A trip home

In November of 2009, I was able to get back to England for a trip home. Although I was born in Toronto, we moved to England when I was six months old and stayed there till I was five when my parents split and we moved back to Canada. My first memories are of England, and after we moved to Canada we returned annually for many years to visit all our family whenever we could.

My hometown is called Clevedon, in North Somerset in the South of England. It's a small seaside town that looks across the muddy waters of the Bristol Channel to Wales. When I knew that I was moving to Canada, I used to look at those lights and ask my mum if that was Canada. It didn't seem so bad knowing that I wasn't moving too far.

Clevedon has a pier that is the focal point for the town. In 1970 it fell down as a result of a load test, and was reconstructed in 1998. My father's name is somewhere on that long wooden walkway.

The "beach" that I remember playing on is a small patch of stones and the rest of the seaside is covered in smelly seaweed and rough rocks. The memories of childhood are totally different than reality.

The high street is called Hill Road where my mum grew up living on top of a grocery store owned by my granddad. I used to buy all my Mr. Men books from a stationary store on Hill Rd. that is still in business today. My mum's store has been renamed and is now a beauticians. But the Cambourne name is still well known in the town.

The Curzon theatre is the oldest continually running movie house in the world. If you look at the photo carefully, you can see holes in the facade from a bomb that landed during WWII. I remember the intermission during a movie where all the kids would run down to the ice cream man to get an "ice lolly". Sounds a bit "ginger beer" now.

Last place to visit is Christ church where I was baptized. It's one of those structures that I remember vividly from my childhood and it sits near a bowling green.