An Abhainn: Dad is 75

Dad was born on July 20th, 1938 in Hopefield. George was King, King was Prime Minister, and World War II hadn't started yet. Now he is back home, close to his roots, working as hard as ever, hopefully enjoying the Island.

In the morning while everybody was waking up I walked around a did a little photo shoot of the place. Michael and family, and Jennifer and family arrived the night before and camped in the field. I love it when there is a crowd, just like it used to be.

Then early in the afternoon a bunch of us went up to Hopefield to check out Jimmy Smith's house, the school, and Mom and Dad's land.

The house is getting harder to see

Jim sent me this photo that he found on Ancestry.com. Its the house and barns as they were, I'm guessing about 1935. There was a lot of aerial photography done of the area that year. Notice the small barn in the center is the original house, built about 1875. The big house was built within 10 years, once old Jim MacDonald got the farm established. He was Dad's Dad's Mom's Dad.

Then off to the school. James and I thought we were smart and trekked into the woods to find it. Got a little lost, and smart me, wearing shorts, shredded my legs on the wild roses. We came out to see Dad found the school a few yards farther down the road, by its lane. Was that lane always there?

Then off to Mom and Dad's land

Dad had done a lot of clearing about 30 years ago, but the trees are taking over again.

Thios hole in the ground is all that is left of Dan Munn's house. Dan was Dad's Dad's Dad's Dad. Below is the house in 1945, already falling into the ground then.

Dad is standing roughly where the photo below was taken, 1911.

That is Sarah Kathryn, Grampy's mother standing at left, Elizabeth Ann, Grampy's grandmother in the carriage with Grampy, Ira, Grampy's father, Frank Barker, a rich cousin from Boston, and Dan Munn.