{"id":9339,"date":"2014-12-17T16:33:45","date_gmt":"2014-12-17T21:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=9339"},"modified":"2015-01-07T22:21:41","modified_gmt":"2015-01-08T03:21:41","slug":"inside-aurora-the-evening-before-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/inside-aurora-the-evening-before-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"INSIDE AURORA: The Evening Before Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston<\/strong><\/p>\n

‘Twas the Evening of Christmas in Aurora\t<\/p>\n

\u2018Twas the evening of Christmas, and in our fair town
\nAn annual visitor was making his rounds
\nOf each world-wide location, on which he would call
\nAurora was always his favourite of all.<\/p>\n

Although he loved the North Pole, on his yearly roam
\nHe considered this small town like a second home
\nBut flying over this time new things did appear
\nThat made Santa aware there\u2019d been changes this year.<\/p>\n

The first was a place that could no longer be sighted
\n\u201cWhat happened\u201d, he wondered, \u201cto Aurora United?\u201d
\nThen he remembered the fire, and the black smoky skies
\nAnd the thought of that loss brought tears to his eyes.<\/p>\n

But of things that were missing, there were but a few
\nHe was more surprised to see so much that was new
\nOne factor that tested his team’s flying powers
\nWas the multi-fold increase in cellular towers.<\/p>\n

Local traffic was greater than ever before
\nOf road signs, lights and signals, there were many more
\nEven the width of the streets had not stayed the same,
\nBloomington, Santa noted, had grown to five lanes.<\/p>\n

Passing the new Joint Ops Centre, the scale of it all
\nMade Santa’s North Pole workshop seem rather small
\nThis LEED certified project going up in a flash,
\nMust have set the town back a fair pile of cash.<\/p>\n

Just south the Leisure Complex had grown with no doubt
\nBut at least there’d be somewhere for kids to hang out
\nOn Bayview building sites, fences enveloped
\nEven the old Reebok place was being developed.<\/p>\n

That Petch House had been rebuilt, he did not suspect
\nIt had been sadly empty the last time he’d checked
\nNow the structure stood neatly, and in fine repair
\nBut like each year before there was still no one there.<\/p>\n

Condo development near Wellington and Yonge
\nSuggested more traffic at this corner to come
\nAnd on Yonge Street itself where he rarely had stops
\nThere was a clear increase in restaurants and shops.<\/p>\n

Needing a moment or two to ponder it all
\nHe made Highland Gate Golf Club his next place of call
\nHe found an open expanse near the sixteenth green,
\nIt would be a perfect place to rest up his team.<\/p>\n

He found it tranquil amidst the grass and the pines
\nWhen Santa stumbled across a series of signs
\nHe read what was on them, and let out a wail
\n\u201cDear, Rudolph\u201d, he exclaimed, \u201cthis place is for sale!\u201d<\/p>\n

Flying next east of Bayview, where trees stood in June
\nWere all cleared lots with signs, “new homes coming soon”
\n\u201cI guess that next Christmas,\u201d he thought with a chill
\n\u201cIt’d mean even more stockings, I will need to fill.\u201d<\/p>\n

While not far away, in the same neighbourhood,
\nThe headquarters of Bulk Barn now proudly stood.
\nAnd this year\u2019s long election, explained down below,
\nThe residents\u2019 need for a third LCBO.<\/p>\n

He found each corner of town displayed more and more
\nInfrastructure and buildings he’d not seen before
\nRapid growth and development were dominant themes
\nIt was clear that the town now bulged at the seams.<\/p>\n

With his rounds done, St Nick left for the next town,
\nBut breathing a sigh he took a final look down
\nWhile truly prospering, and with new growth galore
\nIt was clear that Aurora was a small town no more.<\/p>\n

Feel free to e-mail Scott at: machellscorners@gmail.com<\/em><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston ‘Twas the Evening of Christmas in Aurora \u2018Twas the evening of Christmas, and in our fair town An annual visitor was making his rounds Of each world-wide location, on which he would call Aurora was always his favourite of all. Although he loved the North Pole, on his yearly roam He considered […]<\/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":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2qD","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-18 08:19:30","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\/9339","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=9339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}