WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY

With this very long post, I have finally exhausted my long trip down Memory Lane circa 1976.

First, I wrote about my mom’s 50th birthday and how my grandmother and Aunt Frances took the bus from Toronto for a surprise visit the day before. The three of us had made the arrangements and I wrote about that event here in my tribute to Mom who would have celebrated her 100th birthday on Valentine’s Day 2026. That tribute may be found here.

Next, I wrote about finishing up at Henry Ford Community College in June 1976 and the slew of activities I enjoyed immersing myself in during the time I was at that institution. You can find that post here in case you missed it.

Then, on Independence Day this year, I shared some memories and photos about that Bicentennial year, when we celebrated the 200th birthday of the U.S. That post may be found here.

As mentioned in those posts, I have still more to add. I’m going to pick up the “story” again, this time in conjunction with National Grandparents Day, which is today, although I know it is more of a Hallmark event, rather than a day to celebrate your grandparent(s). It is always the first Sunday after Labor Day.

I know that one day I will run out of memories about Wilhemina “Minnie” Goddard, or “Nanny” as I affectionately called her, but if you’ll indulge me in one more 1976 memory, here we go….

After my grandfather died in 1969, my grandmother spent every Summer here in Michigan – 1976 was no different. My parents drove to her Toronto home over Memorial Day weekend to pick her up so she could attend my HFCC graduation on June 4th.

I wasn’t the only one decked out in a mortarboard and gown and holding onto my Associates Degree diploma – Nanny did as well.

Day Trippin’!

I worked six days a week at the diner every Summer, but on my day off, weather permitting, Mom, Nanny and I always went out, maybe to the mall, the show, or out for lunch.

Mom tried to think of interesting places to take Nanny and decided Greenfield Village and Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn might be of interest to her. Mom decided to stay home as it was a lot of walking, even though she said “I think one trip around the Museum and your grandmother will be ready to come home.” I agreed.

It’s no secret that most of Dearborn, Michigan is about Henry Ford.

Multiple historic sites and tourist attractions are relevant to Mr. Ford.

I’ve often written about my treks at the Ford Estate, a/k/a Fair Lane. It was Henry Ford who created the concept of the Museum at Greenfield Village, so he had “The Henry Ford Museum” built in the 1930s to house a wealth of inventions by his friends and colleagues like Thomas Edison. The Village and Museum are one of Michigan’s biggest tourist attractions.

Even though Nanny had a heart condition, she could walk short distances, but needed to sit down occasionally.  Greenfield Village is very large and spread out with lots of historic buildings, a farm and the Museum.  I decided we’d visit the Museum first and, if Nanny was up to it, we’d tackle something else later.

The Museum had many areas of interest – where to go first? 

I thought we’d head over to the showcases of vintage clothing, but, before we moseyed over there, my grandmother left my side to wander over to the huge farm machinery, like this tractor.  (Note the name of the inventor in the lower, right-hand corner.)

Nanny circled the area filled with these huge farm machines and delighted in telling me each of their names/purpose and how she remembered her father using them in the fields to sow, plow or harvest their crops.  Well, of course this would interest her – she grew up on a farm in Ariss, in rural Ontario.

Finally, I tore her away from admiring the farm equipment and steered her toward the sections of vintage clothing from different eras.  Nanny had eight siblings, most which stayed in Ariss and farmed on their own land or married farmers.  But, Minnie and her sister Loretta wanted to live in the Big City, i.e. Toronto, so they left Ariss when they were still in their teens.  (Minnie is on the left, Loretta on the right in the below photo taken in the early 1920s.)

Once they arrived in Toronto, they rented a room, each got factory jobs and quickly shed their “farm girl” personas once they had paychecks.  Nanny was in her glory as she pointed out to me vintage clothing she had once owned, like buttoned shoes, a fancy hat, or a small drawstring handbag, even a corset, all items worn by both sisters back in the day.  Actually, Nanny wore a corset for years afterward. I can remember how I’d see her squeezing into that contraption to slim her waist and hips when she got dressed up for church or other occasions.

I know we lost track of time with my grandmother’s fascination and exuberance from seeing items she likely had not thought about in a very long time.  Finally, she conceded she needed to sit down, then soon she popped up and was ready to look around some more.

We passed a gift shop on our way out. The shop featured vintage-type items and Nanny decided to buy this small chicken roaster for Mom.

She told me her mom had a huge chicken roaster that looked like this one. Mom remembered that chicken roaster and put this one in the back of the shelf so it would not accidentally get broken – it fit in perfectly with the other country-type items and is still there to this day.

We also we had a similar style of dish, but a duck, on the kitchen corner cabinet. The blue cake plate belonged to my great grandmother.

We finally left for home, ten miles away.  We were gone many hours and unbeknown to us, Mom was worried something happened to Nanny due to her heart condition and that’s why we didn’t return home earlier.  I should have gone to a payphone and called home, but I never thought of it. 

My grandmother had a short nap on the way home but walked into the house and recounted to Mom every last item she’d seen at the Museum, so Mom excused us when she saw everything was okay and how much Nanny enjoyed herself.  We went out for a late lunch at A&W.  Nanny had never eaten a footlong coney dog, nor onion rings, so she raved about that simple meal, along with her Museum visit for the rest of the Summer. 

A visit to Carter’s to see Erdie and Ann.

My grandmother wanted to visit Erdie, my boss, who managed the diner where I worked and was kind enough to pick up my mother’s birthday cake and drive us home when Nanny and my Aunt Frances were here for Mom’s 50th birthday back in February. She wanted to thank him again for his kindness.

