Brown Family
The Sullivan/Brown Family History
An Ongoing Project
Born: November 10, 1919 Toronto, ON
Died: 2003, Toronto, ON
Jack Brown’s notes about his life and memories
Jack was born at 132 Paton Road [Old Toronto, Davenport, Bloordale Village1] on November 10, 1919. He had an older sister Margaret, younger sister Mary and brother Tom was the baby, born in 1927. The Brown family often visited Uncle Howard’s farm near Brougham. 100 acres on which he raised sheep, milk cows, pigs, wheat, corn, hay, chickens, ducks, horses to pull the wagons. Jack's paternal great grandfather came from Whitby and settled in Brougham.
 132 Paton Road |
"When I was 14 and staying at my grandmother’s in Brougham during the summer holidays I was asked to help out in haying season. Pitching the hay up into the wagon and then spreading it around the barn loft where it was stored nearly killed me. I was so out of condition that I had to leave after a week."
 Malcolm Farm, Highway 7, West of Brougham |
Jack recounts life as a young boy/teenager on Paton Road. "There were the cries of the fishmongers, fish, white fish, salmon, white, white fish". The fruit and vegetable man , "strawberry ripe, cherry ripe", of the junk collectors "rags and bones". I recall standing on the corner of Paton Rd. and Symington Ave. when a runaway horse came around the corner pulling a junkman’s wagon which smashed against a pole on the opposite side of the street to where I was standing.
Jack worked at a bakery after school while in high school to help support the family, delivering pies and cakes and other baked goods on his bike. Sometimes when one fell off and was cracked or in rough shape he got to take it home to his family for dessert.
Jack joined the Air Force and trained as a pilot at Summerside PEI from Dec 1941 to June 1942. Jack was in training in Dorval, Quebec in July 1942, on a Hudson 920. The Air Crew trainees, including Jack, lined up in a hangar and the instructors took so many in the line. In order to stay with his 2 buddies, Jack changed places with an RAF sergeant pilot named D’Hondt who was in the aircraft that crashed that day.
Jack and George Bilz did their recording at Ste. Croix Sur Mer Normandy which was played on the National News in Canada at that time.
Following the war, Jack returned to the personnel department at Loblaws, then eventually became Safety Manager.