Bridget Lynch
An early Humewood School Fair.
AUDIO INTERVIEW
SUMMARY
March 2, 2016
00:21 PERSONAL STORY / NEIGHBOURHOOD STREET LIFE: They were drawn to this neighbourhood because of its diversity. They bought a house at 65 Cherrywood Ave in the fall of 1977.
02:02 PERSONAL STORY / MEMORABLE EVENTS / WEATHER: Their 3rd child, a daughter, was born at home during a major snowstorm (1978). Dr. John McCullough came through the snowstorm in a little MG sports car to deliver her. People were snowshoeing and X-country skiing down the street. The storm turned into a blizzard where cars could no longer get through. She provides a little more family history.
02:45 NEIGHBOURHOOD STREET LIFE / COMMUNITY: Bridget talks about the importance of community and creating community for her children.
03:21 DEMOGRAPHICS / DIVERSITY: On her block there were 12 different countries represented and 25-30 children. The children played together on the street. There were young families as well as older longtime residents. The block was composed of First Nations, Greek and Italian families.
04:50 NEIGHBOURHOOD STREET LIFE: She talks about a community in transition. They were warned against it by real estate agents.
06:08 NEIGHBOURHOOD STREET LIFE / ACTIVISM: She tells us about being woken on summer nights by a group of guys who were bouncing basketballs down the street. The noise of the balls would reverberate off all the houses. These kids were just hanging out on a summer’s night. Bridget got to know Evelyn Pollack, the local Trustee and advocated for the guys to have something to do. She worked with the Trustee and petitioned the school board to set up a basketball court. She explains where the boundaries of the Old City of York once fell - that they were just north of the laneway that ran behind the stores on St. Clair.
08:24 ACTIVISM / COMMUNITY GROUPS: She talks about how she and other mothers created the Moms and Tots Group at Humewood School. She and neighbour Lauretta Brooks went to the School Board and requested the use of a portable to set up a Moms and Tots Group. They advertised the group by going door to door dropping off flyers. This was the beginning of what became the Humewood Neighbourhood Association.
11:10 ACTIVISM / NEIGHBOURHOOD (COMMUNITY) DEVELOPMENT: The Humewood Neighbourhood Association focussed on turning Humewood Junior Public School into Humewood Community School. There was a movement across Canada and the U.S. to seek permission to open schools to community activities. It was granted Community School status, which it holds to this day. Their programs commenced in the fall of 1979. By then they had developed programming for adults and children for 30-40 activities. These were all after-school and evening programs that included sports and ESL classes. They wanted the school to become a hub for the neighbourhood. “No one came to us and asked if we wanted to be doing more in our school. We went to them.”
13:15 ACTIVISM / ENTERTAINMENT / NEIGHBOURHOOD: Wishing to celebrate the multiculturalism of the community, they created International Dinners in Humewood School’s gym. Bridget describes these community building dinners and the work it took to make them happen.
16:40 LIFE OF CHILD / NEIGHBOURHOOD STREET LIFE: The neighbourhood group organized a Halloween Walk where about 60 or 70 costumed kids were led by Ed Blackstock on a parade through the neighbourhood. Bridget shares her thoughts on how this was another opportunity to create a community, for neighbours to come together and get to know each other - “to give kids a sense of belonging.”
17:40 NEIGHBOURHOOD DEVELOPMENT / ACTIVISM: Once their group was given Community School for Humewood School they created The Neighbourhood Association. Eventually Humewood School took over responsibility for creating and advertising the activities at the school. The group then turned their energies toward the Neighbourhood Association.
18:35 Humewood Fair: Their group decided to put their efforts into the first Humewood Fair. She and Lauretta Brooks ran the first fair as a lawn sale in the spring of 1979 (miscalculation of date in interview as 1978). They took over the school’s parking lot. The positive response to the fair pushed them to expand to a full-blown fair. She provides a description of the early years of The Humewood Fair.
20:43 Dances: The neighbourhood group rented halls in the neighbourhood and held International Dances for adults and families.
21:00 The Humewood Fair was funded with the money charged for renting tables at the lawn sale. They always engaged the school. They held the fair on the 3rd Saturday in June, before people left for the summer to celebrate the end of the school year and the beginning of the summer. She talks about the changes since those early days. They also got a little funding from businesses along St. Clair.
23:04 SCHOOLS / ALTERNATIVE PROGRAM: By the time her youngest child (Kel) graduated, Bridget had been involved with Humewood School for 22 years. Before she had a child enrolled at Humewood School, there was a group of parents who had requested the formation of an alternative program in the City of York. Bridget’s 3rd child became a student in the first Cherrywood Alternative Program Junior Kindergarten class. Bridget’s 2 older children were in French Immersion at Rawlinson. The founders of Cherrywood were looking to move away from what was then a standard class to one with greater parental involvement and input into curriculum delivery. In the early years of the program the students would have the same teacher for number of grades - there was evidence that continuity was a benefit. Parent volunteers were welcomed into the classroom to support the curriculum. The Cherrywood Program took a student-led learning approach to education, before it was the norm, as it is today. There was an expectation among the Cherrywood families that their program would be presented as an option to incoming families. The administration, instead, streamed the children into the standard classrooms unless the families knew to inquire about the alternative program. The Cherrywood parents were very late in realizing this was occurring and it led to a segregated looking program where white students from more liberal-minded families were enrolled in Cherrywood and everyone else had their kids in the standard classroom. This eventually led to charges of elitism by the community. It was never what anyone had intended. It was a great concern for the Cherrywood families, particularly as they had chosen the neighbourhood for its diversity.
