Reinventing the community

by Shawn Lackie

Quick question. Do you ever just pause and take a look around you and acknowledge the changes which have been happening? John Lennon wrote, in one of his songs, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” He was so right. We often get caught up in the day to day madness of jobs, raising kids, making and saving money; always making future plans. Then we wake up one morning, take a look around and say, “Where did all these houses come from?” 

In the early 70s, when I would drive into Toronto, I would always head down Thickson Road to the 401. On the north-east corner of Thickson and Rossland there was this lone gas station, seemingly out in the middle of nowhere. I would often wonder why they’d put a gas station out there. Fifty years later I know why. It’s now in the middle of a massive housing development. DOH!!!

It's the same thing for North Oshawa. It used to be a true pleasure driving past Windfield’s Farms and marvelling at all the grazing horses. It was so serene, and truly an idyllic picture. Have you been there lately? Now there is a Costco, high rises, malls and hundreds of townhouses. If you mentioned this to someone, who didn’t know what this area used to look like, they’d think you were nuts. As inevitable as it seems, that is called progress.

There was a time when you would drive by the CTV studios, on the 401, at McCowan Road, in outer Scarborough, and you would be on the outer edge of the Toronto, part of the GTA. Not now.

Have you been to an Oshawa Generals game, in the last number of years? It is a first class facility, with all the modern conveniences of a big city arena. Remember the Civic Auditorium? Wow! Talk about a difference. Forget the fact the new building has twice the capacity; everything about it is different. In many ways, for the better. In some, not so much.

I miss some of the innocence of the old buildings and their uniqueness. Most of the facilities being built, these days, are cookie cutter. You could be in Kingston, London, Oshawa or Guelph and, for the most part, the arenas are the same. Again, that is progress.

A big part of that process is, just how, Oshawa has re-invented itself. It used to be, as General Motors (GM) went, so did Oshawa and a good amount of the surrounding communities. It was THAT dominant; not so much anymore. The sole reliance on GM has pretty much evaporated and in its place has come tech companies and schools.

Ontario Tech University and Durham College have become a major force in the area, creating jobs and commerce by the bushel. However, this also brings a different mindset. Many still work at the General Motors, and I hope that never stops. Still, the fear which used to be around, every time GM decided to lay off workers, would grip the entire community. It wasn’t fair to the workers, their families or the area at large. Yet, again, that has changed: for the better. Take a moment to look around and see what has changed. You may surprise yourself.

Feel free to check out this story and more on my blog site, at https://slackie14.wixsite.com/buy-sell-and-more