From the days when a one garage was a luxury

 

When I was a boy the immediate neighbourhood where I lived had almost no homes with an attached garage. Even carports were rare. We did have alleys and some homes had a garage accessed from the alley behind the home.

This home in North London must have been a rare beauty when it was new. It had an attached garage,  set back a little and not built in the later garage-forward style. The front door was impressive in a quiet way with its cut ston and thick wood trim. I would not be surprised if the wood door with large, black hinges is either the original or a replacement door with the look of the original.

This is a home that has lost none of its eloquent demeanour over the passing decades. Nor has its neighbourhood, for that matter.

A small North London Home

At one time, North London was THE neighbourhood. It held onto its number one position in the neighbourhood pecking order for decades. It still rates quite high in the neighbourhood sweepstakes even today. Many of the homes are beautiful. Oh, some are small and others are quite large but almost all have personality to spare.  

At one time both millionaires and people of much lesser means lived in the same neighbourhood. Clearly, this was never a millionaire's home. But in the coming days I will post some much pictures of much larger, grander homes. Today, homes are grouped together by value. Not so in the distant past.

A colourful, beautiful memory

The man and his wife used to sell lilies. Lovely lilies. They had a small farm but they didn't raise one of the usual cash crops. They grew lilies.

The farm was very popular and folks came from hundreds of miles to visit their acres of lily beds and place orders for their favourite blooms, many of which were unique or at least rare.

But time marches on and a few years ago the couple got too old to continue and they retired. The lily beds were emptied of flowers and today the land is devoid of lilies. And yet, the memories linger and come to life in the thousands and thousands of beautiful blooms in flower beds across the province.

Strawberry picking is back

Strawberry picking is a family outing for many London area families. Unfortunately, the pick-ur-own strawberry fields were closed last year. Why? COVID-19. 

This year the strawberry farms are again open for business. Is a pint of pick-ur-own strawberries less money than buying them in the local grocery store? This may surprise you but the answer is no. In fact, locally grown berries are often cheaper in the stores.

Families with little kids are not very efficient. Having fun, not saving money, is the goal and most folk would tell you that this is inexpensive family fun.

A symbol of a richer, more diverse, Canada

When I was a boy back in the early '50s very few folk would have been able to recognize Thai summer roll accompanied by a peanut dipping sauce. Canada was very much a meat and potatoes place seventy years ago, at least in the town where I lived.

Fast forward to today. Thai summer rolls with rice paper wraps are a favourite appetizer to be enjoyed at the neighbourhood Thai restaurant. There were no Thai restaurants seventy years ago in most Canadian neighbourhoods.

For the past year and half there were again no Thai restaurants. In fact, there were no restaurants at all. COVID-19 saw to it that most restaurants have been closed for months on end except for the occasional periods when patios have been allowed.

With more and more Canadians getting their second vaccination, the restaurant shutdowns are becoming a feature of the not-too-distant past. Our local Thai diner is again open, at least the patio. Soon, it is hoped, inside dining will also return.

Repurposed

The shop in St. Jacobs has carved out a special niche in retail. It sells used goods, often quite old, some might say heritage items, and buyers are encouraged to take this stuff and repurpose it.

My wife saw the fancy Victorian wooden columns supporting spindled arches and immediately thought of our backyard. I immediately thought of the difficulty of getting this large structure home. It wasn't going to fit in the trunk of our car. It might even be hard loading it onto a truck.

It stayed in St. Jacobs. Once back in London, we both had another thought: what was that beautiful, intricate structure originally? Was it used inside an old, Victorian home? It didn't look weathered. An indoor use now seems reasonable.

St. Jacobs is about an hour east of Lonon

The old diesel engine and what appeared to be long out-of-service passenger cars carried a unknown (to me) moniker—Waterloo Central Railway. I had to stop, look around and grab a picture.

I have since learned that the Waterloo Central Railway is a heritage railway offering historic passenger train rides between Northfield Drive in Waterloo, the St. Jacobs Farmers’ Market, Village of St. Jacobs and Town of Elmira. Clearly, it is not running at this time thanks to COVID-19 restrictions.

The WCR is operated by the Southern Ontario Locomotive Restoration Society (SOLRS), a not-for-profit, registered charitable organization.  All ticket proceeds go toward supporting operations and restoration programs that the group's volunteers complete at its restoration and maintenance facility in St. Jacobs.