by Sense de Jong, assisted by Corrie

Look it up. Norwich, a town in Oxford County, at the intersection of Highway 59 and Norwich Road, sixteen miles south of Woodstock, next to the 401. It was in this place where just-married Corrie and Sense set up their first home together!

 In 1958, it was a sleepy place. Not much happened in Norwich (pronounced nor-witch but UK folk say NORR-wich – soft on wich). One of the most significant buildings then was the Bank of Montreal, where I worked. On the east side was located the Netherlands Reformed Church. Its members came perhaps from the most conservative reformed communities in the Netherlands. It was full of immigrants and most had trouble speaking the English. But soon they learned that there was a young guy at the BOM who spoke Dutch (maybe that was the reason why the BOM head office decided to move me from the Aylmer branch to the one in Norwich).

I had started as an apprentice clerk at the Aylmer branch in 1955. When I was told to move in 1958, I was Chief Clerk, and had a ridiculously low salary. When I started in Norwich, I became Number Three from the top and still made no money to speak of. But in Norwich I really began to like banking. I enjoyed helping the Dutch-speaking Netherlanders. Number Two was my friend, Norm Mumberson, and our manager was a quiet, friendly man with the name of Bowman who lived in a second-floor apartment above the bank.

At the bank, one of my responsibilities was to open the vault every morning and close it later in the day. The safe had to be opened by two people and the tellers supplied with that day’s cash. At that time, Numbers One,Two and Three had  fully-loaded revolvers in their desks, and it was my task to deposit those things in their drawers, and lock them up in the vault at closing time.  When I arrived in Norwich, the ammunition was already quite old, so Norm Mumberson and I thought one day to do something about that. We bought fresh bullets and asked Number One for permission to dispose of the old bullets. He said yes! Norm and I came to an agreement on how to do that. One evening we took the three revolvers to a very quiet spot in town and we then proceeded to blast the whole bullet inventory out of this world! We never had any training with guns.  Neither did anyone tell us that it was dangerous to blast old ammunition away just like that.

(Note: That reminds me of the day when I was a member of a BMO inspection team at the Market Square Branch, in London, Ont. As always, we had met secretly on the day of the audit and scared the heebie-jeebies out of the unsuspecting branch staff by loudly entering the bank just before closing time. “Stop what you are doing! Tellers, stay back from the cash!” We would be there for the audit some length of time. One day, I noticed a hole in the ground and asked what happened there. Oh, a teller said, one day a new girl was looking for a stapler. She opened a drawer, grabbed what looked like a stapler, but was, in effect, a loaded revolver. Guess what: she pulled the trigger! )

Our first home in Norwich was located on Main Street West, in a house belonging to the sisters Ruby and Myrtle Hopkins, two salt-of-the-earth Canadians. We shipped our meagre belongings into their upstairs apartment. We had bought our furniture from a Bothwell store that had business connections with KP (Corrie’s Dad) and started making monthly payments which lasted many years. My salary, after already being a banker for three years, was minimal – about $3200 annually. From that meagre salary we paid our rent, food and clothes, etc.  Corrie quickly learned to sew on the PFAFF treadle sewing machine and she soon found several used clothing shops in town.

We treasured our stay in Norwich. We went to church each Sunday to the Christian Reformed Church in Woodstock, 16 miles to the north of town.  There we got to know the Vandezande family. We called them Pa and Moe, because they were like parents to us. We liked the quiet and relaxed atmosphere of Norwich. Norm Mumberson and I, during the winter days, took up curling. The day came when Corrie realized that she was expecting and she became a patient of Dr. Hall. During her pregnancy, Corrie began to have problems with morning sickness, nausea, etc. Dr. Hall prescribed a well-knownmedication. Little did we know then what later was discovered, namely, that the drug called Thalidomide (given for nausea) would render babies limbless! Thankfully, Dr. Hall prescribed some other medication for Corrie!!

I knew that the BOM had a habit of often transferring young employees, supposedly to give them more experience. Lo and behold, in late 1959 I was suddenly told that I was being transferred to the little village of Langton , a small tobacco town below the line of Delhi-Tillsonburg on Highway #3.  I was promoted to Second Officer, next to the Manager. During the month of October – still in Norwich - the time had come for me to bring Corrie to the Woodstock hospital. I will not easily forget that trip to Woodstock. What happened next was a nightmare. With Corrie in the hospital the bank required that I move immediately to Langton and take up my new position as soon as possible. How I did that all by myself, I’ll never know. But it had to be done, move everything lock-stock and-barrel to an apartment I had found above the Langton Post Office.

On October 23, 1959, Anita Vivica was born, weighing 9 lbs 1 oz.  At that time, allowing husbands to be in the birth room was a No-No. So, I hung out at the Vandezandes until I was informed that Corrie and the baby were doing well. Anita was baptized by Rev. Wiebe Feenstra., then pastor of the Maranatha Christian Reformed Church  in Woodstock, Ont.

Corrie, now with our beloved baby, never returned to the Norwich apartment. From Woodstock we travelled straight to Langton. The three of us had no choice but to settle down and try to adjust to a new, strange environment. Little did we know then that we would eventually move a number of times again.  First to Sarnia (1960). then to Toronto (1965). From there to Edmonton (1966), and finally from Alberta to Ontario, settling down in St. Catharines (1970).

End note:
The following is a quote from the June 11/21 St. Catharines Standard:

 Court won’t hear thalidomide case.

“The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear a bid to challenge approval of a settlement agreement for Canadians with birth defects because of the drug thalidomide.

The Federal Court approved the agreement – the government’s third effort over the years to provide compensation – finding it to be fair and reasonable.

Thalidomide was approved in Canada to treat morning sickness in pregnant women for less than a year in the early 1960s. The drug caused major problems in fetuses, particularly shortened and malformed limbs.”