This morning I changed my route to work a little. Normally I have ridden west on Ypres all the way to Howard to get to Eugine. Today I decided to use the paths through Memorial Park. So at Hall I turned and entered the park through the gates.

I’ve wondered about those gates since I was a kid. There’s no fence around the park so a gate always seemed odd. Although, passing through the stone and brick entryway gives you a sense that you have entered a special place. (Huh, I guess that was/is the point of the gates.) Entering the park that early, it was quiet and the only sounds were the fall leaves on the path crunching under my wheels. Today was the first brisk morning of the fall. It was the first time I’ve worn my long finger gloves and long pants and a vest. It was a perfect day to ride and being in that park, a place I’ve been through many times before, just felt really right. At the back end of the park, near the CPR tracks I encountered a group of women out walking their dogs. These were “proper” dogs, no little rat dogs, a standard poodle and some lab mixes and they all had that happy dog expression. I greeted the owners and their dogs with a “good-morning” and it was cheerfully returned.

The traffic on Dougall was just a minor nuisance after the near perfection of my ride through the park. Did I mention that the smell of fall was just starting to come through? The ride was great until I made my second deviation to my usual route.

Once in South Windsor I ride west on Grand Marais to Academy and then cut up to Norfolk. Today I crossed Norfolk and continued south on Academy. For those not familiar, Academy is not quite a typical South Windsor street. The homes are the usual ranches and one and a half storey houses built out there after WWII but, Academy features a boulevard down the middle with a line of mature trees. Much like passing through the gates at Memorial Park, going along Academy Drive feels a little special, like you are going somewhere, like the road with its stately treed boulevard leads to a place of significance.

It did. Not anymore but once-upon-a-time at the south end of Academy Drive was the grand dame of Windsor, St. Mary’s Academy . If you go south on that road today there is a distinct point, a line of demarcation. The mature trees end. The boulevard ends. The old stony asphalt pavement ends. In one instant you cross a line and enter into the subdivision that was built where St. Mary’s Academy once stood. The pavement is concrete, the boulevard is gone and with it the stately old trees arching over the roadway. The homes are larger, much larger occupying so much more of the streetscape.

I have been to newer subdivisions many times but, I have never felt the sensations in those places that I felt this morning. I’m not a big fan of the war time subdivisions. The houses are all very standard and seem like they were all built in a factory and dropped off the back of a truck. But, the juxtaposition of the more modest homes, set back from the road and with generous side set-backs between them versus the house styles and subdivision template of putting the biggest possible house on a lot as close as legally allowable to each other was nearly overwhelming.

The houses and subdivisions of the forty’s and fifty’s had a sense of proportion that is lacking in the suburban sprawl built in the last twenty years. The war time homes were modest, functional houses for families to live together in. Modern houses are monsters with more and larger rooms for family members to have their own place in. This change comes through on the outside. The “old” Academy Drive with its larger outdoor space makes me feel good. I’m not crowded by the houses around me and I feel welcome in the outside space. Once onto the “new” Academy Drive I felt surrounded and as if I was intruding into someone’s private space because there was no real public space left.

I wonder if the people that live on Academy Drive notice?