This post shows a visit by cousins from Drummondville, Quebec - Charlie and Dora Hardy.
(DJ Gagnon is writing this post and my father is LC Gagnon. George, Mabel and Rosemary comprise LC's immediate family.)
According to the photo book, this picnic spot is somewhere south of St Andrew's East.
If you want to see more detail, just right click on the photo and open it in a new tab.
Above: Charlie Hardy, George Gagnon, Rosemary Gagnon, Dora Hardy, Mabel (Rodger) Gagnon.
The picnic fare seems rather spartan.
However, Canada has been fighting World War 2 for almost two years at this point and
Hitler invaded the USSR a couple of months before this photo was taken.
Many food items and fuel are being rationed.
Above: George, Dora, LC Gagnon, Rosemary Gagnon, Mabel Gagnon.
LC Gagnon (and later his own kids) was encouraged to take snapshots from an early age.
If you don't see him in the photo, he is probably taking it.
Because of a child's rocking chair, we were continually reminded of the name 'Charlie Hardy'.
Below are my father's notes on who he is.
Above, DJ Gagnon (writing this account) and my aunt Rosemary Gagnon are seen
20 years later in August 1961. Rosemary has returned from a trip to Bermuda.
I am sitting on 'Charlie Hardy's rocking chair'.
Notice the glossy red paint which probably contains lots of lead.
The farm visited belongs to WJ Rodger. Mabel Gagnon is WJ's oldest child.
This location is just south of the 'post village' of 'Geneva', Quebec.
... Before the uniform municipal naming of streets and numbering of residences,
the postal system arbitrarily named locations where someone was paid to act as a postal agent.
Above, is a view of the hen house and some Clydesdale horses.
During a time of rationing, it is handy to know someone who produces things like eggs.
Mabel, Dora, Bea (Hugman) Rodger.
Bea is the spouse of Douglas Rodger, WJ Rodger's youngest child.
There were six children in WJ's family.
Bea Rodger, Mabel, George, Rosemary, Dora, Charlie, WJ Rodger.
Notice under Charlie's left arm is a 'box camera' - the most common snapshot camera of the era.
The camera would be held at waist height, with the operator looking down to frame the shot.
Each viewfinder contained a mirror which redirected the view by 90 degrees.
Generally there were two viewfinders to provide for either portrait or landscape orientation.
The box camera roll film used in the (back of the) camera was quite large
so the viewfinders were both tucked in a front corner of the camera.
The light coming through the snapped shutter spread out in a big cone to hit the film at the back.
Later, when snapshot cameras were redesigned to use smaller rolls of film
... probably because of improvements in lens manufacturing and to make the hobby cheaper ...
a simple viewfinder was sighted at eye level.
When the shutter release opened, the light entered the camera,
parallel to the viewfinder path and just below it.
WJ Rodger, Charlie Hardy, George Gagnon, Stanley (SW) Rodger.
SW is WJ's fourth child. Behind the Case tractor is Charlie Hardy's car.
Douglas Rodger is cutting hay.
My great-uncle Douglas was my first boss when I worked on this farm
during the summers of 1973-75.
Working there was the best job I ever had.
