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friends, and a rainy beach
Aug. 2nd, 2009 11:00 pmFirst, my eye’s redness is all gone.
A bit after noon yesterday, I drove to my friends Nicole and Pierre were giving a small party in my honor. Getting there wasn’t quite easy. First, I had been to their current house only once before, 5 years ago, so I thought it wise, while still in the USA, to print MapQuest directions. That didn’t stop getting to Nicole’s place from being made a bit confusing by the distances being in miles on the printout, and in kilometers in the real world. Then, just as I was real close to a crucial turning point, I found that the street had been going thru some roadwork for months that made it impassable. Curses! Can’t the real world conform to MapQuest’s depiction of it? Thank goodness, my crappy cell phone wasn’t in a dead zone. Pierre told me how to get around and I finally made it to their home.
It was good meeting them. Other friends later showed up, some with their now 20-year sons. We sat on the patio and chatted and stuff. We had an informal game of Trivial Pursuit, and I was the only one who knew the name of the actor who played one of the Indian characters in Key Largo(1). We had a late supper. Nicole & Pierre’s youngest daughter, Daphné, who still lives there, showed up with a friend. Daphné last had been a charming 9-year-old bookworm who knew words such as ‘lugubrious’ and is now a charming 14-year-old – still a bookworm, I’ve been told by her mom. People eventually started leaving, and Pierre turned in. That left just Nicole and me. We talked until it was quite late.
So, yesterday most definitely was a wonderful day even though I discovered that my hometown is gone. No, it wasn’t zapped away and onto an alien planet like in that episode of The Outer Limits. It’s still here physically, but it’s not a suburb of Québec City anymore. It’s officially part of the city’s territory, and is really a borough, like New York’s, although it’s officially an arrondissement, like Paris’s. That sounds rather hoity-toity, but nobody asked me.
Today, I woke up much later than usual, for obvious reasons, even though I still slept no more than 5 hours. When my mom and her boyfriend left to spend the rest of the day at her sister’s place, I took off to a part of my past. Starting with 1967’s summer, and ending with 1971’s, my family and relatives would spend weekends at Lake St-Joseph’s Plage Germain, a camping ground where we kept a trailer. In those days, camping was quite popular. Not anymore, but I had long been curious about what the grounds looked like after decades, but various obligations had prevented me from going 5 years ago. I was determined this time, no matter what. I found that I remembered the 30-mile ride pretty well, in spite of all the normal differences from the page of deacdes. Memory is a funny thing though. Some parts of the drive encompassed more mileage than I thought, and some were shorter, but the thing took me a bit over one hour, about the same time than it had back then in spite of the added traffic lights. Along the way, I looked for the house where my mom had been born in 1934. I had lived there with my grandparents in 1958 where my mom went to the hospital to give birth to my brother. When my grandparents retired from the farming life, they sold the property, which I knew had burned to the ground a couple of decades ago. Still, today I was hoping I’d recognize the spot where it used to be. Not a trace of it. Or of the barn. Nothing. I kept going and reached the camping grounds. The moment I got in, rain started pouring – not a huge surprise with the mostly overcast skies of this summer. Very little of the place is still used for camping, and most of it is occupied by small houses that people have built for weekend use. Pretty much what I had been told, but it still felt strange. I parked my car facing the lake and turned off the engine, hoping that the rain would stop so that I could walk around. About 40 minutes later, there was little hope of that so, not being one of the ducks swimming around, I put aside Margaret Cheney’s biography of Tesla and drove back. I briefly stopped by one of my mom’s sister because all my aunts were also going to be there. Also, I think my mom is proud of me and likes showing off her eldest child.
Anything else about today?
I had hoped to go to my favorite bookstore in the city’s Old Quarter, but the weather has been rather inclement, so I’ll just stay here tonight and quietly read more of that Tesla biography.
Goodness. That poutine I had for supper was huge.
