The Public Speaking Blues: Childhood and Adolescence in a Performance Anxiety Funk When I was attending Chapel Street elementary school in Georgetown, Ontario, back in the 1960s, public speaking was an integral part of the curriculum in the senior grades. And terror was the order of the day. My public speaking anguish typically..
A life of elections starting with Dief & Mike in Georgetown, Ontario, 1958: reflections in the wake of the general election of April 28, 2025 Some of my earliest memories are of a family life infused with periodic political bile. My father loved to agitate the fecal matter and took no end of delight in..
My mom, door-to-door salespeople, and the clarinet: tooting in the 1950s and 1960s My 1950s and 1960s Georgetown childhood was characterized by cacophony, including rumpus and din on our little subdivision street where a knife sharpener man would ring his bell; where the breadman would dart from home to home distributing succulent baked goods with..
A Georgetown Childhood Easter 1955-1964 My Georgetown Easter memories are succulent and sweet. On Easter morning, sausages and scrambled eggs, which my father called “rambled screggs,” were the order of the day. My sister and I were never hungry for this sort of sustenance, and my father’s scrambled eggs were always runny. We were itching..
The Georgetown International Bantam Hockey Tournament: the Highlight of Easter Season, 1960-1964 For more images, please click here: The Georgetown International Bantam Hockey Tournament: the Highlight of Easter Season, 1960-1964 – Robert McBryde And here: Bantam Tournament – THE GEORGETOWN VAULT In 1960, when I was eight years old, my Easter season was magically transformed,..
The Toronto Maple Leafs and Me: Childhood, Adolescence, and Old Age When my Slovak father-in-law reached his dotage – at about the age I am now – he took to repeating “V krátkom čase budem mŕtvy” (In a short time I be dead) and “Čoskoro ma k sebe zavolá pán Boh” (Soon Mr. God will..
Pussy Willows by Silver Creek in Spring, Georgetown, Ontario, 1955-1964: A Tanka Poem Across from my home, A vast abandoned field: Pussy willow bliss. Sensual buds stir the blood: The long winter over at last. Note: My childhood home on Elizabeth Street in Georgetown, Ontario, was located directly across from a scrubby abandoned field intersected..
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…