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Post by roverpup on May 31, 2018 15:21:24 GMT
Dan’s Mum’s family are all from Glace Bay, Cape Breton (originally from Newfoundland) and a lot of them are still there. Dan’s mum and her two younger sisters headed to Ontario for jobs and never returned to live after that (they did of course return to visit). I have been to the “Cape” a couple of times - very rugged and beautiful but not the place that has a lot of employment possibilities - especially during the Depression. And now the coal mines are not operating (but they are a tourist spot of some sort).
The movie Bay Boy (starring Kiefer Sutherland) was filmed in Glace Bay and while I thought it was a lovely depiction of the community Dan’s mum HATED it. She couldn’t stand that they didn’t have EVERYTHING exactly in the same place as she remembered it and she didn’t like the somber tone of the story. We were shocked about her reception of it - she took it so personally! If you haven’t seen it (and have the opportunity to, I would recommend it.
:-))
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Post by ellie on May 31, 2018 15:22:12 GMT
I see. Thanks v much. I was thinking that as Toronto and Ottawa were in the East of The Mainland the’d be described as a Eastern but wasn’t sure. I was forgetting how vast Canada is th even when you get to the edge of the mainland there’s still lots more Canada to see! I’ve a friend with family in Nova Scotia. They’ve recently relocated to Halifax as they felt where they were living was too remote now they’re both approaching retirement age. They wanted to be somewhere where there would be more things to do given they will have more leisure time. Plus thinking further ahead, where they were living was no place to be when you get really old and maybe lose mobility and not be able to drive.
I do love Canada. I loved everywhere I visited although I would not want to live in The Yukon! Felt I would happily live in any of the other places I visited. I love the USA but it never feels like somewhere I could live but there was something about Canada that made it feel like home.
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Post by ellie on May 31, 2018 15:32:43 GMT
The movie Bay Boy (starring Kiefer Sutherland) was filmed in Glace Bay and while I thought it was a lovely depiction of the community Dan’s mum HATED it. She couldn’t stand that they didn’t have EVERYTHING exactly in the same place as she remembered it and she didn’t like the somber tone of the story. We were shocked about her reception of it - she took it so personally! If you haven’t seen it (and have the opportunity to, I would recommend it. :-)) Lol!!!! That SO reminds me of my Mum’s reaction to “The Commitments” and “Angela’s Ashes”. She said “ why do they always make films showing Irish people as drunkards or living in some terrible grim inner city housing estate. It’s even worse than when they showed us all living in thatched cottages. Why don’t they ever make a film about how most people here live.” I had to break it to her that I doubted anyone really wanted to see a movie about Irish middle class families to whom nothing much ever happens. 😊
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Post by roverpup on May 31, 2018 16:11:47 GMT
I see. Thanks v much. I was thinking that as Toronto and Ottawa were in the East of The Mainland the’d be described as a Eastern but wasn’t sure. I was forgetting how vast Canada is th even when you get to the edge of the mainland there’s still lots more Canada to see! I’ve a friend with family in Nova Scotia. They’ve recently relocated to Halifax as they felt where they were living was too remote now they’re both approaching retirement age. They wanted to be somewhere where there would be more things to do given they will have more leisure time. Plus thinking further ahead, where they were living was no place to be when you get really old and maybe lose mobility and not be able to drive. I do love Canada. I loved everywhere I visited although I would not want to live in The Yukon! Felt I would happily live in any of the other places I visited. I love the USA but it never feels like somewhere I could live but there was something about Canada that made it feel like home. I have visited a lot of my country but it is such a vast place it is difficult to have been everywhere! When I think of the “East” I always think of Eastern Ontario, or as they are known as “The Eastern Counties” - meaning the Ottawa, Cornwall, Kingston area that is south and east of the city of Ottawa. It extends right down to Lake Ontario and takes in the tourist area of the Thousand Islands - beautiful area!!). It is steeped in history - from the Iroquois, to the United Empire Loyalist who came there after the American Revolutionary War, to its days as a capital of Upper Canada (pre-Confederation days) in the city of Kingston. Very beautiful area. And I love the history especially the parts that pertain to the War of 1812 (Canada’s war with the invading Yanks). There is the lovely “historical” re-creation of Upper Canada Village which I have visited a number of times. And lots of battles from the War of 1812 are posted. Upper Canada Village is located very near the village of Morrisburg which BTW is the “birthplace” of that truly Canadian Apple (and my personal favourite!!) - the MacIntosh apple!! they are the best apples in the whole world!! :-)) I would like to add: I have visited the US MANY times in my lifetime but not so much recently. And I refuse to visit now until they get rid of that Trump and the guns. I live right across the river from the US and I won’t shop there (although many Canadians do shop in the States). But we have been to many places in the States - Florida, LA, San Francisco, New Orleans, Boston, Charleston, Chicago, Detroit, New York, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Illinois... so I have seen a lot of it and enjoyed myself tremendously whenever I went. I found the individuals kind and generous in every place we went! Even in New York!! LOL!!
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Post by ellie on May 31, 2018 17:22:40 GMT
Yes I’ve been to lots of places in the States too (Alaska, Seattle, LA, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Las Vegas, various places in Connecticut, Maine, Vermont, &New Hampshire, NY city and State, New Jersey, Washington DC, Harrisburg and the surrounding area in Pennsylvania, Baltimore and Annapolisin Maryland and Philadelphia so far) and really liked it and the people. But fo some reason I couldn’t imagine myself living there whereas I could in Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa and, possibly my favourite, Quebec.
Same goes for Europe, I love lots of countries in it - especially Italy - but couldn’t see me living in them whereas there was something about Denmark that felt like home to me.
