Hi, I am the Jive Bunny,
I was born in North Bay, Ontario on April 9th, 1952. Born at almost 13 pounds, my size 2 baby bodywas able to stand already and I came into a household of five little girls Judith, Patricia, Sherry and Linda, a Mom Ollie, and a Dad Abe. I don't remember ever having my own bed because our small house was always filled with Sisters, friends and relatives.
I moved away in 1971 to attend Art College and found out while living with my girlfriends Barb and Judi, I still never had my own bed due to friends and relatives always visiting us in that big house on Markham Street. I moved home to North Bay and worked at the Bank of Nova Scotia on Main Street for a year, got together with my first boyfriend Dave and then moved back to Toronto to attend Ontario College of Art again, this time we found a house on 324 Dundas Street and lived on the 2nd floor. David lost his Mother to cancer when he was 13 years old and his family house was sold in 1970, so all his furniture came with us. There was a 1936 bedroom set with a four poster bed, a chest of drawers, and a vanity. When Dave and I broke up in 1974, I moved into a small apartment on Palmerston Blvd. and the four poster bed and vanity went to my sister Patsy in Hamilton.
I lived in that little apartment on Palmerston Blvd for five years and then I met my son's baby daddy,
moved into a house on Howland Avenue and in 1980 my big son Joshua was born all 10 pounds 10 ounces of joy. My son was the best thing that ever happened to me. But I still never had a bed of my own.
So in 1982 we moved to a three bedroom apartment on the Danforth after the owner of the Howland Street house passed away. It was then I kicked the cheating baby daddy out with his king sized mattress; I picked up the 1936 four poster bed from my sister Patsy's shed, gave it to the Goodwill to repair and I finally had my own bed.
From 1982 to present 2018, I moved only three times once to Henry Lane Terrace, twice in the same building in 1985 and 2013 at 55 The Esplanade where I still live with all my stuff in a one bedroom.
I still sleep on the same mattress that I bought in 1982 from Sears and a mattress that a lover bought for me in 2000 for a bed couch I had in my Jive Gallery on Queen Street East. All my furniture have memories of past houses like the 1905 vanity from the house on Howland with the 1912 beveled mirror along with the antique mirror that hung above the fireplace that we took when we moved in 1981.
I dream all the time that I still do not have a place to sleep and I was never welcome in North Bay because the house on Ferguson Street was sold and my sisters told me to never come back after my Mother and Father died. All the furniture belonging to my parents was given away and all I have left of my family home are memories and all the paintings I did over the years of my family history.
I have breast cancer one year now and my time on this earth is in question. In my dream dictionary
a bed can represent a form of spiritual sanctuary and a sense of purity.
We all need a bed of our own and to share it with the ones who we love. Without a bed of our own we have no place to dream, no place to love and no place to live.
