{"id":15276,"date":"2016-09-14T16:35:21","date_gmt":"2016-09-14T20:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=15276"},"modified":"2016-09-14T16:35:21","modified_gmt":"2016-09-14T20:35:21","slug":"front-porch-perspective-remembering-in-a-more-permanent-fashion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/front-porch-perspective-remembering-in-a-more-permanent-fashion\/","title":{"rendered":"FRONT PORCH PERSPECTIVE: Remembering in a more permanent fashion"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Stephen Somerville<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was happy to read in the last edition of The Auroran an article by Brock Weir entitled, \u201cVeterans to be celebrated and remembered in new street banner program\u201d.
\nThe Aurora branch of the Royal Canadian Legion, in partnership with the Town of Aurora, is spearheading a new way to remember the fallen and those who served in our armed services.
\nAccording to Brock\u2019s article, the \u201cHonour our Veterans Program, will see the images of 40 veterans \u2013 past and present \u2013 flown from lampposts in Aurora\u2019s Downtown Core beginning this October until just after Remembrance Day, and brought out each year in the same time period for three years, the life expectancy of each banner.\u201d
\nI believe that Aurora does a great job in both preserving and protecting our local institutions and our heritage.
\nIt is also equally important that we both honour and remember those who have gone before us. I therefore believe that this is a wonderful way to honour these hero\u2019s.
\nWe have also tried to remember those who have sacrificed on our behalf in other ways. Probably most every school in Aurora does something to commemorate Remembrance Day and any idea, be it display cases, or slide shows, or plays, or bringing in Veterans to address the students, is a tremendous way of engaging students by trying to bring history to life.
\nEvery modest step that we take \u2013 like giving the cenotaph\u2019s two edifices much-needed face-lifts a number of summers ago and also keeping the area clean of garbage \u2013 shows that, collectively, we care.
\nI add another small suggestion to honour our past. It is one that the young children of our community, the Aurora Historical Society and Town Hall may be able to get behind.
\nIt\u2019s about street signs. Street signs?
\nYes, street signs.
\nWe all live on streets that are named, for the most part, for either a particular individual or for some special event.
\nBut I\u2019ll bet that most of us don\u2019t know the reason why our own street was named the way it is.
\nOr even if we did, what happens in fifty years when new people are living on the street?
\nI submit that it would be a good idea to affix a small sign on top of these signs signifying whom the person or event was.
\nI\u2019m not sure about how this would square with current municipal bylaws, but this has been done elsewhere. Look at downtown Toronto; there are small signs that sit on top of the street signs signifying the fashion district, little Italy and, if memory serves, the Greek culture of the Danforth. We could do the same here.
\nFor instance, Timpson Drive is named after a friend of mine, George Timpson, who was, until he moved away, a long-time resident of Aurora. The sign could say \u2013 \u201cAurora Councilor from 1973-76, 1986-94, 2001-03; Mayor of Aurora 1977 \u2013 1982\u201d.
\nOr how about the following for the Chadburn Crescent street sign named after Aurora\u2019s Lloyd Chadburn: \u201cWWII Fighter Ace \u2013 14 enemy airplanes destroyed -DSO, DFC, CdeG avec Palme, Legion d\u2019Honneur\u201d.
\nWith such a small sign in place, every time we would walk past these streets we would be reminded of their particular accomplishment.
\nThis is where the kids\u2019 participation comes in. I think this would be a great project for the little tykes to learn something about Aurora and the folks who contributed to making this the great place it is to live. In fact I kindly challenge the elementary schools in town to take this project on.
\nI don\u2019t think such a project would be that big of an undertaking. Just start with a few streets every year.
\nThe Grade Two or Grade Three children could team up in pairs and prepare a small research project on a street name and then present their findings to their classmates.
\nThen copy the presentation and go around to the homes on the street and solict say $1 or $2 from each household as a contribution to the sign.
\nSome business in town could sponsor the project and make the signs at a reasonable cost.
\nThe Town Hall types could ensure that all the signs look nice and are based on the same template while the Aurora historical society and the teachers could ensure that the brief facts on the signs are right.
\nThen the individuals living on the street could have a little ceremony \u2013 or what have you \u2013 and affix the sign above the respective street sign.
\nThis is a small and simple way of bringing history to life and remembering our past.<\/p>\n

Stephen can be contacted at stephengsomerville@yahoo.com<\/strong><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Stephen Somerville I was happy to read in the last edition of The Auroran an article by Brock Weir entitled, \u201cVeterans to be celebrated and remembered in new street banner program\u201d. The Aurora branch of the Royal Canadian Legion, in partnership with the Town of Aurora, is spearheading a new way to remember the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-3Yo","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-23 14:32:36","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15276\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}