Life on the Taylor Farm

While living with Bernice and Bill Taylor, Evelyn kept very tender memories of this period of her life, when she had the ran of the farm and all its animals to play with: a dog, cats, rabbits and the four cows, named Tame Cow, Tired Cow, Sleepy Cow and Ferocious Cow. In addition there were nearby children to play with, and she began her schooling there. She remembers also Bernice’s always lovely garden and credits Bernice with instilling the love of plants which accounts for her beautiful garden, conservatory and plants in every room in the Montreal hone now. She wasn’t always so appreciative, however, as once she was in disgrace for trimming down to the am of the pot a beautifully flourishing baby’s tears, Bernice’s pride and joy at the time. Taken to task, she explained that it had I gotten on my nerves”. Another expression of Evelyn’s that Bernice often used to quote fondly was “It makes my heart feel sad”. Some of the language she picked up from Hank at the barn, such as “Lorge (Lord) Christ” was a little less genteel and rather embarrassing when innocently brought out in polite company. Another problem was her penchant for removing her clothes and appearing on the street in the altogether. I can recall having a great time convincing her that it was all right to get her bathing suit wet; she thought it too had to be removed before going into the water. One of the happiest memories of Evie’s teen years was of the gift of Freckles, a red cocker spaniel from Mike’s kennels at Bronte. Arriving home from camp one evening, she noticed a tin of dog food on the table. Amy, with her usual wit, explained that it was actually quite good in sandwiches, but Evie was not fooled. She dashed down cellar to find the longed for pet awaiting her. Another story I recall about this dog was of Amy’s surprise one day at seeing a taxi drive up with the dumb dog regally ensconced in the back seat, obviously enjoying its hour of glory. It had followed Evie down town and she had chosen this way of getting it home. It was during this period also, when Evie was fourteen that they took a trip to Europe. It was by ship, there was a large group of teenagers aboard, and Evie had the time of her life, with Amy seeing little of her from sling to arrival. A more serious part of the trip was the pilgrimage to Charlie‘s grave at Beny-Sur-Mer. Some time later Evelyn had another trip to Europe, this time with three girl friends, at the end of her third year in college. They rented a car for their travels on the Continent and hitchhiked through England and Scotland, staying at youth hostels. During this trip, Evelyn had the thrill of meeting her future father-in-law. Meanwhile, Evelyn Mary had grown up and was well into her interesting career. In 1955, on graduation from the Guelph Collegiate, she entered Victoria College in the University of Toronto on an I.O.D.E. scholarship for students who had lost a parent in the war. She maintained this scholarship throughout her four years and graduated in 1959 with an honours B.A. in English Language and Literature. In 1957, when Evie was home from college for a weekend, she met her future husband, Jacob (Jaap a nickname) Kalff. Jacob (Anglicized to Jake by his Canadian friends), was born in Velsen, the Netherlands, in 1935 and grew up in Almelo, the Netherlands. His mother is the former Isobelle Selly Bendien of the prominent Bendien textile manufacturing family and his father is Albert Willem Kalff, Director of Infrastructure of N.A.T.O. in Paris until his retirement in 1968. In 1945-46 Jaap attended school in England and 1946 to 1954 the International Quaker School in Erde in the Netherlands. He immigrated to Canada in 1954 and received his B.Sc. degree at O.A.C. in Guelph in 1959, specializing in wildlife management.

Jaap and Evelyn Marry

Evelyn and Jaap were married in Chalmers United Church, Guelph, on December 26, 1959. The decorations and gowns were appropriate to the season, Evelyn’s of white velvet and the bridesmaids of green velvet. Evelyn’s adoring Uncle Bill Taylor escorted her down the aisle. At the reception, among many toasts, was a moving tribute to the bride’s father, paid by his close college and army friend, Major Jerry Walker. The only jarring note was the weather – freezing rain and fog but we all reached our destinations safely. Jaap and Evelyn spent their first honeymoon at Limberlost Lodge in Muskoka and their second in Europe in the summer of 1960 visiting Jaap’s father in Paris and his mother, brother and sister in .Almelo. While Evelyn taught English and Physical Education at Preston High School from 1959 to 1961, Jaap took his MSc.at OAC. The years 1961 to 1965 were spent in Bloomington, Indiana, where Jaap took his PhD in Limnology and Evelyn her M.A.T. (Master of the Art of Teaching) at the University of Indiana. Limnology is the study of fresh water, within which Jaap’s special interest is the availability of nutrients to aquatic plants. In connection with this study, Jaap spent the summers of 1962, 63, and 64 in Barrow, Alaska, for research under the auspices of the U.S. Navy.

