Mature Life Features

‘Twas a bright afternoon 72 years ago when Temiskaming & Northern Ontario Railway Dr. Hall emerged from our tar-paper railroad shack in Feronia and told me he’d brought me a baby brother. I was told of making the comment, which I recall, that the doctor take him back “and throw him in the lake.” I remember the day because I was 4 1/2, old enough to remember, and  any visit from the doctor was memorable. We lived in Feronia, about seven miles from North Bay, and we received few visitors other than the farm folk who lived in the community. It wasn’t even big enough to be a hamlet. I also recalled in later years that, while I was told to stay outside and play while the doctor was there, it wasn’t all that long and I never heard any noise from inside. But I do remember it was a bright, buzzing July day out in the country — one of those days when you could hear the bugs so busy at work none were bothering you.