So my parents and Nanny stopped at Carter’s on a Saturday afternoon, while I was at work, before driving her back home to Toronto. Erdie’s granddaughter Leslie and I had worked together Summers and every Saturday for several years. My grandmother asked Leslie if she’d ever visited Toronto and when she said “no” my grandmother invited her to visit before school started. We asked Erdie if it was okay for both of us to be off for a week and he said “sure” (though we kind of put him on the spot to be honest).

Soon, we were making plans to visit there the last week in August.

Tronna, here we come!

(Note: Canadians always know the tourists from the locals because they pronounce their City “Toronto” … Torontonians don’t say Tor-on-to in three syllables, but run it together as two syllables, Toronno, or even as one syllable, Tronna.)

We left on the Greyhound bus on Sunday, August 28th. There was no reason for me to drive – you really don’t need a vehicle in Toronto as there is mass transportation galore. You can ride everywhere on one fare by asking for transfers and great connections are available via the streetcar, subway or bus. My grandmother lived just off Dundas Street, where we could catch the streetcar to Downtown.

There was one pesky problem however.

When the Greyhound bus pulled into the terminal in Downtown Toronto after our four-hour bus trip, the driver announced that the TTC had gone on strike that day, the TTC being the Toronto Transit Commission which operates all mass transit in the City of Toronto. NOT great timing!

There were no taxis to be found to take us to Nanny’s house either – those drivers probably thought it would be more lucrative to wait for fares at the airport. Luckily, I had Nanny’s phone number memorized as we called her every Wednesday (after 7:00 p.m. – remember how the rates went down then?) Who says the brain has only so much memory … I still remember her phone number: Lennox 3-435-4346 and Nanny’s been gone 40 years.

My grandmother and aunt had great neighbors, a big circle of friends, but like them, no one had a car – they didn’t even know how to drive as they all relied on public transportation. So my grandmother, who worked in Downtown Toronto for years said “it’s easy, you and Leslie just find Lansdowne Street and keep walking – you know where to turn!” Well, we were young, we had been sitting on our bums for the last four hours, but it ended up being 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) to Nanny’s house and we were both toting heavy suitcases. Thankfully we were wearing flats!

We finally arrived at my grandmother’s house hours later, just in time for dinner.

Leslie took my photo on my grandmother’s front porch sitting on my suitcase; hers is to the left of me.

We relaxed and rallied back quickly and by the next morning, we were ready to hit up all the tourist attractions, some which I had not seen since before we moved to the States in 1966. We checked the newspaper to see if we could reserve tickets for any concerts that would be coming up at the Toronto Exhibition that week.

Then we were off, still on foot … in fact the TTC strike ended the day we left for home, the following Sunday, so in addition to any sightseeing on foot, we had that 5-mile roundtrip to the City and back to factor into each day.

Here are some of the places we visited that week.

Casa Loma.

I gleaned this info from Casa Loma’s website: “Completed in 1914, it took 300 men nearly three years to complete the almost 200,000 square foot, 98-room castle at a cost of $3,500,000 (at the time). Today, Casa Loma is one of Toronto’s top tourist attractions and hospitality venues. Each year over 650,000 visitors tour Casa Loma and the estate gardens.”

I remember going on a field trip to Casa Loma, either for school, or maybe an outing for our Brownie troop, while we still lived in Canada.

Unfortunately, there were renovations outside the castle, so there is some scaffolding in the photos. No selfies back then of course, but my Kodak Pocket Camera was so easy to use, I never hesitated to hand it to someone and ask them to take a photo. (Unfortunately we are a bit blurry here.)

All this walking made us hungry, so we stopped for lunch in Chinatown.

The CN Tower a/k/a “The Needle”.

Next we went to visit the newly completed CN Tower, a/k/a “The Needle”.

We went up to the top and had a bird’s eye view of the City. I did not change the photo from the top viewing area to black and white.

Canadian National Exhibition a/k/a “The Ex”.

We spent two days at “The Ex” which is how Torontonians abbreviate the name for the Canadian National Exhibition. We were lucky to get tickets for The Beach Boys and Chicago, so we visited this venue twice that week.

This photo was taken at the Princess Margaret Fountain at Exhibition Place which is where The Ex takes place every August through Labor Day.

There was plenty to see as it is like a huge county or state fair, with lots of rides, …

… an agricultural exhibit and loads of fair-type fare, especially a booth selling the famous hot ice cream waffle sandwiches like the vendor used to sell in Eaton’s Annex Tunnel. I remembered them from my childhood. Leslie and I figured we could indulge since we walked so much on our vacation.

We were lucky enough to see the tall ship Christian Radich docked at the shoreline and take a tour of that wooden sailing vessel.

Ontario Place.

We spent one day at Ontario Place, a waterfront park on Lake Ontario. This was a big tourist attraction, which has since been shut down. I had never been there as it was built after we moved over here in 1966.

The spherical building was called “The Cinesphere” and it was a huge movie theater.

I took a few photos of the Toronto skyline to show “The Needle” from different angles. (Either “The Needle” was listing, or I was!)

There was a lot to see at Ontario Place, so we were there until dusk.

Ontario Science Center.

We went to the Ontario Science Center one day, another new-to-me tourist attraction.

Leslie took this photo of me with Nanny and Aunt Frances.

All too soon, it was time to leave Nanny’s house, as we had to trek, one final time, with our suitcases in hand, to the bus station downtown. As mentioned earlier, the TTC strike was resolved later that day.

I had one last photo taken with Nanny in her backyard. The neighbor next door had many grapevines and made his own wine.

We arrived home Sunday evening; the next day was Labor Day. I started school at Wayne State University a couple of days later and it was back to just working at Carter’s weekends and school holidays.

And now I’m finally done stirring the memory pot for the year 1976. Looking ahead, 1977 was kind of a bust – it will be just one post and done. 🙂

I’ll have some pretty apricot and orange flowers for Terri’s Color Challenge and Flower Hour on Wednesday.