My
father, Albert Frederick McQuaid was born at Long Pointe Lake,
Gowganda Ontario on August 19th, 1921. His parents were
farmers, and when he was a child, they lived in the
Picton area of Prince Edward County. Dad's parents were
members of the Morman Church. He was ordained as a
Deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood on September 11th, 1935. |
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My
mother, Dorothy May Beaton was born at North Bay Ontario on
February 27th, 1922. When mom was born, she was very
tiny and not expected to live. She was fed barley water
and sugar to strengthen her, and Doctor Campbell would visit
the home every day to check on her progress. The doctor
wanted Grandma and Grandpa to let him take mom go to live with
him in his home where he could better care and provide for her
but they did not allow that to happen. |
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Dad
and Mom were married in Dad's parent's home at 36 Ferndale
Avenue, Toronto Ontario by David A Smith - Minister from
Church of Jesus Christ & Latter Day Saints on October
30th, 1941. Witnesses to the event were Dad's uncle Fred
Barnes & his sister Marion Selina McQuaid Edwards. |
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I
was born in Toronto Ontario on Thursday May 28th, 1942 at
11:25 PM in the Toronto Western Hospital (Alexander
Wing.....Dr. Purdy and Nurse Hamilton). |
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Dad
departed for Fredericton New Brunswick with the Governor
General's Horse Guards military corps for training prior
to being shipped to Europe where he served in England, France
& Holland when I was 2 1/2 months old, on August 13th,
1942. |
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My
brother Albert George McQuaid was born at 8:30 AM Monday
December 13th 1943 at St Joseph Hospital in North Bay Ontario
(Dr. D A Campbell & Nurse Allen). He died that same
day due to heart failure. His complexion was described
as being fair, with blue eyes and weighed about 8 lbs.
Grandpa Beaton arranged with Martyn Funeral Home to bury the
infant in Terrace Lawn Cemetery, North Bay Ontario. There is
no marker on his gravesite, but someday I want to have one
placed there in remembrance of him. |
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During
the period that dad as serving overseas, Mom and I lived in
Toronto Ontario. Mom worked for Pullen Doll company
sewing dolls. We used to take our food ration books and
meat coupons to Big Bear or Oxenham's grocery store and
to Hubbard's meat market to buy food which was very
scarce at the time due to the war. |
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Dad
returned home from serving in the second world war in November
1946. Mom and I greeted Dad at the Coliseum
in Toronto Exhibition grounds. I waved a white
handkerchief that mom had made and embroidered for me with the
words "Welcome Home Daddy". The soldiers marched
around the coliseum and lined up in alphabetical order by
surname. When they called out the"Mc's", dad
came running to where Mom and I were standing waiting for
him. He hugged and kissed us both and mom and dad were
crying tears of happiness. We walked home from the
Exhibition grounds. Dad with his kit-bag over his
shoulder and his arm around Mom, and Mom carrying me in her
arms. |
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At
the time of dad's return to Canada, mom and I were living at
446 Ossington Avenue above a dry goods store that was operated
by Bill & Thora Rose. On the evening that dad
returned home from overseas, he was greeted by family members
and friends. |
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In
December 1946, a fire started in the stairwell of the dry
goods store below the apartment where we were living.
Firemen came and everyone was led out of the building in their
night-clothes to the street below. The temperature was
very cold and icicles formed on the ground and building from
the water that the firemen were spraying onto the fire.
