We’ll call this chapter Coronation/Lassaline. I could have called it, The Aftermath, but considering I have no recollection of a bad marriage, yet alone, a bad divorce. I can’t really say, it was that rough for me. My parents handled it very well for us.

Chapter 2 – Coronation/Lassaline

​I grew up in the projects. Technically, I guess there were two sides of the projects. The townhouses where we lived on Lassaline and Windsor Housing on the other side of a chain link fence. It was a boundary line, but for the most part, everyone intermingled. We all went to the same school regardless of what side of the fence we lived on. I had friends on both sides and I had friends in the fancier houses outside of the projects as well. Coronation is where all my first school memories come from. My first best friends, my first love, my favourite teacher and the first field trip I can remember ever being on. I spent almost seven years there before I changed schools and we started living with my dad instead of my mom. Kindergarten, all the way until half way through grade six. A lot of things happened then.

​My best friends varied, but Brent and Danny were the two closest I had. Neither of them lived in the projects. Whenever I went to Brent’s house, I was always amazed at the family atmosphere with his sister and his parents. Brent had all the coolest toys too. A computer, which I had only ever seen at school and every G.I. Joe you could ever imagine. We would play in his backyard with those for hours. If we were inside, we were playing some Olympic game on his computer or a video game system. Brent was straight laced and never got into any trouble, ever. He was definitely a positive influence on me at the time. Danny on the other hand…

​Danny came from a big family. He lived a few houses down form Brent, but it was a like a different world there. Danny was the youngest in his family and his older brothers reminded me of the characters from the book, The Outsiders. Danny and I would do things that were almost guaranteed to get us in shit. Break things, throw snowballs at cars driving by and just be general hoodlums. We rarely got caught, but if we had, we could have faced some serious issues for a couple 8 or 9 year olds. I remember we once lit an underground electrical compartment on fire. It was pretty scary. No one got hurt and none of the houses were damaged, but we were lucky to have not been caught for that.

​The only other friends I remember from there were Jason, Jamar and Cedric. Jamar had always been around. I think he ended up being a pretty decent football player in high school, but I don’t remember much else about him to be honest. The same can be said for Cedric. My most vivid memory of Cedric was one day when he chased me home for calling him, “Oh Henry”. I was just fast enough to get into the house when Cedric slammed the door shut and the window shattered. We were still friends after that, but I feel like an asshole for calling him that, even today. Kids say stupid things, but it doesn’t make it ok. I don’t remember much about Jason, to be honest. I know we were tight, but the memories just aren’t there. When I moved I lost track of almost everyone from those days. Brent, Cedric and Danny, briefly and a kid named John would all show up later in my life, but the rest disappeared into the past. Including my first love, Heather. I crushed hard on her, even after I moved away. I remember having a conversation with Brent in high school about her and even then I thought about trying to contact her. I never did though. I was always too shy to do or say anything in high school.

Other characters show up from when we lived on Lassaline, as well. There was an older guy named, Dean. Coolest guy around at the time. Then there were the twins. I crushed on them pretty hard too. Tammy and Tracey. I really liked Tammy. She was actually my first kiss, I think. I kissed her under the pine? tree, that was on a hill on the community backyard. 

Sidenote : that hill is also where I used to lay down and let ants crawl all over me, before running and jumping in my little plastic pool. No wonder when I see ants in my house now, my first reaction is to want to burn the place down. PTSD much? 

There was also a babysitter who I remember as being pretty attractive. I have vague memories of things that would have been considered inappropriate behaviour concerning her babysitting skills, but considering how vague they are, I won’t go into any details about it, other than to say there was smoking involved one time. Not by me though. I didn’t touch those until my floor hockey days. 

Lassaline was also the house we lived in when I watched my mom date other men. I remember very few, as she did a decent job of separating that from us. Unless they were serious I guess. But the ones I remember, I remember sort of clearly. The first is a guy whose name I can’t remember, but he was a piece of shit. After the break-up, he actually came back and stole my mom’s clothes off our clothes line. The only good thing about him was he had two kids from a previous relationship that I got to hang out with. I don’t remember their names, but I remember they were black and I was always having fun with them. Hanging out with kids of other races has never been a thing for me. I had friends in Jamar and Cedric in school too and maybe that’s why I tend to get along with everyone regardless of race or ethnicity. It’s just always been a part of my life. Even though I grew up with people in my life who said very racist things and had some very racist ideas, I never bought into them. I’m not saying I was never inappropriate or never said racist things or jokes. I did. I’ve apologized before and I’ll apologize again. I don’t think one can ever apologize enough for that kind of garbage. I never actually bought into the whole idea of anyone being better than anyone else based on race or anything else really. It’s actually quite embarrassing to think back about some of the things I said or did or didn’t call out in others when I was younger. It was a different time then, but it doesn’t make it ok. All this time later, I can forgive myself somewhat for my ignorant youth, because I know I’ve moved past it as an adult. I hope the people in my life then and now have and can do the same.

Another boyfriend of my mom’s that I can remember was a rich guy. Showed up in a limo once. That’s all I remember about that guy though. He must not have had much else going for him. L O L  After that, I don’t remember anyone else, until the guy that would eventually stick around and marry my mom after about 15 years. There’s a story there, but it doesn’t fit the timeline just yet, so you’re going to have to wait to hear about it.

Mr. Smith was my grade four teacher and was probably one of my all-time favourite teachers.  He also took us on one of my most memorable field trips. We went to Chi-Chi’s Mexican restaurant and we got to see how they made fried ice cream. It was delicious and believe it or not, I’ve only ever had it once in my life since and it wasn’t as memorable. It’s funny how food you loved as a kid, isn’t the same as and adult. I used to love ketchup chips. I also used to love dipping regular chips in ketchup. Not anymore. My grams used to make us chocolate toast too. It was basically toast with chocolate syrup on it. I tried it once as an adult and it was gross. Too sweet. Lol

Stay tuned for the next instalment : The Forest Glade years. Including Parkview elementary and Riverside high school. Come to think of it, I might have to break those into separate chapters. Cheers.