were leaving for the rink was not to forget their mouth protector. There was good reason for her to be concerned. When D’Arcy was five or siX, he was playing nets without a protective mask (common at the time) and got hit by a puck. One side of his face was swollen and black. He never played goalie again.

When done playing hockey at the rink or on the backyard pond, the boys organized street hockey games in the spring. They would be joined by neighbours for what seemed to be endless games of hockey. When the occasional car came up the quiet street, the nets would be pulled aside

to make way before the games resumed. On rainy or stormy days, the Murphy basement was turned into a hockey venue. At least once a year, at least one of the basement windows would be broken with a stray street hockey ball. If not repaired immediately, neighbourhood mice would enter the basement through the broken window. (Kathleen’s reaction to all of this was not reported.)

In the summer months, the boys would establish a baseball diamond

in the field behind their house, and it became a popular gathering spot for neighbourhood children. They were also taking up a new sport, golf, although their only equipment consisted of one club and a couple of older balls. They pursued the balls around the field, driving them in all directions. One evening, Judge James Haslam, a neighbour who lived on North River Road, came out with a bucket of used balls. “You can have these”, he told the wide—eyed boys, under one condition: “that you aim the balls away from my house.”

Gradually, as the neighbourhood grew, other activities became popular. Ernie Matheson, a leading highway construction contractor, lived not far away, and installed a swimming pool. It was frequented by children and young people in the neighbourhood, and the Murphys honed their swimming skills on summer afternoons.

One of the family’s regular routines was to go to the beach at Tea Hill. After coming home from work, Bill and Kathleen would load all the children, and invariably a few of the neighbour’s children, into the family car, to go to the Tea Hill beach, then owned by the Stewart family.

118 KATHLEEN MURPHY, MAITRIARC