Smoke filled the building and soot covered the walls of our
apartment from the fire. |
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Dad,
Mom and I used to walk to Sunnyside which was an amusement
park located at the corner of Queen Street and Roncesvales
Avenue. Dad and I would ride on the flying ship and Dad
would hold me tight in his arms so that I wouldn't fall
out of the ride. Sometimes we would have a glass
of honeydew, some carmel popcorn or a candy apple while we
were walking around the midway. One of Dad and Mom's
friends, Mrs Brown used give us free candy apples whenever she
saw us. Sometimes Dad would try his luck at the
midway games, and he would win a prize. I can remember
him winning a small plaster bull-dog, a kewpi doll and a
balloon whistle with a bamboo stem and a couple of coloured
feathers tied to the end |
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When
I was just five years old, I went shopping all by myself to
Hillier's Drug Store which was located up at the corner of
Ossington Avenue and Foxley Street to buy mom a birthday
present. I bought her a tiny bottle of perfume for a
quarter. |
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I
also used to go to the grocery store for mom. I usually
went to Oxenham's because it was close to home, and also
because I went to school with Catherine Oxenham, the grocer's
daughter. One time mom asked me to get some
liver. When I got it home and she opened the package,
the meat was all green and starting to go bad so she bundled
it back up and I took it back to the store and got my money
back. Another time, mom sent me to the store for some
oatmeal. When I got home and she opened the box, a moth
flew out. We bought some shredded wheat one time, and
after the warm water and milk was added, little millworms
floated to the surface. |
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After
the war, Dad got a job with Len & Fink as a truck
driver. We didn't have much money after the rent was
paid, so food was scarce and sometimes we would just have
macaroni without any sauce. Mom would save the fatty
drippings from meat, and we would use that instead of
butter. Sometimes Mom would fry a slice of bread
in the fat drippings for our dinner because we couldn't afford
to buy meat. |
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My
playmate at the time, was Donna Marie Rose, daughter of
Bill and Thora Rose. We were about the same age, and we
used to play in front of the store Ossington Avenue that her
parents owned or in the laneway behind the store. One of
our favourite places to explore and to visit, was the Lucky
Elephant Popcorn factory. They employees there
always had a box of popcorn for Donna and I, and we would be
given a prize of our choice from their stockroom. |
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Sometimes,
Earl McGraw who was a friend and regular customer of the
Rose's would buy Donna and I a bottle of Pepsi Cola and a
Neilson's Jersey Milk chocolate bar or a popsicle. Donna and I
would sit on the front step to enjoy the treat as we watched
the streetcars and traffic pass in front of the store.
One time while we were sitting on the step, a car that was
parked just up the street a little ways started to roll
forward. It mounted the curb and it was headed
straight for us. Old Mr. Sol Friendly, the man who
owned the shop next door ran out and stopped the car before it
hit us. |
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My
sister Betty Anne McQuaid was born on March 9th, 1947 in
Toronto General Hospital, Toronto Ontario. |
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While
Mom was in the hospital, Dad's uncle Fred came to care for
me. He used to give me a bath every evening before
bedtime, in a tub filled with warm water and Lux soap
flakes. Uncle Fred used a long scrub brush to
clean me, and bubbles would fly about everywhere. |
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I
started kindergarten at Givens Street Public school in
September 1945. My cousin Marlene used to take Donna and
I to school. Sometimes my cousin Melville Duval would
take us. Melville's brother Donnie was also in my
classroom. Some of my other classmates were Billy Whiteside
and Bobby Blackburn. |
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On
week-ends, Dad, Mom, Betty and I would go for long
walks. Sometimes we would walk to Christie Pits or
Bellwoods Park and have a picnic, or we would walk along
Dundas Street and up Davenport Avenue to the Planter's Peanut
factory and back again. |
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When
dad and mom bought a car, we would go for long rides out to
Ajax and to Whitby. Sometimes we would get a buttered pecan
skyscraper ice-cream cone, or fish and chips. Dad
used to always carry a salt shaker and a bottle of malt
vinegar in the glove compartment of the car, just in
case we bought some french-fries. His favourite treat of
all, was a pork-roll. We would buy them from the
local delicatessen and then drive down to the Exhibition
grounds and park by the lake while we ate. We also used
to go down to the Old Mill on the Humber River quite often for
a picnic. One time our car broke down at the
Humber River, and we had to walk about five miles back home to
Ossington Avenue, because we didn't have any bus fare to
ride home. |
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After
working at Len & Fink for quite a while, Dad quit and got
a job with Campbell Soup Company in New Toronto.
He used to have to climb inside the big stainless steel soup
pots to clean them out. |
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When
I was in grade 2, we moved to Wellesley Street. The
house that we moved to was located almost at the end of the
street, and there was a cliff that overlooked Riverdale
Zoo. My playmates and I used to lay on our stomachs and
look over the edge of the cliff at the zoo below. We
could see into the polar bear's den, and sometimes you could
hear the sound of the animals calling out. |
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I
went to Rose Avenue Public School, and used to have to pass in
front of the Necropolis Cemetery and Crematorium.
I was afraid of breathing in the smoke from the Crematorium,
so I would run the entire length of the block twice a day on
my way to and from school. |
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It
was very cold in our apartment during the winter months.
