Anchored out and yet social distancing not assured

Sunday, my wife and I took a quick trip to Port Stanley. We had to get out of the house. The four walls were closing in.

We found a beach on the east side of the village that we had never visited before. There were lakefront cottages, a popular beach, parking and small yachts anchored immediately off shore. Some of the boats were rafted together, giving the appearance of a breakdown in social distancing. Without actually chatting with the folk on the boats, it's impossible to say whether or not the recreational sailors were thumbing their noses at the guidelines or not.

Yes, London, Ontario, is located on the Thames River.

Years ago I wrote a column for the local paper, The London Free Press. The column was called Celebrate the Thames. At that time, I was told the following story by a local historian who claimed that contrary to popular mythology, a mythology backed up with lots of solid quotes from Simcoe himself, London is NOT the capital of the province because of the Thames River. The fellow was clearly swimming upstream, swimming against the current of public opinion.) 

You see, Londoners believe Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe wanted the capital of Upper Canada to be established at the Forks of the Thames River. And at one point, Simcoe did want this. He formed this dream while still in England, encouraged by maps that indicated the Thames was a mighty river.

Simcoe thought the headwaters of the river ended in the Halton Hills northwest of present day Toronto. But arriving in the area he discovered this was not true. Nor was the river particularly mighty. 

Now, Simcoe fought openly with his boss Lord Dorchester on many matters. But when it came to Simcoe's plans for a capital at the forks, Simcoe quickly and quietly acquiesced to Lord Dorchester and Toronto became the capital. 

The historian believed that Simcoe realized he had been out of touch when it comes to reality and the little, shallow-in-the-summer river. Today the Back to the River folk carry on the tradition of seeing myth rather than reality when it comes to the river. For instance, the group confused a reservoir behind a dam with a river.

Back to the River has become a bit of an ironic name for the group now that the Springbank Dam is out of commission and will likely never be rebuilt. Their grandiose dream for the Forks of the Thames may have gone with the disappearance of the working dam.

Shaw's IS the Home of Ice Cream

Established in 1948, Shaw's is the Home of Ice Cream. Still! This is amazing as Shaw's got out of the direct-to-customer retail dairy-treats business 19 years ago. The operation on the main highway between London and St. Thomas was sold in 2001 to three enterprising sisters who still run the business today.

The girls know how to run a successful operation. They have focused on quality. No fancy digs for them. Just great, traditional ice cream in oodles of flavours. When it comes to shakes, cones and sundaes made with traditional hard ice cream there's not a lot of competition in this area. The two places offering this product are located far enough apart that they do not compete directly. Where they do compete is in the quality arena. And both deliver wonderful, tasty ice cream-based products.

My granddaughters and I like to give our business to both operations.

For ice cream, stand here. Cones mark the spot.

My wife and I escaped the four-walls of our home and headed for the beach, for Port Stanley about forty minutes south of the city on Lake Erie.

On our way home, we stopped at Shaw's Home of Ice Cream. Shaw's has been in the same location since 1948 but it present owners, three sisters, only date from 2001. Today Shaw's sells more than 45 flavours of hard ice cream made at its nearby St. Thomas plant.

Like every other business, Shaw's has marked where one must stand. At Shaw's, ice cream cones mark the spot for social distancing. We ordered two cones. I got pistachio almond and my wife had butterscotch ripple.

A home that is remarkable because it is unremarkable

Walking about my friend's neighbourhood in Stratford, I was struck by the beautiful, oh-so-tidy, heritage homes. I thought they were remarkable: so beautiful, so well-maintained, so clearly loved. And then I realized that what truly made them remarkable was how unremarkable these homes are in much of Canada. Many Canadians live this way and think almost nothing of it.

I was going to say "think nothing of it," but that wouldn't be true. I don't think most of us truly appreciate how lucky we are but we do have an inkling.

Social distancing wildlife

You couldn't get a picture showing all the ducks as there were trees blocking the view, but there were dozens of duck sitting along the river bank and they were all nicely spaced apart. My wife thought it looked like duck-style social distancing. I thought they needed a few more feet of separation and masks but then they are just geese. What can one expect?

The Stratford Normal School

When my wife realized we were looking at the Stratford Normal School, she exclaimed, "That's the school your mom attended, Ken!" My mother, born in the early years of the last century, was one of almost 14,000 students who went on to graduate from the Stratford Normal School. After graduating, my mother landed a position teaching in the far eastern end of the province where she met her future husband, my dad.

This is what the Ontario Heritage Trust has to say about the structure:

In the 1900s, concerns about the quality of rural education prompted the Ontario government to build four new Normal Schools to increase the supply of qualified teachers in the province. The Stratford Normal School prepared its students for conditions in the rural schools that employed most new teachers. It is the only one of the Normal Schools from its era to survive without substantial alteration.

For more pictures and a bit more information read the posting on Canada's Historic Places.