Traveling Back in Time to Brantford

On our third day in Ontario, we spent the day with my friend Jo-Anne.  Our moms were best friends growing up and they stayed close through letters and phone calls into their eighties.  They both grew up in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.  I had found an old letter Jo-Anne wrote to me many years ago in a box about a year ago.  I decided to see if she was on Facebook and low and behold, I found her!!  She remembered me and we became friends again, just like that!!




This is a picture from 1959 when I last visited Brantford with my family.  Jo-Anne and I are standing up in the back!  The front row is Aunt Eva with Tim, my Dad, Lillian, Doug, Grandma Virginia and Fred Nelson.  I guess my mom took the picture!

Anyway, Jo-Anne still lives nearby in Hamiliton.  She agreed to take us on a little tour of the old homes where our families lived.

But, first we toured the Dundurn Castle,  a 40-room Italianate-style villa built in the 1830’s.  It was pretty interesting to see how high society lived back in those days compared to the servants who lived in the basement! 

I loved the back of this piano!  

The first home we visited was my grandma's little bungalow house at 47 6th Street.  This is the home I remember from when I was five and went to visit my Grandma and Aunt Eva.  It is very different now as you can see from the picture below.  

This was back in 1959!  I have such fond memories of this visit.  We picked fresh peas from her garden and ate them right then and there.  Nothing better!  There was a little market down the street and we would walk down and buy candy. 

The house has a big tree in front now and several in back and is overgrown with flowers and bushes!  

This is the home where Jo-Anne grew up.  It is interesting as soon as I saw the address, I recognized it as the address my mom would send all those letters to Lillian through the years!  

This home on 111 Winniett Street. was the home where my mom lived from age 4 years old until 17 years old.  She has fond memories of this place and many of the stories she shared from her youth came while living here. 

This is the home (now a bike shop) around the corner from my mom where Lillian grew up.  Mom meet Lillian while walking to the store one day.  Lillian's mother was Alice and that is my middle name after her! It's Jo-Anne's middle name too! 

My mom called this place Strawberry Hill.  The Strawberries are long gone and there is new development.  Such is progress, but it's sad!

After touring Brantford we took a lovely drive to Port Dover Beach, along the shores of Erie Lake.  It was very pretty. 

We ate dinner at the Cove Room.  They actually roll a little salad bar to your table and it stay while you eat dinner.  I had never seen anything like that before. I had perch for dinner. It was yummy and fun!

We enjoyed our day with Jo-Anne! She is delightful and we had fun! Hopefully, she will come visit us sometime!