Tuesday, Jim Montgomery of West Street had his 100th birthday party at the Culinary Institute. What a great collection of friends that came together to celebrate his event. Born up near Kensington, he moved to Charlottetown when he was a young man. He worked for Sid Green, confectionary wholesalers until he opened his own business in that line. The wholesale business created great activity in downtown Charlottetown before the days when the grocery store magnates took over that end of the mercantile world, too.

Jim is a highly respected man in our community and I was honoured to be at his party. Why I was there is a perfect example of the smallness of this country. My sister Mary Claire is on her condo board in Calgary with a very good friend of Jim's niece, Virginia, who lives in Edmonton. Mary Claire and Virginia have met and then we learned that Virginia grew up with an "old boyfriend" of Betty's so now it is my turn to know Virginia with all those common threads.

On February 16, 1896 Nora Alexandria Halloran MacDonald Wonnacott was born to Peter Edward Halloran and his wife Catherine in the house that her grandfather Henry Charlton had built at 103 Fitzroy Street. She was the youngest of her family. She had a sister Kathleen and brothers Lou and Bert. This year at 106 years she may well be the oldest person on the Island and she is quite the lady. She's pretty, doesn't wear glasses and likes the men! The only thing that worried me was that she kept repeating that I " had not aged a bit". I think she was losing it a somewhat there.

Nora is related to me. Her Mother and my great grandmother were first cousins. They were Campbells from Argyle Shore area. That makes us third cousins once removed, if you can follow that. I suppose its good to be part of that gene pool.