TIME TRAVELLER’S DIARY: A 50-Year Flashback

April 26, 2019 · 0 Comments

By Helen Roberts
Volunteer
Aurora Museum & Archives

It’s 1969 and the newly married Time Traveller and her husband are looking for their first home.

Although both were born and raised in Toronto, prices of suitable homes in that city exceeded their modest budget of $25,000. So, they looked north; to the new development in the village of Beeton – homes within the budget but too far north; to Tottenham where pre-fab homes were available at a very reasonable price – too great a distance from jobs in the city.

Richmond Hill was a possibility but the couple finally decided to check out a new subdivision in Aurora. Just south of St. Andrews College, Wimpy Homes, a well-known builder was opening a brand-new subdivision called Aurora Orchards.

The couple was delighted to discover that two of the new homes fell within their budget – a side split with half basement and crawl space, and a bungalow.

Both models offered three bedrooms, one bathroom, living, dining room and kitchen plus a carport. Although $500 over their budget, they chose a bungalow on Orchard Heights Blvd.

Rumours suggested that the road would one day go all the way west to Bathurst Street, but that was difficult to believe – at the time the area was covered with the remains of the original apple orchard.

By the end of November, the house was ready (complete with the latest yellow bathroom fixtures), the sod was laid and before the end of the year the couple became residents of the Town of Aurora.

On checking out Aurora’s amenities, the Time Traveller was pleased to discover that shopping was close by and easy to access.

The main shopping district on Yonge Street provided a butcher, bakery, dairy, hardware, two jewelry stores, a menswear store, a five & dime and even a small department store at the corner of Wellington carrying everything from clothing for the entire family to sporting goods, fabrics and sewing supplies.

The bank stood in the centre of the block. Groceries would be no problem – both the IGA and the new A&P at Aurora Heights Dr. carried all the essentials.

The library on Victoria Street was quite new and promised to be an interesting source of reading material and there were five churches within easy reach of the new home. With the growing population, schools were becoming overcrowded, however a new public school within the subdivision had been promised (and was built by the time the Time Travellers’ family had grown to include children).

The future was exciting for the young couple and their choice of Aurora as their new home and the place to bring up their family proved auspicious.

Fifty years later they would still call Aurora home.