| From the beginnings of time, that is before I was a student, the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto existed in an old building at Avenue Rd. and College St. in the City of Toronto, now the location of the Ontario Hydro headquarters.
From about 1963 to 1967, I took classes in Eurythmics, a method of teaching rhythm, body movement, and a sort of music appreciation, that was created by a Swiss, Jacques Dalcroix. It was taught by Mme Lessarre.
For years, I took these classes away from my own neighbourhood in, first Don Mills, and later, North Toronto, because I never wanted my friends to know that I, a boy, would take anything remotely resembling dance. I had been forced into ballet in my neighbourhood school, Mallow Road Public School by my mother, and it was the worst experience of my life for many years.
But the years spent with Mme Lessarre, and the boys and girls who kept together as a kind of community, were among the best of my life.
The annual Santa Claus Parade in Toronto used to pass in front of the 'Con,' as we called it. If we got there early enough on Saturday morning, when we had our classes, we could look down upon the parade from great comfort.
The new building (I still think of it as that, over 30 years later), is on Bloor St. near St. George St., by Varsity Stadium, and not too far from the Royal Ontario Museum. And the eurythmics studio is in the basement.
Why, in remembering this, does it make me sad? | 
