Are we there yet?

One remembers watching TV in the Bronx in 1968. Mother insisted we watch Mister Rogers Neighborhood. Trolley was the coolest part of the show.

Would anyone believe that show was still on the air in the U.S. when my own children reached the ages of 2 to 5? It was. At that time, there were very few trolleys in the US. Husband Phil was a big fan of a trolley museum and liked to take the family on rides around a grassy field on old trolleys.

Since then we have immigrated to Canada. With the children in public school, I began to paint again. At that time, I alternated between pastel on paper and acrylic on canvas. Phil suggested trolleys. “OK, they lead to the Neighborhood of Make Believe.”

One always felt a little silly about thinking that until 2022 when I read that Misterogers was, in fact, a show in Toronto from 1961-64 on CBC-TV and that the assistant puppeteer became Mr. Dressup, Canada’s beloved children’s show star. What’s more, the CBC producer Fred Rainsberry had a big influence on Fred Roger’s career, convincing him to come out from behind the puppet theatre and interact with children on the show. Mr. Rogers already had had a show in Pennsylvania, but he put the trolley in for the Toronto market. It reminded him of his own childhood when Pittsburgh still had trolleys.

I painted a trolley in High Park with fall foliage around 2008. It was shown at a solo exhibit at Runnymede Library and sold at a school fundraiser. Trolleys became a series. Over the years, trolleys appeared in many works. So did Go Trains, cars, busses, airplanes, boats and bicycles. One likes to paint moving things and finally worked up to painting moving people. Moving models were de rigueur in Professor Rayen's Drawing class at Wellesley College where I went to school. Moreover, painting students were encouraged to paint moving objects. One remembers holding a hammer in her left hand and moving it whilst painting with her right hand.

Hilary practiced drawing and painting moving trolleys. They would often stop for awhile so she could get a better look. There is a whole series.

Rewind to 1968. There was another show on TV called Wonderama. By then, Hilary had had two years of painting at All Souls school. If there was one thing she could do it was paint! On Saturday mornings, Wonderama would come on TV. Kids got to paint on the show on plexiglass. The TV cameras filmed the painting and the painters through the plexiglas. It was so cool! Hilary never got to be on the show, but she never forgot it either.

Whilst visiting the children’s room at Nashville’s Frist Museum, she saw a plexiglass easel. Hilary drew a picture of the scene through the plexiglass of her daughter painting a cat. Wonderama!

She would purchase new frames for her art and they came with a sheet of acetate over the glass. One day, Hilary put the acteate on a rigid backing and put it up on the easel for a plein air painting by the lake. Two Canada geese with goslings were the subject. She calls it Wonderama. She framed it behind glass so that it is still totally see through.

Finally, her childhood dreams of going to the Neighborhood of Make Believe and painting Wonderama have come true.

Swan and Trolley; Swan, Trolley and Photographers; Morning on the Queensway; 506 Trolley; and Trolley in the Snow are some of the works that collectors may be willing to show in an exhibition. Wonderama at the Shore and Santa Wonderama are also available.

Further pictures of a whimsical nature include Little Dog at Runnymede Library, Moose Gibson, Topiary Hedge, and Geese at Windermere and Lakeshore, which is in the shop today! I think it is called Somewhere in Narnia.