Kids Of Curry's Lane Poem by Melvina Germain

Granma was baking pone in the kitchen, I could smell the cinnamon which permeated the air. Umm couldn't wait to have a slice, I finished dressing and ran into the living room to peer into our yard. Oh oh, there was a mountain of snow covering the fence, that meannnnns.

We're locked in, I pushed my face tightly against the window pane and could see the mountain had extended all the way up our door. My cousin Eric joined me and grinned, no school, I motioned for him to be quiet shhhhh we love school remember. He was younger than me, and he shook his head ok. We giggled and took in the scenes, we could see Annie Gregory working in her kitchen across the way. Herbie Gregory, Cookie and Brenda Star lived there, Brenda Star was my Aunt Mar's God-daughter, she was always a special one. I loved all of them.

Oh I remember not long ago when I went back to the old home town to visit, I
was in my teens and Annie Gregory went with me to the circus. There was a pulling
machine there, you could scoop up money if the crane would grab it. I had a steady hand
so I put my money in just a few cents and I tried. Annie kept encouraging me and finally
I got a huge silver dollar. It fell out of the scoop and Annie caught it and put it in her
purse. Hmmmm she's not going to give it to me, oh well, I thought, what am I going to
say to Annie Gregory anyway, let her have it. We enjoyed the rest of the day but that
instant stayed with me in a loving way all these years.

Granma, Granma, we're locked in, we need to call Uncle Roy and get shoveled out Granma, I have to go to school. Don worry chile, Uncle Roy will shovel us out sooner or later. Come Mellie and have your breakfast, I'm going to call Marie downstairs and see if she can get out of her door. My Aunt Mar, Uncle Sid and all my beautiful cousins lived downstairs. Oh my gosh, there was Ceddie, Brenda, Gayle, Ervie and Janpan, lolol her name is Janice but I started to call her Janpan these latter years. My cousins were like my brothers and sisters. I was an only child actually, I knew I had a sister in Toronto, but I didn't know her yet. I found out years later when I read a letter, my granpa use to call her plum pudding, gotta love that. My sister had a strange operation and no one knows what is was for. Oh well, there was lots of that kind of thing happening back then.

While these thoughts were mulling about my mind, Eric nudged me and pointed to Uncle Roy in the yard with his shovel. We looked at each other and shook our heads up and down, we're going to school. We both went to see granma in the kitchen, sit and have your breakfast. By the time you’re finish, I'm sure Uncle Roy will be here to shovel us out. Oh granma he's shoveling now. Oh! ya see, you won't be late for school. No granma we won't.


We heard the chatter of our cousins next door, Chuppie, Patsy & Debbie were calling us.
That's where Uncle Roy and Aunt Kay lived. There was Chuppie, Patsy, Debbie, Valerie, Adam Marie, Karen, Gary, Lorne, I’m not sure if Benji was born yet, oh my goodness, Benji from the time he could talk
always called me Aunt Mel and still does to this day. awww I’m chuckling large now. This story is far from ending but I’ll stop for now and come back later to share more.

Back home in Sydney, Nova Scotia…Those sure were the days….Melvina…..