Category » Local History
Remembrance Day
This blog is to honour the memories of my two grandfathers, both Canadian veterans. I had not intended to write this until, earlier today, I realized that I share the same ambivalence toward Remembrance Day as did both of those men, Corporal Leslie Duncan Dewar, and Private Roderick Chalykoff. To say that both saw active […]
Stew & June Daymond
One of the closest of my boyhood friends called last night to let me know that his father, Stewart Francis Daymond, had died, the day prior, Saturday 25 June 2022. While it was clear that Stew, as he was known, had done well in building and running a successful business, what was not clear is […]
What’s Old and New
The subject of this blog is intersections in time as we come to the end of 2020. In south Oakville, in the last 20 years, parts of the town have been altered so radically that people who grew up here and left, upon visiting, might question whether they were on the same block they had […]
Equus at Avalon
Sometime in my mid-high school years (c. 1976), a rumour circulated that Richard Burton was filming in Oakville. Richard Burton was a mid-20th-century legend, as famous for his romances and off-stage life as for his prodigious skills as a thespian. If you have any doubt of the latter claim, watch his Hamlet, dressed in contemporary […]
On the Death of Lorne Robert Charlton (1957-2019)
I learned on Monday morning that former high school mate, Lorne Charlton, had passed away, at 62 years of age. At a time when Canadian men have an average life expectancy of just less than 81 years, it seems he, and we, were shortchanged by a full quarter, though those be dangerous odds to play. […]
The Death of Mrs. Bramall, 1922-2018
I have been dreading the death of Mrs. Bramall for years. My fear was based on concerns architectural and artistic, but mostly small town and cultural. Though I didn’t know her well, we’ve both been part of Oakville for over 50 years. I knew all of her children, but only briefly as they were of […]