A DOOR THAT MADE A DIFFERENCE
CONTEST DEADLINE EXTENDED TO MARCH 31, 2015.
SUBMIT YOUR IMAGES AND PHOTOS TODAY
It is remarkable how many of the photos in the IMAGINE ANTIGONISH collection feature doors and doorways, portals and gates, often as a frame for family photos or activities.
The Imagine Antigonish team invites you to submit photos and drawings of doors, doorways and thresholds that made a difference in your life or in the life of your community or in the world.
AN INVITATION
DOORS, DOORWAYS, PORTALS, GATES AND THRESHOLDS
THAT MADE A DIFFERENCE
Submit the image of this DOOR THAT MADE A DIFFERENCE and TELL THE STORY of its origins.
This could be the door to home, place of worship, workplace, sports activity, services from health care to financial institutions, and. . .and
At the end of March, 2015, an AHA! panel will make the (difficult) choice of the image and the story that made the greatest impact and award an 8 x 12 ” framed and matted photo, which has been expertly restored by local photographers.
The winning entrant can make his or her choice from the Imagine Antigonish collection.
We don’t know the story behind this 1950s photo of Flora Vincent of Pomquet opening the door to the driver’s seat but it is tempting to imagine that it was a significant move for independence when women were behind the wheel.
Flora Vincent, circa 1950. Photo Courtesy of Pomquet Heritage. Restoration: Anne Louise MacDonald
Here is a door that made an impression on me (Dorothy Lander):
Realist artist Mary Pratt’s door to her home in Newfoundland where we visited her in 2011 on our TransCanada Whistlestop Tour with Women Artists and Popular Educators.
Mary Pratt was just as welcoming as her Door suggested. She served us tea and gingerbread. Mary Pratt is very fond of red. Notice her red sink.
Here is a link to some beautiful doors.
http://www.earthporm.com/25-beautiful-doors-seem-lead-worlds/
For the purposes of judging the winning image in this community event, the quality of the photo or the drawing or painting is not as important as the meaning that the image holds for you or your family or your community or the world.
Could it be that I was attracted to Mary Pratt’s red door and red decor because our home in Clydesdale has a red door and a red roof?
This is the door to this same house, in 1979, before I painted it red, and about a year after I bought the house. My brother-in-law Arnold took this photo of me with my sister June and her three children, Angie, Margie, and John. They drove all the way from Petawawa, Ontario and walked through my door at a time in my life when I needed some loving kindness. I was alone in this then ramshackle house; my short-lived marriage had just broken up; I was less than a year into a complex and highly responsible management job at StFX, having taken on the role of Manager of Residences and Food Services, the only woman on an all-male management team. June walked through the door and knew instinctively how to cheer me up. A new outfit!! June has all the sewing genes in our family. We chose fabric and she made the dress I am wearing, as I recall, without a pattern. I had a sewing machine that our mother gave me as a graduation present for my B.A. from Queens, in hope that I too would learn to sew. Didn’t happen. And oh yes, June made blue gingham curtains for my most of the exposed windows in my new home. The only curtain that I had come up with on my own was in the form of a a very large nightie trimmed with Battenburg lace, which belonged to one of my ample aunts on my mother’s side. That dress I am wearing in the doorway, I wore for years, until it was just too faded. But the memory and my gratitude for my family walking through that door, is still fresh. BTB, those three beautiful children on the doorstep are now grown up with children of their own.
BTB, long-time residents of Antigonish and Clydesdale will remember this door and this house from its builders and owners — farmer John Henry Callaghan and his wife Sadie. They had no children but their nieces and neighbours have told me about them.
We travelled to Ballyvourney, Ireland for the annual pilgrimage to St. Gobnait’s holy well on February 11. Timothy Hierlihy, who led a band of United Empire Loyalists to Antigonish Harbour in 1784, the first European settlement of Antigonish, hailed from Ballyvourney and was baptized in St. Gobnait’s church.. This is the ancient door to that church.
