An Exotic World, For Young Canadians

We arrived in Knutsford in September 1955: two bewildered parents and four children, the youngest only 10 months old.

My father, a major, had been sent by the Canadian Army to take a year-long course in Manchester. Why he ever sought or consented to this is unknown -- but I suspect he was keen to return to England, since he had so enjoyed his four years there 1942-46.

It was a little less jolly for my longsuffering mother, encumbered with four of the most precocious, heedless children ever born -- of which I was surely the worst.

We settled into a rented house ("Beech House, Toft Road, Knutsford, Cheshire, England" as we were taught to recite to a policeman if we ever got lost). At the age of three, I was sent to nearby Glebelands School -- my older sister and brother went to town schools.

Having been so young, I have few direct memories of Knutsford -- though I do remember seeing my first blinkered horses (delivering goods) and also our sing-songs at "M+ Bs" -- Mothers and Babies at the local church.

But many family legends and oft-told anecdotes date from that year. My sister still treaures her memory of being named a Princess of the May Day celebration, in 1956. Mother recalled taking tea with Lord Egerton at Tatton -- a great honour and treat for her. And I can picture the extraordinary car of the Roxbys of Toft Hall -- Gerard Roxby was my schoolfriend. His parents had had their ancient Rolls refitted with a new chassis, panelled like US stationwagons of the day, with wood trim...

My mother found kindred spirits and much support, especially among the Knutsford women. We stayed in touch for many years thereafter with "Auntie Addie" and "Auntie Babs" and "Granny Low", among others.

I have seen Knutsford again in the intervening years but the small-town atmosphere is gone forever.

A final footnote: I am writing this from Savannah, Georgia, where we are spending January this year. Last week, en route, we spent Christmas with my older brother and his wife in Manhattan. My brother's wife (an Economics lecturer at NYU) was raised in Alderley Edge! So it IS a very small world after all, however widely we may be dispersed.