Muskoka Blog
Home is where the writer thrives....I'm a Muskokan
This has been a tumultuous year residing in Gravenhurst, and probably the first time since we arrived in the late 1980's that I began to wonder if it was the place we should remain. In the first years here we did most of our business and professional work in Bracebridge, and even our lads were at the same school that I attended as a kid.....Bracebridge Public School. We resided in Gravenhurst. We did our shopping here but everything else, including my parents and the baby-sitting service they provided, was in the town ten miles north. It was an odd relationship at first but we liked the fact few if any people in our neighborhood knew what we did for a living, why we were on the road alot, kept to themselves.....and frankly the neighbors that did know us didn't seem to mind that we were part-time residents.
After a lengthy stint in the newspaper business in Muskoka, I had endured a rough decade dealing with the public. From death threats to many promises of bodily harm for our editorial investigations, and the fact my young family was becoming unnecessarily exposed to the off-shoot of my profession, escaping to the little urban homestead we call Birch Hollow, in central Gravenhurst, was a nightly respite we thoroughly enjoyed. While we weren't able to escape the dozens of phone calls from sources and all those hoping to get me to write some promo material for their businesses, it was enough of a hiatus to make you feel pretty good about off-hours being quality hours.
When we moved our boys to Gravenhurst Public School, and we decided to close-up our antique shop, in Bracebridge, in order to pursue other business interests and professional opportunities, it was obvious we were going to sacrifice some of our anonymity which wasn't bad at first but has become somewhat more cumbersome and a tad annoying. Most of it was our own fault because we decided to get involved in some fairly controversial political issues and even some personal disagreements with yes.....political overtones and roots about ten miles deep. With our boys in a main street business enterprise, there was very little chance to escape the onslaught of phone calls and personal visitations that frankly, we had been happy to have at work but not at home.
This past year saw us at the centre of a number of major controversies, including a "Save The Bog" campaign which was an effort to preserve a multi-acre wetland in our neighborhood, which is a key filtering region for water emptying from the urban area into Lake Muskoka. Our band of concerned neighbors and friends fought the good fight, and after several months of lobbying, harping and gaining a massive amount of public support, the town dropped their plans to sell off the acreage, or even sever lots which had been a secondary consideration. There were times during this fight, dealing with a number of councillors who wouldn't even visit the property they wished to sell-off, that I truly wondered if I could reside in a town with such a determined approach to take progress as it comes, and the "more money the better." Selling off our Bog was a money seeking mission that made little if any sense but it still cost a lot of good folks their recreation-time last summer to head council off at the pass.
From folks who were just quiet, unassuming residents here, to the accelerated point where we became involved in many initiatives, protests and action plans, coming home after confrontation took three times as long to unwind. Last summer, we simply stayed tightly wound until December, when things finally started to relax amidst the winter hush from the first few feet of snow. After all the weight of snow last winter, we were mentally relaxed but physically exhausted. We Curries all have a little Irish tenacity in us, so regular scraps are part of our culture but what we had opened was a big gaping hole of ongoing controversy. We were literally too close to the action. This isn't a blog editorial claiming that only we were right, in whatever fight was on the agenda that particular evening. It is very much to say this involvement nearly cost us all our residential escape. We had more people at our door it seemed than at our mainstreet business, and while most of the intrusions were welcome, a few were of the kind we'd rather never experience. As a sanctuary, well, it was failing badly.
After locking horns a couple more occasions late last summer, with some particularly nasty individuals bent on hurting us at all costs, we stood our ground, backed down nary an inch, let all the fur fly as they say, and came out of the dust-ups feeling tired, victorious but resolved. We have adored our place in Gravenhurst because we weren't politically active. We enjoyed our meandering through town daily, and it was a joy to shop, visit, and participate in events, without even once getting the urge to challenge a new initiative, or even debate an imposing tax bill, municipal bylaw, zoning amendment, school closing or anything else. Ours was the passive, call it "cowardly" approach if you must..... but being uninvolved except in the act of day to day living, allowed us a few moments of solace before yet another work day.
