190

Times were changing. We were growing up, some of us left for College, the face of the village was changing, the Coston House had been demolished and a service station and cabins stood there. The road had been hard surfaced and there was gradually a great deal more traffic. My father sold most of the lots in Isleview and a little community grew across the tracks. He sold the two lots at the back of the property where houses are now at the top of the hill. People kept moving in to Bedford and all of a sudden we didn't know everybody any more.

191

Explosion
1945
Bedford, Nova Scotia, Canada

192

There is another interesting picture I might show you. In 1945 my father was sitting on the lawn at Colmonell when the magazine explosion went off. Here is a picture he took from the front of the house. Fortunately there was no damage done to property at that time.

193

Magazine Explosion
1945
Bedford, Nova Scotia, Canada

194

Bedford Magazine explosion taken from a boat in Bedford Basin.

195

Captain and Mrs. Lewis
1928
Bedford, Nova Scotia, Canada

196

An elderly couple, Captain and Mrs. Lewis, lived in Isleview just across from our home and the children in the neighbourhood used to like to go to visit them, go out in the Captain's boat, and swim with Mrs. Lewis.

After Captain Lewis' death it was revealed that he was really the estranged father of Stephen Leacock and he had been living in Bedford under an assumed name all those years.

I took this picture of Captain and Mrs. Lewis one day.

197

Visiting Captain Lewis
1928
Bedford, Nova Scotia, Canada

198

Here is another showing a group of us visiting with Captain Lewis at this house. We are sitting on the front steps. I'm at the back with him, Margaret Archibald, my two sisters, Allison and Margie and three Guildfords. I forget the name of the girl on the left.

199

Robb, Andrew W.
1938
Bedford, Nova Scotia, Canada

200

It was not long before all the family had married and moved away. George and I were the only ones left in Bedford. My father and step-mother could not keep the place up properly so they used to spend their winters in Halifax at the Lord Nelson Hotel and come out to Colmonell for the summers. In 1957 my father died, the property was rented for a while, then sold to the United Church. My step-mother moved to Halifax where she died in 1981.

It seems as if I have been talking about my father throughout this whole story. Here is his picture.

W. Robb

201

Blowing bubbles
1916
Bedford, Nova Scotia, Canada

202

Have I given you the impression that life for us when we were young was happy and carefree, in spite of the war? I've tried to. I know we lived simple lives with pleasures far different from what the children enjoy (or endure) today.

Did I say, simple pleasures? Here is one of my favourite pictures. George and his pal, Ralph Morton, the doctor's son blowing bubbles.

203

Wedding of George and Marion Christie
31 August 1935
Bedford, Nova Scotia, Canada