The Mews, the School, and the Park

Our family moved to Swansea Mews in March, 1975. Construction was mostly complete, and families were moving in every day. As children, we were happy to live in a brand-new townhome, and our mom enjoyed planting tomatoes and other vegetables in the little garden that each upper-level unit had. We didn’t get to harvest much because our neighbour would do it – at night. My Mom never gave up planting in the hopes that we would eventually get a few tomatoes instead of just feeding the neighbours.

The playground at the front of the property was an important place for us to meet and play with our new neighbours, and we looked forward to spending our weekends and summer days there. We also socialized at a smaller park at the north side of the property and at the recreation centre — “the Rec” — with its slide and splash pad. The Rec provided craft sessions, movies and even summer trips to Wasaga Beach. Those trips included picking up other kids at the West Mall Metro Housing complex before heading north to Wasaga.

The mews was multicultural

As children, the concept of Metro Housing was lost on us. All we concerned ourselves with was meeting and playing with kids our age with little regard for race. The Mews was multicultural and even though some racial tensions arose from time to time, they were easily quashed because there was a pretty even split between white and non-white residents.

At Swansea School, our circle of friends widened, but I also became acutely aware that I was different from most of the other kids due to the colour of my skin. One remark that I remember to this day is: “Oops, I burnt another one!” It was the punchline from a “joke”: What did God say whenever he created a Black person?

The school was a melting pot

The school was an interesting melting pot of students from the Swansea Mews Metro Housing complex and the affluent neighbourhoods of Riverside, Southport, South Kingsway and Grenadier Heights. Some of those school friendships gave us the opportunity to attend sleepovers in those neighbourhoods, and long weekend or summer holiday trips to cottages up north.

Track and field and cross-country running were the highlight of the Spring and Fall months for me at Swansea. I competed for our school in high jump, 50m and 100m dashes as well as 4 x 200m relays. I remember one cross-country race through High Park where I was about 300m from the finish line and had nothing left. I was about to give up when some of my friends and fellow students cheered me on from the sidelines, and I was able to pass about four or five people in front of me and finish the race.

Winters were good fun

Winters at Swansea School meant skating at Rennie Park and sliding down the hill on various items – the Dominion grocery bags were a favourite, because they had good slip and were readily available. On weekends we would spend hours sliding down and walking back up that hill.

On a visit to the school in August, 2016, I was amazed at how steep the hill wasn’t compared to what my child mind recalls. I also noted the beautiful view of downtown Toronto, especially the CN Tower, which we never really focused on as kids.

My Swansea School experiences have proven beneficial for me as an adult. I am not consumed by race in my everyday life, and I am often surprised when someone remarks to me that I was the only Black person in a room or a meeting, because I just don’t notice it! Thank you Swansea School!

High Park offered peace in the city

High Park and Grenadier Pond were recreational areas for Swansea Mews residents. We’d take bags of bread to the pond to feed the Mallard ducks and Canada geese. The braver ones among us would try to have the birds eat the bread directly from our hands. Hanging out at Grenadier Pond was a strangely peaceful and relaxing outing even though we were just steps away from the streetcars and traffic on the Queensway and the Gardiner Expressway. As an adult, I realize that we were fortunate to have such beauty at our disposal; as kids, these places were just another play area.