Valerie Endicott
Valerie and her father Stephen Endicott. Valerie and her sisters (above).
AUDIO INTERVIEW
SUMMARY
June 22, 2016
00:00 PERSONAL HISTORY: In anticipation of her birth, Valerie’s family moved into 10 Cherrywood in April of 1962. She has 3 sisters.
01:28 SCHOOLS: Her family home overlooked the Humewood School property. Val describes the property around the old school.
02:50 NEIGHBOURHOOD STREETS: Valerie explains how Valewood Ave used to run between Cherrywood Ave. and Humewood Dr.
03:52 NEIGHBOURHOOD LIFE / MEMORABLE PEOPLE: The Buffet and Vallance families, old neighbours of the Endicotts, remembered the Garrison Creek tributary running through the area, along Valewood Ave. Their neighbour, Jim Vallance, is remembered as a volunteer at Humewood School.
05:10 SCHOOLS: She talks about Humewood School’s grounds, portables and baseball field.
06:04 New School: The new school was built on the baseball field while the old school was still standing. Valerie was in Grade 4 when the new school opened. She was one of the first students to enter the new school in the early 1970s - everything was molded in orange and green plastic.
06:40 Old School: The original school was all wood (inside) and the auditorium housed 4 kindergarten classes with stained-glass windows that were moved to the new building. The old school had expansive corridors.
07:00 Open Concept: The new school had an open-concept. Val’s parents were supporters of this new idea but not all teachers were. She discusses the size of school. The new school only went to Grade 6.
09:40 DEMOGRAPHICS: Cherrywood Ave in the late 1960s did not have many young children. When they first moved in, there were more Jewish families (than now). Italian families arrived, followed by families from the Caribbean, Portugal and Greece.
10:28 IMMIGRATION: Immigrant neighbours lived in multi-generational extended families and brought their old world customs.
10:55 SCHOOLS: Valerie describes the old Humewood School lunchroom in the basement. The gym was a dingy place. The entrance-way was odd. You had to go down steep stairs. She compares it to the new school.
11:48 RECREATION: She doesn’t remember any front porch culture, but the school grounds were well used.
12:16 SCHOOLS: Arlington Sr. Public was a new school. Grades 7 and 8 were organized into four quadrants/houses that felt like 4 little schools within the one school - A to D. She had little to do with students in other “houses.” There was a small school feeling to it. There were 2 grade 7 classes and 2 grade 8 classes in each quadrant.
13:10 SCHOOL/ YOUTH ACTIVITIES: Her Arlington School experience was rather a special one as she and her friend Elaine were part of a small folk group of about 7 girls. They used to sing at events for Mayor Phil White. They would sing for Kawanis. Lions Club and York civic events wearing long gowns and played guitars. Their Grade 8 teacher, was their “folk master.” The audition process was nerve-racking.
15:30 RAVINE / A CHILD’S LIFE: She played with her sisters on rocks at the top of Cedarvale Ravine at Heathdale. The ravine was popular with families. She remembers it being more rustic than now.
16:26 RAVINE / ACTIVISM: Her Family marched through the ravine to protest the Spadina Expressway.
16:45 RAVINE / TRANSIT: Construction of the subway extension caused much of the ravine to be cordoned off.
18:35 RAVINE / LIFE OF A CHILD: There were tadpoles in the creek and soccer games in the bowl. Valerie didn’t use Cedarvale Bridge. It was wild along the path in the ravine so she didn’t go down there.
20:24 SCHOOLS / EDUCATION: She tells the history of the Vaughan Co-Op/Hippo School, founded by her next door neighbour, Daisy Dotsch. This was controversial because she was looking after children when it was felt that the mothers should be looking after their own children in their own homes. She was allowing women to gather, often with mothers staying. She established a nursery school at 90 Vaughan Rd. It was just north of the Buddhist Temple. Val talks of the importance of Daisy Dotsch as an early childhood educator. She explains that mothers would do a half day helping out. Part of Daisy’s philosophy was to be helpful to mums.
25:35 Vaughan Co-op moved to St. Matthew’s Church on St. Clair. It was fondly referred to as Hippo School -- the name may have come from their having a hippo (a parent dressed in a costume) mascot when they went on a parade.
27:07 LIFE OF CHILD: They showed Walt Disney movies on Saturday mornings at St. Michaels and All Angels Church.
27:33 Humewood School held White Elephant sales (rummage sales). The downstairs corridors were huge; she remembers that the tables were set up at the edges.
28:00 SCHOOLS: Valerie attended Vaughan Road Collegiate in the late 1970s -- she enjoyed Vaughan. She participated in the girls basketball and volleyball teams. She participated in a leadership initiative at Pine River, an outdoor education centre for the City of York.
