My ‘Hood in Montreal

My 'hood: Part One
When I was 12 my family moved from our Barclay Street apartment to our first real house.  It was 1956.  They paid $19,500 for the brand new split-level home on Rand Avenue in Cote St. Luc, which was one of 20 identical homes built that year, ten on Rand Avenue and ten on Westminister.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONEYGU_7EqU&feature=related

But it’s my neighbours on Rand Avenue that I want to tell you about.

First, The Bermans:
Norman & Claire Berman lived next door to us, and I was their preferred babysitter for Jonathan, age 3, and Elyce, age 1.

Norman & Claire were a lot younger than my parents.  They were very good looking people, and they were rich.  Norman’s father, Joseph, was one of the founders of the Cadillac Fairview Company.  He didn’t approve when his son Norman bought a small airplane and took flying lessons.  Flying was Norman’s passion.

Around that time I was given my very first camera.  I decided to document the lives of Jonathan & Elyce.  I was only 12, but I was already interested in child development and family dynamics.  Since the Bermans had a very active social life, I had many opportunities to babysit Jonathan & Elyce, and thus began my first documentary.  I took lots of pictures and glued them in a scrapbook, and I wrote ‘commentary’ about each one.  Sometimes I had a chance to take pictures of the children with their parents.   I made notes of my impressions of every member of the family.  I decided to continue documenting their lives for ever.

But that was not to be.  One Sunday morning in 1961, Claire stayed home while Norman took Jonathan and Elyce for a plane ride.  Their plane crashed.  All three were killed instantly.