Between Chaston and Green

Spring visit.

Living room & dining room

Now we're in the dining room looking out the window at the space between the buildings (above).

Below we're still in the living room.

And, in the bottom photograph, we're standing in the dining room looking towards the entrance to the flat on the left, my Aunt Mable's bedroom directly ahead, and the living room is on the right.

In dining room & view

There used to be a tea wagon in front of this window and to the left of it a small table for a black rotary telephone. I remember playing there and, as well, that the phone was a party line, shared with several neighbours. This window was at the far end of the dining room, so after you entered the flat you'd be in a foyer and then, directly ahead, was the dining room in which there was a large dining room table in the center of the room with a white lace tablecloth on it. Then, against the wall to the right of the window was a china cabinet. As you stood at the entrance, in the foyer, and faced this window, there was a sideboard against the wall on the right in which were dishes and the top drawer on the far right was where my grandmother kept her eyeglasses in a beaded blue case.

Here's the view from the window in the first photograph. It's a courtyard between the two buildings where there used to be a tree, and then just a bit farther away from the building you have the lane between Girouard and the street to the west. Many of the properties on Girouard have been renovated... alas, 2226 Girouard is not one of them; it's present state gives some idea of what it was like back in the fifties, without furniture.

Views from windows, living room

Now we're standing in the living room looking out the front windows towards Sherbrooke Street West, just at the top of the street.

Living Room, front windows

In the living room, the front windows.

Girouard Avenue: The Living Room

To the right of these two doors is the living room at Girouard Avenue. There was a maroon couch, springs to the floor, and covered with white sheets on the left as you entered the room. To the right was an old upright piano. The room to the left was my Auntie Mable's bedroom.

You realize that this used to be a really nice flat. The word "flat" is British, so it is ironic in largely French-speaking Quebec that we use this word. I don't believe that these units are referred to as "flats" elsewhere in North America. A flat is a self-contained unit with its own front door to the street, unlike an apartment that has a front door leading to a hallway of other people's front doors, and a lobby and door to the street. My grandmother's flat was surprisingly large, around 1000 square feet, and has a very nicely laid out floor plan. Living room in the front, large eat-in kitchen in the rear, large dining room in the middle, and a foyer and door to where stairs lead to her second floor flat. It is a very liveable living space.

Here we are in the living room, the windows facing Girouard Avenue. On the left, against the wall, was the maroon couch and just to the right of he couch was an old cabinet containing sheet music from the 1920s and 30s.

If you face the living room windows, and then turn to the right, there is this "pretend" fireplace." To the right was a television set, black and white, for hockey on Saturday night. The fireplace was across from the maroon couch.

Another view of the living room entrance from the foyer. You know, I remember my grandmother's cleaning lady, Bella, on her hands and knees, nylons rolled down to her ankles, maybe chewing Dentine gum and the smell of floor wax in a can, that you applied with a rag, waxing these floors. The work that was put into this place! Or, my aunt or grandmother running a carpet swiper across the carpets, or picking up bits of lint or paper from the carpets. There wasn't a lot of furniture in the flat, but I remember it always being clean and nicely furnished, although (appropriately) old fashioned. In this photograph the floors seem to still have some shine to them.

Living Room, windows

Here we are inside the flat, in fact we're in the living room at the front of the building, looking out at Girouard Avenue.