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The Laing family went to Knox United Church every Sunday.Stuart and his sister Hazel, did go almost every Sunday to his aunts' place on Gilmour Street and have supper with them. Sometimes the whole family would go and sometimes just Stuart and his sister, but quite often the whole family would go.
The aunts were very hospitable hosts. They had an old gramophone and he could wind it up and play music. He didn't have one at home and he thinks his aunts must have been fairly well off. They lived on a good street, three of them worked, they had no children or husbands.
Stuart's mother liked to quilt. This was one of her main hobbies. She also did needlework. He doesn't remember his dad having any artistic pursuits. He was very laid back. He just went to work and came home and took it easy when he got home.
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Mary Jane (Mamie) Menzies Laing.1915
Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
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Stuart Laing talks about spring time fun.14 March 2006
Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
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Stuart started kindergarten at age 4. Prince of Wales Public School was just being built when his sister started school a couple of years ahead of him. Prince of Wales was in the area where they lived and that's where he should have gone, but she took him up to Queen Mary Public School so he stayed in Queen Mary right through to grade 8.He fondly recalls school picnics on the front lawn. Each year they would hold picnics with lots of activities and races.
Stuart even remembers some of his teachers, Miss McKie, Miss MacGregor, Miss Cairns, Mr. Clark, Mr. Waker, and Miss Deyell. Miss Deyell was his favourite teacher. He had her for third grade. She was younger than a lot of the teachers. She hadn't been out of Teacher's College for long and paid more attention to each of the kids.
Stuart went to PCVS (Peterborough Collegiate & Vocational School) all through high school, a total of five years. He graduated from there in 1937 and went to work. Stuart played basketball through high school and he did play football with the junior football team, he was the snap for the football team.
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Stuart as a member of the Peterborough Collegiate Vocational School basketball team.1936
Peterborough Collegiate Vocational School, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
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Stuart Laing talks about sleighriding near Prince of Wales School.14 March 2006
Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
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When Stuart was in school there was a big field just west of Monaghan Road near Charlotte Street with a big farmhouse at the back of it. The farmhouse is still there but it is now apartments. The big long field in front of the house was where the boys used to play football.Just south of that there was the All Saints' Church skating rink. It wasn't a free rink but on the northwest corner of Charlotte and Monaghan Road there was a free rink that the city looked after. The kids would go to one or the other.
They used to sleigh ride down the big hill behind Prince of Wales School and down Sherbrooke Street to Park Street which was two blocks away. None of these roads were paved and there was little traffic. Peterborough had no stop lights in those days but there were stop signs.
In the summer time Stuart and his friends would go up Sherbrooke Street past Clonsilla to Greenhill. There was a flat area with a creek going through it. The kids would go in there and pick raspberries and in the winter it was marshy and it would freeze over and they would skate there.
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Stuart recalls the milkman, the baker and the produce man coming to the door. The baker would come to the door with his big basket, bread at one end of it and cakes at the other end. The milkman would come and his mother would take her milk pitcher out to him and the milkman would fill the pitcher up with a ladle. The milk wasn't pasteurized in those days. The Laings always had electricity and indoor plumbing at their house.They also had an ice box at their house. He remembers the iceman coming with the big tongs and he would carry in a chunk of ice and set it in the icebox. If it didn't quite fit he would take a little tool and chip it off until he could make it fit. There was a pan under the icebox to catch the water. His mother usually threw the water out.
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Stuar Laing talks about the bullseye candies from Hoopers' Store.14 March 2006
Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
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Kids who grew up in Peterborough years ago have fond memories of Hooper's Confectionary. There was a counter on both sides of the store that was filled with chocolates. They made a lot of their own candy and Stuart remembers the bulls-eyes they made.Hooper's also had an area the back of the store with little round tables and metal chairs that were very uncomfortable to sit on where you would have your ice cream. There was an ice cream fountain along one side of the store. They also had a smaller store further north on George Street. Stuart didn't go to the north store because he didn't get up that far because it was a long walk from where he lived.
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As a child of 9 or 10 he started going to Camp Kawartha on Clear Lake. The camp was run by the YMCA. There was a dining hall and little cabins, with about 6 kids and a leader to a cabin. Stuart remembers they had four big war canoes. He went back again as a leader when he was in his teens and worked there for the whole summer. It was just a boys' camp then. There was a girls' camp on Juniper Island run by the YWCA. They used to go up and mingle with the girls at their camp sometimes. The boys would paddle up to Juniper Island and back with about a dozen or more kids in a war canoe.Before the war Stuart inherited about $300 from an aunt from the U.S. At that time the boys' camp secretary was transferred down to the Niagara area. He owned property up near the boys' camp on Clear Lake and Stuart bought it from him. He bought 200 feet of land for $300. All that was on the property was an outhouse. Stuart built a cottage on the property and he kept the cottage for 49 years. The Laing family spent many summers there. Shortly after he sold the cottage (a couple years) it burnt down. Now there is a great big mansion of a house on the property. See Robert Laing
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Stuart Laing talks about his family's first car.14 March 2006
Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
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Stuart's family got their first car when he was 16. He had a bicycle, when he worked at Brinton Carpet and went back and forth to work on his bike.Stuart remembers the streetcars in Peterborough. He only rode on one once when he was about 4 years old, but doesn't remember much about the ride. He does remember where the streetcar tracks went: they used to go out McDonnel Street and onto Monaghan Road and then go up to Jackson's Park, on the south side of Parkhill Road, on the east side there was a turntable to turn the streetcar around. He thinks you can still see where the turntable used to be in the park. He was about 8 years old when the streetcar stopped running.
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Roy Laing's permit to leave Canada to visit his family in the United States.20 July 1918
Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
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