When Dennis Pratt, Shane Ramsay, Peter Craig and Ron Exell were in grade 2, they learned how to ride their bikes together. Those bikes took them soaring over mounds that became launching pads, and into flight. For Dennis and Ron, flight became their dream as they entered North Collegiate and flying became their common goal….
Lottie Shaw Bonney was born in Oro Township in April, 1902. A lifelong resident of Oro, this fifth of Harry and Margaret Shaw’s nine children married Percy Bonney in 1922 and they farmed in Oro all their lives. Agriculture and church were huge impacts on Lottie’s life, and she gave as much back as she…
It would have made a great Tim Horton’s commercial, if anyone would believe it! A group of us, about eight in all, have come from just about every walk of life to think about what it’s like to juggle several jobs to make one income. The work of the 90’s and beyond. Juggling. Contingent Worker….
As I move through life, I’m learning to set my sights and my energies on the solution, rather than focussing on the problem. It’s sure a better place to anchor myself, and it has much more positive results. The same philosophy is in evidence with an ambitious project now underway through the Barrie Women’s and…
The 50’s decade was a re-birth for Milda Veveris, Maria and Janis Udris, and thousands of refugees from the Baltic countries of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia who came to Canada when Russia invaded, converted, and purged these countries of their educated citizens. Three decades later Canadians again opened their hearts to Vietnamese and Laotian refugees…
It’s April Fools Day, and I’m looking at Kempenfelt Bay, where just two weeks ago I walked downtown on the ice, enjoying the scene from the (ice) waterlevel. And soon it will be water. And this, for Christians, is Easter Weekend. For those with other faiths, or no faith, or lapsed faith, or even Christians…
When I think about Mike Guilbault, these words spring into my mind… energetic, empathetic, giving, and great! We meet a lot of self employed people out there, but few as genuine as Mike. I first met Mike when he was “growing” his personal photography hobby into his own business, and it’s been a continuous charm…
When political awareness caused Barrie’s Central Collegiate to change its historic logo and name (Redmen), the incident created an incredible wave of opportunity throughout Barrie’s oldest secondary school. A new name, new logo, same colours, new attitude was marshalled within the student body. The teams’ new name, Phoenix, means “rising from the ashes” and a…
She was a gangly, six week old baby, panting behind the grating at the Toronto Humane Society. She was “a Simcoe County breed”, that special blend of dog genetics that even a purebred lover would get attached to. We were looking, at the time, for a pup that would be a great addition to our…
If you drive south on Burton Avenue in Barrie, and wait until it’s really Yonge St., you’ll be driving along what was countryside just a few years ago. The “new” Steckley Gooderham Funeral Home, McDonalds, Tim Horton’s, and the tremendous housing development along Lovers Creek and in Painswick have all changed the landscape of Barrie’s…