17 years on Broadview Avenue
Ottawa , l969 – Dec. l986
It was no trouble for me to sell the duplex on Junction Ave. happy to find a very close place 650 Broadview Ave., right across the way was Broadview School, next to it the Nepean High School where Peter and Sue were going to with all their friends. As it was just two bedrooms, Susie was upstairs of this bungalow as Peter was mostly in the small spare room in the partly finished basement.
Right after we’d moved there I decided to dig out the foundation part of that small room to get down to the footing level…had some cement poured in from the Broadview little window, which made it easier for both Peter and I having a bit extra head-room….Peter said to finish three sides of the walls and leave the one on the Dovercourt blank…he put his creation up there on the wall showing a moon landing, etc. unique…and now that I think of it, it was that July l969 shortly after when the ‘one step for mankind’ took place.
We liked the whole area around Westboro, and our doctor Ian Richardson, was just down the street about two blocks away…we still had him as our main doctor, he’s just retiring this December (07)…Norma’s neice Marilyn (Hunt) Brockington worked for him for about five years.
Susie had some good friends nearby that were at Nepean..one right next door Gwen Davidson she chummed with and Linda, and we met Joanne Hudder when Susie was going to Algonquin. The Davidson family had a Hearing Aid firm downtown Ottawa, I still go there for many years, nice family all around. As Inda (Norma’s mom) was only about 6 blocks away, it was so good going back and forth, and what roast beef dinners she could make. We also had Anne over a lot (she was on her own then) and after Valerie had passed away (Norma’s only sister). We asked Hank and the youngsters over and had Anne too for dinner…that’s when the two met. Valerie had died Oct. 27th, l972, and Hank and Anne married a couple of years later, Nov. 30, l974….lovely wonderful girl to take on bringing up three youngsters, Ted was four, Cathy 6. Tina 7.
Norma and I got married at Westboro Church and we kept up our Sundays quite a lot there, Rev. Daniel Matheson was a good and kind preacher.
Broadview also was a boon to some of my own relatives, Keith stayed with us a short time, Roger too, Laurie when she was taking classes at Algonquin, and also Stanley taking classes there too. Keith was introduced to Dieter Thiele (Hank’s friend) when he was into his electrical trade and then Roger did the plumbing over at Hank’s cottage, and we all skied together now and then with Susie and Joanne….a lot of activity out of living on Broadview. Peter too had his lifelong friends whom he met and chummed with….Peter Verette, Greg Glynne, Les Lye’s son, Brett Lye…they all loved the acting, video things at that time, and still to this day, they meet in Toronto and hear what’s going on in their lives.
I took Susie out a few times to practice the driving, and Peter and his mom were doing the same thing…they both got their licences and have continued to be very good drivers. I could see when I had first met Norma that both her children were into their books and had a lot of interests so I don’t think I was too interfering for a step-dad.
They both passed their grades, I think with flying colours. Peter, I know was Valedictorian in the grade 13,the time I went down to N.B. as my sister Dawn’s husband had just passed away, Donnie Sorensen. I was always interested when they had their friends over.
One of the big items around that busy corner of Dovercourt and Broadview was the little bus shelter and the misbehaving of a lot of the kids at the time, too…someone even set fire to a bunch of daily newspapers set inside for a delivery guy to do the rounds, and as our kitchen window faced right out at that sight, it was awful to see a bunch take over (smelling of I don’t know what)…so that people trying to use the bus shelter in rain or snow couldn’t even get near it. We did have kids with their bikes up on our front verandah, and being so close to about three schools, it got to be a constant chore, Norma was working at Fleck’s and sometimes came home at noon hour and saw the misbehaviour.
I then decided to apply for a special compensation packet to build a permanent link fence up high enough, gate and all, front and sides, went down with cement to secure it…it’s still in tact all these years later….it stopped a lot of the nonsense on the private property, but to get this allowance, and have a few neighbours sign it took a bit of time, but they all knew what was happening. We had two or three break-ins…one especially through the side door at Dovercourt, where everything in every drawer was amiss and stolen things : Norma’s dad’s items, pure gold chain bracelet….it was so discouraging and frightening in a way to think if we had been there when those entries were made.
One day, Norma told me, while this was all going on, she came home at noon, parked briefly across the street from our house on Broadview (with her camera)…jumped out quickly, snapping a picture of some of the bike owners with themselves, etc. all strewn across the front lawn and up on the verandah…she just quickly got back in the car and left.
Next day, she came home again at noon, only one lonely guy still sitting on the corner of the lot….she said: “I see you’re alone today”. “Yah…..and I wasn’t hear when you took the ‘mugshot’”….(she could hardly stop laughing….the end result the City of Ottawa removed the shelter, as they were on duty cleaning this particular one almost every day, and had heard enough.
The little 2 ft. blue spruce we planted about l971 is now about 65 ft. tall, what a beauty….still love the Westboro area, houses that were once about $45,000 in about l960 are going for about $450,000. no kidding!!
on this day, Feb. 8th, two years ago my husband Bert passed away, a farmer in the West Carleton area, and all of us, Bert, myself and my son knew and loved Doug a lot too like others we heard about….we were at the funeral, Lyle and I, and it was a fitting tribute to a great man.