PAPER GARAGES

PAPER GARAGES

"but they're only imitation" -- Marie Osmond, Paper Roses

In the Fall, in Canada (at least Quebec) a strange phenomenon starts to appear. From out of nowhere, "paper garages" start popping up. Well, not really paper. They are made of tent materials, a strong coated plastic.

At first, one sees only a few paper garages in a few driveways.

Some are single-car paper garages, some are double-car paper garages.


Some are very long paper garages,......

......deep enough to hold two cars end-to-end.

Some are wide enough to hold two cars side-by-side.

Others are teeny, tiny "paper garages" that are not actually garages, but are front porches.

In some areas, there are whole streets lined with paper garages, one after another in front of nearly every house.

What really is happening is that people are preparing for the harsh Canadian winter that's ahead. The don't have the luxury of, or the space for, a real garage, but they need to protect their cars as much as possible from the weather. So someone came up with the idea of "tents" for cars. When we first saw them going up, we wondered if they would even last the winter, or would they cave in under all the snow? But we've watched the snow pile up higher and higher all around town, and the paper garages seem to not only stand up to the snow, but the snow actually seems to slide off of their roofs. Interesting.

Aren't people creative?