LETTER: Midland 'bowing' to commerce while burying its past

LETTER: Midland 'bowing' to commerce while burying its past

Local resident and poet wonders whether any future sales of the town's public waterfront lands would truly benefit its citizens

Although 349 Lakewood Dr. isn't marked by any visible signposts on the property, a path of human and animal footprints leading from the road to two plastic lawnchairs at water's edge are a signifier of public usage.Derek Howard/MidlandToday

MidlandToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to an article titled 'Midland residents save waterfront 'hidden gem' for one more year', published March 4.

Dear Editor,

I read your article Midland residents save waterfront ‘hidden gem’ for one more year and found myself shaking my head.

Many of the reasons for selling off a small remaining piece of public access to the bay make sense, given the state of Midland and of the world in this day and age, but at the same time I heard the bell toll as another piece of Midland’s history slowly slides away.

I too have spent most of my life in North Simcoe. My family actually has a history in Midland dating back to the 1870s. As a young boy being raised in Midland, I would walk the shoreline from the Townhouse Elevator to Midland Point stopping to visit with my great grandparents who lived along the shore.

Now of course, such a hike is impossible with the shoreline being, for the most part, private property.

Some would call what’s happened, what’s happening here in Midland, progress, perhaps, but in my mind we’re simply bowing to commerce while we slowly bury our past….

The Village

Used to be that

the village was small,

a few families grouped together

for the benefit of all.

The village,

in time,

grew,

strangers moved in,

information,

secrets once shared,

now hidden,