Yesterday I found an old postcard that featured William Street from my childhood home of Cowansville, Quebec. It brought back a lot of memories for me that came out of the woodwork when I looked at it.
I remember visiting the Barker family home from time to time on William Street with my Grandparents, and the smile that their daughter Karen always gave me. You don’t forget things like that, nor do you forget the excitement that William Street also held for you once a year. Word around the neighbourhood was that William Street had the best Halloween candy, and the street was always crowded with kids looking for the ultimate sugar buzz. Some of the folks on William Street were the first ones to give out small individual chocolate bar treats. My very first taste of a tiny O’Henry treat bar first occurred on that very street.
They say a picture is worth a 1000 words and that wasn’t the only thing I will remember about William Street– it also became a safe detour to get me home some days. When you are 6 or 7 your fears are mostly monsters, witches, ghosts, or shadows on the wall at night. They say children at this age still have a vivid imagination–but mine was all too real.
When I would come home from school some days a small dark haired girl would venture out of her home on the Albert Street hill and follow me. I had no idea that when I was about to cross the street to walk that last 1/4 mile home she would stop and slap me on the cheek. She did it once, she did it twice, and it went on for months. I had no idea why she was doing it, and I was too afraid to tell my Father as she had warned me there would be consequences if I did. Some days I walked down Albert Street and took my chances, and other days I took a detour down William Street and cut across Oliver Street and then through the back field.
I can’t remember when this horrible ordeal stopped, and I realize today she was probably mimicking a very bad situation at home. Today, even at 65 I can still remember her face like it was yesterday. As Raymond Chandler once said:
“The streets were dark sometimes with something more than the night”
For email, the old postcard rule applies. Nobody else is supposed to read your postcards, but you’d be a fool if you wrote anything private on one. Judith Martin
Come and visit the Lanark County Genealogical Society Facebook page– what’s there? Cool old photos–and lots of things interesting to read.
Information where you can buy all Linda Seccaspina’s books-You can also read Linda in Hometown News
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