-----------
(1) Jay Silvereel, better known for playing Tonto, the Lone Ranger’s sidekick.
A bit after noon yesterday, I drove to my friends Nicole and Pierre were giving a small party in my honor. Getting there wasn’t quite easy. First, I had been to their current house only once before, 5 years ago, so I thought it wise, while still in the USA, to print MapQuest directions. That didn’t stop getting to Nicole’s place from being made a bit confusing by the distances being in miles on the printout, and in kilometers in the real world. Then, just as I was real close to a crucial turning point, I found that the street had been going thru some roadwork for months that made it impassable. Curses! Can’t the real world conform to MapQuest’s depiction of it? Thank goodness, my crappy cell phone wasn’t in a dead zone. Pierre told me how to get around and I finally made it to their home.
It was good meeting them. Other friends later showed up, some with their now 20-year sons. We sat on the patio and chatted and stuff. We had an informal game of Trivial Pursuit, and I was the only one who knew the name of the actor who played one of the Indian characters in Key Largo(1). We had a late supper. Nicole & Pierre’s youngest daughter, Daphné, who still lives there, showed up with a friend. Daphné last had been a charming 9-year-old bookworm who knew words such as ‘lugubrious’ and is now a charming 14-year-old – still a bookworm, I’ve been told by her mom. People eventually started leaving, and Pierre turned in. That left just Nicole and me. We talked until it was quite late.
So, yesterday most definitely was a wonderful day even though I discovered that my hometown is gone. No, it wasn’t zapped away and onto an alien planet like in that episode of The Outer Limits. It’s still here physically, but it’s not a suburb of Québec City anymore. It’s officially part of the city’s territory, and is really a borough, like New York’s, although it’s officially an arrondissement, like Paris’s. That sounds rather hoity-toity, but nobody asked me.
Today, I woke up much later than usual, for obvious reasons, even though I still slept no more than 5 hours. When my mom and her boyfriend left to spend the rest of the day at her sister’s place, I took off to a part of my past. Starting with 1967’s summer, and ending with 1971’s, my family and relatives would spend weekends at Lake St-Joseph’s Plage Germain, a camping ground where we kept a trailer. In those days, camping was quite popular. Not anymore, but I had long been curious about what the grounds looked like after decades, but various obligations had prevented me from going 5 years ago. I was determined this time, no matter what. I found that I remembered the 30-mile ride pretty well, in spite of all the normal differences from the page of deacdes. Memory is a funny thing though. Some parts of the drive encompassed more mileage than I thought, and some were shorter, but the thing took me a bit over one hour, about the same time than it had back then in spite of the added traffic lights. Along the way, I looked for the house where my mom had been born in 1934. I had lived there with my grandparents in 1958 where my mom went to the hospital to give birth to my brother. When my grandparents retired from the farming life, they sold the property, which I knew had burned to the ground a couple of decades ago. Still, today I was hoping I’d recognize the spot where it used to be. Not a trace of it. Or of the barn. Nothing. I kept going and reached the camping grounds. The moment I got in, rain started pouring – not a huge surprise with the mostly overcast skies of this summer. Very little of the place is still used for camping, and most of it is occupied by small houses that people have built for weekend use. Pretty much what I had been told, but it still felt strange. I parked my car facing the lake and turned off the engine, hoping that the rain would stop so that I could walk around. About 40 minutes later, there was little hope of that so, not being one of the ducks swimming around, I put aside Margaret Cheney’s biography of Tesla and drove back. I briefly stopped by one of my mom’s sister because all my aunts were also going to be there. Also, I think my mom is proud of me and likes showing off her eldest child.
Anything else about today?
I had hoped to go to my favorite bookstore in the city’s Old Quarter, but the weather has been rather inclement, so I’ll just stay here tonight and quietly read more of that Tesla biography.
Goodness. That poutine I had for supper was huge.
-----------
(1) Jay Silvereel, better known for playing Tonto, the Lone Ranger’s sidekick.
