Turning a potential negative into a positive, Dad asked for permission to leave the Olympics (as he was only seventeen years of age at the time), to take a trip to meet his maternal grandparents who lived in Scotland. He was granted permission to take this trip, and made his way to Glasgow, Scotland, and to his grandparents' home.
He had never met them before, but his mother had written to her parents about her eldest son being in the Olympic Games representing Canada in boxing. Dad's grandfather answered the door and found this seventeen year old young man wearing his Canadian Olympic suit. Dad introduced himself and said "I am your grandson, Fred, from Montreal. Bridget's son!" Dad said his grand-father was rather surprised and even momentarily confused and said, "I just saw you on the telly! You were looking pretty good in your match!"
Dad was surprised to hear that since having a television was extremely rare at that time. His family back home in Montreal didn't have a television and had to listen to the Olympic coverage on radio. I had read that only one in ten Americans had ever seen a television in 1948. As mentioned in a previous blog, these were the first Olympic games to have ever been televised.
It was a pretty significant accomplishment to meet his grand-parents for the first time on top of being in Great Britain on the Canadian Olympic team.
I learned about Dad's grandparents (my great-grandparents) when I was in Grade 3 and had to complete a Family Tree as a class assignment in school. Nanny (Dad's mother) informed me that she was one of twenty-one children (no twins!!). What was even more remarkable was that Nanny could rhyme off the names of each of her twenty siblings. My Family Tree was certainly disproportionate; heavily weighted with Dad's massive family ...... and my mother's basically took up the margin side of the page!
Needless to say, this amazing couple would likely not have been able to keep track of their grandchildren! No wonder it was a shock when Dad showed up on their door step.
Dad (left) with his maternal grand-parents, Peter and Ellen (nee McGuire) Gormley along with Dad's Uncle
Dad's Grandparents, Peter and Ellen Gormley
Dad's grandmother, Ellen Gormley and two of Dad's uncles, Daniel (youngest) and Michael.
Just as an additional comment regarding the aspect that the 1948 London Olympics were the first ones ever televised, I would like to close off today's writing by sharing a reference to it along with a short story about two of the Canadian Olympic athletes as reported recently in The Globe and Mail, July 27th, 2012.
"And for the first time, those moments were captured extensively through television broadcasts. Viewers were transfixed, including the athletes. Lorne (Ace) Atkinson, a cyclist from Vancouver who died in 2010, loved to tell the story of a fellow athlete who was enthralled by his first television experience --- until he noticed an empty track lane appear on the screen. "That's my race!" he said." (From "Olympic Flashback: Rubble in the Streets, Pride in their Hearts" written by Hayley Mick for The Globe and Mail, July 27, 2012)
Just as an additional comment regarding the aspect that the 1948 London Olympics were the first ones ever televised, I would like to close off today's writing by sharing a reference to it along with a short story about two of the Canadian Olympic athletes as reported recently in The Globe and Mail, July 27th, 2012.
"And for the first time, those moments were captured extensively through television broadcasts. Viewers were transfixed, including the athletes. Lorne (Ace) Atkinson, a cyclist from Vancouver who died in 2010, loved to tell the story of a fellow athlete who was enthralled by his first television experience --- until he noticed an empty track lane appear on the screen. "That's my race!" he said." (From "Olympic Flashback: Rubble in the Streets, Pride in their Hearts" written by Hayley Mick for The Globe and Mail, July 27, 2012)
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