Place and Time

John Harvey Tapley, who was born in 1914, was my father. His father's name was Archibald Tapley who lived in Saint John on Douglas Avenue.  His mother's name was Grace Estabrooks. At the age of 16 my father witnessed his favourite brother, Lowell, drown in the Bay of Fundy and he was devastated.  However, my father got interested in horses and became a successful trainer who trained horses for the Saint John police force. John Tapley married my mother and had four children.  During WWII he inspected aircraft in Amherst, Nova Scotia and drove a motorcycle across a treacherous stretch of highway all winter.  However, after the war he went to work at the Enterprise Foundry which was owned by my mother's relatives, the Fishers, who were brothers titled, F.A. D.S., and C.M.P.  My father's hobbies after he retired were black powder shooting, making duck decoys, and reading. At the age of 86 he died suddenly at home.