OR MORE ACCURATELY...TWO SPELLINGS.
TODAY MARKS MY FINAL BLOG AND WITH IT, I RETURN TO MY HOME TOWN WHERE I GREW UP IN THE 50s and 60s..Brighton, then a village of some 1,500 souls.
The street I grew up on, along with my lifetime good buddy Johnny, ran East and West approx. 200 yards north and parallel with King's Highway 2, then Canada's only National Road System.
It was not a big street in the scheme of things, our house was situated in its eastern portion while Johnny's home rested in the western part.
My side was named Sanford, while his ...Sandford.
Agreed, not a big difference in the scheme of things but different nonetheless.
Not that it mattered all that much since in those days, everyone knew everyone else ...including our Post Office folks, so even if our street had no name, the mail would have reached us on time and at pennies per first class stamp.
But the name difference did cause Johnny and me numerous problems especially when we often ended up in the wrong end of the street confusing the name Sanford with the name Sandford or vice a versa.
Okay, I exaggerate a little.
So enough about our street. Let's return to our home town.
Brighton, in those days, was set in a much simpler time and as I have mentioned before, the change within which we find ourselves today, had its beginnings back then. It is amazing how many other writers hone in on this same theme.
That is not to say the 1950s and early 1960s were Utopia...they were not. For instance, women for the most part were confined to the home, which was wrong. But at the same time, their children benefited greatly from their presence.
The bottom-line though ...it was not right, nor fair, to place that burden solely on the household's wife and mother.
I am not going to review the many other societal changes that have occurred since those days and if you are unaware of those, I suggest you read my earlier blogs.
But I will tell you about my first encounter with our new age. It happened in our grade 8 class. Each morning we opened with the Lord's Prayer and with the signing of God Save the Queen. This one particular morning one of our classmates, Joey, refused to stand for the Queen. I was shocked.
But as the 60s rolled into the 70s and so on, there would be many such shocks.
To my 122,623 reads, I leave you with my sincere thanks.
As I Saw It...
'K.D. Bell'
