I'm headed back to my hometown today - Simcoe. No offense intended to the 4,500 people of Petrolia, where I was born, but we moved to Simcoe when I was 8, and lived there until I was 17, so Simcoe is the place that feels like home to me.
It's a wonderful place.
Random memories - doing my math homework in the new library (not new anymore) - working my first real job at the new KMart (not there anymore) - going to Grade 6 at South School (boarded up) - and Mr. Secord's Grade 4 class where everyone was incredibly tall, and I was very, very small. I did my Grade ... 8? ... speech on the new church that we were building, with the big humongous window at the back of the platform that looked out at the trees. I knew every corner of that space, from the time the foundations were laid until it was fully built.
Wiped out on my bike once, on the way home from highschool. Hands got tangled, so I landed and skidded on my face. That was pretty. Picked myself up to find the church custodian standing on the sidewalk, quietly asking if I was OK. With all my dignity, I proclaimed that I was quite fine, and he graciously pretended not to notice that the lower half of my face was bleeding and swollen.
Fell in and out of love several times.
Rode around in various pickup trucks throughout my teens, and to this day, my idea of the perfect road trip would be in a Ford pickup - but this time I want to drive!
I know why ginseng is a tough crop to get started, and all my friends made scads of money working tobacco. I hung out in Port Dover long before it became a tourist-y place where bikers go.
Was in the same class as NHL hockey player Rob Blake. Didn't matter to me at the time, but I cite it with pride now.
If we wanted to do a serious shopping trip, we went to the new mall in Brantford - very exciting.
Played flute all through highschool. Crazy teacher named Rick Debicki that we all loved, and also all feared, a little bit.
Ate at Yin's in Waterford, before and after the tornado hit.
Had a few BFFE's. Don't know where they are now, except a couple.
But I do still have my "First Annual Lynn River Dry Boat Regatta" t-shirt - it's my favourite, in the jammie department!
Simcoe is a good town.
I'm headed back there today, for Anita's funeral. Awesome lady full of laughter and love. Easy going and fun. I think she might have taught me in Pioneer Girls, but truthfully - I'm not sure.
But she mattered to me, somehow. And I'm sorry she's gone, even though I haven't seen her in years and years. I'm happy for the chance to honour her life.
And I'm happy for the chance to go back to the place from whence I came, just for a few hours.
