Postcard Memories is a weekly series of historic postcard views and photos submitted by René Hackstetter.
Betty (Eggleton) Hawke worked at Cook’s Lake with her brother, who rowed the boat delivering vegetables, tarts, cookies, date squares and taking orders for pies to make pocket money during the late thirties and early forties.
Betty’s sister Peg and her husband Jim Crawford were responsible for running the store that their brother, Richard Eggleton, had built on the shore of the lake.
Betty’s niece Judy Crawford is the gal in the foreground of the J.W. Bald photo of the ‘The Store.’ The gal in the background to the left of the tree in the same photo is Margaret (Peg) Eggleton, Betty’s sister.
Betty’s mum is forever obscured behind the tree. Incidentally, Jim Crawford worked at the Boatworks in Midland and it was Jim who built the rowboat in the picture
Some readers will know this area as Farlain’s Lake, but Betty said everyone called it Cook’s Lake after the Cook farm at the end of the lake.
Betty’s father, Gilbert (Bert) Eggleton was the gardener for D.S. Pratt, who owned a large farm property at one end of the lake. D.S. had five ponds stocked with speckled trout on the farm and Bert took care of the ponds as well as tended the gardens and worked the farm.
Betty worked in the store at the dance hall for Jack Moon, who lived in Toronto and would come up every Friday for the weekend.
Throughout the week, Betty ran the story that sold confectionary items such as ice cream, candy, chocolate bars as well as cigarettes. Betty was 14 at the time and responsible for giving the weekly orders to Nap Laurendeau for the smokes and chocolate bars as well as cutting watermelon slices for the kids.
One benefit to the managerial position was that there was a record player in the store, so many of Betty’s friends would hang out, spin records and dance at the hall.
Betty is in her eighties now and the memories of the Lake are still vivid after all these years…thank goodness.
Copyright. René Hackstetter April 14, 2020.
