Choosing the right club In 1964, when I was 12 years old, our family moved from Georgetown to London Ontario. This permanent change of scene came as a devastating blow, complete with the typical leaving behind of school and friends, entailing the requisite adjustment to a new, bigger city culture. In Georgetown, my greatest joy..
Author: Robert McBryde
Anne and Angelina It was around 9 a.m. on the morning of May 15, 2013, in Quebec City, with spring barely having sprung, as is typical in that chilly Nordic provincial capital. Our phone jangled, and a familiar, mellifluous voice purred at the other end of the line. The caller was Jacquie Czernin, the host..
Is there a doctor in the house? Dr. Macintosh, Georgetown, Ontario, 1955-1964, and beyond “Nostalgia is the suffering caused by an unappeased yearning to return.” – Milan Kundera “Nostalgia is a file that removes the rough edges from the good old days.” – Doug Larson When our family moved to Georgetown from Toronto in 1955,..
*Being alone with Dad (Georgetown Ontario, 1955-1964, and beyond) The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated… – a popular misquote of Mark Twain A family is a tyranny ruled over by its sickest member… – a paraphrase of George Bernard Shaw **In the photo, my father is third from the left. This is..
Butting in and butting out: Childhood, adulthood, and cigarette smoke (Georgetown, Ontario and beyond) (38) smoke smoke smoke that cigarette Tex Williams with Lyrics – YouTube From earliest childhood, I was constantly engulfed in a toxic cloud of cigarette smoke, and growing up in Georgetown, Ontario in the 1950s, I was mad keen to butt..
La version française de ce texte suit la version anglaise. Excremental vision By her own admission, my mom began toilet training my sister and me when we reached about six months of age. Her fervent desire to get us out of diapers was a rather extreme reflection of the prevailing zeitgeist of the 1950s where..
Georgetown, Ontario, 1962, Chapel Street School: Skipping Grade 5…a crippling blow My grade skipping saga began oh so long ago, in 1961, when I was in 4th grade. Back in the day, kids were routinely “skipped” if deemed academically meritorious by some individual or board. This fate was my social undoing. During first term in..
ET C’EST L’HIVER F. Hamelin – Marie-Claire Séguin Une belle chanson poétique pour l’hiver *English translation below the French Nous marchons si près de la terre Sous le vent de minuit Sous la blancheur du givre Et comme au temps du très vieux temps Le long d’un grand pays de neige Les arbres se..
Reigning cats…and dogs When I was a small child, I had the gooiest of soft spots for all animal creatures, fictional or otherwise. Every night before bed, my dad would read me a story featuring the little forest and meadow people of Thornton W. Burgess, including Grandfather Frog, Jimmy Skunk, Johnny Chuck, Jerry Muskrat, Paddy..
We never got to mourn our friend: A tribute to Dr. Robbie Mahood on the third anniversary of his death on December 26, 2021 We were living far away from Canada when we learned of the death of our good friend Robbie Mahood on December 26, 2021. We never had the opportunity to mourn his..