We took note of the Georgian doors throughout Dublin, Ireland when we visited there in February, 2015. Tour operators and walking guides point out these doors to tourists. They feature on souvenirs such as fridge magnets and wrapping paper. Here is a photo of the wrapping paper. The proprietor who sold us the paper made the wry comment that the doors were painted in so many different colours so that men could find the right door after a long night at the pub.
http://www.earthporm.com/25-beautiful-doors-seem-lead-worlds/
http://www.imagineantigonish.ca/sam-and-mary-ann-phee-gero-eddie-phee-and-david-phee-st-peters-church-tracadie-c-1960/
Is this a church door that made a difference in the Phee family?
http://www.imagineantigonish.ca/sam-gero-and-david-phee-morrison-hall-c-1965/
Click on this link for a door that would have great significance for the priests living on the StFX campus and most recently for President Sean Riley.
http://www.imagineantigonish.ca/first-steps-arthur-venedam-pomquet-c-1949/
Click on this link for the Door to the Venedam house in Pomquet — a door that made a difference to Arthur Venedam as a child
http://www.ayearofbeinghere.com/2015/01/miroslav-holub-door.html
Click for a powerful poem and image of an orphan in Malawi: “Change is walking through an open door.”
the door.
Maybe outside there’s
a tree, or a wood,
a garden,
or a magic city.
Go and open the door.
Maybe a dog’s rummaging.
Maybe you’ll see a face,
or an eye,
or the picture
of a picture.
Go and open the door.
If there’s a fog
it will clear.
Go and open the door.
Even if there’s only
the darkness ticking,
even if there’s only
the hollow wind,
even if
nothing
is there,
go and open the door.
At least
there’ll be
a draught.
“The Door” by Miroslav Holub, from Poems Before & After, translated from the original Czech by Ian Milner et al. (Bloodaxe Books, 2006). Text as posted on Scottish Poetry Library.
Art credit: “Change is walking through an open door,” photograph taken August 23, 2009, by Photocillin. Caption: “An orphan at Luchenza in Malawi.”
Entry Submitted by Wayne Ezekiel to A DOOR THAT MADE A DIFFERENCE
The men that used this door(hatch) changed our world. This is the capsule used by Neil Armstrong and his crew to go to the moon and back. I took this picture at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The race to the moon was possible because of computer technology, the same technology that is changing our world today. The steam engine started the Industrial Revolution and the computer started the Information Age. All possible because of the doors used by Astronauts.
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/undertheinfluence
Serendipitously, Terry O’Reilly’s program Under the Influence on CBC Radio January 31, 2015, reinforces how this Door that Wayne Ezekiel submitted, and the Apollo Space program permeated popular culture and advertising campaigns from cereal to Barbie dolls.
Click on the link to hear the podcast.
Here is the iconic photo of the moon landing that accompanies the link to the CBC podcast
http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/slide-show-nasa-golden-age-vintage-photographs?mbid=social_facebook
A renewed interest in NASA vintage photographs. Have a look.
This door—well, actually, this gate—will always hold meaning for me: the West Gate to Barts (St Bartholomew’s) Hospital. Rahere, Augustinian monk, prebendary of St Paul’s Cathedral, and courtier to King Henry I, first swung open these portals in 1123 AD, to those buildings erected over the graves of ten thousand victims of the Black Death. Rahere had lived a life of some dissolution, and saw this act as perhaps buying him redemption in heaven. Barts would serve the desperate needs of London’s sick poor—its lame, its diseased, its dying—that thronged the cesspits of Giltspur Street beyond its walls. The hospital’s first mission was far more hospice than hospital. Ruins of the Chapel of St Bartholomew the Less, founded at the same time in its grounds, remain standing; and those west gates have survived the Great Fire and the World War II Blitz, and have never closed.
