{"id":24245,"date":"2019-07-11T19:09:06","date_gmt":"2019-07-11T23:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24245"},"modified":"2019-07-11T19:09:15","modified_gmt":"2019-07-11T23:09:15","slug":"front-porch-perspective-streets-remembering-our-veterans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/front-porch-perspective-streets-remembering-our-veterans\/","title":{"rendered":"FRONT PORCH PERSPECTIVE Streets: Remembering Our Veterans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

There was an interesting\nheadline and story in the Canadian Press a few weeks back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The headline was \u201cMontreal\nrenames Amherst Street to Atateken Street to honour Indigenous Peoples.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the story, the\n\u201cmayor says the name change is meant to be a step toward reconciliation between\nthe city and Indigenous Peoples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The City of Montreal has\nofficially changed the name of Amherst Street to mark National Indigenous\nPeoples Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Montreal Mayor Val\u00e9rie Plante\nunveiled the new moniker, Atateken Street, on Friday, saying it means \u201cbrothers\nand sisters.\u201d She described the name change as a step toward reconciliation\nbetween the city and Indigenous Peoples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The street was long named\nafter British general Jeffrey Amherst, who led the capitulation of Montreal in\nSeptember 1760. He is accused of using blankets he knew were contaminated with\nsmallpox to quell Indigenous rebellions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was former mayor Denis\nCoderre who announced the city\u2019s plan to change the name in 2017. The Plante\nadministration then formed a committee in fall 2018 to find a new, suitable\nname for the downtown street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe that Aurora does a\ngreat job in both preserving and protecting our local institutions and our\nheritage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is equally important that\nwe both honour and remember those who have gone before us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through areas like Sheppard\u2019s\nBush and the McKenzie Marsh we have sought to protect our green spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By designating some of this\nTown\u2019s oldest homes as \u201cheritage houses\u201d we have sought to preserve our\nhistory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have also tried to\nremember those who have gone before us. Probably most every school in Aurora\ndoes something to commemorate Remembrance Day and any idea, be it display\ncases, or slide shows, or plays, or bringing in Veterans to address the\nstudents, is a tremendous way of engaging students by trying to bring history\nto life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every modest step that we\ntake \u2013 like giving the cenotaph\u2019s two edifices much-needed face-lifts a couple\nof summers ago and also keeping the area clean of garbage \u2013 shows that,\ncollectively, we care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I add another small suggestion\nto honour our past. It is one that the young children of our community, the\nAurora Historical Society and Town Hall may be able to get behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s about street signs.\nStreet signs?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, street signs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We all live on streets that\nare named, for the most part, for either a particular individual or for some\nspecial event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I\u2019ll bet that most of us\ndon\u2019t know the reason why our own street was named the way it is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or even if we did, what\nhappens in fifty years when new people are living on the street?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I submit that it would be a\ngood idea to affix a small sign on\ntop of these signs signifying whom the person or event was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not sure about how this\nwould square with current municipal bylaws but this has been done elsewhere.\nLook at downtown Toronto; there are small signs that sit on top of the street\nsigns signifying the fashion district, little Italy and, if memory serves, the\nGreek culture of the Danforth. We could do the same here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, Timpson Drive\nis named after a friend of mine, George Timpson, who was, until he moved away,\na long-time resident of Aurora. The sign could say \u2013 \u201cAurora Councilor from\n1973-76, 1986-94, 2001-03; Mayor of Aurora 1977 \u2013 1982\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or how about the following\nfor the Chadburn Crescent street sign named after Aurora\u2019s Lloyd Chadburn:\n\u201cWWII Fighter Ace \u2013 14 enemy airplanes destroyed -DSO, DFC, CdeG avec Palme,\nLegion d\u2019Honneur.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With such a small sign in\nplace, every time we would walk past these streets we would be reminded of\ntheir particular accomplishment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is where the kids\u2019\nparticipation comes in. I think this would be a great project for the little\ntykes to learn something about Aurora and the folks who contributed to making\nthis the great place it is to live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, I kindly challenge\nthe elementary schools in Town to take this project on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t think such a project\nwould be that big of an undertaking. Just start with a few streets every year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Grade Two or grade three\nchildren could team up in pairs and prepare a small research project on a\nstreet name and then present their findings to their classmates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then copy the presentation\nand go around to the homes on the street and solicit, say, $1 or $2 from each\nhousehold as a contribution to the sign. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some business in Town could\nsponsor the project and make the signs at a reasonable cost. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Town Hall types could\nensure that all the signs look nice and are based on the same template while\nthe Aurora Historical Society and the teachers could ensure that the brief\nfacts on the signs are right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the individuals living\non the street could have a little ceremony \u2013 or what have you \u2013 and affix the\nsign above the respective street sign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a small and simple\nway of bringing history to life and remembering our past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, we just need someone to\nsponsor the project and lead it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nStephen can be contacted at<\/p>\n\n\n\n

stephengsomerville@yahoo.com<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Stephen Somerville There was an interesting headline and story in the Canadian Press a few weeks back. The headline was \u201cMontreal renames Amherst Street to Atateken Street to honour Indigenous Peoples.\u201d According to the story, the \u201cmayor says the name change is meant to be a step toward reconciliation between the city and Indigenous […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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}},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24245","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\/p3D2k4-6j3","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 00:22:14","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\/24245","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=24245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24245\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}