Memories of Past Times

  Life in the Village – More Events (continued) The Village Central Park – For us kids, it was the park. Not only could we play safely in the park, there were plenty of events and equipment to keep us amused. One of the events that I remember most, not counting Christmas , were the “ Mayday ” celebrations. Each year the park and the tennis courts were set up to celebrate the arrival of spring. A large “ maypole ” would be erected and ribbons would be attached to the top of the pole and hang down to the ground. Each of us ( those who were going to dance around the pole ) would pick up one of the ribbons. The “ Maypole Dance ” would then begin and we would all circle the pole, weaving the ribbons in unique patterns. After that we would gather together for a fun ” feast ” ( pot luck barbeque ). It was a great ceremony, especially for what was to follow about to follow! SUMMER ! The great part about the park is that we could play safely until late in the day. However, when it was ti...

Life in the Village – More Events With the Club House, swimming pool and central park completed, more and more different activities took place. This community complex was the centre of village life. All kinds of events and activities were run throughout the year. Poker Club – Not for me, but for my father. Although, as I told you earlier, I was “ quite ” the poker player! No, my dad loved to play poker with his friends, thus, the Poker Club . Arousing poker games took place during the winter month at the Thorncrest Village Club House . The poker “ gang ” became such close friends, that they memorialized their club and their time together by producing a set of glasses. Each glass had the signatures of all the players. When my dad passed away, I inherited the glasses and kept them safe until a gave them to my daughter. I’m not sure if she still has them. I am not sure how well my dad fared (won), but I know he really enjoyed the club, the games, and the club members.  

  Life in the Village – Construction and More… As I have said, the village was new and under construction when we moved there. One of the first “ infrastructure ” priorities was building the Club House and Administrative building and the community pool. Back then the village had 2 main restrictions, no fences , and no private pool s. The construction was a village affair. Even my brother, Chuck, got into the action. He was young and strong and volunteered to help build the facility. I’m not sure if he volunteered or got paid. No matter, he was still part of the original building crew. For families, the facilities were great! For me, the swimming pool was the best. This is the place that I really learned to swim and dive. As I mentioned previously, I became a strong swimmer. This was mainly because of the Thorncrest pool. The village always held plenty of exciting swimming activities. Throughout the time that we lived there, the village held yearly swim meets. Like most of the nei...

Can You Come Out to Play? My friend Richard had a neighbourhood friend, Ronnie Smith . Ronnie lived beside the Lamberts. One day Richard asked Ronnie to go to my home and deliver a message to me. We had built a new and better fort and less susceptible to burning down. Richard wanted me to come to the fort. Ronnie came to our house, knocked on the door. My mother answered the door and asked Ronnie what he wanted. Ronnie delivered the message to my mother! “ Richard wants Gary to come to the fort for a SMOKE .” Shortly after that the only thing that was “ SMOKING ” was my “ BOTTOM ”. ( you, get the picture ). That was the end of my trips to the “ fort’ for a smoke with Richard! Unfortunately, not many years after that my mother relented and allowed me to smoke in front of her ( not my father ). That habit lasted until May 31, 1974 . I’ll tell later how I stopped smoking and never smoked again. I believe my stopping then helped to save my life later.  

The Smoking Fort Since Richard and I couldn’t smoke at home, we had to find a place we could smoke in private. What better place than a tree line that sat between two hay fields. It was definitely private, close to our homes and the village club house and there was lots of hay for us to be comfortable. We, of course, did think out the possible challenges, you know, dry hay and lite cigarettes. You are probably thinking right now, “ are you kidding ”! Alas no, the inevitable happened. The fort caught on fire. Like honest little boys, we rushed to the club house to tell them there was a fire in the hay field. The fire department ( likely volunteers ) were called and came, siren blaring. Richard and I waited patiently for them to arrive and even offered to help put out the fire. The foremen, politely, told “ no thanks ” and suggested we go home. I’m not sure if they figured out that we had started the fire ( they probably did ), but they could have proved anything, because the “ evidence ...

Smoking Smoking for adults back, when I was a kid, wasn’t considered a bad thing. In effect, most of the adults I knew, smoked. I think that it was result of soldiers returning from the wars. I believe that most soldiers smoked to calm their nerves. That being said, smoking was just “ normal ”. Smoking in cars, home, restaurants, bars and events was not frowned upon. It wasn’t until later that people became aware of the perils of smoking ( well, so much for my lecture, sorry ). Unfortunately, the smoking habit rubbed off on the lot of kids, myself and Richard included. Tobacco companies made it easy for kids to buy “ smokes ”. Thorncrest Village was one of the first places in Ontario to have a shopping centre. Not an enclosed mall, but an outdoor shopping centre with about 15 stores. It was a new concept that allowed village residents to shop locally. The centre had a grocery store, a restaurant and, I think, a pharmacy. It also had a service station. On the service station property ...

