Welcome to Michael's Scribble Picnic, the theme is 'My Place'. I decided to do a greeting card in acrylic (4 1/4" x 5 1/2"). It features Ontario Place in Toronto, an old waterpark built in the 70's on 3 artificial islands. My young family at the time spent many wonderful times there, the kids even went there on school trips or with their friends.
One memory is when my daughter who was on a school trip forgot her favourite swimsuit in a washroom and my husband drove all the way downtown to fetch it the next day. It was still there on a hook in the stall.
Another memory is when we were stuck coming out of the park on a sudden province wide power outage which clogged the roads. It was the Northeast blackout of 2003 Aug 14, 2003 which affected parts of the US as well, one of those events where you remember what you were doing at the time. Daughter L remembers it took us 6 hours to get home that night, she could only have been 8 years old. She remembers me worrying about us running out of gas which sounds just like me. Husband M now says we had plenty (1/4 tank). The outage lasted at least a couple of days. I wasn't worried as it was in the summertime, not freezing weather, and I thought we could always barbecue our food if we needed to as we had an electric oven. But of course daughter L says I gave her cold canned ravioli and told her it was cooked and safe to eat.
Ontario Place is at a point now where it either has to be revitalized or torn down. Residents are in favour of having it revitalized, it was such a beautifully landscaped facility.
The big sphere in the painting is an IMAX movie theatre which was re-opened in 2017.
23 comments:
Lovely greeting card! (You should perhaps make your signature a bit more obvious).
Residents of Ontario are right; the city should be revitalized not torn down.
Love it
Wonderful card and loved the memories! Hugs, Valerie
Wonderful.
God bless.
Hi Christine,wow you are amazing,beautiful work my friend xx
I like the brushwork with the ground... 🙂
Christine,
Nicely done. What fun memories! It's interesting how kids remember things. Did the trip home really take 6-hours or it did it just feel that way to an 8-year-old? Power outages in the summer aren't fun, either. One might not freeze to death but the heat can get ya. Of course, I guess I'd rather the electricity fail in the summer instead the winter as we do not have an alterate heat source. Usually when our electricity goes off, we'll have a dinner of vienna sausage and crackers or Beanie Wiennies. The kids always loved that as well as walking around the house in the dark carrying flashlights. :)
Love.
I remember Ontario Place! A lovely piece.
I remember the 30-hour shortage. Hubby had teleconferences every two hours, over the two days. He sat there with his cell phone by candlelight in the kitchen.
That sounds like a nice place and I hope they revitalize it instead of tearing it down.
Really nice Christine, and some fond memories! I probably would have freaked out about running out of gas too! I'll be honest, I don't remember that outage. I was living up north in Morin Heights (in the Laurentians) north of Montreal during that time. It was just a few months after I stopped working, burned out. It's possible that the power went out for a few days, but I guess I was so out of it that I don't even remember! I have visited Toronto so often, but never made it to Ontario Place. I hope they vote to revitalize it!
Duta a 40 minute to one hour journey became 6 hours that night.
I meant to say Cathy
Great job on the card, which comes with fun memories attached:)
A lovely card and the memories were nice to read about. Thanks for sharing Christine :)
How lovely, the water looks gorgeous. What interesting memories too.
That is beautiful! Such fond memories, too. I never visited Ontario Place but it sounds really nice.
Loved reading your memories and your daughter's. Really nice sketch and i enjoyed the post.
Funny what kiddos remember. And about the tinned ravs.
I like that you have great memories of this place and it's a wonderful art.
have a lovely day.
That's a very nice card, and I enjoyed reading your memories.
All the best Jan
Went there many times as a kid (cheaper than wonderland lol), saw sharon, lois and bram there lol
oh how nice of your husband to drive all the way to bring her swim suit back
such memories last forever in our heart
such a charming place where your family used to spend time together
thank you for painting it so beautifully for us my friend!
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