THE TIGER'S DEN

My children and grandchildren designed this page as a Father's Day surprise. Now that the family web site is up and running, we've moved it there, and I'll be updating it from time to time.

My name is Eric McKague. I have lived in the village of Castleton, Ontario since my retirement, and currently share my house with my daughter Linda. My son Rick and his family also live here in town and my other daughter Carla is in Toronto. Knowing where the grandchildren get to from time to time gets a little more complicated. Ben has spent time in Indonesia with Canada World Youth, Erica was in Thailand volunteering with the Thai Status of Women organization and Menya used to be found almost anywhere there was a ruin to be excavated. Jen plays piano and teaches around the continent and Michelle is waiting to join all the adventures one of these days.

Although the original McKagues who settled at Cherry Hill, near my present home, were Irish immigrants, my children are fortunate in being a Scots/Irish/Welsh/Dutch/Amerindian combination and each successive generation is becoming even more cosmopolitan, while retaining roots in this part of the country. I have three children (Carla, Linda and Rick), five grandchildren (Jennifer, Ben, Menya, Erica and Michelle) and -- at last count -- five great-grandchildren (Noah, Emma, Graeme, Hannah and Paul).

I grew up at Longview Farms, near Castleton, with seven brothers and sisters. The farm is still in the family after more than a century and is now operated by my nephew Darcy as a thriving pork operation. It's a little bigger now, things have modernized, and it is very satisfying so see life go on there for another generation. Originally it was mixed farming there and some aspects of it changed very slowly over the years. Of the eight children in my family, five of us are still alive and have a keen interest in our family history. We live close enough to get together for all important occasions, or sometimes just to talk.

I spent many years as an executive with Canadian National Railways, and since my retirement have finally had the time to golf (I got my first hole in one at age 88), play bridge and garden, as well as to explore the Internet and add to my collection of tiger-related material. I was widowed some years ago. My wife, the former Margaret Lillian Richards of Warkworth, Ontario, was born just a few miles away. Her family, the Richards and Wilsons, have lived in Northumberland County as long or longer than mine. Her father and grandfather were both local doctors. Both families attended the same high school in Warkworth. I was the middle of three generations who attended the same one-roomed school -- a far cry from the newer generations who have spread across the globe from time to time.

After some minor experimentation with a VIC-20 in 1980, I didn't have access to a computer until my daughter Carla gave me a Mac in 1993 (when I was 83) and I have been a dedicated Mac user ever since. Fortunately most of my offspring feel the same way and we have e-mailed each other from Britain to Thailand to the southern United States and back to rural Ontario, Canada, where I live. My father helped to start the first telephone company in this area. When he strung those first telephone wires along the fenceline to my mother's family farm, I doubt he ever imagined I would be able to communicate daily with grandchildren all over the world. Thanks to our Macs and modern technology, we manage to communicate quickly and often during times of crisis or celebration.

My latest hobby is computer graphics. I love to produce what I call "sillypix", in which I play with pictures of family and friends. Have a look at some of them here.

Please feel free to write me if you share my interests of golf, bridge or computers. I would really like to hear from other McKagues and McGregors out there who are related.