It’s been nearly a year since I started working for the Advertiser, and I’ll admit, at first I was a little skeptical about writing for a small-town paper.
Like every budding journalist fresh out of the lecture theatre, I had aspirations of heading straight to the big leagues and sitting high in a Toronto office tower.
How could rural Ontario compete with the fast-paced excitement of life in the city? I wanted to see theatrical productions, attend music festivals and wander through innovative art exhibitions.
Turns out, you don’t need to live in the city to find these things. They’re right here in Wellington County.
There is a spark in this community – something I’ve never seen before.
It is one thing to open a text book and read about life on the home front during the First World War, it is another to walk through the houses, look at the photos and hold in your hands the everyday articles people used. An old journal or dress suddenly makes a global catastrophe tangible. It starts to breathe.
You could not walk up to the average person in Toronto and ask them about the history of their neighbourhood. But here, local history is a point of pride and the dedication and commitment to preserving it is remarkable.
Last weekend, while visiting some of the stops on the Doors Open tour, I learned the cost of a hair cut in 1920 ($0.35), I flipped through a 1930s guide to marital relations and I learned how to use a mustache cup.
In a society obsessed with the voyeurism of celebrities, interest in the lives of ordinary people is often forgotten. We pay thousands of dollars for a tissue used by a pop star, but throw away the articles that chronicle our own existence, objects that tell the story of our communities; the struggles, triumphs and progress to here and now.
When an area’s culture is rich, young people tend to stay and curious naysayers from the city (like me) come to visit. Arts and heritage preservation attracts businesses and generates tourism. Too often progress is defined by sparkling skyscrapers, but an interest in the past is an investment for the future. In this respect, Wellington County is accelerating faster than many large cities.
While I always envisioned myself pounding the pavement of Canada’s urban centres, Starbucks in one hand notebook in the other, the last year has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.
Wellington County is comprised of an incredible fold of individuals who have experienced great events, lived through hardship and are moving forward into the future with cutting edge contributions to heritage, the arts, environment, Sports and technology.
Maybe one day I’ll be chasing Rob Ford’s successor down Queen Street, but until then there are endless stories to unearth, right here at home.
