So Goes Time, So Goes Life

Last week I learned the house I left in central Toronto, twenty years ago, is being demolished. This isn't just any house. This house was built for my great grandfather and was the home where my daughters grew, a solid, large house that reflected the time in which it was built.

The house had always remained in the family, welcoming every generation, my mother and her sister as children, my cousins in their later childhood and teenage years, my grandmother, aunts, uncles and all their pets through time. The house was loved and had many friends.

We celebrated the house with a big backyard party, fireworks and all, the week before I left for this loved place by the sea.

It is funny but the concept of it being no more has a rightness. Everything inevitably comes  to an end. It is difficult to see the essence of the old houses in the neighbourhood being renovated into oblivion.

However it was difficult reading

Demolition/Content Sale - Midtown (Yonge and Lawrence)
83 Glengrove Ave W

Hosted this Saturday July 20th 10am-3pm. 

Bring Your Own Tools.

The house is now gone. The memories good and bad live on with us. The neighbourhood now houses more and more of the shakers and movers of the city. Their lifestyles require much more of a house than my great grandfather could ever imagined.

I cry for the gardens. There is a picture of my aunt as a child in about 1918 standing under an impressive maple tree. When my children were small they could put their ears against the thick bark to hear the fairy elevators going up and down inside. 

It was under this tree I made a wild flower garden. The trilliums came from the farm where my other grandmother grew up, the periwinkle from my Aunt Lilah who loved all things living, the ferns and a lady slipper from the cottage, several umbrella plants from the sides of rural roads and of course some of my mother's infamous Niagara red wiggling worms. I hope they and theirs survive.

The other garden that was important to me was between the old, perfect pink, climbing roses, that through time had made it past the second floor. It was here I planted special flowers to honour special people and special occasions. It was so difficult to say good bye to this garden. I don't think there is a chance,  the plants will survive the mighty machines that are now preparing this tiny drop of the ever expanding city for newness. I do hope someone thought to take a shovel to rescue one or two of them.

So goes time. So goes life.

I think it is now time to go out to work in the garden, I dreamed into existence on long winter nights. My mother gave me money, for my fiftieth birthday, to make the dream a reality. This garden brings enough joy.

Some things have changed since my childhood

Once upon a time, when I was a child.

We couldn't place crank calls because we had to go through an operator.

.....now the problem is call display.

- Young ladies had to wear hats to church.

.....now few young ladies go to church hats or not.

- I unsuccessfully begged my mother to buy Wonder Bread. 

.....now we search out "designer" bread.

-We thought all things American were good.

.....we cross the border with at least a small sense of dread.

-Tap water was the norm to fill water glasses.

.....water comes in fancy bottles.

-Milk was delivered in appealing bottles.

.....we drive the car to pick up boxes of milk.

-When we came home from school we changed from our school clothes to play clothes.

.....school clothes and play clothes are one and the same. Besides few kids play outside.

-When a parent called the doctor, the house was filled with a hushed sense of doom.

.....doctors don't call. We go to clinics.

-A dime was a big deal in a world of pennies.

.....the death knell has been rung for the copper. There isn't any penny candy anyway.

-Grass was grass. Weed was a weed. The fathers spent much time and effort trying to eliminate the    
weeds.

.....Now grass and weed are an evil, a recreation or a occupation for both the growers and the police.

-We brushed our teeth with tooth powder.
.....it takes some time to choose the appropriate toothpaste.

-Our mothers hadn't discovered casseroles. Spaghetti was exotic.
.....now we can't pronounce the names of many things we eat.

-Going out for dinner was a grand event.
.....sitting down to a home cooked meal is not always the norm.

-Nurses were visions of crisp whit cotton.
.....it is difficult to figure out which person is the nurse.

-There were no seat belts.
.....we lucked out when we could stand on the hump in the middle of the back floor.

-Stupid, idiot and shut up were the bad words.
.....it is doubtful our mothers would even recognize the bad words today.

-Sweaters, mitts, scarves were knit of wool.
.....now these are mostly made of recycled pop bottles.

-When we drove an aunt to the aeroport she wore a corsage, got flight insurance from a machine, walked out to the aeroplane across the tarmac.
.....now we drop our friends off and wave as they drag their suitcases through the moving doors.

-We always had to have a clean hanky in our pocket.
.....kleenex is available  almost everywhere.

-We had to stand when our parents friends entered a room.
.....now our parents' friends are our friends.

-Polishing shoes was a weekly task.
.....who polishes their shoes?

-Small English Canadian children's skill at french was limited to Frere Jacque.
..... many small children are at least bilingual.

-Boys had hammers and girls had aprons.
.....Boys and girls have neither.

tbc