"Charles Edward Dyon" - my Father by Keith Dyon

Charles Edward Dyon, commonly known as 'Charlie' was my father.  He was of the same name as his father but the latter was known as Ed Dyon.  Dad was born in Mountain Grove in Frontenac County in Ontario.  He had two sisters, the eldest being Frances (Frankie) and then Mary. (There was also a younger sister, Annie, who died when she was a baby).  My grandfather Ed, was a section foreman in his part of of Ontario but decided to go out west and try farming.  So the family migrated to Whitewater, Manitoba - a little place between Boisevain and Deloraine.  He got a quarter section at the at location but after a year or so was unable to acquire any more land so he proceeded to get a homestead and that was up near Antler, Saskatchewan - about 80 miles north-west.  For a year or two he would farm this quarter by driving back and forth by horses.  About 1900 the family moved to Antler where they built a house in the village as Ed's land was bordering on the village.  By this time, my dad would be about 8 or 10 years of age.  Charlie, my dad, took his schooling in Antler and he proceeded to be quite a ball player as well as hockey but tended to enjoy ball more-so.  He gained prominence as a pitcher.  Gramma Dyon undertook to run a boarding and rooming house which I think turned out to be more of a refuge for waifs.  Dad grew into manhood and about 1913 went to Winnipeg where he trained in the Erzinger shop as a barber.  Upon completion of his training he went across the street in the city and was taking on as one of the barbers in the Grain Exchange building not far from Portage & Main.  He barbered there for awhile and then decided to go home and open his own shop right alongside their home on main street and in 1914 he started barbering in Antler and he was considered a darn good barber.

He had been going out a bit with Kathleen McVeigh whose people had a bake shop and confectionery store across the street and, in 1915 they got married in Winnipeg by a minister who later became a novelist.  Anyway, they married and came back to Antler and bought a house on the south side of the barber shop.  In 1917, I was born - Keith Edward Dyon - at least that was what the name was SUPPOSED to be and it is the name I have always gone by.  However, somebody made a mistake and "Kenneth" was put onto the registration.  So, later on when I joined the Air Force, I had to sign everything as kenneth for that period of time.  
Two years after I was born, my brother Carman Cecil Dyon was born and then, a couple of years after that we were blessed with a sister, Mona Gwendolyn Dyon.  By this time Dad had gotten a quarter of land right alongside Grampa Dyon's homestead and tus started farming as well as running the barbershop and pool hall.  My Dad did not have the first car in Antler but very close to it so he drove a Ford at a very early age.  Different ones used to get him to drive them somewhere or other and I'll mention one of such episodes.
About that time was when the rum runners used to be on the go and one of their trails was up this way.  Some say they were connected with the Bronfman family who became money barons and are still in the financial circles in the east.  Anyway one of their trips this way their car broke down and they had big cars.  While the Mounties were still getting about on horses or Fords when they could get over the trails.  There were only prairie trails winding around the sloughs.  The garage man sent these guys up to my Dad as he had a fairly new Ford and they persuaded him to drive them to Maryfield where they could catch a train and eventually get to Yorkton.  He took them on the winding trip and when they got to Maryfield they paid him something and said "I thought we had pretty good drivers but YOU take the cake".  He didn't very often drive anyone like that as I think by this time there was a livery service in Antler.  Grampa got quite a bit of land around Antler and they continued farming until the dirty thirties struck.  It was 1929 when the crash came and that same year our mother, who had not been very well for sometime, died.  Two years later my granparents both died.  So Dad and Aunt Frankie wereleft with quite a bit of land and as times were hard, they went on to sell most of it for a song.  Mary (Dad's sister), Mrs. Leverton had died earlier and so she was not in on the crash.  Dad kept hold of the homestead and his own quarter and somehow managed to carry on with this bit of farming and barbering.  He barbered until 1945 when I came home from overseas and took over.  Dad carried on farming until about 1978 when he rented to a neighbor, Dave Poirier.  About 1982 he turned the two quarters over to Carm and myself.  Poirier continued farming it until Dad passed away in 1985 at the age of ninety-two.  He would have been ninety-three on Christmas Day.  Shortly after, we sold the farm to Poirier's.

Charlie Dyon

Dad had quite a time trying to raise us kids with all the hard times  and all.  We didn't have such a good life of it but managed to live through the bad times. 
Farming was the bunk and barbering wasn't so hot either in those days. 
Everybody was cutting one another's hair or at least there was a lot of that going on.
Dad was quite bright right up to the end.  He was even driving his old truck and car around the month before he died.  He was a healthy, strong man -  only sick once or twice for a few days.  He was "old Charlie" to everybody up to the last.  He was in the hospital and watched some of the ball game on TV prior to his passing on that evening.  I was with him to the end.  He died without any fuss.