousins by John Caverhill
the city lights of Windsor and Detroit slide by. Music then was at a pleasant background level, allowing one to converse at a normal level, or simply listen to the gurgle of the bow waves rolling away from the boat as it glided through the water. For anyone fortunate enough to have taken the Boblo Excursion Boat, it is a golden memory indeed. Back in the early 50s, if I remember correctly, the news (newspaper and radio) reports were full of the exploits of a notorious outlaw group called the “Boyd Gang” named after their leader. There was no connection between the gang leader Boyd and the Appin Boyds, and anyone less viraginous than my mother and Aunt Evelyn would be hard to imagine, but for Uncle Mac, the temptation was too much to resist. They would be at a social gathering, and from behind his hand, in a tremulous undertone just loud enough for Aunt Evelyn, who would be nearby to hear, he would confide to someone next to him that, yes, his wife was a former member of “that Boyd family”. He would sorrowfully add that he always had to caution the host or hostess of any gathering that they should count the silverware after he and his wife left because old habits die hard. At this point, Aunt Evelyn would become aware that her partner, for better or worse, was up to his usual shenanigans and would exclaim “Oh Ma-ac! Don’t say such things! People might think it is true!” Uncle Mac would solemnly shake his head and then say with a chuckle, “If I lose my job, at least your family can support us”. He would go to great lengths to set the stage for some fun, as the following story shows. I had just become engaged. Father, Mother, my fiancé, Gay and I made a midsummer weekend visit to Windsor to introduce Gay to some of our extended family. Uncle Mac was at his best, which meant Aunt Evelyn was constantly remonstrating “Oh Ma-ac! What will Gay think?”
Malcolm Leitch (Uncle Mac to me) was born and raised on a farm near Glencoe which to this day is still surrounded by many farms whose owners bleed plaid if they cut themselves. He married my mother’s sister, Evelyn, the youngest daughter of Charles and Elizabeth Boyd, who had a farm on the Thames Road north of Appin. My Aunt Evelyn, a gentle, sweet soul, was perfect for Uncle Mac who was always ready for a good joke. He claimed Macksville, a tiny hamlet on Thames Road, north of Appin, was named after him. Like many young lads in the early 20th Century, Uncle Mac felt the pull of the thriving young auto industry in Windsor. He and his young bride moved there, and he joined Chrysler Motors, where he worked until he retired in the late 1960s. Uncle Mac and Aunt Evelyn had one son, Mac Jr. We were the same age and when we were young and unattached, at least once each summer, with a couple of girlfriends we would take the Boblo Island excursion boat on the Detroit River down to Boblo Island, a trip that took about one and a half hours each way. Since Boblo Island is on the American side, we would cross over on the Ambassador Bridge. People then “dressed up” for dances; blue jeans for dances was unheard of, so if young couples gave Boblo Excursion as their destination, they would often be waved through with a cheery “Enjoy yourselves”. The boat’s main deck, which was the dance floor, was covered on top and open on the sides with seating around the perimeter. A very good dance orchestra played a variety of music with emphasis on the big band favourites of that time. During dance breaks, we would lean on the deck railing and watch
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