I think the early 60s was my happiest time. We were living in our first home, in Roseville Estate, Lisburn. I was just 21, Dominic 22, and we had our first child who was only about 6 weeks old when we moved into the house. We were happy and content with no wider thoughts or ambitions other than living each day as it came. It would be another 6 years before one of my brothers would develop the cancer which cruelly took him at only 30 years of age. We didn't know that 4 years earlier (1966) my granny would ne dead, aged 95 or so. All these first traumas were way ahead and we lived with no thoughts of illness or deaths. As I say, it was a very contented time - the Beatles were the top group then. I don't think the Rolling Stones had shocked the hit parade just yet. The Beatles gentle music suited that time. I went back to my job in Barbour Threads when Gregory was about 5 months old, my mother looked after him (and spoiled him) and life was uneventful. I wish it had stayed that way forever.

Ann, the sixties were indeed a good decade for Frances and myself. We experienced the arrival of our first, and only child in 1961 and that brought about a definite change to our lifestyle.

The Calgary economy in those days was boom or bust, with a swing upwards, followed by a downward trend every couple of years or so. Some people were not affected by these downturns, such as schoolteachers, civic employees and the like but those of us in the oil and gas service industries felt the pain.

However we weathered the storms and moved to a larger home in a better part of town. We enjoyed the company of many friends with basement parties and loud music, we were in our thirties, after all. I especially liked Roger Miller in those days and Frances liked anything by The Irish Rovers. In fact, they held a practise session in our old Fairview home just before recording their popular Unicorn and taking off on their record breaking run in The Purple Onion in San Francisco.

The sixties seemed to be the decade where Folk Music was born and we both liked this genre, attending concerts by Joni Mitchell and the like.

Wouldn't " trade all of my tomorrows for just one yesterday " as Janis Joplin used to croon, but would be kinda nice to look in on one of those parties.

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