What is Heritage Made of?

This is a picture of Ben’s Delicatessen, on de Maisonneuve, now demolished, from Flickr, posted by Julep67, who is clearly a Montreal heritage enthusiast.

I’ve downloaded it and put it on my desktop, where I often post pictures of interiors of far away restos to feel I am somewhere else, usually London.

This isn’t much different: somewhere else just happens to be ‘in the past’.

For my first entry in my experiential diary for my Heritage Studies course, I write about Ben’s.

I visited Ben’s only a few times in my entire life, most memorably, in the wee hours of the morning at my high school graduation.

I was not impressed by the ‘art deco’ environment. The place looked bleak and tawdry to me. Today, though, I can see what a wonderful example of a 20′s deli Ben’s was.

Delis are part of Montreal’s heritage. Montreal smoked meat is famous (and unique) and Ben’s, it is said, had the first in the city.

I have to write a research paper for this online course at Athabasca (Intro to Heritage Studies) and writing about Ben’s and the bru ha ha over its demolition in 2007 and 2008, might make for an interesting case study.

Ben’s Heritage is worth preserving, no question, but for what reasons? Not just the deco decor (a standard deli decor). No, for the stories, at least according to the McCord Museum that inherited the counter and stools belonging to Ben’s.

What is heritage made of? Is it pepper and dill and garlic and salt and ground coriander, the stuff of the ubiquitous Montreal steak spice? A recipe brought to Montreal by a few Lithuanian? immigrants like Ben Kravitz in the early part of the century, in fact in 1909! the year I am writing about right now for my novel in progress, Flo in the City, about a girl coming of age in the pivotal 1908-1913 era in Montreal based on the letters of http://www.tighsolas.ca/

Here’s an idea. I will have Marion visit Ben’s on St. Laurent and eat a smoked meat sandwich. She was very adventurous… Maybe she did eat at this place. St. Laurent near Duluth was where it was prior to 1929. I know because I did some research on that wonderful Google Archive that has the Montreal Gazette. What a treasure!

Middle Class Blues and Sex and the City.

Today, I start my course in Heritage Studies at the online university, Athabasca, in the Department of Integrated Studies. I have read the introductory essays and information and I can already tell this is right for me. Indeed, I read the course outline out loud to my husband and he sleepily replied, “It’s just what you like.”

Anyway, the one of the questions posed is what is heritage and what makes an artifact ‘significant’ enough to make it a heritage resource. A real good question. Are family photos heritage? Are family letters heritage? I think so. That’s why I posted my website http://www.tighsolas.ca/.

The photo above, of Edith and Flo, likely in 1913, is probably my favorite of all the Tighsolas photos. It almost got thrown out by my husband’s aunt, who clearly didn’t think that hazy pictures of her ancestors (however much she loved them) were of value.

From arm’s length, as the wife of the great nephew of these women, I felt differently.

But what I ‘feel’ isn’t of consequence either. Why should other people, other Canadians of all generations, feel this way?

Let me explain: Firstly, I like the picture because it is well composed and reminds me of certain portrait paintings of an earlier era, (Can’t recall exactly which ones, but you know…) Specifically Edith’s pose. Flo is positioned almost the same (for symmetry), except for the crossed leg, but she is a modern girl. She is smiling and tossing her foot (or so it seems.) She is ANIMATED. (I also like the dark and light dresses and then the dalmation (black and white) below. Something’s happening here, what it is ain’t exactly clear….

With respect to 1913, Edith is wearing a fashionable ‘big hat’ and Flo is wearing the small hat that is about to come into style. Edith appears to be corseted. Poor Edith.

The women are posing in the garden of Tighsolas, a decidedly middle class home, but with hints of hauteur.

Indeed, the Nicholsons, let me put this bluntly, were poseurs. Like many in the middle class, they had pretentions to the upper classes.

This is ironic since they were cash poor. And Margaret, their Mom, sometimes referred to the family as working class.

This photo (once we understand the background) demands that we ask the question: What does it mean to be middle class? And, especially, what did it mean to be middle class in 1910 (or in this case, Pre War) Canada, when the world was on the cusp of a huge paradigm shift?

Indeed, the entire http://www.tighsolas.ca/ website asks and responds to this question.

Now, the short essays I read claimed that Heritage must be relevant. Why is this question relevant to today. Well, because the middle class is in flux, isn’t it. The gap between rich and poor, everywhere is growing (maybe not in India and China) and that means the people of the middle class are edgy (as they always are) and wondering whether they will fall to the bottom (a good bet) or work their way to the top (not very likely). But that doesn’t stop us from buying or dreaming of buying designer clothes. Maybe this is the reason for the success of Sex and the City, the Movie.

I bet Edith would have loved that tv show and movie (if she had been born later and not in the Victorian Age.)

Stream of Unconsciousness

Boys riding an automobile in 1910 era.

I am watching the fourth installment of Musee Eden and can say the plot is quickening… I can see where it is going and it is interesting and that cute Colin Firth lookalike actor, Eric Bruneau, is getting beaten up, which is hard to take, although I’m sure it will all end up well in the end.

I went through Google News today to see what women are in the news: not many and mostly actresses or minor celebrities. Hilary Duff etc. I think I will do this everyday. You can see what people look up, the zeitgeist, so to speak and it is tabloid, even in the legitimate news.

Oh well.

I really have to get going on my editing of the first chapter of Flo in the City, my story about a girl coming of age in the 1910 era, based on http://www.tighsolas.ca/, but I can’t focus right now, with things to do related to parents and in-laws.

I did take up reading again (something I haven’t really done lately (I do listent to BBC Radio’s 4 and 7 for literary joys) I have three books on the go, Book of Negroes, Juliet Naked by Hornby and Andrea Levy’s first book. (I just loved Small Island.) The problem is my glasses, I need to buy new reading glasses and make sure they are full lensed, just for reading. I get dizzy adjusting my gaze.

My son came home and was writing a difficult philosophy paper and he read me the beginning, but I couldn’t help him. Didn’t understand a thing. Sign and signifier stuff which I remember not understanding when I went to school. Barthes and all that. Why Freud is wrong, so to speak. He’s big on why Freud is wrong. But I grew up with Freud, so I choose to invest in his theories.

But, yes, I did do something brash. I enrolled in a diploma program at Athabaska Online University, Heritage Studies. Museums and such. Since I’m so into Heritage, and I hope to upgrade my http://www.tighsolas.ca/ website, I might learn something. This 3 credit course is more expensive than one year of tuition at McGill in 1974, when I went to school. I answered an online questionnaire that is supposed to determine if a person is cut out for self-study. A great deal of importance is placed on essay writing skills. Well, I can write essays, that’s my profession, but I wonder if I have the discipline and stamina to take such a complicated course.