Cavan Reflections

By: Anne Corke

May 12 2012

Tags: childhood, Port Stanley, Rail travel, steam locomotive, supernatural, trains

Category: Life stories, Science Fiction, Star Trek, Theatre, Trains

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I could wax eloquent about the joys of motherhood but that’s been done to death so I thought I’d concentrate on “the things we do for love”, for our children. And I’m not talking about providing food and shelter and other necessities. No, I’m talking about those occasional deviant behaviours that mothers (and fathers, too) sometimes display. These behaviours may occur in response to pleas from our children. Or they may be personal behaviours which we usually hide from general view but which are more socially acceptable when in the company of your child. For instance, when Jeremy was little, and he and I were alone in the car, I would play Bat out of Hell at extreme volume on the pretext of introducing him to rock n’ roll. But the truth of the matter is, I loved to crank it up and sing along (with the windows up of course!). Or he would beg me to stay up with him to watch X-Files, which aired past both our bedtimes. And, most of the time, I could be talked into it – not that it was that difficult since I loved the show too! And speaking of aliens, we have on occasion been known to drive over to the Dobbin transformer station at night to watch for UFOs ’cause, you know, they hang around power stations!

Since all of us are train geeks (sometimes known as foamers!), we have spent endless hours trainspotting. When Jeremy was very young, we would always try to take Park Street when we had an errand to run since, at that time, it had the largest number of train tracks for us to bump over! We have been known to zip all around town to catch the train at each crossing when traffic permits. We could often be found on summer evenings around seven o’clock at Cavan Station watching the Dayliner passing through in those good old days when the train came to Peterborough. Or perhaps we would watch from Maple Leaf park as it crossed the bridge over county road 10. And goodness knows how often we drove to Cobourg station to watch trains and flatten pennies on the rails. (We should really have a bumper sticker “We stop for trains”.) We’ve journeyed to Hawkesbury and Brockville on steam-hauled excursions, traversed the Port Stanley Terminal Rail route countless times, travelled on the Credit Valley Explorer, the York Durham and the South Simcoe railroads, not to mention VIA and GO and TTC. We’ve attended hundreds of model railroad shows and a few layout tours. While we may have suggested that these activities were for Jeremy’s benefit, it was just as much an excuse for us to indulge ourselves!

When Jeremy was a bit older, we drove to Toronto, with his friend Rich, one Friday evening to catch opening night of Toronto Trek, a convention for Star Trek fans. We had the good fortune to bump into Q himself, John De Lancie, and we were hooked. We’ve been attending every year since. One Halloween, the three of us dressed up like Klingons – well, what could I do, I didn’t want them to go it alone! My excuse was that I was the only one with a driving licence and someone had to run them all over town. We ate fries at MacDonalds, cruised down George Street and walked through the malls, garnering disbelieving glances wherever we went. And you know what, we had a blast!

Jeremy and I share a love of live theatre and there’s nothing I enjoy more than taking in a play with my son. And, if not for him, I may never have become involved in community theatre. When a friend mentioned that she was going to be appearing in the Sound of Music and that they were looking for a young man to play a Nazi, I suggested to Jeremy that he may wish to audition. He got the part. Gary and I volunteered to sell tickets and man the house lights and doors. When the next production was announced both Jeremy and I auditioned. We have appeared in a number of shows and have loved every minute of it. But it wouldn’t have happened if not for him.

And so as we celebrate Mothers’ Day, I would like to thank my charming son for liberating me from the confines of adulthood. Unfortunately, now that he’s an adult himself, we no longer have an excuse for our more peculiar behaviours except our own eccentricities! And that’s as good an excuse as any. Happy Mothers’ Day. Have fun with your kids.

Copyright 2012 Anne Corke