Derek hits the Scene

Evelyn stayed with her mother during those summers and so it was in Guelph General Hospital on Sunday, June 23, 1963 that her first child, Derek (now called Dirk, the Dutch version) Charles was born. When Evelyn phoned the news to Jaap in Barrow, Dirk said Hello to his father when the nurse snapped her fingers against the soles of his feet to make him squawk. It was a busy weekend for the proud grandmother. She attended a dinner of the College Alumni om Saturday evening and the Cudmore family picnic at Jim and Hilda’s in Applewood Acres on Sunday afternoon. When Dirk was six weeks old he flew with his mother to meet his father in Barrow. It was an interesting summer spent in a camp with several others, the housing and supplies provided by the navy. Evie’s most vivid memory is of the occasion when the camp was flooded and all had to be evacuated to the D.E.W. line station on higher ground. Evie had “packed11 Dirk in a closed-in baby basket. A helper snatched the basket from her and tossed it to the back of the van, followed by Evie’s screams. But the baby was unhurt. Dirk was a much-traveled young man, for at Christmas tine in 1963 Evie and Jaap again visited Europe, this time to show the six-month old baby to his grandparents. A highlight of the trip was the embarrassment on arrival in Pairs of finding that Derek’s suitcase had been left behind, complete with all the lovely handmade clothes that had been sent to him as presents from his European relatives and friends. A new wardrobe had to be hastily assembled. In 1965 the family of three moved to Montreal, where Jaao received a position in the Biology department of McGill University. On February 7, 1966, their second child, Sarah Adrienne, was born, in 1968 they purchased their present home, a large three storey brick house in an older established residential district, 83 Brook Avenue North in Montreal West. They moved in on September 1, in time for the birth of their third child, Anna Jacoba, on September 19, 1968. This seems a good place to outline the careers of the three children. Dirk, with the exception of grade four in France, attended Elizabeth Ballantyne Public School, with French immersion the nature of grade seven. Grades eight to ten were at Lower Canada College in Montreal, the counterpart of our Upper Canada College in Toronto. His C.G.E.P. two years, just now completed, were at Brebeuf College in the Science program. Since all his instruction there was in French, Dirk can now lay claim to being bilingual. He is delighted to be accepted to the second year of Biological Sciences at Queen’s University, Kingston, and to residence, starting in the Fall of ‘82. His passion for fishing was put to good use in the summer of 1981 when he enjoyed a job as guide in a fishing camp at Russell Lake near La Ronge in Northern Saskatchewan. Besides fishing, his sports are soccer, downhill and cross-country skiing, sailing, swimming and scuba diving. He is a slim, handsome 6’3” and growing. For the summer of 1982 he has a job in an elegant resort hotel in Waterton National Park south of Calgary near the U.S. border. Sarah attended the Curzon Co-operative Nursery School, of which her parents were co-chairmen. Her elementary schooling, with the exception of grade I in France, was in Edinborough Public School, of which the feature was French immersion from kindergarten to grade VI. She is now in grade 10 in Sacred Heart Girls’ private school. She is active in sports, having run for the school in cross-country races. She has been on the swimming team of the Montreal West Aquatic Club, with breast stroke and crawl her specialties. She won the award as the best skipper in her group at the St. Lawrence Yacht Club sailing camp in 1981 and will attend camp there in the summer of 1982. Before going to Kenya she was a counselor-in-training at the Montreal West Day Camp for a year. She holds the award of excellence in the Canada Fitness program, for high achievement in six categories. Softball with the Civic Recreation Association Softball League of Montreal West has been another important activity. In arts and crafts, she has enjoyed pottery lessons at the Visual Arts centre of Westmount and has made some very attractive pieces. Anna attended the same public schools as Sarah and is now in her first year at Sacred Heart, where she is a dedicated student. She is very good with little kids, and so will no doubt excel in her counselor-in-training program in the Montreal West Day Camp this coming summer, 1982. She enjoys tennis, swimming and skiing lessons and especially loves swimming. Currently she is a keen player in the softball league of the Civic Recreation Association, for which her mother was co-coordinator before her year in Kenya and is now a team coach. Anna also holds the Award of Excellence this year in the Canada Fitness program. Evie has always been active in supervising the careers of her children, as mentioned above in connection with the nursery school and football. She also acted on the school committee of the Edinborough Public School and as volunteer in the school library when the children attended there. Further to her own education, she has taken several courses in T.E.S.L. (Teaching English as a Second Language) at Concordia University, and received her diploma in 1981. In the 1980-81 term she taught English to a group of Venezuelans in the Centre Linguista, a private language school in Montreal. She had to give it up this spring to go with Jaap to England to visit his father who is ill and to Holland to celebrate his mother’s seventy—fifth birthday. She expects to resume teaching in the Pall. She is a member of the McGill Women Associates Bock Club. She enjoys swimming, tennis and cross-country skiing and finds time for some volunteer work. Meanwhile, Jaap’s career has advanced from his being assistant professor of Biology at McGill in 1965 to his current full professorship as lecturer to students at the undergraduate level and adviser to post-graduate and post-doctoral students, specializing in limnology. In connection with this, his first research station was at nearby Mont St. Hilaire, but more recently it has been at Lake Memphremagog in the Eastern Townships. It is partly because of proximity to the latter location and partly because it is such beautiful country that the two family cottages have been at this lake. The first was B.K. (before Kenya), 1975-79 and the second purchased in 1981 after their return. They spent the 1981 Christmas holiday there in incredibly beautiful surroundings.