29:25 SCHOOLS / EDUCATION: Her parents went to meetings at the City of York Board of Education. She talks about the influence of the Hall Dennis Report of the late 1960s. They were trying to overhaul the way in which education was rolled out and this included the idea of open-concept schools. She talks about the approachability of the old City of York Board of Education - prior to the amalgamation of the school boards. Trustees were approachable -”they were people in the community.”
31:20 TRANSIT: Valerie used to take the subway to the Wax Museum and to Sam the Record Man at Dundas and Yonge. She remembers Eaton’s basement.
32:05 SHOPS: Talking about Kresge’s, Valerie describes its beautiful wooden floors, the pet store with goldfish and the lunch counter with red stools. They would take each other there for their birthdays.
33:20 RECREATION / THEATRES: The Christie Theatre is now the Sally Ann (Salvation Army), was once the Maple Leaf Ballroom and then Bingo.
35:20 SHOPS: There was a Shoemaker -- an old fashioned cobbler.
35:27 SERVICES / BANKS: There was a CIBC bank on the north side of St. Clair between Humewood & Arlington – a scandal involving the bank manager closed branch.
36:07 NEIGHBOURHOOD LIFE / HEALTHCARE: Her grandfather lived at 232 Wychwood Avenue at Maplewood. He was a patient of Dr Lowry’s on Humewood Drive.
36:27 SHOPS: There was a Mac’s Milk at Maplewood and Vaughan. They would go there, walking by her grandfather’s house. The Beckers store was at the top of Kenwood and Vaughan - a store owner was shot there in the 1970s, when she was a young teenager.
38:10 DELIVERY PEOPLE: A uniformed driver delivered eggs in an open truck, like mail trucks, and he would jump in and out.
39:10 SHOPS: She talks briefly of Sobey’s at Shaw and Dupont which had been an IGA. She mentions Loblaws at Bathurst & St. Clair. She notes it was a smaller store than the present one.
40:20 Grocery: She remembers that No Frills (on Alberta) used to be Dominion.
41:00 PARKS: She had friends who lived on Humewood Drive. Humewood Park was created where a ramshackle ‘haunted’ estate once stood. Other houses were taken down to make the Park. She remembers that the homes on the east side of the street were huge. She shares memories of the “haunted house.”
43:40 SHOPS / LIFE OF CHILD: Valerie remembers Damon’s Store, with its wooden floors, looking like a beautiful country store. It was situated at the end of Valewood on the east side of Wychwood Ave. They sold penny candy in little bags. Humewood School students walked along a dirt path at lunchtime to buy their candy there. They sold cereal, milk, cheese, bread, and fresh meat wrapped in brown paper tied up with a string that was attached to the ceiling. Damon’s had a grumpy owner; it closed in the late 1970s.
47:05 WYCHWOOD PARK AND BARNS: Wychwood Barns was a derelict place. She and her sister would walk through Wychwood Park to get to Bathurst Church south of Bloor St. They had babysitting jobs looking after the children who were too young for Sunday School. They would get included in some of the youth events. She met her husband there. She remembers the Wychwood Pond as being a timeless place.
48:56 LIFE OF CHILD / NEIGHBOURHOOD STREET LIFE: For many years Val’s dad (Stephen Endicott) ran a garden hose from their home across the street to the school’s field in order to create and maintain the Humewood School Skating Rink.
49:18 YOUTH GROUPS AND TEENS / RECREATION: Valerie’s sister worked at the tuck shop in Phil White Arena. Valerie remembers going there as a teenager for the free-skate on Saturday nights.
49:48 MEMORABLE EVENTS: In 1999 there was a snowstorm that delivered heaps of snow.
51:20 LIFE OF CHILD / RECREATION: She and her friend Elaine would go to the Vaughan Collegiate Pool to swim in the evening and buy corn chips on the way home.
52:20 DEMOGRAPHICS: She recalls that in her youth the homes north of Maplewood were a lot more working class than they are now. The homes south of Maplewood were more well-to-do.
53:10 SCHOOLS: Val’s kids attended neighbourhood schools: Humewood, Arlington Sr., Winona, and Oakwood Collegiate. Oakwood became the tradition of the family (rather than Vaughan) because the children’s cousins all attended Oakwood.
54:50 ACTIVISM: She joined the local Stop Cuts group after Rob Ford’s election.
56:08 SCHOOLS: Vaughan Co-Op brought together two communities from north and south of St Clair, from the two municipalities of the City of York & the City of Toronto. Her kids reconnected with childhood friends from Vaughan Co-Op at Oakwood Collegiate.
58:04 LIBRARIES: Valerie has strong recollections of the children’s library at the Wychwood Library. She remembers the fireplace there. The present entrance used to be the basement.
59:03 SCHOOLS / CHILD’S LIFE / LIBRARIES: While in Grade 6 at Humewood School, Val and her friends wrote a play of an amalgamation of nursery rhymes. She describes how they performed the play using scenery created by her artist mother. They took their play to the Wychwood Library and performed it in front of the fireplace.