I once heard former Prime Minister Chretien describe his growing up in a boarding house. I was curious if that place had any similarity to the boarding house I ran for college students about 25 years ago.
It was the mid-nineties when jobs were scarce in the Big Smoke. My job was one of the casualties. I put up a notice at Seneca College for students seeking “Room and Board.” We lived in a four-bedroom house at the intersection of Steeles and Warden Avenues, fairly close to the college.
The house itself was a split level which included a garage and enclosed front porch. Once inside the foyer, a half-floor down was the family room which served as a bedroom. Up a level was the dining room and kitchen, the master bedroom up one more and another level up had a pair of bedrooms. The arrangement afforded a fair bit of privacy.
A door-knock one Saturday afternoon in August revealed a beautiful girl with a young man almost hidden behind her. She wished to explore our Room and Board option for her friend. He had studied computer science in France, now registered at Seneca College to take a crash course to learn English. The tour went well and he would move in a week later. It went smoothly once we understood he was a Muslim from Morocco, with some food restrictions. He selected the family room to hunker down in.
Syed was delightful to have around but had no housekeeping skills whatsoever. His father had a job of privilege in Morocco, so servants were on hand to do the chores. I learned a great deal about his culture and religion. He learned how to drive on my car, eventually buying his own. He was the first to sneak a girl into the house overnight – that I know of.
Before the semester began, the twin rooms upstairs were rented to Gary from New Liskeard and Brian from Stratford. Gary’s room was always so disorganized that I had to keep on this case. One day he went downtown for his first visit to a strip joint. Upon exiting he ran into his barber from back in New Liskeard. Small world.
One Saturday night, I couldn’t sleep and got up around 4:30. Going downstairs, I met Gary coming up. I said, “Coming or Going?” He said “Coming.” He was one who watched Jeopardy every day and knew most of the answers. When I suggested he become a contestant, He said, “I already have my name in.”
Brian apparently breezed through high school. He was in the prep program at Seneca leading to be a pilot. Within two months he was so far behind in assignments, he was given a warning from his instructor but he couldn’t catch up and left the program.
In January, his room was filled with a student from Waterloo University. Jason already had a position waiting upon completion of his engineering degree . He was angry with me once for tossing what I thought was an empty shampoo bottle. He gave me a lecture, “A little bit of shampoo means a lot to students on tight budgets.”
Four months later, his room was occupied by another Waterloo student, my niece Mary Anne. She already had a boyfriend but that didn’t stop Gary from trying to get into her good graces. He came close but no cigar.
There were a few others that stayed for a few terms – just as interesting. One, an evangelical was determined to convert our Muslim boarder. He came away from a discussion like a whipped pup without a bone.
A Mennonite student always set up for breakfast the night before. He proposed holding hands for prayers but that was too much.
Mike was older and the last of the seven boarders at my Scarborough home. He worked for an insurance company a few blocks away. He was in love with a young lady from the Caribbean with two children. Culture, skin colour difference and her children made her more desirable to him. They were at the house quite a few times – she was lovely… so were the kids.
Lisa finally relented and they were married. By this time we had relocated to Wasaga Beach but came back to Toronto for the wedding. After their son was born, the family came up to Wasaga Beach for a visit.
We lost touch but the good memories are still alive.
