bedtime story

Rocks and Minerals, Zim & Shaffer, 1957

My father, bless him, tried to be a good dad. He only ever had me to practice on but he managed to instill a few, valuable lessons. Always be punctual — anything worth doing is worth doing well — this is how you change a light switch without electrocuting yourself. And he read me bedtime stories.

When I was very young, he'd read to me from the Simon & Schuster "Little Golden Books" that my mother would buy at the Steinberg's on Montreal Road (the one across from Loblaws)* — classics like The Little Red Hen, The Three Little Kittens, and of course, The Poky Little Puppy. Little, little, little...

When I was about seven, I was "assessed" (by someone at our public school, I think) and apparently I "scored high." Things changed. My mother made me listen to classical music all day long, and the Little Golden Books were replaced by "Golden Nature Guides" (Golden Press). At night, my father read to me about stars and about seashores, about reptiles and amphibians, insects and birds. I learned about the kinglets that sang from the hedges and the killdeers that laid their eggs in the dusty field across the street from our house. When an "eyed elator" flew into our back yard, I knew that it was a kind of click-beetle and that if I set it on its back on a flagstone it would lie there quietly for a few moments then, with a loud click, flip into the air, landing on its feet and making good its escape. Which, I'm proud to say, it did.

And yes, I learned about "Rocks and Minerals", including stuff like sandstone and limestone and shale... and in short, I was a geek. Not that we had "geeks" or "nerds" back then, let alone "freaks". The word of the day was "weird". That's what happened to children who scored high. I want to say "you've been warned", but if you're old enough to be reading this, and you are reading it, you're  weird too.

Alaus oculatus, the Eyed Elator (source)

 ❦

*The Steinberg's at 555 Montreal Road, and Loblaws, 596 Montreal Road, were built directly across the street from each other, about a minute's walk east of St. Laurent Bouldevard. They also opened within a week of each other, in late July 1955 — such was their respective owners' faith in the strength of the burgeoning suburban markets of Eastview, Overbrook, Manor Park (and the newly built Rockledge Terrace), the Rockcliffe Airbase, and Cardinal and Rothwell Heights.

Steinberg's (later Steinberg) went bankrupt in 1992. The original Montreal Road building is long gone, which is a shame. It looked like the sort of place Frank Lloyd Wright would go to buy groceries. The site is now home to architecturally bland Hillside Plaza, which includes a Farm Boy, an RBC and a Tim Hortons. Loblaws continues to thrive — the Montreal Road location is now Hess' YIG.