I first walked through this portal in October of 1964, as a medical student setting out on my clinical rotations. The hospital square opened out before me, the sycamores and oaks starting to shed their leaves on the roofs of the senior consultants’ Rolls Royces and Daimlers. I’d spent my last three years cramming my head full of Anatomy—the 17 branches of the radial nerve—Biochemistry—the instantly forgettable intricacies of the tricarboxylic acid cycle—and physiology—from Hippocrates and Galen to Konrad Bloch and Feodor Lynen. Now at last I was within reach of what had been driving me unrelentingly for the last ten years, ever since my first unspoken resolve—at the time of my mother’s death when I was twelve—to make medicine my career. Today, within the portals of the “Royal and Ancient,” I will at last come face to face with my first real live patient. And I am so terrified I am about to throw up on my shiny black lace-up shoes.
Fran Wittgens sent in this photo of “a magical door at a convent”
This is a picture of the old water mill in Mattie Settlement that served the surrounding communities for close to a century.
A lovely image in its own right and so evocative. Can you say more about this door/gate? Who passed through this gate in days gone by and who passes through there now? Now a tractor, once horses?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwJc6HkP8fc
“A door opened and I went through it.”
Doors opening are a thread running through the 2010 HBO movie Temple Grandin. In this You Tube clip Temple attends the National Autistic Convention of 1981 and delivers a speech that will eventually catapult her in the spotlight as one of the World’s foremost speakers on autism and advocates for Autism research. Temple is one of the top scientists in the humane livestock handling industry.
Any Old Doors for New Places in your life history?
Mary Rose Wong submitted this photo of her younger brother Gary Wong and his nephew Allan McNeill in front of the door to Wong’s Cafe on Main Street, 1950s. Mary Rose added these comments: “Brother Gary with his nephew Alan McNeill…..1957, this would have been snapped by our mother Molly Lee.
Recall most boys liked to wear hats during those days, but Gary is hatless. Even today living in Iqulait he would rather go bare headed.
Both doors opened to where you were always welcomed.
Many chose their favourite seats throughout lifetime (squatters rights)., place to meet & mingle with friends old & new regardless of age or colour rich or poor.
Most important, there was always an “Abundance of Food for the Soul”
Proud to know our parents claims one of those doors !
Any idea about the ad or poster in the window?. Is it a double-decker bus in the lower portion of the poster? And what is Allan McNeill chomping on?
Mary Rose, can you tell us who had squatters’ rights at Wong’s cafe? This is the history of Antigonish that rarely gets passed down. But it is all about some of those social determinants of health like “Social Support Networks” and “Social Inclusion.”
Mary Rose Wong submitted this photo with this detail:
Dorothy Wong (our mother’s Brides Maid-1930) holding her son Richard…….
(L to R) Joyce, Stanley , Helen…….My sister Jenny, Brother Edward
>
Another of our mom’s photo taken in front of St. James United Church 1936……
Most likely after attending church & the children @ Sunday School, then it was off to the candy shop (Mary Aggie’s?)
I can still see her with her hand held camera always the photographer…..believe it was the same one she let me use too. I recall how it opened like an accordian !
Who know the specs on a 1936 camera that opened like an accordion????
http://www.cameramanuals.org/kodak_pdf/kodak_autographic_jr_1a-1.pdf
Here is the 1915 manual with images for a Kodak folding camera. Does this look familiar, Mary Rose? Tagline:
“If it isn’t an Eastman, It isn’t a Kodak.”
Believe Allan is chomping on his tie……
Might that be an advertisement for Kodak Film…not a double -decker bus ?
Ladies……….which one of you is the headless waitress ???
Dorothy, that is the exact camera I recall….Thanks for the memories !
Took that camera along with Peggy (McIntyre) McNeil & picnic basket to the river that ran
near the road to Golf Course. Remember taking pics of fish, frogs & rocks.
I hope this image from iPhone is clear.
