The Day Before The Day Of

Well All My Relations, tomorrow is The Day. The Big 50th. The extended family has gathered each summer for 50 years, honouring the tradition of family summer picnics set in Con & Cora's time. One great thing about this year's reunion is the number of Moynihan clan members who are coming from distant places. Indeed, folks are in town from all over: from the East Coast, the West, and the South (though I think I'll win the distance-travelled award). I'm excited at the opportunity to re-acquaint with clan-cousins, even as I re-acquaint myself with Southern Ontario.

It's interesting being back in Ontario again. Summer climate that I grew up thinking of as 'humid' feels dry by comparison to where I live now. My wavy and curly PNG hairstyle is almost straight here in Ontario. Traffic is more congested than when I took my driver's license exam in Aurora (in the 70s). In some areas it's busier even than when I was here just a year ago. Side-roads I remember as graveled, with the odd Massey-Ferguson tractor or Ford truck for traffic are now renamed, paved, and feature Boxters, Volvos and Land Rovers. Wooded copses and farmers' fields where I sighted deer and coyotes or raced my snowmachine are home now to elegant neo-Victorian semi-detached houses. Song birds are less evident. Quite the difference! But some of these changes are exciting. Victoria Corners and Gormley are definitely looking swankier. Stouffville has several 'spa' health businesses, plus a funky cafe with open mic nights and free wireless. Newmarket has a great hospital and all sorts of cool restaraunts. The place is definitely more multi-ethnic. The influx of new people provided the critical mass needed for more urban amenities and the kind of fun gear we associate with 'modernity'. As the owner of Stouffville's fabric and sewing shop (Ann's) remarked "finally, people are asking for things I wanted to bring in 15 years ago!" So, the Ontario Moynihan clan's stomping grounds have traded simple farm scenery for sophistication.

Probably the nostalgia and mixed feelings I feel when I see the changes in the landscape echo what people of Cornelius' and Cora's era must have felt. Because Southern Ontario has seen a lot of changes: Imagine the time to which Toronto's name refers. It was a First Nations' hunting, farming and trading area where all sorts of intra- and international deals were made between Anishnaabe, Iroquoisan, French, English, and others. That Southern Ontario was changed a lot by the effects of the United Statesians' cession war from Britain and the Loyalists' flight north. Then there were the changes caused by the Depression, followed by the booms in immigration of the 1960s and 1970s and the Trudeau-era emphasis on "Canadian content", which gave us much-improved Canadian music, literature and film industries. The most recent shift is coming from Canadians, plus Yankees and others living south of the boarder trading New York and L.A. for Toronto and environs. We Moynihan Descendants have been part of it all.

Within our individual families there have been changes too. A whole new generation has finished high school and is setting off on the education / career trail. We've lost several of our Elders and had some scares about others. Those for whom Con and Cora were Grampa and Gramma are now facing the tough but normal gamut of adult health issues. It ain't easy! But the clan has new members too -- at least one great-great-great grandchild was born in the past year! So the Family carries on, and tomorow is our day to catch up on it all.

To honour this ongoing continuity within change, one of the great-great granddaughters has designed a logo for the reunion of 2008. Based on the classic "Tree of Life" symbolism, the graphic designed by Ceilidh Evans depicts Cornelius and Cora as the intertwined roots to six trees, standing side-by-side as siblings do, with their branches intertwined even as they reach to all corners of the sky, as the Ontario Moynihan clan has done. But we're coming back together for the annual family picnic! Look for this logo on some T-shirts tomorrow in Zephyr.