Every Picture Tells A Story-The Ghosts of Bronte

Every picture tells a story...but sometimes there is more.

When I posted the pictures of my family home on Cudmore to the Bronte Village FB group there were some amazing and wonderful comments.

One in particular struck home "you must of had a wonderful childhood".

If you talk to anyone who grew up in the 50s, 60s and 70s in Bronte most will have memories of a wonderful time. To illustrate how deeply "Bronte" runs through our veins, in the late 80s there were 2 Bronte Reunions that attracted well over 100 people from those 3 decades.

Most of us have friendships from our childhood and teen years which continue to this day.

I have 4 or 5 from public school, I hold very precious. There are many more through FB or people I run into from time to time, where there is this special connection of the place, time and adventures that were Bronte.

Some times years can go by where you don't connect or there is a comment, memory or message you receive on Facebook. Immediately there is this special connection to your roots growing up as friends in Bronte.

I have included some class pictures from Westbrook PS, that was on Mississauga Street. Almost all of us started elementary school at Centriller. However around 1959 a new school was required for the west side of Bronte. Westbrook was small, it didn't have a gym, but lots of land, a very small ball diamond and eventually a basketball court. There was the obligatory girls and boys side for a number of years.

My friendships from Westbrook are found in these old photos. To this day I can still remember everyone's name, where they lived and many of the things we did together at recess, after school and on weekends. Whether skating or swimming in the Bronte Creek, hanging out at the Riverside restaurant, listening to the Beatles on transistor radios, riding our bikes, backyard sleep outs and going to see a Hard Days Night at the Odeon in downtown Oakville.

Nothing was handed to us, so you had to get out hustle and get a part time job. As we left elementary school in our teens we ended up at different high schools. Initially, in 1965 we were split between Blakelock and Perdue but a year later White Oaks HS was opened and many moved over to that school.

There are many stepping stones to adulthood which you experience in your teens. Certainly school, friendships, jobs, first dates, girl and boyfriends, tensions with your parents, sports and losses.

For many of us growing up in Bronte and the westside of the Bronte Creek; that experience included facing loss and tragedy. Between 1965 and 1970 we lost six of our classmates and friends to accidents, misadventures and illness. In fact, between 1964 and 1974, rarely a Summer or year passed where we didn't lose a friend and attend a funeral. I was barely 14 when we experienced the first loss, attended the funeral and where I acted as a pallbearer.

When I look at the Westbrook class photos, I have specific memories about each of those who passed way too soon, all before we were out of our teens.

All lived on the westside for the Creek in that small neighbourhood between the Creek, Cudmore Road, the Lake and Radial Road.

Sadly, there are even more of the people in these photos, we lost in adulthood who didn't make their life journey this far.

So yes it was a wonderful time growing up in Bronte. There were so many adventures, life milestones and deep friendships. There was also a bittersweetness of the loss of friends. This is maybe why the roots of Bronte run so deep and long.

I often wonder how Lynn, Howie, Wayne, Ian, Richard (Rick) and Sonja would have turned out, what they would have become, whether we would get together or be "friends" on Facebook.