Das Haircut

My father wasn't one to spend money when he didn't absolutely have
to spend money. 

Before my brothers were old enough to care how they looked this
was a common enough scene at our house.

The red in the picture isn't blood.  It just signifies my own alarm
at the predicament of my sweet baby brother.


Fortunately my mother and I went off to the local Merritton Beauty
Parlour which was in those days like going into a private club just
for girls and women. 

No boys allowed!


On the surface the 1950s were so innocent. 


***

Grounded in Merritton

A now-abandoned lock of the Second Welland Canal in Merritton, Ontario. The photo shows the previous location of one of the two lock gates. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)


A few weeks ago I mentioned that I had started a new blog

about my hometown Merritton, Ontario

 http://www.slabtowncanada.blogspot.com 

and was hoping to inspire others Merritton people to blog

their stories about  the old town.

 

On one hand I haven't been very successful.  I didn't realize

that blogging is a unique  form of writing to which not all people

can  adapt.

On the other hand the face book group that I set up to go along

with the blog is becoming quite popular.  More and more folks

are connecting with long lost friends and the "do you remember

when ..." conversations are long and always amusing.

 

Old photos are coming out of albums and being posted for

everybody to see. 


People we've lost are being mourned.

 

It has given me a feeling of being grounded. 

Of belonging.

 

I'm still hoping to round up more bloggers but for now

I'm one happy Cave Springs* camper!




* Cave Springs was the name of the camp a

lot of Merritton kids went to in the summer




***

Labour Day Memories

Labour Day is the biggest day of the year in my working class home town of Merritton, Ontario, Canada.

Lots of kids, families, trucks and local entertainment.

It's a time to connect with old friends.

 
These aren't old friends.

I actually don't know these people.


But I do know the house. 

I lived in it until I went to university.


Like everybody in Merritton they were having a Labour Day party and didn't mind chatting and showing me what the house looks like now.

It brought back a lot of memories of my childhood.

 
However I really did meet up with some old friends.

This is Tiff and her gorgeous son Nate. 

We  were teaching partners one year, but the family connection is that I went to school in Merritton with her mother-in-law and father-in-law.

As a matter of fact  -  it was while I was babysitting with her mother-in-law that I kissed a boy for the first time!!

And yes we would have been in big trouble if we'd been caught.

This was the best part of the day I think. 

I swear it has been 50 years since I last had french fries and vinegar in a cardboard container on Labour Day.

Talk about heaven!!!

The years seem to have gone by so fast

and I suppose there thousands of Labour Day celebrations around the world every year

but there just can't be one better than the one in your own home town.

Merritton's Labour Day Parade - A Comment

Labour Day was a big event in the small town of Merritton, Ontario, when I was a kid in the 1950s.

Most of the families were dependent on the work the men got at the paper mills that sat on the edge of the Welland Canal.

Consequently, Labour Day with its show of force by the unions, was one of the most important holidays of the year.

But the factories are gone now and in recent years the unions have been in such disfavour that the Labour Day Parade was renamed 'The Community Days Parade' or something sad like that.

 And the unions were only allowed to march after the parade was finished.

It was a grim state of affairs.

But this year was different.

Labour was back and in a big way.

Peter Kormos led the parade and it gave everyone a chance to say thanks for his years of public service.

No more relegated to the back of the parade, the blue collar (and yes white collar workers, too, Debra), marched at the front, in the middle and at the end.

 There was a reminder that with the loss of so many manufacturing jobs Niagara is still hurting

 But it was a big day the unionized workers.

A last gasp?


Hard to say. 

I don't hold out much hope for the big unions.



But I would sure be happy to be wrong!

Related articles

• Layton honoured at Toronto's Labour Day parade (cbc.ca)
• Annual Labour Day march to honour Jack Layton and defend public services (thestar.com)

Grave Faces III



Merritton, Ontario




This is the face I am most familiar with. He stands worn and weather beaten at the cenotaph in my hometown.

He is unusual because he is not on a pedestal. He stands almost at ground level, signifying to the working class men and women who gather around him on Remembrance Day that he is one of them - a son, father or a brother.

But his gaze is turned away from the people.

And he doesn't speak to the glory of war or to patriotism.

He simply represents the dead.

Port Dalhousie, Ontario

This young man came home.

The zoom lens on the camera has caught a pensive moment that the casual viewer from street level would not see.

As he places a wreath at the cenotaph is he wondering about fate? How it happened that he lived while others died? 

All we know for sure is that soon he will straighten his back and turn his face to the future.

This sculpture is not so much about mourning lives lost as it is about teaching us that life must go on.



Thorold, Ontario



This proud figure stands very high, so high it was almost impossible to get a view of his face.

The war never really ended for him, his work has continued.

He epitomizes the line in the national anthem, "Oh Canada, we stand on guard for thee".



Niagara Falls, Ontario



This soldier is also placed on a very high pedestal.

His helmet is off, he has taken a moment to remember his comrades.

We get the feeling however, that he thinks he will be able to rejoin the battle at any minute.

He does not yet understand that he is one of the fallen.



Welland, Ontario



This astonishing monument looms across Chippawa Park in Welland.

According to the plaque it was the last monument made in Canada commemorating World War 1. It was dedicated in 1939 on the day after World War II broke out.

The Canadian soldier is protecting a female figure from a terrible evil. His fighting stance tells us he will never give up, never retreat.

In 1939 the woman represented Great Britain and other European allies.

Today she represents Afghanistan.

***

Thank you to our veterans and thank you to the men and women who are in uniform serving our country today.