Release Date

 My intent is to complete and publish 38 Lunness by mid-October this year. I will provide updates and other related information here, so stay connected.

Memory

 My memory is not what it once was. Why? Well, I am 75. That aside, my heart attack  two years ago  appears to have an impact. So I wrtlitr. 38 Luñess is helping awake thoughts and memories. Two Facebook sites and their members have been more than helpful. I will properly acknowledge these two in the book. The Etobicoje Historical Society has provide essential data and photos

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38 Lunness is a work-in-,progress but stay connected fir updates

 Bob

38 Lunness: The Beginning

38 Lunness: 1948-1968

An Awakening:

For a moment, a flash, a splash in time, I saw my father standing beside me.  Six weeks prior, my heart also surprised me, presenting me with a heart attack.

We walk around confident we have a firm grip on matters and then wham, all changes.

There were warning signs which I stupidly and dangerously ignored. Then one night I could not breath.  My screams for help yanked my wife, Jocelyn, from her usual deep sleep. She quickly called the paramedics.

I could not hear the paramedics as they came up the stairs. My own screams covered all other sounds.  Fortunately, within seconds of their arrival I was breathing. They saved my life that day and my gratitude is eternal. 

A few weeks later, I was sitting at my dresser, sorting my medication, when I sensed a calming presence. I looked up. It was three am. Jocelyn was quietly sleeping.

 There a few feet away was my father, Sydney Edwin Ewing, simply watching me.

Wonder and calm flowed through me like a gentle breeze caressing the trees.

An awareness broke free as appreciation and understanding momentarily flooded my mind.

Dad had had open-heart surgery in the early 1960s. He recovered and eventually returned to work for the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). He drove the King Steet car and then worked in the booth in the Subway system.

Mom and dad were avid gardeners. They spent hours in the yard tending the flowers, irises, hollyhocks, and tomatoes are remembered=ed fondly. Both my sister, Marlene, and I followed them. After the surgery, he never reclaimed his gard 

Tadpoles

 Tadpoles. Etobicoke Creek was too far when I was young. Had to wait to cross Brown's Line.  However. There were a few ponds close by. I will talk about that later. Tadpoles lived there among other beings but asphalt and progress changed that forever.  

Easter

 

Bob Ewing Photo

I wish all those who believe a Happy Easter,

DAD

 While both my parents served in WW2, mom in Winnipeg and Dad in Iceland and England, dad experienced the bombing  in London when schoolhouses were the target, 38 Lunness will briefly explore  PTSD and how it may have been a reality he lived with but was never treated for. 

UPDATE

 The writing is slowly rolling but rolling it is. I can not yet say when 38 Lunness will be finished but be the first to know and follow this blog,

38 Lunness: The Early Years

 It is Thursday April 4, 2022. The pandemic is... depends upon the voice you choose to listen to. 

THE EARLY YEARS

We move to 38 Lunness Rd in Alderwood in 1948. I was 13 months at the time, so that would be June.

I moved out of 38 Lunness in August 1968 when I was married and moved to Mississauga.

I remember little of the first four years there. Flashes of a cocker spaniel  called Blondie, pop up when I travel back . Blondie was my Aunt Eileen and Uncle Bill's dog. They lived with us for a bit, I think.

I do recall the daughter of our only neigbours when we first moved into 38, the Sandfords. Though I do not recall her name. She was older than I but I was also her only child companion,

There are several reasons I began this project. One is to work my mind and memory. The work is working. More to come, stay connected,,,

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The Pandemic

 The inspiration for 38 Lunness arrived just before the Covi-19 pandemic was announced. Two years later the book has shifted but still evolving. The inspiration that provoked the book is connected to my father...

Three AM.

 ..."medication, when I sensed a calming presence. I looked up. It was three am. Jocelyn was quietly sleeping.

 There a few feet away was my father, Sydney Edwin Ewing, simply watching me.

Wonder and calm flowed through me like a gentle breeze caressing the trees. 

An awareness broke free as appreciation and understanding momentarily flooded my mind." from 38 Lunness

1952

 What Happened in 1952 70 years ago - Significant Events, Prices, 1952 Top Movies, TV and Music (thepeoplehistory.com) World events in 1952. 

Top Songs 1964

 The 60s were a fabulous music era. Here is one version of the top 100 songs of 1964. Which songs stand out for you?

Alderwood Collegiate Institute.

Six years at Alderwood Collegiate (ACI) simply because geometry did not like me. Year two and geometry was gone. Replaced by the New Math.  

I had an 8 or 8:15 slot for this New stuff, I think. I was used to getting to school at that time because a few of my teachers determined I was detention material. They were right. I made good use of that time. more coming in 38 Lunness.

Mom and the Rat

 One day, when I was still in my carriage, as Mom told the tale,  I was outside close to the backdoor where Mom could watch me through the kitchen window, Scrappy, our dog, began barking.

Scrappy rarely barked but that is another story. Mom looked out the window and saw Scrappy grab a rat that was climbing up my carriage,  When Mom got outside, the dog was shaking that rat around. 

I loved that dog.

Army Service Book

 

Sydney Edwin Ewing, thanks to my sister Marlene

Excerpt 38 Lunness

 The years between 1948 and 1968 witnessed significant events; some life-shattering. The Korean War, Hurricane Hazel, Vietnam, the Avro Arrow, and the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Bobby, and John F. Kennedy all shaped an era: smartphones, laptops, tablets, flat-screen

TVs did not exist. However, the impact of television on our home lives and our conversations was dynamic.

Music and movies informed how we dressed; what we talked about and the games we played. There is a movie Avalon, which I will return to in the chapter on television, that sums up how family life could have changed.

TV Trays and dinners became common. Our Friday or Saturday night dinners shifted from the dining room to the living room where we watched TV while we ate.

Home

 38 Lunness

Courtesy of Marlene Patten

Radio

 Radio, I am unable to pin down the exact date radio entered my world: however, I believe I was five when the voice-in-a-box captured my attention. Radio expanded our world.  

 

Jingles from those early days, Bubble, Bubble, Fizz, Fizz…” and others still occasionally play on my mind’s soundtrack

The shows that I am able to recall are Hopalong Cassidy and The Lone Ranger. .I had toy guns, cowboy hats, and holsters.

I hear the words of the characters that comic books had introduced me to, it was a long-lasting relationship. One that began and continues through images and words, today.