First snow ~ November 2020
Photos by Barry Wallace
Temperanceville
Bathurst Street
Dufferin Street
King City
Keele Street
Kinghorn
Jane Street
Laskay
Weston Road
Humber Trails
Mill Road
As I was taking these photos, I thought back to when I was a teenager in King City and many kids (including me) swam in the East Humber River, on the east side of Keele Street, across from St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, which was the King City Public School back then. It was the late 1950s and we ran and dove or jumped into the Humber, which was 6 ft. deep and over our heads, in one particular spot. The south embankment of the Humber was about 8 ft. high at that point and was a tremendous thrill jumping from that height. I can't believe that was 60 to 65 years ago. We changed our clothes and got in and out of our bathing suits in the bushes...boys and girls!
Please comment if you wish.
Barry Wallace
I know the swimming hole you refer to. We were probably in grade 4 , and after school a bunch of us boys (girls were still yucky at that age)would run down to the creek and go skinny dipping. That's where I learned to swim. The Humber was actually an outdoor school where you learned to fish ,swim, skate ,camp and hunt. Parents today would pay big bucks to have their kids attend something similar.
ReplyDeleteDid the Polio scare stop swimming in the creek? or was it water quality drops from development and farming?
ReplyDeleteI'm not from around here...but in my home town area, some nasty creeks, we treated like nuclear waste, growing up in the 1970's, have returned to their splendor and I was delighted last summer to see folks enjoying them, though not swimming yet. The water was so clean, it blew my mind. One of the pluses of deindustrialization I suppose...no more nasty effluents.
Not sure what the change was - along with the growth of industry in the rural area , more chemicals in agriculture and the development of the suburbs which usually involved the draining of wetlands and small streams resulting in sick rivers and streams ; it was possibly the expansion of organized sports and activities -arenas , sport fields swimming pools etc. - that were adult driven which meant kids didn't have to create their own. Or not. I know kids today still explore the creeks, ponds and forests given the chance.
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