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Alice Munro's House (Pictures from internet)

 

Her House in Wingtham

Her House in Clinton

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  • Get A Dose of Literary - Day Trip to Wingham and Clinton +2

    Wingham is a small town located in North Huron, Ontario. It sits at the intersection of County Roads 86 and 4. County Road 86 connects to Kitchener-Waterloo to the east while County Road 4, also called Josephine Street, runs through Wingham, connecting to London, Ontario to the south. Its population is only 2,934 in 2016 census.

    When I googled it in the internet, someone asked in Tripadvisor if Wingham is worthy visiting or a dead town. Only one or two replies, one says nothing really worthwhile to visit; the other says it’s not a dead town as he’s living here, but yes, nothing worth visiting except Tim Hortons J. So It’s not surprised that you never heard of this place even though you’ve been living in Ontario for a decade or longer.

    But Wingham is marked on the world’s literary map for Alice Munro was born and raised here. She once told the New York Times that Wingham, to her, was “the most interesting place in the world,” and her stories are about her hometown, the Huron County and the people in it.

    When she married Gerald Fremlin, her second husband, in 1976 and the couple settled on a farm outside of Clinton, which is only half an hour’s drive to Wingham. Obviously she loved the country life in western Ontario.

    It was against this background that I became gripped with a curious urge to go to the land of Alice Munro and take a close look at Wingham and Clinton. 

    • Huron County Landscape

      Yesterday, one beautiful July Sunday, we set out to visit the towns. The sun was already high in the sky and promised a blisteringly hot day. After about one hour’s drive, we joined County Road 86, ahead of us lay about a featureless sweep of green corn or golden wheat for as far as the eyes can see.

       

       

      Ontario country is just flat and hot, plain and simple, and full of corn and wheat and soy beans, sometimes you can see cows and horses somewhere leisurely.  

       

    • Wingham

      Country road, take me to Wingham.

      Around 12:00 p.m., after we mistakenly turned off County Road 86 and felt lost and ended up in an unknown street, we were surprised to find out we already arrived at Wingham. Here we are, Wingham. 

       
      In the early of 1850s, Wingham was incorporated into a town with population of 2000. After one and half century, its population is still around 2000, less than 3000. It’s really hard to spot someone around. Wingham City Hall (below) was constructed and opened in 1890.


      Wingham Post Office was built across the street and opened in 1907.

      North Huron Museum. It was Sunday and the museum was closed sadly.

      This no-name building was built in 1890 and is still in use. 

      An empty main street. No one was in sight.

       

      Every town has its own Monument. Wingham only has 2000 people, but it lost 34 lives in World War I.

    • Finally, here is Alice Munro Literary Garden.

      Alice Munro Literary Garden

      A Big Book

       

       
      Her published books
       

       
      Her Awards
       
       
      Girl in reading
       
      Nobel Prize for Canada's Chekhov
       

       

    • Clinton

      Wingham is quite a small town with nothing too much to visit, so after we merely had taken a few pictures and walked through the main street we headed southwest to Clinton.

      Clinton is the same as Wingham in many ways, both are small towns incorporated in second half of the 19th century with a population around 3,000. Maybe Clinton has more stories than Wingham in history, but that's not my point. I visited Clinton because Alice Munro lives here. Munro’s home in recent decades was in nearby Clinton, a scant half-hour drive down the highway, where she lived with her husband, Gerry Fremlin, in his family’s home.
       

      Empty streets stayed quiet all day.

       

      Another monument

       

      A bench before Clinton Public Library dedicated to Alice Munro

       

      Clinton Public Library

    • Alice Munro's House (Pictures from internet)

       

      Her House in Wingtham

      Her House in Clinton

    • Huron County Landscape Again

      Rich farmland, rows of trees, where corn rustles in the summer breeze. Sunlight and shadow fall on Huron County’s fields. Munro’s writing is as plain as Wingham, as the country field, but it is in the shadows that Munro’s characters live, throb with precise, understated emotion.


      It’s interesting that the local people don't like that she wrote them in her story as dull, simple, and unfathomable people, saying her stories “caused a lot of pain and hurt.” She even received threatening letters decades ago when her first stories were published. Maybe more people in the city have read (Munro) than they have.

      A lonely tree

      Country Road, take me home.