Leave your shoes at the door

...when you enter Canada.  With so many ethnic divisions, clashes, demonstrations, protests, riots and lawlessness, I wonder where Canada has gone?  It certainly is not the Canada in which I grew up, where people obeyed the law, paid their taxes and behaved civilly.  

My childhood

I know not everyone had a life such as I, but I don't remember street riots.  I mean, I don't remember neighbours attacking neighbours, or cultures marching to prove a point or push an agenda.  People just got along.

Frankly, I've come to the conclusion that my mother was actually an "Indigenous" Canadian.  Lillian Stapledon was unfailing polite.  She and her sisters and mother were the quintessential housewives and homemakers and their husbands were true, hardworking gentlemen who all wore suits, fedoras and overcoats.  The women wore housedresses and stockings -- even at the cottage!  They were the most civilized people I have ever known.  My parents, Thomas and Lillian Griffith:

My wonderful parents

When I say "Indigenous", I don't mean they fell from the sky as Canadians.  As you know, there are no Indigenous people in Canada; we all came from elsewhere.  The native peoples who claim to be Indigenous did not originate in North America.  No one did.  We all began in Africa, or as some call it the Garden of Eden.  But it was Africa.  My people emigrated from the British Isles; the natives came across the land bridge that used to join Asia and North America.  Neither peoples originated here, but since the natives arrived first, they claim they are Indigenous.  They are not. 

When people think of what Canada is all about, they are describing my mother's family.  I grew up in a microcosm of Canada called Lindenlea; our house is just out of sight on the top to the right:

The park I grew up in.

My childhood home, 8 Lindenlea Road.

In fact, everyone in Lindenlea was an Indigenous Canadian.  The neighbours all looked out for each other.  There were winter and summer carnivals, ballet and brownies, cubs and scouts, paper routes, the community centre, tennis courts, bridge clubs and cocktail parties.

And everyone was civil and polite ALL THE TIME.  The closest my Dad ever came to swearing was when exasperation overtook him and he uttered, "Gee whiz, Lil."  That was it.  I, unfortunately, didn't learn restraint from him.  (Must be my Irish birth family roots on that file.)  My Mother never, ever swore.  Ever.

In her world -- and therefore in mine -- there were no scenes, no tears, no fuss, no tantrums, no inebriation and no raised voices.  Those were the unspoken rules and everyone obeyed them.  I never saw any of my family even tipsy, let alone drunk. 

Breakfast, lunch and dinner always appeared at the appropriate time.  Feelings were not discussed because everyone had them.  Duty ruled and everyone was expected to do his/her.  My family was the most civilized I have ever known. 

 

My mother and aunts, as did all young women, worked until they married.  Then they forfeited their jobs to the men returning from the war, who needed work, and became wives and homemakers.  Women's Lib did not exist, but make no mistake, these women ruled the roost and didn't have to (wo)man barricades to prove it.

My mother's family were farming stock from Frontenac county.  In fact, there is a tiny hamlet there to this day called "Stapledon".

So, I lament the demise of Canada and its civility.  We are less prosperous and less productive in every way.  It's too bad this country has sunk to the level it has.  I miss Canada.