Margo Timmins - Childhood

Childhood

Margo was born and spent most of her childhood in Montreal as one of six children of Barbara and John Timmins. Margo describes her mother Barbara as "a very honest person, and very confident in who she was and her emotions and her place in the world. And I think if she gave anything, that's what she gave us: the sense that you do what you do, and not to worry about it too much. A confidence. Not a confidence that we're necessarily right, but even if we're wrong, well, too bad".

Her father, John Timmins, spent his professional life working in the sales and marketing divisions of several aviation companies. His passion in life, however, was music and his love of song was passed on to his children, especially his son Michael (Margo's brother) who would eventually start the Cowboy Junkies.

As a young girl, Margo remembers rifling through her brother Michael's extensive record collection. Some of her early favourites that influence her to this day include: Blonde on Blonde, Highway 61 Revisited,and Nashville Skyline, by Bob Dylan, Nebraska by Bruce Springsteen, Harvest by Neil Young, and Townes Van Zandt's, Flyin' Shoes.

It never occurred to Margo that she could ever sing professionally. However, her youth was filled with song. She remembers singing while doing the dishes, singing in school plays and pageants and singing Carole King songs at camp.

As a child, her ambition was to grow to be like her mother – get married, stay at home and have seven children.

In 1977, the Timmins family had moved from Montreal to Toronto. They lived in Etobicoke in the west-end of the city and Margo attended Richview Collegiate Institute in her high school years.