FHH Brats

FHH stands for Fort Henry Heights. These PMQ’s were built in the late 1940’s after WWII for soldiers that re- enlisted into the army. At first the families were housed in H-Hut style barracks. There were four families per hut with a shared laundry/washroom in the short centre of the hut. Our parents had lots of stories of living there, horror stories to today’s standards but the camaraderie and friendships lasted throughout their lives.

As the two bases grew, “Vimy” on the south of #2 Highway for the school of Signals Communication and “RCEME” on the north for Electrical & Mechanical Engineers, more and better housing was needed. The PMQ’s called Fort Henry Heights was built. Then schools and churches were needed. Early students went to school at Old Fort Henry. First to be built was Lundy’s Lane, then Niagara Park the lastly Batoche Avenue School.

So, here we are, the Baby Boomers, the first generation! We share the same camaraderie and friendships as our parents. No matter where we moved to we were close, never forgotten.
Our oldest and best playground was Red Rock and the woods surrounding Dead Man’s Bay. Red Rock was like a coliseum, rounded with several layers like a stadium. We had nick names for “Whales Mouth” The Cave” and more.

We learned to swim in the bay, then a wading pool was built, then an Olympic size pool and a gym for the soldiers and us Brats or dependants. We had Teen Town with a canteen, and street dances in the summer.

Life is not always easy being a Brat, sadness when you move away, happiness when you move back. You lose friends then you make new friends.
One thing that remains, always, is the closeness of those relationships. Now after 50-60 years as mature responsible adults we have picked up the thread. It is amazing how conversations flow and feelings are strong. Life is good!

Dave Darnley

A little background – I left the Heights in 1964 returning for our reunion in 2003. I re-established contact with a few friends and we met periodically when I was back in Kingston. This worked well for a couple of years, so we decided to make it monthly get together at a regular location, to allow any other brats to drop in. I drive down from Markham for the meetings and wouldn’t miss them, as they are fun and new people drop by at every meeting.

During one of our meetings I brought up the point we were the first generation, 1948ish – 1965, of brats and as we discovered the only generation for F.H.H. as it was renamed around 1964 to CFB Kingston. We were there for the building of what was to become Fort Henry Heights. The community evolved during our growing up on Base and thus a lot of interesting stories were stored in our memory banks. LOL