Christmas Dance and Sunday Morning Oshawa Memories

I received an email about the Downchild Blues Band blog entry from a couple of days ago. In part it read:

"The pictures of Downchild Blues Band are cool. You know what, that was the year that Leo Barrett and I were social conveners on the student council.. I think it may have cost us $500 or $600 to book them for the night. What would it cost today?

All right, keep on posting !!"

Thanks John for that note.

I have a pic of the Christmas Dance and party of 1973.
Left to right are Karen Smegal, Kathleen O'Halloran, Gloria Murrant, Cindy Germanis, Bob Hickey surrounded by all of the girls, Judy McLinton and Helen Rosicki.

And some Sundays, I try to bring memories of Oshawa of the 1970's. I popped this frame of the Oshawa Flying Club just as the aircraft was getting airborne on our Urban Studies Fly Day arranged by teacher Blair Morris.


And I wanted some pics of urban decay in Oshawa. I snapped the pic below on Mary Street of the GM plant there. It really wasn't urban decay, but believe it or not, it was the worst I could find of decay in Oshawa. Sadly, the situation is a lot different now.

And the email brought some other pleasant happenstance. The blog entry profiling Paul Grady brought an interesting present, in the form of a song written by Paul. The subject is Oshawa:

The Streets of the Town

Paul Grady

The streets of this town

Don't boast a Carnaby

No waterways or sidewalk cafes will you see

Just smoke from the factory, blowin' by a lonesome tree

But as I walk down

The streets of this town

Something calls to me

The streets of this town

Do not host royalty

or cause a man to write a symphony

Just honky tonk songs

After one more working day

But as I walk down

The streets of this town

I can see them sway

Cause each house has a light that shines, faithfully

Lights the true way home

For each one of the family

The streets tonight are quiet and serene

And dream a dream of things that night have been

Sitting so humble broken for no happy cause

But as I walk down

The streets of this town

I can see what was

Thank you all for your correspondence and have a happy Sunday.

Paul Grady Takes The Stage at OCHS

We fortunate to grow up in the 1970's. The world of rock and pop music was hitting its zenith, and we were there. We had some amazing live bands at our school dances. I have already profiled Downchild Blues Band. We also had the rock group Wednesday, with their North American Hit "Oh Where Oh Where has my baby gone?". There were others.

I have a deep admiration for songwriters who have the talent to emotionally move the masses through their craft. My personal list includes Tom Waits, Townes Van Zandt, John Prine, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen and a whole host of others. One of the people making that list is Oshawa's own Paul Grady. He richly deserves fame that he never got in full measure, but he has made his mark on the music world.

The first Paul Grady song that I heard, was Get There by Dawn recorded by John Allan Cameron. The second Grady song to move me, was Another Pot 'o Tea. The song was recorded by both Anne Murray, and Emmy Lou Harris.

The above picture was digitized from a Polaroid snapshot. It shows songwriter Paul Grady taking the stage at OCHS. John Allan Cameron was there as well, but not pictured. The other musicians in the photo are luminaries in their own right. They are from Anne Murray's band who were a monstrous hit machine for a number of years. Shown in the pic are Andy Cree on drums, Bill Spear on piano, Miles Wilkinson on guitar, Paul Grady at the mike, and 16 year old Peter Grady, Paul's younger brother on bass. I went to St. Joe's with Peter who was in my class.

Below are some Youtube cuts of the talent of these people. The first is not a Grady song, but John Allan Cameron's hit "Lord of the Dance" (I couldn't find "Get There By Dawn"). Next is Paul Grady's "Another Pot o Tea" sung by Anne Murray. (email me if you want Paul's explanation of what the lyrics mean).

Paul Grady can be found on the internet at

http://www.paulgrady.net