I lived on the same street, in downtown Toronto for 20 years, when I got married I moved next door for the next 70 months. I attended a university, so close I rode my bike daily even in the winter. Riverdale was convenient, inexpensive and comfortable. Ample money to frequent unique restaurants and travel. Free music tickets for Massey Hall and Maple Leaf Gardens, original pre-released albums, from my Dad, the only discount stereo dealer in Ontario. My dad was an audiophile and my boyfriends all loved the music.
My dad ran his business out of our home for years, before his move to the Colonnade at Bay and Bloor. I grew up with stereo components everywhere, including having $350 Bose speakers in my bedroom. My dad designed speaker boxes, imported them from Hungary and we would deliver equipment to bars and restaurants all over Ontario and the Northern States.
My husband, Lorne collected old jazz, R&B, blues, rockabilly 78’s and we had 5 old Wurlitzers, complete with posters and memorabilia. We would go on extended pilgrimages to the US for concerts and records every opportunity we could. Lorne opened a used record store at Queen and Broadview while he was still working at CBC and still hosts successful vinyl record shows. My life was filled with music and musicians.
I had been accepted into Chiropractic College 1974 when I got itchy feet for foreign lands. The next 7 years I felt I was living out of a suitcase. I only came home when I ran out of money. By 1975 I had moved to Kitchener, rented a room in a co-op, and kept travelling further and further afield. In 1977 I bought a triplex with money I had saved in high school, rented out everything except one room and kept travelling. 1982 I found myself pregnant, attending U of Waterloo, so I bought 4 more houses as I thought, it would be a while before I could travel again, but in 1986 I spent a month in BC and the Yukon, 1988 I spent 2 summer months in Peru and 2 winter months in Arizona. Then I sold 5 houses to pay for education and bought a monster home in Hespeler. Thank God my next trip 1991, was won, by opening an account at Royal Trust to anywhere in the world plus $2000 US. I took my sister to Thailand and then I went on to India for the next six weeks.
Talk about extremes in lifestyle; 25 years on a culdesac with 2 ‘no exit’ signs remind me daily how trapped I am by my possessions. My life is littered with old stereo components, thousands of old vinyl records, books and memorabilia. Home is now shackling my freedom. Tara plans to stay in Australia, and is urging me to liquidate and move to Bali or Papua New Guinea, somewhere warmer and closer.
My Mom, 92 would love to have me drive her to her appointments in Florida, and my retirement home is on a small BC Gulf Coast Island, Gabriola. If I had the money I would definitely attend the local massage therapy school as well as an acupuncture school in Toronto. These licences would further my career plans, whether I decide to stay here, Florida or Australia. I am dabbling with Spanish CDs because if I sell my home I would love to study medicine in Cuba and take my skills on the road maybe to Malawi, in Africa, where my neighbours have had a mission for 20 years and a good homeopathic teaching school has been established to treat tropical diseases like malaria, HIV and sleeping sickness. I think my days in Hespeler are numbered, I hear the call of the road once again. I am fighting inertia as I have become so fat and contented surrounded by old treasures, reminding me of a similar situation in Riverdale so long ago.
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