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Hearing Childhood in Ottawa South
Exploring the imaginative act of listening to the sounds of childhood
On my second visit, Margaret and I looked through some of her old photographs. We came across one of her on skis outside her front door (pictured here) and chatted about how the children in her neighbourhood used to play in the winter.
Image courtesy of Margaret Tallmire-Montgomery.
Margaret's parents ran a ladies hosiery store on the corner of Bank Street and Sunnyside Avenue in Ottawa South. The business gradually expanded and, after many years of helping her parents, Margaret eventually took over running the store. She speant a great deal of time working and wandering around Bank Street and told me a little about the other businesses in the area.
Image: Taxi Stand - Bank and Sunnyside - 1956. http://www.ottawahh.com/?p=1564
This clip served as my inspiration to play with sound and memory in this audio exhibit. During our interview, Margaret directed my attention to Christopher Pratt's Cottage Interior which hung in her day room and explained its significance.
Image: Pratt,Christopher. Cottage Interior. Lithograph, 1982.
Hearing Childhood in Ottawa South
(Experienced best with headphones)
I asked Margaret about her favorite place inside her house when she was growing up. She described the basement where she and other children from the neighbourhood would play in the winter. This space and the kinds of activities she and her friends would do there often came up in our conversations.
Image courtesy of Margaret Tallmire-Montgomery. In this picture, Margaret (middle) poses with some friends from Ottawa South.
In this clip, Margaret describes playing with other children from Ottawa South in Windsor Park - or "the bush" - before it was transformed into a municipally maintained park.
Image courtesy of Margaret Tallmire-Montgomery. Margaret is pictured on the far right along with her childhood friends from the neighbourhood, Barb (middle) and Alice (left).
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