Written by Guest Contributor and Quilter Theresa Fama
I grew up in Thunder Beach. I had a loving family and had the best playground any child or adult could ever dream of. I made a story quilt to preserve these cherished memories.
The McNamara Memorial Park is what it is now called. This park was directly across the road from our house, the beach itself was a two-minute walk from our house, and we had a wooded area to play in behind our house.
Centre block of the quilt itself
The house I grew up in was originally a chicken coop; the house on the property had burned down and all that remained was the chicken coop; the original owner chose not to rebuild, so my grandfather bought the land. My parents were renting a bedroom from a woman in the neighbourhood at the time, but after having given birth to one daughter and being pregnant with their second, they needed to locate a larger space. They didn’t have any money, so my father asked his father for permission to live in the chicken coop. My grandfather said they could move in, if they were willing to do the work. The chicken coop was 14 by 16 feet. I was the fourth child, and they were still living in that oneroom house, can you imagine.
Baseball field across the road from our house, you already heard this story, three of our piglets dug a hole under the fence one day during a baseball tournament and ran across the road to the park. All the ball players threw down their bats and gloves and chased the piglets until all three had been caught and returned them to our home. They told my parents it was the best ball game they had ever played.
Our government dock was about a one mile walk from our home; this is where my parents taught all eight of us children to fish. So many wonderful memories took place on this dock. When I was writing my book, I found out that my father’s brother was one of the main builders of this dock.
For many years, the McNamara family inserted a dock in the water in front of the walkway path we took to the beach. What fun we had playing and diving off of it.
Tennis court, was my favourite memory, really is about a tennis wall built out of cement blocks which was a place one could play by oneself. My parents could not afford to buy us rackets, so my father made us one. He cut and shaped a piece of plywood like a racket, and put black electrical tape on the handle. That was our first racket, the love he put into making this racket is still felt in my heart whenever I remember it.
Blackberry field was one of my favourite places to go, Mom took us every year, we picked enough berries for mom to make enough blackberry preserves for the winter. It was one of the most peaceful places you could go to, the owners of the property actually had named it “Le Petit Nazareth” (Little Nazareth)
Rusty, our favourite dog, played hide and seek and so much more with us.
Lookout deck, we practically had to climb a cliff to get there, but from there you could almost see the entire Thunder Bay.
Photo of me my hubby took is one of his favourite pictures of me. I chose this for one of my blocks as my way to insert something special for him.
This quilt block was my way of honoring George and Florence McNamara as well as my parents, Pierre and Solange Lafrenière. If it were not for these four people my siblings and I would not have the wonderful memories we have. George and Florence McNamara Senior purchased a piece of land from my great grandfather in 1938, two years later, they built a Chapel which was converted to a one room schoolhouse during the school year. Over the next few years, they added a baseball field, a tennis court, and a clubhouse. All of this was done to help the community, especially the children, now they no longer needed to walk three miles to get to school in the nearby hamlet of Laurin.
This is a little rundown of Theresa’s quilt and why she chose to make these blocks in order to preserve my childhood memories. This is Part 1 Summer Memories. Theresa is being creating another story quilt. Part 2 Winter Memories.
Thanks, with gratitude,
Theresa Lafrenière Fama