“Never complain, never explain,” was his grandfather
Fergus Hurdle’s motto, stern Scotsman that he was,
pioneering his family’s homestead in Georgian Bay,
Ontario, clearing and farming more land for his family
to grow self-reliant and strong, and his son Angus
expanded the family farm for his own children to
grow strong and self-reliant, passing on his father’s
wisdom of never complaining, never explaining, to
which his clever son Jock, who got a steady job with
health benefits and secure pension, added the proviso
to the family motto to “work smarter, not harder,”
which his own children took to heart, guiding them
all to obtain a position that secured steady work with
health benefits and a pension, which gave them the
security to work on the side to build a nest egg for
their own family, and every one of Jock’s five children
worked their way into a comfortable position, led
by his example as Fire Chief for his community, which
gave him all the free time he needed to renovate
old houses and build new ones, and his oldest son
became a fireman too for the GTA, joining his father
off shift in the house-building business, and his second
son became a school teacher with all the benefits and
excellent pension and summers off to work with his
father and brother, and the family business grew with
each new house they built, buying more land for new
houses and whole new subdivisions, and his daughter
went into accounting and secured a safe government
position with benefits and a good pension, and on
the side she also did the books for the family business,
and Jock’s third son wrangled a postal position with
good benefits and government pension, and he joined
the family business to build a nice little nest egg for
his own growing family, and Jock’s fifth offspring
joined the Ontario police force, which had benefits
and a secure pension, and he joined the family business
to safeguard his own family’s future, and the business
was secure enough to help out the grandchildren who
were also weaned to seek out employment with good
benefits and a secure pension so they could all build
their own little nest egg working for the construction
company that their clever grandfather had built, always
guided by their family’s wisdom to work smarter, not
harder, and to never
complain, never explain, and each
and every one of Fergus Hurdle’s descendants, a very
close-knit family that learned the vital art of compromise
and always worked as a team that got together every
Sunday for extended family dinners at the Jock
Hurdle fifty-acre homestead, contributed to their own
community in Georgian Bay, Ontario with their many
good works and good character; a family heritage
to be proud of.
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