“He started to realize that he needed to make the most of the time he had left.” In 1995, Taylor’s wife Alma passed away they had been married for 50 years. “That gave him the gift of always making things work somehow.” “He came from a family that ran from place to place with absolutely no money during the Depression,” Harrison explained. It was a business he was able to make into a success. In what was originally supposed to be his retirement days, Taylor worked at various hardware stores part-time - including McNab’s Hardware, Craw's Hardware, Ayers Plumbing and Heating, and then Cairn’s IGA. He then settled into buying trailers - fixing them up and then selling them. In the early 1970s, Taylor leased his larger store to the LCBO, and the general store to several owners before finally selling them both and calling it a career as a store owner. “But he just kept going, it seemed to be in his blood.”Īfter working some odd jobs for a few years, Taylor purchased his third and final general store in Washago, where he expanded to include a larger deli and grocer. “There were a lot of hurdles over the years trying to support five kids,” Harrison said. In 1962, Taylor bought Uptergrove General Store, but sold the business in 1966 to move back to Orillia. Shortly after, they sold the general store and moved to Cumberland Beach where they lived for several years. The Taylors had another daughter, Lynn, in 1954, and they had their first son, Barry, in 1960. “He was very determined to make it work.” “It had gas pumps, cabins, a snack bar, and a general store,” Harrison recalls. Their third daughter, Janice (Harrison), was born that summer and Taylor worked seven days a week to support his growing family. The Taylors moved to Orillia and bought Gordie’s General Store near Sundial Drive in 1952. Taylor found a job as a foreman for Rogers Radio, but aspired to be his own boss. 15, 1945.Īfter the war, Taylor and his bride moved to the Richmond Hill area where their two oldest children, first Anne and then Susan, were born. The couple would be married in London, England on Nov. Taylor spent the remainder of the war fighting in Belgium, France, Holland, and England, where he met his wife Alma, a British Army member. While he didn’t finish his education, he was recognized by the army for his intelligence and was assigned to the Canadian Radar Division where he trained for several months before being shipped overseas in 1940. When Taylor was just 14 years old, his father suddenly and tragically died in an accident, forcing him to quit school and support his mother and two sisters in the workforce.Īs a teenager, Taylor first joined the cadets and then joined the army as soon as his country called for his service. On May 17, 1923, Taylor was born in Toronto where he spent his childhood during the Great Depression. Orillia's Gordon Taylor, a Second World War veteran, will be turning 100 years old this week.
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