Dartmouth: City of Cliques

My experience with the golfing grannies

I live in an odd place. My town has twenty five distinct and separate lakes within its old boarders. My whole life, Dartmouth has been referred to as The City of Lakes. People here take recreation seriously. Some of these likes have world class canoe, kayak and rowing clubs. There are also lawn bowling clubs, tennis clubs, Masons, the Kiwanas, the Lions, the Austinville Owls’ club¹ and so on. ‘Brightwood’ - a golf course / club sits in the middle of town.

With so many clubs, Dartmouth is more The City of Clubs and Cliques, rather than lakes. Whole families are known for the clubs they associate with. Our family, the Dallings, are no different.

My granddad Dalling was an entrepreneur. After the war, he started a taxi business. Bob’s taxi still exist today. It’s fun to tell people here that Bob was my grandfather. It’s like having a street, or a famous building named after him. In addition to having a taxi business, my grandfather had an after hours whiskey delivery service. People loved…