“Seccaspina has a point. She has an original turn of mind, entrepenurial zeal and a proven track record in a small business. Not only that she hired a local artist who paints under the name of Emily to decorate her store.”
After my store Flash Cadilac I opened Savannah Devilles and it was part of my life I will never forget.
No one ever complains when “Johnny” or “Susy” makes a sports team. Accolades and scholarships are awarded to those that succeed in the sports world. But in most cases if you were 17 years old, and different before the world of Glee, you were most likely to get just a pat on the back. Actually, you would probably get more of a grimace and a wave of the hand.
When I opened Savannah Devilles I had no idea what the store was going to turn into. Times had changed since the Flash Cadilac era and somehow it became more of a hang out for the young and incredibly hip. A few of these kids had a good home life, but most were not accepted by their parents because they were different. I understood them because I had always been like them, and was never going to change.
To say I loved these kids like they were my very own is an understatement. Initially they were strangers. Throughout the weeks and months, each one showed an unbelievable talent, and we all became very close. Like me, a lot of these kids had left home at barely 15 and were living where they could.
I used to have a big change jar at the counter and any customer could donate to it. If some kid needed some food or bus fare he or she was welcome to take what they needed on the condition that he replace the money in the jar. I had parents call me sometimes asking me if I had seen their child. Most times I could help them with information and kind of act like a liaison between them. Each week it seemed a few more kids would come into my store and the “family” began to burst at the seams.
Soon, the Savannah Devilles Project began. I called it a project because so many of them had talents that needed to be shared. Each one of them excelled in something, and they needed to know how important they were to the world. We had live performances in the store windows on Saturdays. Artists brought in their work to display and sell. Budding fashion designers, and writers brought their wares in for others to see and admire. It had simply become a community that had started with strangers.
Then the painting began almost like Michelangelo did in the Sistine Chapel. The masterminds were: “the artist formerly known as Emily”, Karren Squarejane Halley and Sybil Lamb. Karren said they collaborated in the dirt and the grass in their backyard while they slammed paint around on planks of wood. The individual plank paintings took anywhere from 2- 8 hours each and the multiple skulls painted on the facade of the concrete took about another three or four days.
The skulls were the most tedious due to the multi-ridged texture of the concrete and the numerous skulls that were painted.
As Sybil explained to me in an email a few weeks ago,
“Painting 668 skulls on TEXTURED COREGATED CEMENT is a “bish” !”
In the end I stood up to City Hall just like the kids that came into my store did for their own lives everyday. I exercised my artistic license and told the City of Ottawa to stick it where the sun did not shine. Every piece of art work was removed and all the skulls were painted over except for just one. That lone skull was left there as a reminder to everyone that:
Many years later I am proud to say that these strangers that turned into my family went on to become recognized citizens of the world. They have become artists, writers, teachers, editors, government workers and the list goes on.
It was not me, the clothing or anything else that created Savannah Devilles. It was each and every stranger that came into that store that was not generic, boring, or typecast. They molded it into what it became. I am so proud of all of you for becoming what you wanted to be and staying true to yourselves
i was caught and charged. You heard my story and gave me a chance. You dropped the charges and i think i worked a little to pay some of it off if i remember correctly. Youll never know how much this affected me. It changed me in many ways. I eventually got off the streets and followed a bf to Niagara to get away from bad habits. I never looked back. Ive been here 30 years now. I make battle vests and do some wardrobe design for stage wear movies and film…fanADDix is my page. I have been working with the homeless here for the last 4 years also. This has always been something I wanted to do and i finally get to. This is absolutely because I met a successful, strong, kind stranger who understood me. Who gave me a chance and showed me what a healthy punk rock life could be. Im elated to put a name to the face in my memories and THANK YOU will never ever be enough 
Gillian UnderhillJust a few of the ‘kids’ that are all grown up now.
They say everything comes 360 and in going through things Llew sent me I had no idea he knew Sybil Lamb– Sybil Lamb painted the front of my store with artwork back in the 90s on Rideau Street.. What a small world.
” It’s by our former neighbour’s daughter. She publishes under the pseudonym Sybil Lamb”Llew
David Llew Lloyd would send me stories and photos.. Today it’s a homage to a wonderful person we have lost.
lindaseccaspina 
Linda. You are awesome!!!! One of the natural wonders of this country.
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Natural maybe as we are old and decaying now LOL but I am so proud of the people I once knew.:)
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Reblogged this on lindaseccaspina and commented:
A voice from the past contacted me today and I had to add her comments
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