1953

Toronto's heat wave of  2018 reminds me of another summer.  In 1953 our family pulled up roots from our Saskatchewan home and headed east to Ontario.  It was a big adventure for my parents and their four children as my father prepared for a new job in Toronto.  Saskatoon in 1953 was not a big city, less than 50,000 as I recall,   The six of us were loaded into the family car and off we went.  I had recently obtained my driver's license so shared the driving duties with my father in our heavy, gearshift car, built in the days before power steering. Signalling was done by sticking one's arm out the window.   The trip was eventful, we saw the Paul Bunyan statue in Minnesota and crossed over Lake Michigan by ferry.  At one motel we spotted a television set in the lobby and were immediately drawn to it.  Since television had not yet found its way west this was our first exposure to TV and I can recall to this day that the  program, My Little Margie was showing. 
  

Eventually, after a long, very tiring, hot drive we arrived in Toronto and house hunting was immediately on the agenda.  As we sat in a Yonge Street restaurant with the real estate agent, I noticed outside a tremendous  amount of traffic was backed up  and hardly moving so commented that there must have been an accident.  He looked out the window and said "No, just usual Friday traffic.  People heading to the lake for the weekend."  The 400 and 401 highways were still in the future and Yonge Street was struggling to cope with the  influx  of vehicles as its already overflowing roads faced gridlock.

After much chasing around in Toronto, we found a newly built house in a district called Humber Valley Village  which was located in Etobicoke and we quickly settled in.  It was a very hot summer, hotter than anything we had ever experienced before.  I  was going into my last year of high school and  managed to get a summer job with an insurance company in downtown Toronto.  Thei company was in an older building on Wellington Street and this was before the days of air conditioning.  The heat was so oppressive that one day at work I stuck my head under the cold water tap in the washroom to just try and cool off.  

Many heat records now being challenged in 2018 were set in 1953.  The Toronto subway was still in the future so to go to work I would take a bus to Six Points, then the Dundas streetcar to  downtown Toronto.  As we worked our way downtown, sweating people jammed onto the hot, overcrowded streetcar..  By the time I reached work, the combination of the rank smell, the humidity and the heat had wiped me out.  

Our two story house, like all houses in those days, did not have air conditioning.  During the summer hundred degree days of 1953, we found sleeping in our hot bedrooms which never cooled off at night to be almost unbearable.  One night my parents decided to move the mattresses out to the deck off my brothers bedroom.  It was still hot and the sound of loud chirping crickets made sleep difficult but at least it was a slight improvement.  Slight that is, until there was a flash of lightning and a sudden downpour.  Six of us were soaking wet as we  dragged our mattresses inside and  once again were subjected to the intense heat and humidity of the night.  High humidity was something new to us after coming from the dry prairies and even the hottest days in Saskatchewan usually cooled off at night.  We always took a sweater with us when we went out for the evening.

After that first summer, we eventually became acclimatized  to the weather of Ontario but the summer of 1953 definitely hit us with the intensity of a blast furnace.

The Piano

The Heintzman piano is like a distinguished  lady and for over a hundred years has held a special place  in our  family homes in Toronto, Clarkson, Saskatoon, Calgary and  Edmonton.

 The piano was built in 1912 and purchased  by the parents of Mr. and Mrs. Gardhouse as a wedding  gift  for  their children.  The Gardhouses lived across the street from my parents in Toronto and "Gardy" worked for the city of Toronto.   His wife Jessie was a stay at home mom.  Mr. Gardhouse (picture shown) visited us in Calgary and was so pleased to see his old piano.  The piano was much loved for many years but eventually, in 1966, their family grew up and the Gardhouses no longer had room for the piano.  They were going to give it to the local church but when my mother was talking to them, they mentioned some repair work needed  plus  the  problem getting it out of their basement.  The lower level had been developed around the piano and there was no way it could be moved upstairs.  The church decided it would involve extra costs so turned it down.  My mother talked to me and we decided we would  take it, so had to  find a way to get it out of the house.  We had a piano specialist/mover come out and piece by piece, the piano was taken apart.  Carefully it was transported upstairs and laid out on the front lawn, then the time consuming task of reassembling it.

 Fortunately the basement had enough moisture to keep the piano from drying out but over the years the "action" had deteriorated and  needed  major repair work.  The piano specialist took it to their shop and redid the action, then delivered the piano to us in Clarkson.  The piano fit nicely in the dining room and Susan and Bob started taking piano lessons.  In our house on Robillard Road  it had plenty of use - my mother played it when she visited, friends and  uncles and aunts joined us at the  piano and I worked on tunes (mostly hymns) remembered from my teen years.  Grandma Moore in the photo below and Grandma Shillington in above photo,  it was a real treasure to have in our home.

In late 1968 we moved to Saskatoon and Susan started music lessons with May Woodley Benson, a music teacher that I remembered from my younger years.  We were only in Saskatoon for just over a year though and soon off to Calgary where the piano took its place in our

dining room.  Once again, Susan continued her music lessons and the piano had lots of use.  Eventually though, Susan grew up and music lessons came to an end.  

Susan got married and moved to Saskatoon and soon after we moved to Edmonton.  Instead of taking the piano with us, Susan asked for  it so we had it shipped to her in Saskatoon.   Susan's children, Pam and Arthur  both took piano lessons and the piano was in use by another generation of children growing up.  More recently, Susan's family had grown and she  was downsizing. Space was limited and

there was no room for a piano.  Finally, it was shipped to James in Edmonton where it was quickly put back into action for two upcoming piano players, Oliver and Jamie.

It has been there for four families and  with the beautiful sound of a Heintzman,  we hope to continue our  enjoyment of the grand old lady for many years to come.