By the time the weather turned good in 1966,the school up the street was nearing completion,a full year ahead of the time I would be going into grade one.First it had just been a big hole in the ground at the head of Birchmount Avenue,and there were what seemed like hundreds of pallets of bricks piled up by the hole,where the front lawn would be.Slowly they disappeared,and the school began to look like an actual building.There were two kinds of brick,yellow and red.For a time the building had no doors,and a few times we just walked right in and had a look around,after all the workers had gone home.I don't ever remember there being fences around the place at all.
By May or June,the school,Birchmount School was looking almost completed,ready to receive pupils.It had glass in the windows,gravel was being spread out along three of it's perimeters,and a lawn was seeded along the front and a flag pole raised.The we would walk up to the school everyday nearly,and peer into each of the windows on the main floor.Tiles were being laid,and some of the classrooms did not yet have chalkboards.Still,my father was very proud of the school,he was happy that we had one in our neighborhood,happy that it was modern and that it was close by and wouldn't require us to cross any main streets on our way there.Wherever we went,he would brag about our new school even though we were not yet ready to attend.to him,a school was part of the social contract,a big part of the reason he lived and paid taxes where he did.So he was happy to see it ready for my first day there.
The huge hole in the ground just across Mountain Road from the end of our street was taking shape as well.At first it was a mess,a big mud hole.But gravel trucks and flatbeds with loads of bricks just kept coming.One day we were walking to the barber shop,my father and I and a truck arrived with all of the letters for the sign-KMART.We wandered on down the road and got our hair cut,then came back and watched them place the sign along the front of the building.the Kmart was a building site that you could not walk around,not like the school or any of the houses.I don't really recall any fences,but there was so much mud around the site that you could sink up to your knees,and the building itself was a long way from the road.Later on,we watched them put in some big plate glass windows along the front of the store,and they seemed big enough to take up the whole front of our house.
Most of the houses around and about were nearing completion too.Usually the last thing to be done was to plant a lawn.Some people rolled out sod and had a lawn right away,but most of us rolled out dirt in the front lawn,then packed it down and seeded it with a small hand pushed seeder.That is exactly what my father did.It would have been easier to roll out sod,because he had to level the lot out,then go get the dirt and spread it out before the lawn could be seeded.And,as he pushed the seeder,his feet would sink down into the dirt,so that by the time he was done,the whole lawn to be was a mess of unsightly foot prints.And,if it rained hard,some of the soil would wash away.some of our neighbors had to reseed after planting.If you put up a "Do not walk on the grass." sign,it ended up being an invitation for someone to do just that.And we were not really getting to the point where there still were not dogs running all over the place either.So getting a lawn planted,and seeing it through to the point that it was more grass than dirt was not the easiest thing to do.When we planted ours,I was there from the start.I remember well the day we went to get the dirt.
By May or June,the school,Birchmount School was looking almost completed,ready to receive pupils.It had glass in the windows,gravel was being spread out along three of it's perimeters,and a lawn was seeded along the front and a flag pole raised.The we would walk up to the school everyday nearly,and peer into each of the windows on the main floor.Tiles were being laid,and some of the classrooms did not yet have chalkboards.Still,my father was very proud of the school,he was happy that we had one in our neighborhood,happy that it was modern and that it was close by and wouldn't require us to cross any main streets on our way there.Wherever we went,he would brag about our new school even though we were not yet ready to attend.to him,a school was part of the social contract,a big part of the reason he lived and paid taxes where he did.So he was happy to see it ready for my first day there.
The huge hole in the ground just across Mountain Road from the end of our street was taking shape as well.At first it was a mess,a big mud hole.But gravel trucks and flatbeds with loads of bricks just kept coming.One day we were walking to the barber shop,my father and I and a truck arrived with all of the letters for the sign-KMART.We wandered on down the road and got our hair cut,then came back and watched them place the sign along the front of the building.the Kmart was a building site that you could not walk around,not like the school or any of the houses.I don't really recall any fences,but there was so much mud around the site that you could sink up to your knees,and the building itself was a long way from the road.Later on,we watched them put in some big plate glass windows along the front of the store,and they seemed big enough to take up the whole front of our house.
Most of the houses around and about were nearing completion too.Usually the last thing to be done was to plant a lawn.Some people rolled out sod and had a lawn right away,but most of us rolled out dirt in the front lawn,then packed it down and seeded it with a small hand pushed seeder.That is exactly what my father did.It would have been easier to roll out sod,because he had to level the lot out,then go get the dirt and spread it out before the lawn could be seeded.And,as he pushed the seeder,his feet would sink down into the dirt,so that by the time he was done,the whole lawn to be was a mess of unsightly foot prints.And,if it rained hard,some of the soil would wash away.some of our neighbors had to reseed after planting.If you put up a "Do not walk on the grass." sign,it ended up being an invitation for someone to do just that.And we were not really getting to the point where there still were not dogs running all over the place either.So getting a lawn planted,and seeing it through to the point that it was more grass than dirt was not the easiest thing to do.When we planted ours,I was there from the start.I remember well the day we went to get the dirt.
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