Here is where it all started for me. My aunt and uncles house "Stonehaven" about a half a mile down the road from Pinecroft Pottery. Try as I might as a small boy I could not get up at 6am to join my Uncle Jimmie when he would go down to load and unload kilns. I would wake up all sleepy eyed and me and Lassie the dog would walk down to the pottery. Just about time for me to come back with him on his Ford tractor The Little Red Pony. It was a crank start. Breakfast, lunch and supper were on time 8, 12 and 6 respectfully. My aunt would have just made fresh bread and cooked our eggs in about a half a pound of butter. I can still taste and smell that breakfast. Supper could have no less than 7 vegetables. That was her rule.
My aunt and uncle weren't people that took you to the circus, or fishing or fun kid stuff. If you wanted to be with them you worked. I loved them. Payment for my work at the pottery was I could buy any book I wanted and they would take me out for a play or two at The Stratford Festival with the highlight being Chinese food before the performance. I was hungry reader.
Now my cousin Brenda and her husband Herm run the business with the help of two of their 3 kids. Chad is the money man/general handyman and Sarah is the kitchen manager. They all work crazy hours. Herm about to turn 75 has made the homemade bread at 6am 7 days a week for 40 years. That's a lot of bread when you serve over 50,000 people a year. No one ever complains about the work load. It has to be done and I think it was engrained in us at a very early age. I still don't like 6am. My internal clock seems to go off at 7:30. I miss ya Uncle Jimmie.
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| Brenda and Herm's house at Pinecroft |
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| Living once is up for debate. |
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| Stonehaven- now owned by Sarah. |
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