PH25512 - The Old Guard Gathers to Honor Margaret Davey

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Community : Bradford West Gwillimbury
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Description : "Old Guard" Gathers Honor Margaret Davey
By John Slykhuis

They call them the "Old Guard," that collection of individuals who have done so much to determine the shape and destiny of the Town of Bradford.

Most of them have lived here all their lives. They have gone to school here, raised their families here, worked here, and served in one official public capacity or other. In many ways, they personify what Bradford was, and to an extend, still is.

All the old guard was there Friday evening at the community centre to honor one of the senior members: Miss Margaret Davey, the clerk treasurer of the town for almost 33 years.

Miss Davey, "Peg" to anyone who knew her, retired last March. Retired with her memories of a small town that had become too large to be run by the old guard anymore.

BIG WHEELS

"The Big Wheels," as former Mayor Joe Magani called them, himself a member. "They're all here tonight," he said scanning the audience.

Everyone knew everyone on a first name basis, something that's become almost impossible with the town's growth in recent years.

The ceremony officially got underway with Mayor Roy Gordon presenting Miss Davey with a bouquet of roses. Other gifts followed: a washed and dryer from the town, a bouquet crowned with a $100 bill from the fire department, luggage from the PUC.

The memories began with Charlie Evans, former reeve of the town who worked with Peg in his many years of service.

He recalled the Davey family, including Miss Davey's father William and the other "Old Boys" lawn bowling as he watched as a small boy.

"I've been associated with everyone of them," Charlie said, naming the eight Davey children of which Peg is the youngest.

There was Leona (Mrs. Jack Lukes), Catherine, (Mrs. Burns), Oswald, Minto (Scotty), Gordon (Boots), Mac and Archie.

"I went to school with Scott," Charlie said, noting that his son is Senator Keith Davey.

SMART MOVE

"The Davey family was the bulwark of the community," he said. "The smartest move our council, or any other council ever since, was to hire Peg in 1946...she ran that shop perfectly. She was courteous, careful, and not afraid of work. Peg always did a wonderful job for Bradford."

Fred "Colly" Collings, followed Charlie with some reminiscences of his own: "I was appointed assessor shortly after Peg. It was all new to me and I got wonderful help from Peg. I was the first assessor in the County of Simcoe to measure by the foot. It had always been an eyeball assessment," he said.

"The Davey family produced the first professional hockey player ever to come out of Bradford --Archie. Now when you talk about Tiger Williams..." he said, smiling.

Chairman for the evening, Reeve Ken Wood commented when Collings finished, "Colly could reminisce till midnight...he's 89 years old."

Fire chief Harold "Butch' Boyd wished her "lots of luck and happy days." He added "drop in around coffee break time. Some days we have coffee, toehr days we spike it up a little.:

SCARED

The ever-ebullient Joe Magani followed Butch, with a few memories of his own, including "I became councillor in 1957 and I was never so scared of anybody in my life as I was of Peg Davey. I heard how tough she was. To her we were just "one-year wonders," we were only elected to on-year terms then."

He continued, "Even after I was mayor for 10 years, I still had to turn to Peg Davey and ask her what time of day it was."

He gave this hint of his future ambition: "I admire her and I respect her, and if I ever live long enough to be mayor again, I'll have her back. She could go on till she's 105 and still teach us something."

Former reeve, mayor and member of provincial Parliament Art Evans recalled his own initiation to public life with the Public Utilities Commission in 1941 when Miss Davey was the secretary. "She stood on my toes when I was mayor and that's why Bradford is in such good financial shape today. She held Bradford's purse strings. She is Bradford's greatest citizen," he concluded.

Friday evening may have been the last opportunity for the old guard of Bradford to get together.

ERA ENDS

In many ways it was the end of an era.

Miss Margaret Davey lives restlessly in retirement in her comfortable little cottage in Lefroy overlooking Lake Simcoe.

She keeps busy with a little part-time accounting and "marking" and attends to the housekeeping, but she mutters ruefully "I'm a terrible housekeeper.:

Some of the things she remembers were mentioned at Friday's fete, for example, her rather brief career as a teacher in a one-room eight-grade school in Lefroy.

"I didn't like it very much," she said.

Following that was the job which lead to her life-long position as Bradford's premier civil servant, secretary, and bookkeeper in the town hockey stick factory.

But the Depression which hit Bradford as hard as any rural Ontario small town ended that enterprise.

"You know," she said smiling, "the memory is a terrible thing."

But for someone like Peg Davey, memories are an indulgence in which she doesn't like to partake.

Besides, there's too much work to do.