The Dog Get's Smarter

An important member of the family, Beowulf, an aristocratic Norwegian Elk Hound, used to haul supplies to the cottage on a sleigh, but this year, partly because of the steeper hill to the new cottage and partly because he’s older and wiser, he refused. The cottage is great for cross-country skiing in winter and swimming and sailing in their two sailboats in summer. Jaap is an expert sailor, having grown up with it in his native Holland. He also keeps fit with squash and tennis, and is an avid bird watcher and photographer. In connection with his work, Jaap is currently vice-president of M.A.U.T. (McGill Association of University Teachers). He is also Canadian Representative to the International Association of Limnologists, a world body that meets every three years. He gave a paper in Leningrad for the 1971 meeting and was prominent in the organization for the meeting in Winnipeg in 1974. He is currently starting to prepare a paper for the 1983 meeting in Prance, which he and Evie will attend. Two sabbatical years have figured largely in Jaap’s career and in the family activities. The first was in Thonon-les-Bains on Lake Geneva: in France near the Swiss border. Dirk took his grade IV, Sarah grade I and Anna Nursery school there, all plunged suddenly into the French language, with which they cooed quite well. Another Canadian family, the Johnsons from Winnipeg, already established in a house nearby and with their kids in the schools, was a big help. The Kalffs and Johnsons had many pleasant excursions together. They soon fitted into the different way of life, such as shopping every day rather than weekly and going to the bakeshop for delicious crusty fresh bread every morning before breakfast. All soon had skis, for a half—hour drive over winding roads took them from the snowless foggy terrain at the lake to the above-the-clouds snow-covered beauty of the French Alps. Dirk’s school took all the kids skiing every Wednesday afternoon, and the family had many great ski week—ends. These excursions were in the new Volvo which had been ordered ahead and picked up at the Amsterdam airport, and was later brought home with them. Evie also took advantage of the proximity to buy a Swiss Elna sewing machine to use there and bring home. Christmas that year was spent at an Austrian ski lodge with Jaap‘s mother and his brother and sister and their children. The Easter vacation was spent on the Island of Corsica, with travel by car and car ferry.

