Genova Tours
230 Rose Park Drive M4T 1R5 Toronto, ON, Canada

AMERICAN POLES WHO DIED FROM INFLUENZA DURING WWI ARE BURIED HERE IN NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE. There is a burial ground of 41 American Poles who died during WW1 in ...the center of NOTL. Over 22,174 volunteers of Polish descent crossed the Niagara River from Youngstown, NY and joined 221 Polish Canadians for Military training from 1917 to 1919. They were trained by Canadian Officers and outfitted & financed by France and served as part of the French army. As a result, they wore French blue uniforms and hence were called the Blue Army. At this burial plot rest 25 soldiers of 41 who were stricken with and died of Influenza while in training. Each year the Polish community of Buffalo holds a service to honour the memory of the Polish men who served in the military and are also buried here.

CEMETERIES HAVE BECOME PARKS AND PARKS HAVE BECOME CEMETERIES I visited my local park to play with my dogs when I notice this plaque on the bench in memory of ...Matthew Rivard. It caused me to reflect on the following. In Roman times when people died they had to be buried outside the city or town. When Christianity arrived burial was allowed within the church and a surrounding area. This became what we know as cemeteries or graveyards. During the Middle Ages and Renaissance the horrors of overcrowding became nightmarish. To make room for fresh interments, church sextons surreptitiously snatched skeletons and partially decayed corpses, transferring the remains at night to secret pits; valuable coffin plates, handles, and nails were sold as waste metal. The churchyard cemetery was invariably unsightly, frequently unhealthy, and by the early nineteenth century the living shunned the dead like the plague they were. In America the situation became intolerable. In 1820 the Scottish travel writer Basil Hall visited a New England graveyard and reported: "A soppy churchyard, where the mourners sink ankle deep in a rank and offensive mould, mixed with broken bones and fragments of coffins." It was a series of virulent epidemics that struck the United States in the early 1800’s that forced cemetery reform. It would be in the form of the picturesque "garden cemetery." It would be built not by a church, but by private or public funds; it would be managed by city and state movement, or by individuals and cooperatives as a nonprofit organization in conjunction with Horticultural Societies. This resulted in what we know as the garden cemetery. These cemeteries general have wooded forest and variegated vegetation and topography: gentle hills, shallow valleys, labyrinthine paths, serpentine streams. These green settings attracted the city populous who were living in crowded conditions with no space. They served as parks. Ultimately the parks created in cities today were initially designed by the same men who designed the first cemeteries. Today in our parks you will find plaques dedicated to the memory of some deceased soul on park benches and trees. Truly cemeteries have become parks and parks have become cemeteries.

WHAT WERE THE SEASONS CALLED BY THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES Spring has arrived. It is one of the four seasons that we celebrate. Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. The indigenous people of this area divided their year in a similar manner but with their unique names. The indigenous people locally were called the Mississauga. Spring to them was call seegwun, "the sap season," when frosty nights and hot sun caused the maple tree sap to flow. They made maple syrup and maple sugar just ...like we do today. After sugar-making, families moved to the Credit River for the spring salmon run. About the first of May the Mississauga socialized and held their religious ceremonies. Then, breaking into smaller groups, they scattered to their planting grounds, frequently on the flats of one of the creeks or rivers flowing into Lake Ontario. The end of summer was called neebin, the abundant season, the women harvested their corn. Many Mississauga then canoed or walked to the Credit River for the beginning of the fall salmon run or gathered large quantities of wild rice growing in the neighbouring shallow lakes and slow streams. Late fall was called tuhgwuhgin, the fading season, they travelled in small family groups to their individual hunting grounds. Natural landmarks clearly marked each family's boundaries. They remained there throughout peboon, the season of freezing weather. When seegwun arrived, they brought their furs to the traders, and returned to the maple sugar groves.

CANADA DAY... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4JGN_lszD8

ON THE STREET WHERE YOU LIVE AND DRIVE... Every Saturday morning at 8 a.m. I have coffee with a group at the Faema Coffee shop located at Christie and Dupont. I was curious how both these streets got their name and with some googling and book reading here is the story. Christie Street was named after William Mellis Christie, co-founder of the Christie & Brown Cookie Company, now known simply as Mr. Christie. South at Bloor and Christie is a park named the Christie Sand Pits... which were on the location until the early 1900s. The official name of the park, Willowvale Park, never caught on, and the common name for the park since its days as a sand pit, Christie Pits, was adopted as the park's official name in 1983. Dupont Street’s story begins with Colonel Joseph Wells who purchased an Estate home called Davenport in 1821. It is on the escarpment west of Casa Loma. Wells had distinguished himself in the Napoleonic Wars and was offered a post in Upper Canada as an inspector of the militia. Unfortunately, with the close of the war, the position was abolished on his arrival and he was retired on half pay. He built a much larger home on the original site of Davenport, just west of the modern Wells Hill Avenue and planted orchards and fields on the estate. Wells had eight sons and two daughters. The eldest son, George Dupont, was one of the first students at Upper Canada College. Ah now you see where Dupont Street got its name. When Colonel Wells died in 1853 the Davenport property was divided into three strips that ran from Bloor Street up to St. Clair. The land was gradually developed. Three north-south streets opened at that time and were originally named George, Robert and Frederick after Wells's sons. Later they were changed to Albany, Howland and Brunswick. Also running east and west in this area is Wells Street. Nina Street is two blocks north of Bathurst and Davenport and is named after his daughter. She was the last of the Wells family to live in Davenport and when she sold it 1913 the house was demolished and the remaining property subdivided.

A VIDEO ABOUT YORKVILLE IN THE 60'S... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEr2JGXTOOo