By Dick Maybee

This era of Jaycees was about 100 members strong and worked on many of the same projects that we see them working on today. It is not a service club but is designed for the self betterment of its young under-35 members. One of the greatest features of this group is and always had been the making of new life-long friends. This story is about 4 friends and their wives that came together in 1958.

4 young men, Don Brown, the clerk of Oakville, Bob Hitchcox, the accountant at the old Pennsalt Chemicals, Bob Moore, the town engineer and Dick Maybee, a young businessman, decided that it would be good to get together with the wives, Olive Brown, June Hitchcox, Aileen Moore and Joanne Maybee, once per month to play bridge and have a few drinks and a late dinner. Dick & Joanne were novices at the game. The other 6 had much experience with the game. Very quickly this group of 8 and their new families became a large family. The guys golfed together up at Glen Abbey (at that time it was called The Upper Canada Club). The real special times were when the four guys went fishing for two weekends each year up at Joanne's parents' cottage on Jack Lake, north of Lakefield. A book could be written about these adventures, as on each trip new experiences, always funny and unexpected were experienced. The trip from the landing to the cottage was 50 minutes of wine, cheese, singing and laughter. Sometimes it would be 2 or 3 hours before we stepped out of the boat onto the dock.

Now all the kids (11 in total) are all grown up and tending to their families. Of great sorrow to Dick and Bob Moore is the loss of first Olive Brown to cancer, then Bob Hitchcox, heart and Don Brown, to cancer. Dick and Bob and sometimes the girls, including June Hitchcox, get together on a regular basis. We have lots of history to talk about. Thank goodness for the Jaycees, for without them all of these fine people would never have come together.