cont'd from "Tales From the Crypt"  by Wilma Robinson

Wilfred was my prime companion during my pre-school years. Since I was
about six months older than he, I went to school a year before he did. After
entering Grade one, which I did when I was still five, I was able to meet
other kids my age who lived in Haney but were hitherto out of my "travelling
range". The next year Wilfred found the same thing so we were not limited
to playing only with each other any more.
It was about that time that Lily entered my life. She was almost the same age
as I was,( a few months older)and had moved with her family from their
house on Haney St. just across Ontario St. (224th) from what is now called
"Haney House" but was then Hawley's house where her friend Mary Hawley
lived.
The house they moved into was very familiar to me because it was built in
1912 for my Grandma and Grandpa Best (my mother's parents). It was a
lovely big house with a large verandah running across the front and down one
side. It had a huge front hallway with a large staircase which curved up to the
next floor and led to an open walkway which ran in a circle around the open
stairwell and gave access to the four bedrooms and to a covered balcony
which faced the lawn in the front of the house. A large bathroom was at the
other end of the walkway. Beside it was a small "servants' staircase" leading
down to the kitchen. There was a full basement downstairs and a large attic
upstairs.
Strangely enough, I seem to remember that house more when Mussallems
lived in it than I do when my Grandparents lived there. But I do remember
sliding down the front staircase when it was covered in linoleum instead of
carpet so I know THAT wasn't when Mussallems were there. They would
have had it in carpet!
I'm not sure whether the chandelier was hanging over the front hall before
they moved in or not, but I do remember Lily and I hanging over the staircase
to grab one of the long crystals of the tiered chandelier and making the whole
thing tinkle.
And I also remember my grandfather's roll-top desk. If you don't remember
what roll-top desks were like, they had a slatted cover that curved from the
high back of the desk and down to the desktop in a sort of S-curve . When
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we played hide-and-seek in the house I remember rolling the top up,
climbing in and pulling the slatted top back down over me. It was a great
hiding place but I'm not sure what would have happened to me if they hadn't
found me. The cover would latch when it reached the desktop.
I remember one evening when my mother was visiting Mrs. Mussallem and I
was tagging along to play upstairs with Lily. We heard them coming up the
staircase and we rushed to the bed ,pulled up the covers over us both and
pretended we were sound asleep. It must have been pretty convincing
because Lily's mother leaned over the bed and cooed " Look at them there
asleep! Dark hair and blonde hair side by side! Sound asleep! God love their
little faces!" So I got to stay overnight with Lily!
We were pretty inseparable when we were in the primary grades but soon we
both met other girls and added new friends to our lives. I think the first one
to enter both our lives was Elsie, the new girl who moved in across the road
from my house. She was a redhead, a little older than we were, and knew a
little more about the world than we did. She seemed to take sides with one or
the other of us and caused some pretty angry feelings between us which she
appeared to enjoy to the fullest! We would call her names like "redheaded
snippet!" and "carrot top", but nothing could faze her. Gradually we sort of
drifted apart, each of us rinding new friends but still retaining our friendship
for each other. Lily and I had a special spot on the road —a scar in the
pavement which crossed the road almost exactly halfway between our
houses. It was where the new waterline crossed to service a small house that
had been built after the road had been paved. At night when we had been
visiting one or the other's house and we were a bit nervous going home in the
dark we would walk with each other to this line and then turn and run
quickly back to our separate homes. This became known as "the parting line"
and we remember it fondly today, some 60 or 70 years later!