Where did you live at age five? Is it the same place or town you live now?
The year I was five we moved from one farm to another one. Of the first farm I have relatively few memories, except that it was close to grandmas, it was a very long walk from the house to the barn and I was not allowed to go there on my own, and in the house we could run around in a big circle from the kitchen, past the stairs, through the living room and back to the kitchen. There was a hand pump for water in the kitchen and a dark shed (where the dog lived) attached to the back door.
The new farm, to my five-year-old mind, was utopia in comparison. The run in circles was twice as long, through the dining room, past the stairs, through the living room and into the kitchen, past the basement stairs and back to the dining room. We could also run up the front stairs and down the back ones, and from the front lawn to the side lawn to the back lawn, across the driveway and another side lawn and back to the front. Obviously, running around in circles at this stage in my life was extremely important to me.
A lot of family still lives in that area so I go back to visit frequently, but I haven’t lived there, or in that province, for over 40 years.
Did you grow up in a small or big town? Did you like it?
Our farm was in the midst of many small-town Ontario towns, but I consider the one where I went to high school as my home town. It was on the shores of Lake Huron, had amazing sunsets, and filled up with beach-going tourists in the summer. I liked it just fine.
As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Hey, I still haven’t decided. I was very good at running, with all that practice, and won lots of races in elementary school, so being an Olympic runner crossed my mind. Then I became a lazy teenager who ran one relay race at one track and field meet (we came in second) and my ambitions shifted to obtaining my driver’s license and getting the hell off the farm. After that, my plans were always rather vague. University, teachers college, meeting interesting men, going to parties. (I wonder for priorities sake if I should have put all that in reverse order.)
You are invited to a party that will be attended by many fascinating people you never met. Would you attend this party if you were to go by yourself?
Sure. I will be one of those fascinating people in attendance. Just hopefully no one asks me what I want to be when I grow up.
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I am grateful for our amazing weather, pretty much unheard of for here in a normal January. I know there’s a lot more winter to come, but this has been a lovely little break in the middle. A long cold month which usually drags on forever has turned out to be pleasantly quick in passing by.
Next week I’m going to see an audiologist. All that running around in circles as a child probably damaged my ear drums somehow, and I’m paying for it now. I think I can hear just fine until people mumble at me on the phone, or garble some strange nonsense from another room, or when I decide I can’t understand what people in movies are saying without subtitles across the bottom of the screen. Yep, it’s time.
Breathing Space 
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