Ahah

The story unfurls.

A comment reveals John MacIntyre of Aurora is a descendant of the family Petch.

He is a local historian. Much of the town's history I know came from snippets he contributed as a boy to the Aurora Banner. He never ran out of highly comical anecdotes about the town fathers.

John and a friend wrote tandem letters to the Auroran some months ago. They jointly took me to task for not showing sufficient reverence towards the Petch house.

John apparently sees no difference between people and property.

John's friend went so far as to suggest, I had outlived my usefulness and I should remove myself from the scene. . I spent several days after battling the temptation to draw attention to his contribution to the community. I had never heard tell of the fellow.

Apparently old buildings are more worthy of respect than people.

John is certainly aware of the Petch cabin. I would go so far as to guess , his is the main force behind the pressure to spend taxpayers' money on its preservation.

I suspect John is something of an elitist when it comes to artifacts he is keen to preserve.

I have wondered why there was never an outcry to preserve the town park from the encroachment of modern times. The modest little homes on Metcalf, Larmont and Mosely were never front and foremost.

Yet with their neighbours on the other side of Yonge, the people who occupied them were the very heart of old Aurora.