The School Bus Incident   My first “ run in ” with the “ gang ” was on one of our school bus trips. The pubic school we all attended was miles away from the village. As a result, we had to be bused to the school. It was about a 20-minute trip. Enough time for us to get into trouble! I was small for my age and took a bit of ribbing. I think that I was 5 or 6 when this event happened. I won’t name names ( Joanie ), who was much bigger than me. We were all messing around in the back, joking around, when Joannie thought it would be fun to have a “ pile-on ”. Everyone started jumping on one another. Unfortunately, I ended up on the bottom, not good. The bus driver heard to commotion and told us all to settle down or we’d be in big trouble. We settled down and snickered at lot. I think it was an incident that bonded us all together. After that our school bus trips were fun, but much quieter.

Early Days – Friends   Thorncrest Village was a paradise for families and their kids. As I said, the village park was a great, safe place for us the play, especially once the swimming pool was built. My first friend, and I mean my first friend, was Richard Lambert . He lived a few houses away from ours. We were the same age and liked to do the same things. Over time, we both met other village kids. There was Gordon “Dido” Foss ( his father was the developer and concept creator of the Village ), Mike Cox ( who I, and another village friend, rented an apartment, after we had left highschool ), Terry Jones ( who had a heart condition and passed away too far too early ), Joannie Graham ( I’ll tell you a fun story about her a little late ), John Flegg , who lived on the hill above our home. There were others, whose names I can’t recall.   The village was such a great place for us all to play together and to go to school together. These friendships lasted, for me, until I was ...

The Village (Part Two)   I believe that the first facility to be built was the Village Club House . It was located in the middle of the village on the village park. This is where the Board of Directors met and, where a small staff ran the village’s administration. Over time, other amenities were added, a community swimming pool ( this is where I really learned to swim) , tennis courts and a play area for village children. There were two roads that “ ringed ” the park and the Club House. Our home was located at the east end of the park. It was my friends and my safe “ play ground ” for many years. This was a fun community where neighbours talked to one another, and did things together. I’ll talk more about that a little later.

The Village (Part One) We moved to Thorncrest Village in 1949. I was 4 years old. I loved living in the Village . Back then, it was a new type of community. I think that it was the one of the first, of its type, in Canada. It was, and still is, located in Toronto ( Etobicoke ). Thorncrest Village was designed like today’s “ gated ” communities. The only real difference was that there were no gates, and for that matter, no fences. Fences and personal swimming pools were not allowed. This was a “ managed ” community, with strict rules and was governed by a Board of Directors made up of village residents. When we moved to the Thorncrest , the community was only a few years old. The Thorncrest Village was being developed in the “ middle " of nowhere. Surrounding the village were farm fields. For those of you who know the area, Islington Avenue was a bumpy paved rural road. Eglington Avenue was called Richview Sideroad and Kipling Avenue was a bridle path which “ hobos ” used t...

Cottage – Family (at the end)   When my parents first bought the Lake of Bays cottage, the whole family took advantage of enjoying it during the summer. At that time, we all lived in the “ big smoke ”, Toronto . Towards the end, before my parents sold the cottage, we ( the kids ) had all started to have different priorities and lives. My older sister moved to the USA with her husband and family. My younger sister's husband owned an ESSO service station and worked on the weekends. And, my brother was busy with all his other activities. And, I, got summer jobs ( at the ESSO station and others ); got a “ real ” job ( at my father’s insurance agency ); got married; bought a home ( Bramalea ); and had a daughter ( Ainsley ). I think life just got the better of all of us. For my parents, however, the cottage became a burden. Dad would have to open and close the cottage on his own. We, my brother and I were too caught up in our own lives to “ worry ” about opening and closing the cottage...

Cottage – Family (Card Games) If you have ever seen a “ free for all mud wresting match ”, you’ll be able to understand our family “ group solitaire tournaments ”. They were all out, every man/woman for themselves. Each player had their own set of cards and played Solitaire ( aka Patience ) like they did if they were playing individually, laying our suits from aces to kings. The variation to individual solitaire was that you could lay your card on someone else’s pile. This may seem simple enough, when there are 8 or 10 players vying for the same pile “ heck ” breaks out! No one is safe, not even a young “ card shark ” kid! Fingers would get crushed, hands smacked and names called! Oh, what fun we had, a lot of yelling and laughter! We would all go to bed ( me ) tired and happy. When family, except me, were not at the cottage, my parents, as I mentioned before, would invite friend couples up for the weekend. At night, card games would take place, usually bridge or Euchre. I would norm...