29:54 PERSONAL: She apprenticed to become a midwife from 1981-83, before it became legal. Her office was in her home at 65 Cherrywood. She became less involved in community development as she moved into her career. She remained involved with the Humewood Fair and the Cherrywood Program. She continued to work out of her home until midwifery was regulated in 1994.
31:55 ACTIVISM / NEIGHBOURHOOD GROUPS: The Humewood Neighbourhood Association merged with the Ratepayers Association and became The Humewood Neighbourhood Ratepayers Association. Her husband, John Lynch, became one of its early presidents. They worked on issues around development in the area.
33:20 ACTIVISM / NEIGHBOURHOOD: Bridget shares her thoughts on community. She talks about the bond that was forged with people she worked with 30 or 40 years ago. She feels that they laid a strong foundation for neighbourhood but that there is a need to regenerate this by first time homeowners.
35:25 RAVINE: She and her family had fun exploring Cedarvale Ravine and the little waterways down by the pathway that have since been fenced off by homeowners. They held a welcoming ceremony there for their son.
36:55 Evening: She describes vividly a beautiful winter’s night of skating on pathways of smooth ice, uncovered by their shovels at the bottom of the Cedarvale bowl. Bridget recalls the moving sound of a saxophone being played under the Bathurst St Bridge at night.
39:26 RESTAURANTS: Bridget shares her memories of her favourite restaurant in the neighbourhood, on St. Clair just west of Winona. She describes a busy place, with an abundance of delicious Thai food and a wonderful atmosphere.
40:28 ENTERTAINMENT / THEATRES: Bridget provides details about the Vaughan Theatre when Harry Stinson ran it. She talks about this large popular theatre and the Vaudevillian acts that would proceed the showing of foreign and independent films. Stan Rogers was just gaining popularity when he played at the Vaughan as one of these acts.
44:50 RECREATION / LIFE OF CHILD: Bridget remembers her kids learning to skate at Cedarvale Arena (now Phil White Arena).
45:35 RAVINE: She talks about the many activities they enjoyed in the Cedarvale Ravine: watching cricket, tobogganing, holding the Cherrywood program end-of-year picnic, and dog-walking and watching.
46:40 ACTIVISM / MEMORABLE PEOPLE: Bridget remembers and gives tribute to her friend, Lauretta Brooks, who saved the Cedarvale Bridge. Bridget provides some history of this pedestrian bridge that connects the north and south sides of the ravine, just west of the Bathurst St. Bridge. She provides her perspective on the importance of the bridge - how it connects the neighbourhoods.
49:08 MEMORABLE PEOPLE / NEIGHBOURHOOD: Bridget gives us a sense of what a single person’s impact on a neighbourhood can be as she continues to remember the work of her friend and neighbour, Lauretta Brooks.
51:20 ACTIVISM / POLITICS: She talks about helping to elect two trustees in the City of York Board of Education through the Neighbourhood Association and Cherrywood. They were both fathers of children at Cherrywood. The first one was John Mills. He was the first African Canadian Trustee in the City of York. She talks about the coming together of the African Canadian community in this neighbourhood. The helped elect representatives.
52:52 SCHOOLS / POLITICS: She talks about the effort, that ultimately failed, to save the Cherrywood Program.
54:56 ACTIVISM / POLITICS: She remembers working in the 1980’s on a political campaign for Gayle Christie, who was running for mayor of the City of York.
55:54 ACTIVISM / LEADERSHIP TRAINING: Bridget shares a brochure from the time when she was Chair of the Community School Project; she was only 27 or 28 at the time. She talks about her responsibilities as the President of the International Confederation of Midwives.
57:48 ACTIVISM / MEMORABLE EVENT/ NEIGHBOURHOOD AND NEIGHBOURHOOD SAFETY: Bridget talks about the abuction and murder of a young Welsh nanny that lived with a family on Pinewood Ave. This tragic event had a great impact on Toronto. The community came together and planted a tree in her name in Humewood Park as a memorial. Hundreds of people attended the planting.
1:01:18 Bridget reads a letter, written to her and her husband, from the young woman’s family. She reflects on the impact this crime has had on the neighbourhood and the guilt they felt for letting the young woman’s family down.
1:03:15 NEIGHBOURHOOD / COMMUNITY BUILDING: Bridget talks about making connections.
1:04:49 HISTORY OF HOMES: She talks a little bit about her house on Winona Drive that was built in 1928. She contemplates the history and future of the house.
1:06:40 SCHOOL: She talks a little bit about Marieka, her daughter who has Down Syndrome, being integrated into the Cherrywood Program.
1:06:55 ACTIVISM: Bridget reflects on the City of York, lamenting some of the School Board’s attitudes while recognizing that its smallness may have been what allowed them to get things done.