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Post by mllemass on May 31, 2018 18:45:21 GMT
Where I live, employers did a lot of recruiting in the remote areas of the Maritimes way back in the 70's (I think) in order to ease their unemployment crisis. That's how so many of them ended up living and working in Ontario.
I haven't seen too much of Canada myself, but what I've seen has been beautiful. My friend from Cape Breton drove me around the island when we were there. One of her first jobs out of school had been working for the tourist industry, which involved travelling all over to drop off tourist pamphlets, brochures and maps to touristy places. She pointed out so many interesting things to me as I admired the gorgeous green hills and rugged landscape. The Alexander Graham Bell home was a surprise, because I didn't know that he had ever lived there. I only knew about his home here in Ontario, in nearby Brantford.
But I saw the less pretty side of things, too. We got together one evening with her old friends from high school, at a local bar. They were all lively and talkative and very nice, but I noticed several of the guys had missing teeth. This was surprising because they were only in their late 20s at the time, not elderly. I don't know how they lost their teeth (hockey? a fight?) but they obviously couldn't afford to get them fixed. There was a lot of poverty, and it was such a contrast to my friend and her family, who were very wealthy. They owned (and still own) two very successful businesses on the island, and their name is well-known there.
My friend had very expensive taste when she came to live in Ontario, and would often say "I grew up with Cadillacs" to justify her lavish spending. She told me that she had convinced her parents to pay for her to get her teeth capped (at $1000 a tooth!), because she wanted movie-star teeth. So her friends back home had missing teeth while she had a movie-star smile. She didn't remain in Ontario, by the way. Eventually, she decided it was better to go back home and be a big fish in a little pond, rather than stay in Ontario and be a little fish in a big pond.
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Post by roverpup on May 31, 2018 20:16:24 GMT
Yes I’ve been to lots of places in the States too (Alaska, Seattle, LA, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Las Vegas, various places in Connecticut, Maine, Vermont, &New Hampshire, NY city and State, New Jersey, Washington DC, Harrisburg and the surrounding area in Pennsylvania, Baltimore and Annapolisin Maryland and Philadelphia so far) and really liked it and the people. But fo some reason I couldn’t imagine myself living there whereas I could in Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa and, possibly my favourite, Quebec. Same goes for Europe, I love lots of countries in it - especially Italy - but couldn’t see me living in them whereas there was something about Denmark that felt like home to me. We are fairly well travelled and loved everywhere we have been, but there are very few places that I would consider actually making my home (other than where I really do live!!). Dan said he could see himself in only a couple of places - 1) San Francisco and 2) the IOW. My favourites would be I think IOW or Paris (but my view of Paris is the highly romanticized one thought so it is skewed). I used to think I wouldn’t mind living in Toronto but over the years I have come to realise that living in a huge city like that is very different than just visiting one (that probably goes for Paris as well). I am used to a much slower pace so where we are now suits us just fine! We live on a very small street which is a dead end just yards away from the lake (and we have a pretty good beach that only the residents of the street can use so it is never crowded). The street is a kind of “lasso” shape with a wooded park in the centre - it used to be the old trolley car turn around way back in the “dawn of time” days of the city so the “circle loop” part is a quarter of a mile because that was the amount of track that it took for the trolley cars to swing around and head back into the city. Back in those days there also was a huge hotel on the beach at the end of the “loop” but it burned down decades ago and then the trolley cars were put out of commission (when motor cars became popular) and the tracks disappeared under the paved road. It’s like our own little world on our street. It isn’t gated or anything like that but very few people in the city have even heard of the street, it is so secluded and out of the way. All the lots are quite small so the houses are not “richy-rich” (although the land values have increased dramatically in the over twenty years we have been here) - our house has only 2 bedrooms. I love living in medium size city. :-))
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Post by mllemass on May 31, 2018 23:36:19 GMT
I love where I live so much that I've lived in the same neighbourhood since I was 9 years old! At first, I lived in my parents' house, of course, and then I bought a house around the corner from them. Being Italian has a lot to do with it - we tend to stay together!
The only other place that has ever felt like home to me is my grandmother's house in Italy. It's where my mother grew up, and it's still partly in her name, even though she hasn't lived there since she got married and moved away. Whenever we visited over the years, it has felt like a piece if heaven! When I was little, I used to think I liked it so much because it was so different from where we lived in Canada. The house in Italy is on a farm, surrounded by acres of beautiful countryside. There's such quiet and calmness that I've never experienced anywhere else. And when we did travel around when we were there, I always got homesick - not for Canada, but for my grandmother's house! Another perk to the house is that it's a 10 minute drive to the beach - and by "beach" I mean the Mediterranean! My mother said that they used to ride their bicycles to the beach when she was little, so it's so much closer by car.
I have to say that the French chateau in Patrick Melrose brings back fond memories of that house in Italy, even though it's really just a farmhouse and definitely not a chateau!
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Post by ellie on Jun 1, 2018 11:13:47 GMT
I love where I live too. I live in a suburb of Dublin which is by the sea so I get to walk on a lovely uncrowded beach yet can be in the center of the city within 20 minutes. Or go 20 mins in another direction and there’s the Dublin Mountains (or small hills as you would call them in Canada 😄). What I love about living here is that Dublin has everything you need in a city from culture to entertainment to shops and restaurants yet in less than half an hour you can be in open spaces either by the sea or inland.
I really wouldn’t want to live anywhere else but the countries I’ve mentioned are places I feel I could be happy living in if need be.
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Post by mllemass on Jun 1, 2018 13:11:23 GMT
Ha! Actually, we have a Mountain, too, in the city where I live. Visitors are usually baffled by it ("This is a mountain?"), because it's really a hill. But we still call it a mountain, and we say that people there are "on the mountain".
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