Moving to Springmoor
Moving to Springmoor. After 38 years in the house, Mom and I
Karen’s College Trip
From ‘The Adventures of The McGaffin’s As We Remember Them’ — a family memoir begun July 17, 2003.
1979
From ‘The Adventures of The McGaffin’s As We Remember Them’ — a family memoir begun July 17, 2003.
Patches
From ‘The Adventures of The McGaffin’s As We Remember Them’ — a family memoir begun July 17, 2003.
The McGaffin Family Origins
From Scotland to Northern Ireland to London, the McGaffin family kept moving — until Peter McConky McGaffin, widowed and raising several children alone, took a headmaster post in Mossel Bay and planted the family's roots in South Africa for good.
On to America
A delayed ship and dwindling funds scrapped the family's California plans — but a chance sighting of a Bell Labs sign from the deck, and an Irish attendant's kindness at Ellis Island, set a whole new course in motion.
Shelagh Ellen Kavanagh - The Pre-Years
Born in 1903 Cape Town, Shelagh Ellen Kavanagh was nicknamed "Patty" by her Irish father — and it stuck for life. One of seven children, she grew up climbing Table Mountain and playing tennis before leaving the city and her beloved sister Nonny behind.
Life at 625 Rockview Avenue
At 625 Rockview Avenue, forgetting the basement water heater meant a dramatic burst of steam — and in a house still cooled by an icebox with deliveries from the Iceman, daily life ran on its own unhurried, unpredictable rhythm.
Born in Brooklyn - The 1930s Begin
A newborn sleeps in a dresser drawer in a Flatbush Avenue apartment — and six weeks later, a coworker's advice sends the young family across the river to a tiny cluster of homes in Gillette, New Jersey.
Life on Rock Avenue
A ten-year-old's world cracked wide open when his family moved just a mile down the road — right next door to a 200-year-old dairy farm where the elderly owners let the neighborhood kids roam free among the cows, horses, and hay fields.
Home Delivery in the 1930s
When the Birdseye truck rolled through the neighborhood, you'd hear it before you saw it — a whistle mimicking a Bob White bird, calling families out to browse frozen goods from the curb.
1946 - Post-War Years
After their mother lost her battle with cancer, the McGaffin family scattered — one sister chased a boy to Milwaukee, and the rest moved in with strangers just to get by.