{"id":5585,"date":"2020-08-27T22:08:55","date_gmt":"2020-08-28T02:08:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=5585"},"modified":"2020-08-27T22:11:59","modified_gmt":"2020-08-28T02:11:59","slug":"episode-102-an-old-mans-winter-night-beside-the-queen-elizabeth-highway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=5585","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 102 AN OLD MAN’S WINTER NIGHT … BESIDE THE QUEEN ELIZABETH HIGHWAY"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NOTE:  THIS MAY SEEM A  LITTLE OFF  HE WALL…<\/div>\n

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EPISODE 102    AN OLD MAN\u2019S WNER NIGHT\u2026BESIDE  THE QUEEN  ELIZABETH HIGHWAY<\/div>\n

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A PLACE WE\u2019VE ALL PASSED\u2026WHAT WAS HERE  40 YEARS  AGO<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
alan  skeoch<\/div>\n
august 2020<\/div>\n

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It took a long time to  find the picture.  Without the picture this story has<\/div>\n
no meaning. <\/div>\n

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About 40 years ago Was driving  along the North Service road just above the<\/div>\n
big Ford  Assembly  plant.  Right beside the Queen Elizabeth super highway.<\/div>\n
Winter time but getting close to spring.  A  place you have all seen because today <\/div>\n
there  are two glass and aluminum modern office buildings in that place.<\/div>\n

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Bu 40 years ago there was  a  barn.  Old style barn that had  never  been elevated.<\/div>\n
Guessing  a date of  1850 or  earlier.   The barn looked bad.  Defeated.  Empty<\/div>\n
Abandoned.  Doomed. Sad.  All to these.  So I pulled in to get this picture (below)<\/div>\n
Attempting to record something that was about to disappear.<\/div>\n

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Just as I held up the camera an elderly man walked  out of the stable.<\/div>\n
Was I trespassing?  No.  I was on the  road shoulder.  But he  walked<\/div>\n
toward me  anyway.<\/div>\n

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\u201cThis had  been our farm for better part of a century, son.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cMind if  I take  a picture.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cGo ahead.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cIt must be hard to part with .\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cVery hard.\u201d<\/div>\n

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He  looked at me\u2026I think he wanted to see  in my face if I really gave a<\/div>\n
damn about him and  his former farm.  He must have seen something in me.<\/div>\n

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\u201cYou know son, I got a lot of money for this farm<\/div>\n
but it means noting to me.   I wish I had it back.<\/div>\n
I wish I could still farm.  What am I going to do<\/div>\n
with money?<\/div>\n

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That incident has preyed on my mind for the last four  decades.<\/div>\n
Every time I see those  twin  towers of glass and aluminum, I see<\/div>\n
that old man.  And I hear him.<\/div>\n

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That, however, is not the end of the story.<\/div>\n

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THIS IS THE PICTURE\u2026NOT MUCH, RIGHT?<\/div>\n

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Many years later we were driving up the access ramp on the other side of<\/div>\n
the QEW.  Exactly across the highway from the old man\u2019s farm.<\/div>\n

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\u201cDad\u2026big fire over there.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cBarn  fire.\u201d<\/div>\n

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Sure  enough a large barn was engulfed  in flames.  Not much  anyone<\/div>\n
could do but look.  And there was a crowd gathering   <\/div>\n

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Another of our Ontario wooden agricultural  cathedrals <\/div>\n
was being reduced to ashes.<\/div>\n

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Every time we drive along the QEW and  start to enter the curve <\/div>\n
down  to the Ford  Motor Company plant<\/div>\n
I see both of these barns.<\/div>\n

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And  I hear the old man speaking about the meaningless of his<\/div>\n
sudden great wealth.  <\/div>\n

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(This picture above is not the barn that was burning.  But it is similar.  So many are gone.)<\/div>\n

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Take another look while you read Robert Frost\u2019s \u2018An Old Man\u2019s  Winter Night\u2019<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
august 2020<\/div>\n
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An Old Man’s Winter Night by Robert Frost<\/h1>\n
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www.robertfrost.org\/images\/postquote.png<\/a>); overflow: auto; background-position: left top; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;” class=””><\/p>\n

All out of doors looked darkly in at him
Through the thin frost, almost in separate stars,
That gathers on the pane in empty rooms.
What kept his eyes from giving back the gaze
Was the lamp tilted near them in his hand.
What kept him from remembering what it was
That brought him to that creaking room was age.
He stood with barrels round him – at a loss.
And having scared the cellar under him
In clomping there, he scared it once again
In clomping off; – and scared the outer night,
Which has its sounds, familiar, like the roar
Of trees and crack of branches, common things,
But nothing so like beating on a box.
A light he was to no one but himself
Where now he sat, concerned with he knew what,
A quiet light, and then not even that.
He consigned to the moon, such as she was,
So late-arising, to the broken moon
As better than the sun in any case
For such a charge, his snow upon the roof,
His icicles along the wall to keep;
And slept. The log that shifted with a jolt
Once in the stove, disturbed him and he shifted,
And eased his heavy breathing, but still slept.
One aged man – one man – can’t fill a house,
A farm, a countryside, or if he can,
It’s thus he does it of a winter night.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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NOW EVERY TIME YOU TAKE THE QEW WESTWARD YOU MAY  SEE THE OLD BARN<\/div>\n
AND  HEAR THE OLD MAN\u2026.EVERY TIME YOU SEE THESE BUILDINGS.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
august 2020<\/div>\n
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NOTE:  THIS MAY SEEM A  LITTLE OFF  HE WALL… EPISODE 102    AN OLD MAN\u2019S WNER NIGHT\u2026BESIDE  THE QUEEN  ELIZABETH HIGHWAY A PLACE WE\u2019VE ALL PASSED\u2026WHAT WAS HERE  40 YEARS  AGO alan  skeoch august 2020 It took a long time to  find the picture.  Without the picture this story has no meaning.  About 40 years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5585\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}