We’re sure a mobile population these days… A generation ago, it was a big deal for my parents to leave their home town of Belleville, and trek up Highway 2 with all their worldly possessions in a 1947 Chev and set up housekeeping in Orangeville. Visits home took forever and were virtually impossible for a…
I’m not a fatalist by nature, but the pantyhose should have been the big warning sign. A great lover of the business pantsuit, I don’t often jam myself into ‘nylon stockings’ but this morning, in honour of the funeral of the mother of my friend Bob, I donned a skirt and the compulsory pantyhose. With…
Beryl Baker isn’t like other daughters, or mothers, or grandmothers. When she was struck by polio as a child in 1954, doctors told her parents that if her fever broke, she would live; if it didn’t, she would die. It was that simple in 1954 and thousands of Canadian children were struck by a disease…
Music. Humour. Involvement. Commitment. The belief that life’s troubles can be either stumbling blocks or stepping stones. Vic Knox enrolled in the commercial class of Barrie’s only high school in 1929. And 49 years later he capped a 42 year teaching career that saw him walk off the stage at Barrie Central and head into…
If we’re lucky in life, one person can give us grace. I’m talking about that individual adult who sees something special in us as children. And seeing that something special, commenting on it, and nurturing it makes a difference in our world. Sad thing is that many of us never know if we’ve made a…
When you’re running on the track at the Barrie Y, when you’re having Xrays at Royal Victoria Hospital, when you’re enjoying many of the marvellous gifts that Rotary Clubs have given this community, you’re being touched by Bob Sarjeant. As I sat reading national and local newspapers over Christmas season, I was grateful for the…
When Scott Hurst left Barrie for Moscow on Friday, September 13, it was to join a Broadway production of 42nd St– incredible opportunity for an accomplished Canadian actor who not only performs professionally but who also directs and produces musical shows for South Simcoe Theatre in Cookstown. As he left for Moscow, Scott was excited…
If you’re reading this on Sunday, Tony Gilsenan has checked his bags at Pearson Airport and is tucked into a seat, no doubt in hospitality class, and likely by a window. He’s moving to British Columbia. He’s leaving Barrie. How can Tony Gilsenan leave Barrie? And how will Barrie be without Tony? The city Tony…
These days Geoff Mitchinson looks out on Kempenfelt Bay from his office in the City of Barrie’s Engineering Department. And Kempenfelt Bay is certainly the body of water that Geoff knows intimately. Every ripple. In fact, the bigger the ripple, the better the ride. Geoff grew up in Barrie’s east end, son of Jack Mitchinson…
It’s happened. I look back now to my youth and I remember clearly the day I tsked tsked at my mother, wondering how she could possibly, possibly be seen downtown wearing those peddle pushers, those sneakers, and that incredible haircut. The year was 1966 and I was tying a black ribbon around my shoulder-length, very…