We are celebrating amazing friendships that started in Byron and carry on to this day by sharing your stories in the Byron Villager. A 70-year Byron Friendship Network by Ruth-Anne Calhoun Our beloved Byron maintains a magical, lifelong embrace for many of her residents. It is all-encompassing of profound, true, warm, loyal and steadfast love. Several folks who grew up here remained while others returned to raise their children in this strong, community-minded, safe haven. This story is about a small group of women who met here in the early to mid-1950s to become lifetime friends and developed a larger network that is still active. All women will be identified by their maiden names and some have nicknames. I met Georgina (Georgie) MacDonald and Sally McBeth when they arrived on Boler Road in 1952. Shirley Parker (Squirrel), Sandra Davies (Daisy) Barb Rogers, Brenda Welch and me (Shoo-Shan) met when their families arrived in Byron in 1955. At that time, Byron was a small village where all residents knew each other. It was like one large extended family. Believe me, the Byron kids got away with no horse pucky! The Almighty seeing eye was everywhere. Of course, some of us were angels! Georgie lived next door to my great aunt Vi and uncle Lawyer Wells and Sally across the road from them. My aunt had a huge vegetable garden and fruit garden. She would always give plenty to both Georgie and Sally to take home. My uncle built small wooden items in his garage. Since the early 1900s, he collected various coloured license
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plates that were the norm then. He hung them on the walls in a precise, orderly manner that brightened up the garage’s interior. Georgie was fascinated by them. She feared the old WWII empty bomb shell inside the garage door. She stored her bicycle there and every time she would retrieve her bike, she was afraid it would be blown to bits! Nobody told her the bomb was a dud, merely an empty shell! Sally was a sweet, pleasant little girl who had a quiet, warm presence about her. We usually played in Georgie’s or my aunt’s backyard and enjoyed the time. The Boler Road Gang Georgina MacDonald, Mary McKelvey, Sally McBeth, Patty Simpson and Andrea McBeth (younger sis of Sal) November 1958 on the front porch of the MacDonald house
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