The popular verse from Ecclesiastes tells us 鈥榯here is a time to build up and a time to break down.鈥� You only have to drive around the 91原创 countryside to see that this is a time for both in our ever-changing community.
In Brookswood last week, the demolition crew was working side by side with the construction crew on the old hardware site. Building blocks were being torn down and dumped into containers on one lot while the concrete pumper snaked up over the new slab pouring new floors and foundations. One foreman was directing his men to pull off split and torn roofing material as another was setting his transit to mark the boundaries of the new walls.
As you drive along, it is not unusual to see a boarded up house in the middle of a large lot or maybe just a hole where a home once stood. No doubt the next time you drive that road, townhouses will have sprung up like weeds to fill every available square foot on the property.
In one part of the community, people want soil removal permits while others apply for permission to be a legal land fill. Trucks hauling out, trucks hauling in; drivers working, carpenters working, bulldozers, Bobcats and back hoes in short supply. Real estate signs go up, people come, the community grows and we all prosper, they say.
The same day I watched the walls come down in Brookswood, I noticed some new boards on the old red barn at Glover and Mufford. The barn and the house are part of the designated heritage buildings in 91原创 and were originally the Dixon Farm. The Vander Vegte family moved there in the late 1950s and were our neighbours and part of our Norris Road group.
It is refreshing to see the barn being restored. Not just because it is part of my boyhood memories, but it represents a huge part of our history, as all the heritage buildings in 91原创 are dedicated to do. I鈥檓 sure it would have been much cheaper to just knock it down, but it will be nice to take young kids to see a real barn rather than Google a picture of one.
I doubt if much we build today will survive into the next century and I have no doubt the townhouses will be replaced by high rises as the real life Monopoly game is played out. A good question to ask is, what part do you play in the community, building up or tearing down? It makes a difference. At least that鈥檚 what McGregor says.
The Barn
Only bales of dust left piled in the creaking lofts,
Shafts of sunlight fill cracks between the boards;
Missing shingles, like eyes, watch the sky for rain,
Doors and shutters stretch to grab latches,
Rust-stained unyielding hinges hold them back;
Stalls full of ghosts munch stale grain
And turn to see who has come to slip the halters;
Broken floorboards ramped for quick passage
As tiny feet scamper to and from underneath,
Once the haven, the pride of the farm,
Shelter for the livestock and produce,
Foundation for the tilted weather vane;
Now, a subject for the artists brush,
The photographer鈥檚 lens,
The poet鈥檚 pen.
