In Paris Ontario, at the turn of the 20th century, the West family lived simultaneously in a tiny cottage along the Nith River - and in the vast expanses of their own imaginations. Mother Jess was a weaver. Her husband Wally West was the town lamplighter, and a poet specializing in works about rivers and train wrecks. Their son Bobby was a street entertainer and musician. Together father and son served as the admiral and commodore of the Nith Navigation Company, in command of a flotilla of boats that were created in their own "shipyard". (Did I mention they were part-time marine architects as well?) Jess and Wally died in about 1912 and Bobby survived until the 1940s. For the full story read "The Forks Of The Grand" by D.A. Smith.