Erin District High School - Wellington County Board of Education - Grade 11 - 2nd Semester 1978

MOTHER EARTH - In the spring of 1978, I took a Grade 11 Ecology class and the following year a Grade 12 Ecology class.  In that first ecology class I learned how methane gas and carbon dioxide would allow solar shortwave radiation to penetrate the atmosphere but block the terrestrial longwave radiation (heat)  from escaping.  In other words, the Greenhouse Effect.  Using 2018 as timepost, that was 40 years ago! I am concerned when our political leaders today resist the basic science that high school students from 40 years ago know.

Is this a boy or a girl? It's already February 1964

Those early preschool years were interesting AND somewhat unconventional.  Here's my second birthday in February 1964.  The rocking horse was made by my paternal grandfather.  These two images do seem to confirm that something was a bit off fashion-wise.  A full apron, leotards, long hair and a barrette in my hair.  Not exactly G. I. Joe, eh?  There was a red apron and a red barrette, as well.  What did I know?  As long as I was warm, dry and well fed ... all was good.  Or so I thought!

A Marriage - September 1960

My Mother and Father, on the day they were married in September of 1960 in Kitchener, Ontario.  They were both children during the Second World War.  They both absorbed the stress and the trauma of that time.  They came to Canada, both for their own reasons.  They worked hard all their lives and paid their taxes.  They weren't allowed to vote, however, because they were only Landed Immigrants and not full Citizens.  They lived with the cost of Canada's democracy without being able to participate in its elections.  To this day, I have a heightened awareness of 'class differences'.  And believe me, even in Canada, those 'class differences' are all around us.