News Flash: There’s a lot of snow in Toronto today with more to come!
I grew up in Oshawa Ontario. The back of my house connected with a stretch of land that the neighborhood called “the gully”. This was a piece of land that was owned by Ontario Hydro. It was originally part of an old rail line that had been purchased by Ontario Hydro for burying high power transmission lines. There were varying sized slopes on each side which made for a great place for small kids to go tobogganing. All I had to do was go out of my backyard and play. I mention this because I remember being quite young and being overjoyed at being able to go tobogganing during March break. That was the last time I remember this quantity of snow at this time of year.
As I grew older we never had a decent amount of snow in March but on the up side, I discovered “the tracks”. This was on the other side of the main road, Harmoney Road, which was the continuation of the old rail line. At the end was the remains of an old bridge abutment. This made for some terrific runs. Of course, being part of an old bridge meant that there was either a creek or a fence at the bottom of that wonderful hill. But doesn’t every truly good tobogganing hill have a problem somewhere at the bottom? It always adds to the excitement of the run.
They have now built houses in what was once “the gully” and the only thing remaining of “the tracks” is part of the old bridge abutment. In the image below, the clump of trees in the middle is all that remains of my favorite hill growing up.
Next time I’m in Oshawa I should go for a walk to the end of Beaufort Avenue and see what remains.