The landlady used to burn bundles of newspaper that had been
soaked in water and salt because it was cheaper than wood or
coal. I can remember Uncle Bob visiting us one
time. Uncle Bob and I went out to the hardware store to buy
some stove pipes so that we could hook up the space heater in
our apartment. While we were out, Mom cooked one of my
all time favourite dishes.... curried rice and
chicken. I can still smell and taste that delicious
meal today. |
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Dad
started working as a Carman for Canadian Pacific Railroad at
West Toronto Station in 1949, which were located at
corner of Dundas Street and Dupont Avenue in Toronto's
Junction area. |
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My
brother Larry John McQuaid was born on August 11th, 1949 in
Toronto Ontario. |
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On
May 10th, 1950 when I returned from school, I found Mom
sitting at the top of the steps leading to our apartment
crying. She was holding a telegram that she had
received to inform her that Grandpa Beaton had died. I
can recall taking the train with Mom to go up to North Bay for
the funeral. It was a long ride and the train stopped at
every little milk-stop along the way to let passengers get on
and off. |
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A
few months after the funeral, Mom and Dad decided that they
would relocate to North Bay to live with Grandma because she
was all alone. Mom, Betty, Larry and I moved to North
Bay ahead of dad. Dad stayed behind and continued to
work for the railroad at the West Toronto Car Shops, while he
awaited word on his application for a transfer to North
Bay. The transfer was not approved because of the lack
of available work in North Bay's Car Shops, so after a few
months Dad joined us in North Bay. While Dad was still
working in Toronto, he was boarding at a home on Hook Avenue
which was within walking distance of the Car Shops. He
would write to us every week and sometimes, he would send us a
parcel containing some candy and maybe a colouring book or
small toy. |
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We
missed Dad a lot while he was away from us, but when he did
join us in North Bay it was great being together again, and he
was able to get a job with the Singer Sewing Machine
Company as a sales and serviceman. |
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One
of the first things that Mom did when we arrived at Grandma's
house, was to enroll me into school at McPhail Street Dr.
Carruther's Public School. Mom wore a navy blue dress
with white polka-dots on it, and white high-heeled
shoes. She looked very pretty. We met the school
Principal, Mr. Tom Cummings. Mr. Cummings and I soon
became very good friends, and he used to have me deliver the
school mail during the morning recess period. My grade 2
teacher was Mrs. Curren. A very nice lady who lived in a big
brick house on King Street. |
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Life
as a kid in North Bay was totally different from what life was
like in Toronto.
The pace was slower
in North Bay, but there was always lots to do. Unlike
Toronto, you got to know and to play with all the kids on the
block .... Gary & Linda Thompson; Emmeline, Peter &
Stella McCool; David & Donald Jacobs; Clifford Collins;
David Lascelle; Walter Woodruff; Judy Landry; Ronny Boyer,
Lynn Ordage, Marcel & Monica Frechette; Joyce &
Barbara Lindsay; Karen Plause, and our cousins Don, Anne
& Billy McGinnis.
We would ride our
bikes all around town; play street hockey and baseball in the
centre of the road and hide & seek and tag in the
neighbour's yards. During the summer and fall months,
there were potato, weiner and corn roasts in the evenings, and
we would catch lightening bugs in Mason Jars. Sometimes
we would pitch tents in the back yard. and have a sleep-out.
There were the
neighbourhood gangs and rivalry between the Protestants and
the Catholics (McPhail & St Rita's schools). At
least once a month there would be an argument that led to a
fight, but you could always count on your buddies to come
along and bail you out of trouble.
Silverwood's Dairy
would come around early every morning with their horse and
buggy to deliver milk, and the horse would trot along without
the driver to tell him when or where to stop. You could
always hear the milk bottles rattling in the metal basket that
the milkman used to carry from house to house. We used
to put the milk tickets and sometimes change inside of the
empty milk bottle that was left just outside the front door
for the milkman to pick up and replace with our daily
order. If the bottle had been washed out and not quite
dry when it was placed outside in the cold weather, the
tickets and money would freeze inside the bottom of the
bottle, and the milkman would be upset. In the very cold
weather, the cream on top of the milk would freeze and swell
up so that it would push the cap off of the top of the
bottle. There were always a lot of cats in the
neighbourhood, and they would walk from house to house licking
the cream that protruded from the top of the milk bottles.
