Today, April the 19th marks the 32nd anniversary of my arrival in Canada. At almost 14 years of age at the time it was easily the biggest adventure of my life and one that my entire family undertook with a large amount of trepidation. Still, here we are 32 years later no worse for the wear and enjoying our lives in Canada.
What do I remember of that day in April 1977?
- A family friend drove us from Somerset to Heathrow airport in London. In hindsight, the car must have been considerably overloaded as the four of us flying that day each had baggage carefully weighed to be at the maximum allowable by Air Canada.
- Being novice travellers, we arrived early only to see our morning flight delayed. We didn’t fly until late afternoon. We would learn later in the flight that Air Canada had merged 2 flights into one that day, rather than flying direct to Toronto we landed first at Mirabel airport in Montreal before continuing on with a nearly empty aircraft to Toronto.
- We saw Dennis Weaver (McCloud – TV) walk through our lounge at Heathrow. His flight wasn’t delayed!
- We flew on an Air Canada Boeing 747 (pictured above). Having never flown before, this was a huge thrill to be in the largest passenger aircraft of the day. I don’t remember what movie was shown.
- Landing at Mirabel in April left us all wondering where we had come to. Everywhere we looked there were trees covered in snow, no buildings to be seen.
- Landing in Toronto reassured us that we’d not have to take a dog sled from the airport. It was 9:00pm EDT, a full 20 hours after leaving our home in England, it would be another several hours before we’d sleep.
- The person picking us up at the airport drove a 1976 Pontiac Grand Prix. There was plenty of room inside for the 5 of us but only room in the trunk for one suitcase. I’ll never forget my parents unpacking all of our suitcases in the Terminal 1 parking garage so that we could take one full suitcase of clothing. The remainder were placed into storage and retrieved a couple of days later.
- The drive from Toronto to Woodstock took about 1 1/2hrs. It was dark, we saw nothing.
- The morning of April 20, 1977 saw my family and I wake early having not yet adjusted to the time. There was snow on the ground. We had arrived in Canada.
For myself, those first few days were thrilling, a never ending exploration of ‘The New World’. It took several months for all of us to truly come to terms with what we had undertaken.
Today Canada is my home & I’m proud to be a Canadian.
2 comments:
Interesting read :) I think it would be a great thing to do one day, and something which I hope I would do if I ever got the chance, or made myself do it (either to the states or Canada!)
Probably a stupid question, but do you ever wonder what your life would be like if you had stayed in England?
I've thought about the 'What if...' before and it becomes rhetorical very quickly. I mean, 'What if...' I'd turned left instead of right on Friday? 'What if...' I'd studied harder for that exam in High School? 'What if...'
At the time we came to Canada I was along for the ride. My parents had decided that it was the best thing for us as a family to do, I had little to say in the matter (although I do remember being asked what I thought of the idea). Looking back, I'd not have changed a thing and am very happy with how things have turned out... so far.
Looking in the rear-view mirror is something that everyone should do occasionally, but don't try driving down the road while constantly looking back. It's not only hazardous to your health but you'll miss the really big things coming up in life.
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