Looking For Push-me Pull-yous

Jaap’s second sabbatical was from August 1979 to August 1980 in the Botany department of the University of Nairobi in Kenya. It was a big job to pull up stakes, selling their cottage and renting their house in the city to friends who undertook to baby sit Evie’s flowers, and more importantly, the beloved Beowulf. Packing supplies and clothing for a year abroad and keeping within the twenty kilo per person allotment wasn’t easy, but they finally :got away, traveling by way of Holland, Italy, Greece and Egypt. The University provided them with a cozy rent-free house in a quarter acre of enclosed grounds where they had a good vegetable and flower garden. They had a male servant called Lofti who fitted into their ways very well, as he had been with four Montreal families before them. He did gardening, cleaning, cooking, laundering, and ironing! As they had to have a base in town because of the kids’ schooling, they had to have two cars and Jaap traveled regularly to Lake Waivasha, one hundred kilometers north of Nairobi to do his research. Dirk was enrolled in the International School, which was packed with a great assortment of kids from everywhere. He took a difficult program so that he could graduate from high school and be eligible for C.G.E.P on Ms return. He participated in manj of the school activities, including playing the part of ilgernon in the Oscar Wilde play The Importance of Being Ernest, in which he was a hit. He also went with sixteen kids on a school trip to Lake Turkana in Northern Kenya. It was by truck and grueling in the terrific heat, but a very rewarding’ experience. Dirk figured largely in the leaving party the Kalffs gave. They bought a thirty-three kilo pig (We’re supposed to know by now what size that is!) and he and his friends roasted it over a charcoal pit in the back yard, taking shifts through the night to tend it as it took twelve hours to cook. The noon-time party was a big success. Meanwhile Dirk had graduated from his school with highest honours. Sarah and Anna attended Loreto Convent, in which the majority of girls were African and Asian. There was a good feeling among the students and the girls soon made several friends, with whom they are still corresponding. A most attractive feature of the school was the pool, where the girls enjoyed lessons and daily swimming. The level of French however was not high enough, especially as they had been in French immersion classes in Montreal and had spent a year in France. Evelyn tutored them in this as she wanted them competent for their return to Quebec. Of course, Evelyn wasn’t idle through all of this. She did some tutoring in E.S.L. (English as a second language) in Dirk’s school and enjoyed teaching English to a class of illiterate adults. She also took French classes and a course at the museum called Know Kenya. As a family group they soon joined a sports club for swimming and tennis. Also, they enjoyed several camping trips in the various game reserves, seeing a lot of Kenya, using Botany Department camping gear. These trips included their first, to Lake Naivasha and their last to Samburu Reserve to the north, where they treated themselves to a night at the elegant Samburu Lodge. Jaap had a trip alone to South Africa to do an evaluation of the limnological work there. When his mother visited, they spent one of her three weeks in the Botany Department field station on the beach south of Mombassa and loved swimming in the warm, clear Indian Ocean, snorkeling and scuba diving and gorging on fresh seafood. Evie and Jaap had another trip to the coast, which they won at a Canadian Thanksgiving celebration party. It included a flight via Kenya Airways and two nights at an elegant hotel. Jaap, Dirk, and Sarah enjoyed a mountain-climbing expedition to Mount Kenya, accompanied by two porters, climbing one of the lower peaks. They had to borrow lots of warm clothing and extra sleeping bags for the cold nights. I saw their many gorgeous still and moving pictures that document these various trips. Preparing to return home was almost as traumatic as the uprooting for going. Jaap was working very hard to complete what he had set out to do, while the others were busy with preparations for the journey. They sold the two cars and held a garage sale to divest themselves of the year’s accumulation. They left on July 16, travelling by way of Israel, where they met friends, then Italy, Holland and England to visit family. They reached home August 2, 1980. Beowulf recognized them and they all went crazy. I have already brought you up to date on their activities since their return.