A Door that Made a Difference
The door opened
My body followed her into a sunlit room
My brain ran out into the street
with my fear
pounding heart
panting breath
darting eyes
Shame
You sit here
Her calm voice cracked my bubble
I could not look her in the eye
I stared at the open door
My muscles twitched
My brain screamed
Run
Take your time dear
You are safe here
Notice your breathing
Allow yourself to settle
and I’ll make tea
I did more than settle my anxious breathing in that inaugural visit to therapy. With Brie’s skilled and compassionate guidance, I noticed, relaxed, and appreciated my breath. I answered questions and followed directions without embarrassed fits of giggling, and I said words out loud that had been drumming inside my being for as long as I could remember. I also experienced my interior world for the first time. In discovering and understanding the concept of inner child, I was able to make sense of the whirlwind of emotions which I experienced on a daily basis. I felt overwhelmed by my inner child’s feelings of shame and torment. But with Brie’s guidance, I experienced a spark of vital energy residing deep within the child and within my adult self. Brie introduced me to the meaning of resilience. I had never heard the word before. The change in me was immediate. From that first visit, I began my journey of re-parenting my little Susan self. Overnight I became a better parent to my children.
Today as I reflect on the struggling forty-two year old woman I used to be, who made the choice to walk through a door instead of running away, I feel the true meaning of resilience. Therapy has taught me to be the person I am today, a person who continues to face triggers and challenges with chin up and grounded breath. I feel a deep sense of gratitude to all of my resilient ancestors who are part of the reason that I have succeeded in walking through the many other doors which I dared only to dream about. After many hours of walking through Brie’s door, journeying into past traumas and validating my gifts, I realize that no door is closed to me today.
This is my happy door. I painted it a few years ago.
Susan Walsh — the text that goes with the image
A Door that Made a Difference
The door opened
My body followed her into a sunlit room
My brain ran out into the street
with my fear
pounding heart
panting breath
darting eyes
Shame
You sit here
Her calm voice cracked my bubble
I could not look her in the eye
I stared at the open door
My muscles twitched
My brain screamed
Run
Take your time dear
You are safe here
Notice your breathing
Allow yourself to settle
and I’ll make tea,
I did more than settle my anxious breathing in that inaugural visit to therapy. With Brie’s skilled and compassionate guidance, I noticed, relaxed, and appreciated my breath. I answered questions and followed directions without embarrassed fits of giggling, and I said words out loud that had been drumming inside my being for as long as I could remember. I also experienced my interior world for the first time. In discovering and understanding the concept of inner child, I was able to make sense of the whirlwind of emotions which I experienced on a daily basis. I felt overwhelmed by my inner child’s feelings of shame and torment. But with Brie’s guidance, I experienced a spark of vital energy residing deep within the child and within my adult self. Brie introduced me to the meaning of resilience. I had never heard the word before. The change in me was immediate. From that first visit, I began my journey of re-parenting my little Susan self. Overnight I became a better parent to my children.
Today as I reflect on the struggling forty-two year old woman I used to be, who made the choice to walk through a door instead of running away, I feel the true meaning of resilience. Therapy has taught me to be the person I am today, a person who continues to face triggers and challenges with chin up and grounded breath. I feel a deep sense of gratitude to all of my resilient ancestors who are part of the reason that I have succeeded in walking through the many other doors which I dared only to dream about. After many hours of walking through Brie’s door, journeying into past traumas and validating my gifts, I realize that no door is closed to me today.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-somerset-30687171?SThisFB&fb_ref=Default
Fairy control” has had to be brought in at a woods in Somerset to curb the “profusion of elfin construction. Hundreds of fairy doors have been attached to the bases of trees in Wayford Woods, Crewkerne.
It is claimed the doors have been installed by local people so children can “leave messages for the fairies”.
But trustee Steven Acreman said: “We’ve got little doors everywhere. We’re not anti-fairies but it’s in danger of getting out of control.”
Are there any fairy doors in Antigonish. If so, please post here.