The Street - A Composite Sketch (19)

Not a very long street, just off a major arterial, it is shaped like a question mark. At the conclusion of the bulge it meanders into another street. One half of the street backs onto a heavily wooded ravine, a neighbourhood treasure, though few of the street's residents quite recognize its value, nor make use of its propinquity. It cleanses the air everyone breathes, it hosts birds and wildlife and presents a treasury of wildflowers throughout the seasons. At one time the street, part of a larger suburban community, shared a small-town address. It has long since been subsumed into the greater national capital of the country, through a wide-ranging amalgamation of communities and even farms. The street and the houses on it were built two and a half decades ago. The domiciles are comprised mostly of single-family, detached dwellings, with a handful of semis verging on the main thoroughfare. Many of the residents are the original home purchasers. They would comprise roughly 50% of the residents of the street. The semis appear to have changed hands far more often than the detached homes. And those homes that have been re-sold have often enjoyed a succession of owners. The original home owners who moved into their houses when their children were small have mostly bid farewell to now-grown children. The street represents an amalgam of family types, and there is a significant percentage at this time, of retired people, singly and in couples who, though their houses are meant for family occupation, still opt to remain in their too-large, but comfortable and familiar and valued homes. It is a very quiet street, with little traffic other than those who live there. The house fronts are diverse, and attractive. Most residents take care of their homes, seeing them as their primary investments. Furnaces have been replaced, and air conditioners, and also windows. Kitchens and bathrooms have been remodelled, and people have added decks and occasionally airy 'summer houses' to the backs of their homes. One-third of the homes boast swimming pools, in-ground and above-ground. Most people take pride in their properties, and feel they must achieve lawns that are weedless and smoothly green. Some painstakingly remove weeds by hand in the spring, others hire lawn-care companies to spread chemicals on their lawns. Invariably, the people who look after their own gardens and lawns have superior gardens and lawns. Each house has a large tree planted in front; maples, ash,crabapples, spruce or pine, fully mature. This is a community that is truly mixed, representing people from around the world, come to Canada as immigrants, settled and making the most of opportunities open to all its citizens in a free and open society noted for its pluralism and dedication to fair representation. There are the extroverts and the introverts, those who prefer not to mingle, others who do. They are herewith loosely sketched:

This is the Nineteenth part of the anatomy of The Street.

Theirs was one of the two houses built several years later than all the others on the street. They moved into it about three years later than most others living on the street. Originally from the Halifax area, they had two young children, both boys. He was an investment banker, and she a social worker. They were the only blacks on the street. And they belonged there, helping to make the street a miniature representation of people from around the world.

This couple, however, represented a demographic of black heritage originally arrived in Canada in the 19th Century via a special underground route, to escape slavery in the United States.

They were self-assured, and urbane, friendly and likeable. Sweet natured and generous people, his ironic sense of presence had him note the presence of new people moving onto the street, and he would make a point of knocking on their doors to introduce himself as their new neighbour.

As he did when an older Jewish family moved directly across the street from them. And, in fact, the two families learned to value one another's presence and the friendship between them that ensued. Unfortunately, when he was offered a professional upgrade by moving his family to Texas he grasped the opportunity. And to the regret of his neighbours the family moved, after having lived on the street a bare six years.

He did return once, on a business trip, and knocked on the doors of some of his neighbours, to briefly recapture old acquaintances. Some of his neighbours had cautioned him against moving to the U.S. with two young boys, telling him their futures would be more assured, quality-wise and lacking discrimination, but he laughed, reminding them that they had suffered in Canada, as blacks, as well.

Their house was sold to another young couple, with a young boy. The woman too was from down east the Canadian maritimes, and her husband from the Middle East, an Egyptian. He was a tall, dark and burly man, and she was light and petite. She was shy and reserved and her husband was forthright and though tending to be brusque, friendly as well.

Their son had been diagnosed with juvenile diabetes and they worried about him, but he had adjusted well to his life-style changes and multiple daily shots of insulin. Only once was an ambulance called, in the many years they lived on the street, in response to a severe overnight hypoglycemic attack that had resulting in a frightening seizure.

He worked as a computer specialist for a private firm that had the inside track on government contracts. And she worked most days from home, an accountant who had no trouble picking up contracts herself. After a few years, and when their son was in his early teens, they had another child, another boy.

And the younger boy turned out to be mischievous to an extent his older brother never had been, head-strong, and insistent. A trial to his patient mother and impatient father. But they found it difficult to deny the child anything. Not only because they hesitated to deny him his wishes, but because they knew that to do so would elicit a racket of childish hysteria.

They had an in-ground pool installed on their good-sized lot, backing onto the ravine on one side, a neighbour on the other. He was mad for soccer, and played often, in the summer months, spending evenings away from home. She was the home body, he was often out and about with his friends, other jocks, men from the Middle East with a lot of cultural commonality.

He was fascinated by all things electronic, was one of the first people to have wireless Internet and a laptop computer, and a digital camera, and anything else that came out on the market that was different, new and technically advanced. Including tools. While he used computers, cameras and other gadgets, he seldom used the tools.

His wife, of necessity, learned to use the tools. She it was who did most of the work around the house. From re-setting their patio pavers, to mowing the lawns, and clearing the driveway of snow in the winter, to decorating their house for Christmas. He was a Christian Arab, and they had their religion in common.

They had met, in fact, in Cairo, where his family lived and attended university, and where she had travelled as a curious tourist. When they first married they did quite a bit of travelling together. Although she loved Cairo, and he did as well, since it was his birthplace and where his extended family lived, they decided she would sponsor him for emigration to Canada.

They were good neighbours, but mostly kept to themselves, as did their older son. Their Jewish neighbours across the street took to them, however. It was the man who spent a lot of time talking with her, discussing neighbourhood matters, items in the news, and whom she invested with her share of gossip.

She might not have been involved in neighbourly acquaintanceships like many, but she did know what was happening on the street. Through keen observation, for one thing, her upstairs windows giving her direct visual access to what was happening in her near vicinity. She was a constant source of updates to those with whom she spoke. And, as well, one of the few women on the street who was genuinely intelligent and kept abreast of national and international news.

Her husband owned a sizeable property in Egypt, and they thought that one day they would return there, to live out their lives. They very well might. He did, on occasion, return to Egypt, to make contact with family, and spend some time there, where he was born. His circle of friends in Canada was comprised largely of expatriate Middle-Easterners.

She had a sister living close by, with a family of her own. They were comfortable living on the street, and had no immediate plans to make a change of living arrangements or venue. Their older son was now completing university, working part-time at a nearby WalMart, while the younger boy was halfway through elementary school.

c. 2009 Rita Rosenfeld