Spaces and places in my life

I have written often about spaces in my life. There are specific buildings that are gone now or empty.

The train station in Lachute is closed. The Mirabel airport is virtually closed. Did someone refer to it as a white elephant? I wonder how that translates into French.

There was lots of farmers land expropriated around Ste. Scholastique where the Mirabel airport was built. A younger member of the family referred to this place as St. Elastic - cute… Now there is talk about returning some of the land to the farmers.

I found some quite sad pictures of St. Julien’s Church in Lachute and the old convent in Toronto.

St. Julien’s was a familiar place in my life. I was only inside there once but that was more to do with the reality of life in Quebec in the 1950s and 1960s for Anglophone Protestants. It was for the 1st communion of my neighbour who was the same age as me so he was 6.

I spent many happy hours in the old convent. The inside pictures were all of very familiar rooms. This is a place of good memories for me. Now the new convent is a familiar place for me as well.

Airports

Folks in Ottawa who want to see President Obama tomorrow will not be able to see him at the airport. He will not even see the newly renovated terminal.

On my trip to and from Montreal last fall the bus stopped at the Dorval Airport - now known as the Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.

On my first trip to England in the fall of 1975 we left from Dorval. There was some possibility that we would return to Mirabel Airport but it was not open when we returned.

Mirabel Airport was close by where my mom lived in Lachute. You could hear the planes flying over the house.

I did fly out of there on another trip - to England and France. They had some interesting shuttles which took you out to your plane. I was watching a movie where the shuttles looked to be quite familiar. Sure enough in the credits, the movie was filmed there.

Now the airport looks to be very lonely. What a waste! It is easy to find some sad looking pictures on the Internet.