In the afternoons,
the bakery would make their rounds with fresh bread, buns,
pies and cakes. Like the milkman, they also delivered
their goods with a horse and buggy. In the
wintertime, they used a horse-drawn sled instead of the buggy
to carry their goods, and us kids used to hang onto the back
of the sled to catch a free slide up the street.
We didn't have a
refrigerator for several years, but we did have an
ice-box. The iceman would make his rounds and during the
summer months, all the kids on the block would follow him from
house to house, to collect the ice chips that would be on the
back of his truck.
We had a double lot,
and so each spring we would plant a huge garden of potatoes,
beans, peas, carrots and cucumbers. That always
meant there a lot of weeding, hoeing, watering and
maintenance for us kids to do on a regular basis.....one thing
we soon learned is that you would never say that you were
bored, or else you would find yourself out rooting around the
garden for weeds . Thanks to the horses, there was always a
supply of manure for the plants......and in the winter time,
great hockey pucks. In the early summer, we had to pick
the potato bugs off the plants before they ate the flowers,
otherwise there would be no potatoes to dig up in the
fall. We would sometimes pick a hundred or more of these
little striped bugs at a time from the plants. In the
fall, we would gather up the beans for mom to pickle and dig
up the potatoes. Mom would collect six-quart baskets
from the grocery store whenever she could, and then in the
fall, Betty, Larry and I would go from house to house selling
the fresh potatoes to neighbours.
Unlike most homes in
the neighbourhood, we had a huge woodstove in the kitchen and
a Quebec Heater in the living room. That of
course meant a lot of kindling and wood needed to be cut so
that our meals could be cooked, and coal had to be shoveled so
that our home would be heated during the winter
months......Then there were the ashes that needed to be sifted
and emptied. Like I said earlier, there was always
lots to be done. |
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Dad
used to get paid every Thursday, so that meant every Friday
there would be the trip to Smyth's Grocery Store.
Mom would put together a list of things that were to be bought
with clear instructions that I was to make sure that the
vegetables were fresh and firm; that the meat was lean with no
signs of aging, and that the cans were not dented. She
would count out what she thought the bill should come to, and
then hand me the money telling me not to lose it, and to make
sure that I also got fifteen cents worth of mixed candy for us
kids. In the cold winter months, she would sometimes
telephone Smyth's or Charette's Meat Market, and place the
order with them for delivery to our home. |
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We
always had a lot of company in our home on week-ends and
during the summer months. There were times, when there
were twenty or more people at a time visiting with us.
The weekly regulars were my cousin Don and his wife Claudine,
cousins Anne and Billy from next door, and Jimmy and Murial
Hands who were friends of my cousin Ronnie. |
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Christmas
was a busy time in our home. For weeks before the big
event us kids would read the Eaton's and Simpson catalogues
from cover to cover, pointing out to whoever would listen
exactly what we would like for Christmas.
The mailman in those
days used to make his rounds six days a week, and rarely
passed by our home without stopping to leave a handful of
Christmas cards and mail. There were always parcels from
relatives and friends in England and Holland and that of
course meant that we would have to shop and sent off cards and
parcels to their homes as well.
A couple of weeks
before Christmas, Dad would get a tree for our living
room. Sometimes he would cut it himself and other times
he would pick it out from one of the corner lots where trees
were being sold. Usually, he would pick out a spruce or
a pine tree that was about eight feet tall. After
bringing the tree into the home so that it could thaw out, he
would make a stand for it and set it up in a corner so that he
could secure it with a bit of twine so that it wouldn't topple
over. Then out would come the treasured Christmas bulbs,
lights, garland and icicles from previous years....yes, we
used to carefully remove and save the icicles each year so
that they could be re-used.
About that same time
each year, I would be handed seventy-five cents with
instructions that I was to go to Harris Drug Store and either
pick up a package of Margarita Cigars or a pack of Pic-a-Pac
Pipe Tobacco for Dad.
Dad would drag a
kitchen chair into the living room to stand on while he
carefully placed the star on top of our tree, and he would
then place the lights on the tree just so. Once
the lights had been placed on the tree and tested, Dad would
sit in his armchair to watch Mom and us kids place the balls
and icicles (one at a time) on the tree.
Delivery trucks from
Eaton's and Simpson's would drop huge boxes off, but they
would mysteriously disappear without any trace, and Mom and
Grandma would be busy making Christmas cakes, cookies and plum
puddings.