Earlier in this blog collection I wrote about how our present homestead here has been a boon for my writing activities, and more than any other location in Muskoka, it has been a daily source of inspiration through the four seasons. I can sit here for hours on end overlooking the lilac garden, watching the raspberries developing, and feel as free as the wavering ferns dancing in the spring breeze. All is calm and all is well. When I was an active news reporter back in my youth I loved the excitement of chasing down news and getting involved in the full monty of investigative journalism. Today I'm only interested in a good scrap if it is entirely necessary and the cause of some significance to the health and economy of kith and kin....and neighborhood. Most of the time we just enjoy being covered over by the full maples and birches, the towering poplars, wreathed by beautiful ferns and wildflowers than encircle our modest urban cabin. As a writer I could not ask for a more tranquil work place at this moment, enhanced by the fact we have spent most of the past year hauling ourselves out of the quagmires of political and social/cultural debate. We have opted to live and let live I suppose you might say, and our productivity in our chosen professions has doubled......knowing that when we retire from the daily toil there will be a comfortable chair, some wide open spaces, an afforded space to play at one or more of our favorite hobbies, and to enjoy Gravenhurst the way it should be experienced.....without a shred of controversy.
Whether Gravenhurst movers and shakers wish to acknowledge it or not, our hometown is about to enter into one of its most difficult social-economic periods. I'm a long serving historian and I hear a distant storm. The business community is being pulled apart at the seams and the negative effects are imprinting deeply, such that even in the standby regions of the old town's commercial centre, it is impossible to get a clear consensus about anything, and a clear direction on anything else. Strong differences of opinion and infighting, and a lack of town leadership, has destined the main street to suffer the consequences of straight-on exposure to new business node competition. There is a great deal of mistrust, anger, feelings of betrayal and hurt all round but none of it matters in the final analysis of what businesses are likely to survive and which ones will falter and fail. There's not much that can be done now to soften what could be a crushing new period of business competition. Added to this, the very real imprint of a recession, the effects of high gas prices on the economy of a rural population, a decline in tourism and a potential real-estate retreat, and we ponder if any one can relax even in the midst of this beautiful Muskoka hinterland.
As an historian, Gravenhurst and Muskoka have survived many tough times and challenges in the past. I do think our town will come through this next imposition of economic moodiness with a few bruises and feeling a little battle-worn but there is a future. I do think however, it may be time for the leaders of our regin, our town, to pay a little more attention to the dangers of putting too much faith in the advancements of progress as it relates to speculation versus what is logical, sensible, natural and sustainable growth. We have been blitzed by speculators far and wide and when the economy turns......the speculators run like hell.
I have no wish to create a Utopia here, and Nirvana would be too pleasant to be inspirational and for all intents and purposes, I can do without a pristine, comfortable, accomodating environs to write.....why I suppose I could write a book while being under bombardment of scud missiles. I do however, call me a nostalgic, romantic old fart, enjoy the thought of a town contented with itself, proud of its accomplishments and particularly pleased by its ability to weather storms and come together in the time of crisis to rebuild and restore. This is where we should be.....and what any "home" town should be.......and we should never allow the landsharks, speculators, snake oil peddlars to change the character of what we have honed from the Ontario hinterland since the late 1850's.
Until it all changes, I will sit by this window in my office, adoring all that summer brings forth from the dark soil, and feel enchanted by the windsong of the afternoon breeze washing through the evergreens at my back. And I shall write until I can write no more. It is a good home in a good town. We need to appreciate how easy it is to screw up a nice place to live.
Ghost stories coming soon
I have been working for the past three months, on a weighty collection of ghost stories, from a personal perspective, and hope to launch the new blog site in the next several months. There will be a link to the site from this blog. It will be a mostly Muskoka and Algonquin based collection of stories.....real life encounters with the paranormal.