Doors with Grandmother Faces

Day two: wet and beautiful, at least the Superior views. Our destination was Wawa, Ontario and we were early enough to have ice cream and pop corn in the Cooper General Store and dinner at the North if 17 restaurant before we checked into the Mystic Isle Motel. The Mystic is above 17 south of Wawa... when I say above I mean up a sand road about 100 meters (note metric reference). I hit a soft spot in the road and did a bit of off-road fish-tailing before hitting the top, Tomto profitted from my error and made the top without incident. Once at the top we found a'restored' 40's era motel with a log exterior and even log walls on the inside. A German lady was at the desk and when we inquired abot discounts we got the equivalent of, "You vill pay the price or ypu vill not sty". We paid and stayed. Very clean and orderly as you'd expect from a German Motel. The flags of many nations were flying in the considerable breeze but that didn't keep the determined mosquitos from buzzing in our faces as we unloaded. By the time we were settled the np vacancy sign was lit and I was grateful for Tomto's foresight in reserving a room on the internet before we left.

Oh, The Grandmothers. In downtown which looks a lot like other northern North American towns... lots of closed storefronts, gritty streets, and other evidence of harsh winters and a less than booming economy, there stands a most remarkable display of public art. Dozens of used hollow core doors are mounted vertically every 3 meters or so, attached to the side walk near the curb with steel stakes. On each side if each door is a work of art depicting someones grandmother. Each doorside has a life-size Xerox copy of grandmas face and some artistic representation of a body...one had a real grandma dress with real sneakeras at the bottom, another an apron, another clothing made of newspaper pages. Every dorr had a writtin story of the grandmother, "Grandma came to Wawa from Nova Scotia in 1934 and had 8 children..." Some boards had multiple photos showing the subject over the years. Some were oviously the work fo young children, oters the work of artistic adults.... all celebrated the obvious affection the artist hold for their grandmas. The overall effect of the display was to make one forget the grittyness of a struggling town and to see only the love and beauty of its residents.