On Christmas Eve, we
would each take one of Dad's socks (because his were the
largest), pin our name on it, and then place it at the end of
our bed to be filled by Santa when he visited our
home.
In the morning we
would always find our sock filled to the brim with an apple,
an orange, a bundle of nuts, some candy and a small toy.
We would lie quietly in bed munching on the treats while we
waited to be called down to the living room so that we could
open our presents. This usually happened around
5:00 am.
Once the gifts had
been opened, inspected and played with for a few minutes, it
would be time for breakfast, and we would all gather around
the table for our morning meal. Speaking of
breakfasts, I will always remember Dad whenever I eat a boiled
egg.....Just as I would place the spoon in my mouth, he would
look at me and say "Gulp....Do you know where that egg
came from?"...and then he would laugh while I tried to
swallow down the mouthful of egg. |
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At
dinner time there was always a super large turkey on the table
with all of the dressings, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes,
peas, and gravy. What a feast it was, followed by
Christmas pudding and Cake. |
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It
was around 1958 when we got our first television. Before
that time, we would sit around the big Philco radio that sat
in the living room listening to radio shows such as the Lux
Theatre, Boston Blackie, The Shadow, John and Judy and Ma
Perkins.
On weekends, us kids
would sit watching the test pattern from sign-on, until
broadcasting began at around noon hour. The first
program we watched on the new television was Wild Bill Hickock.
Dad set the television up in the kitchen and placed rows of
chairs so that we could watch the program together.
When the television
was relocated to the living room, we would all sit around each
evening watching the programs until sign-off at
midnight. My cousin Billy used to join us almost every
evening. He would sit beside me and we would get so
wrapped discussing the program at times that we would be told
to either be quiet, or leave the room .
Reception was not
the greatest at the beginning, so Dad would play
repairman. One time he had the back off of the
television and he was probing around with a screwdriver in the
back of the set. All of a sudden there was a loud 'pop',
and Dad jumped about six inches into the air. He got a
quite shock from the screwdriver touching the wiring in the
back of the set, and from that time on, he was quite content
to just move the rabbit-ears around the room for improved
reception. |
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Dad
had a great little workshop down at the bottom of the
yard. It was always an enjoyment to be able to
visit and work with him. He had all kinds of tools and he was
always making things. Dad taught me how to use and to care for
the tools. His one rule was "if you use it, put it
back where you found it".
Every evening after
dinner, Dad would have a snooze for an hour or so.
When he would awake, he'd would have a coffee with Mom
and then he would go down to his workshop for a couple of
hours. |
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While
Dad was puttering around his workshop, Mom would be busy
cleaning and preparing our clothes for the next day. In
later years, Mom would draw small pictures on the back of
business cards. Each one of her tiny drawings is
different, and today there are perhaps 4,500 - 5,000 in
her collection.
Mom was
also an avid Post Card collector and over the years has
collected an estimated 10,000 cards from various sources. |
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After
graduating from Algonquin Composite Secondary School in 1960,
I secured a job with Imperial Life Assurance Company of Canada
in Toronto Ontario with the help or our next door neighbour,
Lorraine Wyatt. I made arrangments to board with some of Mom's
former friends who lived in Toronto on Foxley
Avenue ( Lil, Dorothy and Bruce Dunsford), and Dad drove
me to Toronto on the Civic Holiday weekend.
While with the
Imperial Life Assurance Company, I complete their Life Office
Management and Sales Underwriting study courses and then
enrolled at the University of Toronto where I studied
Economics and Human Resources Management .
Imperial Life was a
great place to work. They had a very beautiful
dining room for employees, complete with white linen table
cloths, napkins and silverware. Each week, they sold
employees lunch tickets - 5 for $1.00, and served full course
meals. Helga, the waitress who was assigned to my table
used to always save me an extra meal so that I could take it
home after work for dinner.
I had a crush on one
of the elevator operators, and after a couple of weeks,
we started dating. I used to arrive at work at least
half-an hour early each day, just to ride up and down the
elevator with Joan. Joan had a beautiful personality and
we got along great together. In fact, at one time we
were talking and thinking about getting married. Joan's
parents were very nice people as well, and lived at 120 Alton
Avenue in the east end of Toronto. Joan's mother used to
do oil paintings as a hobby, and her father Frank worked
for the Double Day Book Company. He used give me a new book
everytime I dropped by to visit them. I didn't have to
join the book club, and always had lots to read. |
To
be continued at some later date.... |
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