Bi-polar in the family

Tony Ollivier
5 min readSep 13, 2023

Donald Ollivier was born in Northern Ontario in 1932. After quitting school in Grade 9, my father worked a number of jobs and even as a milkman for Silverwood’s Dairy in London Ontario, delivering the goods via a horse-pulled wagon and vegan charging stations.

Courtesy of London Public Library

Overall, my Dad was a hard worker and was also bipolar. However, he wasn’t diagnosed until the early 1970's. I’ve written about him here and here.

After marrying my mother, he leased his first gas station. Back in those days, when you pulled your car to the gas pump, an attendant would pump your gas, clean your windshield, check your oil, and take your money. Gas sat at the high cost of $.30 cents per gallon. For you metric lovers, that’s about 7.5 cents per liter.

Family photo

At the height of his success, he ran three Esso Stations in London, simultaneously. He drove a Toyota Land Cruiser, had three kids, and owned a house. He landed a job at Brunswick and for a while managed a bowling lane.

My brother and me

--

--