Elegy for a personal paradise lost: music in Georgetown, Ontario, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, with Mr. Ken Harrison “The past is a candle at great distance: too close to let you quit, too far to comfort you. It is strange how we hold on to the pieces of the past while we..
A hair-raising elegy: Growing up in Georgetown at Wright Smith’s Barbershop, 1960-1964, and beyond I don’t remember my first haircuts as a child growing up in small town Ontario. My memories of hair- raising adventures date back to about 1960, when I was around eight years old. A new barber arrived in town, Mr. Wright..
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…
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..
Valentines Day Audiobook Book Launch: Attach your antlers and have a listen La description française suit la description anglaise. I’m excited to announce that the English version of my audiobook is available on Audible, Amazon, and Apple Books, meaning listeners can purchase it outright, use an Audible credit, or get a discount if they own..
Alternatives to Ottawa Public Transit (Part Two): Bring back hitchhiking Given the abysmal service offered by OC Transpo, hereafter known as Octopus Transit, and the 19% hike in the cost of a monthly pass for seniors (albeit down from the 120% increase originally floated by the Octopi commission), it is high time to seek alternatives..
Rascal scooter to the rescue: an alternative to Ottawa public transit (part one) When I was a child my mom always called me “little rascal,” normally in Ukrainian, the language that her Polish family adopted when they came to Canada just before World War One. “Malenʹkyy dyyavol” she would yelp when I misbehaved…literally “little devil.”..
Seething Seniors: a letter to the editor of the Ottawa Citizen newspaper Dear editor, I’m writing in response to the article headlined Ottawa seniors seething about massive hike in OC Transpo pass price penned by Ken Warren and published on November 14. Ottawa seniors shocked by big hike in OC Transpo pass cost | Ottawa..
Terminal tartar When I was about five years old, growing up in Georgetown, Ontario, a first visit to the dentist yielded the most perplexing diagnosis: I was afflicted with terminal tartar. Now in our home, in honour of my mom’s vestigial Catholicism, combined with her ardent desire to be a contemporary 1950s housewife, we always..
Gender-bending for Halloween “Girls will be boys and boys will be girls It’s a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world…” – Lola, The Kinks Born in 1952, I grew up in what was then a small southern Ontario municipality called Georgetown, an epicenter, I decided later, of what has been dubbed the Southern Ontario..