Summary

The narrator, a Canadian woman, begins the narrative by recalling the place where she grew up. As a child, she lived with her parents and her brother in a house in a rural part of southwestern Ontario, Canada. The house stood near the Maitland River, across from which was an incorporated township. The narrator was born in 1931 and attended a nearby school for two years. She detested that school, as she was often bullied. Her father then bought a shed in the town across the river and began paying the town’s taxes so that the narrator could attend the town’s school. Coincidentally, that same year, the narrator’s original school closed due to the beginning of World War Two; most of the male students either joined the army or found jobs. Among other things, the narrator enjoyed the modern toilets at the...