Carl and Clarence

My uncle Carl was not a particularly congenial person though he had the interests of the family at heart I am sure. He was unmarried and had for quite some time lived in the house built for the family in Gowrie after my maternal grandfather died about 1918, driving out to the farm for his farming work each day (and actually driving back to Gowrie for lunch) until our move to the farm when he took his lunch with our family.

He was mechanically talented and physically handy and adept, both of which qualities my father lacked so there was a tension between uncle Carl and my father while my father worked for him.

During my uncle’s heyday he had three threshing rigs in operation during the summer oats harvest season. This had dwindled to just one when we moved to the farm. Uncle Carl was abrupt and critical in his remarks about the work performance of those under his guidance and this exacerbated my father’s reaction to him. The reactions of my brothers and me to uncle Carl was somewhat similar but as we had not the pride my father had and since we had the resilience of youth we reacted with discontent but less overtly.