Winter and Early Spring in Georgetown, Ontario: Weathering the Storm of Childhood, 1955-1964…and onward to the present day “One thing about cold weather: it brings out the statistician in everyone.” Paul Theroux, The Old Patagonian Express March 30, 2025 Forecast: Freezing Rain Warning: Prolonged period of freezing rain. Ice accretion of 5 to 10 mm…
Remembering my mother, in honour of her birthday… March 27,1918 Angelina Elizabeth “Jill” McBryde (née Reiser) 1918-2001 Resident of Georgetown from 1955 until 1964 An active member of the St. John’s United Church congregation, my mother also worked as a secretary for the Reverend Ian Fleming from about 1961 until 1964. Her office looked onto..
Them’s the breaks: Industrial arts and gym classes, London, Ontario 1964-1969 My father treated life as a series of random, unfortunate accidents. “Them’s the breaks,” he invariably intoned whenever some catastrophe would befall our little family. “That’s the way the cookie crumbles.” One’s body is a graveyard for memories, a repository of good breaks, bad..
Rink rats, ice flooding, and Zambonis: Georgetown to Quebec City and beyond, 1952-2025 “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” William Faulkner Part One As a child growing up in Georgetown, Ontario, I was a wannabe rink rat. But I was a more of a rink mouse really, without the requisite whiskers to..
Haunted by Al Pacino: The Ottawa Healthcare Wilderness Life seems to me a random series of disconnected events, experienced as a sort of punctuated equilibrium. Al Pacino has frequently insinuated himself into my mental landscape like a hirsute wraith, erupting suddenly into my consciousness or ken of vision as if out of an AL-in-a-Box. We..
Fragments 1962: Archie’s Convenience Store Junk Food Club, Georgetown Ontario As far back as I remember, we children from Georgetown’s Swanick subdivision frequented Archie’s convenience store at the corner of Ewing Street and Highway 7. Choi’s – THE GEORGETOWN VAULT The owner and manager, Archie Girard, cultivated an avid clientele of baby boom kidlets; he..
Being Steve McQueen For most of high school life in London, Ontario, I wanted to look and behave like Steve McQueen… But I thoroughly resembled Piggy from Lord of the Flies. I was basically a Clark Kent without a phone booth. Back in the 1950s and 60s, my hometown of Georgetown did not have a..
Constable Ted Scott: Crossing the tracks, Georgetown, Ontario, circa 1960 Growing up in the Swanick subdivision of Georgetown, Ontario, in the late 1950s and early 1960s was rich in experiences of all sorts, including numerous rituals that are indelibly branded in my depleting bank of memories. One such ritual entailed “crossing the tracks.” I went..
Goldfinch in stark winter: a Tanka poem Photo credit Lorne Coughlin Goldfinch, puffed out… Protection or foolish pride? Too recognizable… We are so far from golden, But seem compelled to puff. Tanka poetry Tanka poems follow a set of rules. They all have five lines and each line follows a pattern: the first line has..