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Return to the playground

Little boy grows up
London, ON, April 2008
[Click to embiggen]

Abut five years ago, we took our kids to the neighborhood playground. Our youngest son, two years-old at the time, was initially afraid to follow his older brother and sister onto the climbing structures. I wrote about the experience here.

The kids were off of school this week, so we once again found ourselves back at the playground. I had to bring my camera along because that's just what I do. As I quietly followed them through the sandy landscape, I took this picture of our now-seven-year-old, climbing the same set of steps and looking a lot bigger and more confident in the process.

Made me a little sad when I realized how quickly they're growing.

Your turn: Other signs that time moves in one direction include...?

The Sammy's era ends

Lunchtime's over
London, ON, April 2008 [Click to enlarge]

Another scene from my find-beauty-wherever-possible tour of my burg. See here and here for similarly-themed entries.

For reasons that I often have difficulty understanding, Sammy's Souvlaki has always seemed to define our life in our transplanted hometown. Here's a rundown of why I think that may be the case:

• After we decided to move here but before we actually sold our house and pulled up stakes, we spent six months shuttling back and forth, house hunting and job-transitioning. At the time, Sammy's operated one of the only webcams in the region. I used to check it online from Montreal, as if a real-time view of our soon-to-be home would somehow make the whole experience seem a bit more tangible.
• After we moved here, I'd reload the page just to see the weather outside. It seemed cooler than looking out the window.
• London is a city of summer festivals, and Sammy's always seems to have a trailer among the crowd of trailers, serving up its, um, not-exactly-healthy fare. The kids would always pick the Sammy's out of the misaligned rows of vendors.
  
• Its street corner stands always stood out as uniquely belonging to this city, as original as a hot dog vendor in New York City.

The irony of Sammy's is I've never eaten there. But it's still managed to embed itself into my brain. Which is why I felt a twinge of sadness when they announced they were closing up their last corner stand in the downtown core. Increasingly health-conscious Londoners just don't flock there like they used to, so the founder is refocusing the business.

But we've got plenty of Starbucks, Tim Hortons and McDonalds to soothe our need for a just-like-anywhere franchised experience. At this rate, London should look like pretty much every other town between here and the Pacific before long.

Wait, it already does.

Your turn: Are we losing our sense of place?

One more thing: Lots and lots of media this week. And good stuff, too. I'm pulling together links as we speak, and will share them piecemeal in the days to come.

Wordless Wednesday - Old brick, new hope

Facadist riot of color
London, ON, April 2008 [Click to embiggen]

Sometimes, inspiration is as close as the other side of the sidewalk.

Your turn: I often believe that buildings have stories to tell. What might the story of these buildings be?

One more thing: We're still accepting submissions for this week's Caption This contest. Click here to cue the fun. You know you want to...it's Elmo!

Read more entries at Written Inc. »