Reason #3

Hornpayne Ontario

So to keep up with the simplicity of my happy things I'm going to talk about the simplest town probably ever.  In the middle of no where middle of Ontario sits a little town with a declining population of 1050.  It has one general store and one train stop. That's it.

When one arrives in Hornpayne Ontario on a VIA rail train the only question you can ask is why? Why are you stopped here. The train doesn't stop in ThunderBay or Calgary.  Why the hell doess it stop for a solid thirty minutes in Hornpayne.  There really isn't a reason.  When you geet off the train, and see the ghost town you're heart is immediately filled with gratitude. Let me explain this.  Hornpayne Ontario makes you appreciate your town or city so much.  You are overflowed with thoughts of "thank god I don't live here", so much that even if you lived in Gold River or Port Hardy you too would feel a instant fondness of your isolated town.

Hornpayne makes you happy as well as it is a place where all your thoughts and worries are swept away with the same dust that lines their store shelfs and post cards.  Nothing matters here. Nobody really is here.  It's a tiny piece of Canada with no significant meaning.

We all need more happy little places in our world like Hornpayne.  If we live in the city suburbs it can get quite overwhelming, seeing new people every day.  Hornpayne reminds us that we are actually relatively small in this world, a tiny piece that can be easily left or forgotten.  As un happy as it sounds, places like Hornpayne take a deep layer of relief off of our shoulders. It reminds us that as no matter how busy and hectic as our lives may seem, not to sweat it, because our problems probably means nothing.

Hornpayne Ontario in the past.