A Tale of Three Uncles – working copy – 3-9-2012

George Ouellette

ivresse

drunk

great cook

lying face down in a snow bank

kids – George, AKA Soap, Paul, AKA Pouchie, Claire, Richard, Florence

Ouellette’s Lunch located at the corner of Austin and Moody Streets – diagonally across from St-Jean Baptiste Church and rectory

The club with the boys

hours: 3:30 am til around 9:oo pm – kitchen preparation and three meals

never at our house

wife: Lida nee Charbonneau – always late to arrive anywhere

Gerard Charbonneau

milkman

bon vivant, laughter, charm and people power

wife: Florence – born in Quebec and later lived in Montreal – that’s special

businessman and raconteur of cute anecdotes, stories and racy jokes and ethnic slurs

always visiting the Bolduc clan

apartment was elegant with room for Madame Galibois, Florence’s mother

Apartment – too fancy for kids like us – only visit after a definite invitation

happy, go-lucky guy with always a pleasant smile

Albert Charbonneau

Oldest of the Charbonneau clan of four kids

Sisters: Lida and Claire

Brother: Gerard, AKA Gerry

Albert was blessed with a bevy of offspring including: Gerry, Pearl, Claire, Bob, Paul, Gloria and xx (I may be missing one)

He kept his promise to his own dying mother in 1915 to always watch over his little sister, Claire, my mother

For my Mom, he did the best he could and mostly through moral support. Certainly, he had no financial support to offer her.

Angry, gruff, load

Tired, weary, distressed and sad

His hearing was poor and he seemed to believe that everyone else’s hearing was also needing a hearing aid

He would visit our home on Ludlam Street several times a week in the afternoon before my father got back home from work

Wife: Mildreth or Milly, whom we only saw at funerals since she was quite shy and a self-imposed shut-in