Port Dalhousie Ponderings

Notice the salmon and trout sign?


Who would have believed that the Lake Whose-Name-We-Dared-Not-Speak in the 1950s would ever be stocked with anything other than polio meningitis, two headed carp and raw sewage?




But thanks to many concerned people and organizations Atlantic salmon, last seen in Lake Ontario 150 years ago, are making a comeback. 


You can read more about this wonderful project at:


http://www.bringbackthesalmon.ca/

It is impossible to get near this place in the summer, but right now in April, while the leaves are still coming out, it's very quiet.




Port Dalhousie rhymes with oozy.


If you said, "There's a Port Dalhousie floozy in my jacuzzi," people would totally be in awe of your poetic skills.

On a clear day you can actually see the Toronto skyline from the pier.


I know that it seems as if whole armies of people swim back and forth to Toronto daily these days, but I remember when the radio flashed the news that 16 year old Marilyn Bell had become the first person to ever complete the swim.


I was a small girl and I remember my grandfather saying jubilantly, "She made it!"




(High fives hadn't been invented in those days, but people did other things like saying,  "She made it!" or "That's amazing, eh?")

This young man is fishing. 


He told me he catches them, takes a picture of them and let's them go.


(I had boyfriends like that at one time.)

 
He was disappointed that he didn't catch anything when I was there but I assured him that I had seen fish before and he seemed happy with that.




There's a speck on the horizon behind him.


It's a laker or an ocean freighter moving towards the Welland Canal.


The Welland Canal allows ships heading for one of the American cities that sit on the Great Lakes, (i.e. Detroit, Chicago,etc.), to get past Niagara Falls.


Which is a good thing because if we didn't trade with the Americans, they might get cranky.

Port Dalhousie is another part of the North End.

It ain't so bad.

:)

***

Grave Faces III



Merritton, Ontario




This is the face I am most familiar with. He stands worn and weather beaten at the cenotaph in my hometown.

He is unusual because he is not on a pedestal. He stands almost at ground level, signifying to the working class men and women who gather around him on Remembrance Day that he is one of them - a son, father or a brother.

But his gaze is turned away from the people.

And he doesn't speak to the glory of war or to patriotism.

He simply represents the dead.

Port Dalhousie, Ontario

This young man came home.

The zoom lens on the camera has caught a pensive moment that the casual viewer from street level would not see.

As he places a wreath at the cenotaph is he wondering about fate? How it happened that he lived while others died? 

All we know for sure is that soon he will straighten his back and turn his face to the future.

This sculpture is not so much about mourning lives lost as it is about teaching us that life must go on.



Thorold, Ontario



This proud figure stands very high, so high it was almost impossible to get a view of his face.

The war never really ended for him, his work has continued.

He epitomizes the line in the national anthem, "Oh Canada, we stand on guard for thee".



Niagara Falls, Ontario



This soldier is also placed on a very high pedestal.

His helmet is off, he has taken a moment to remember his comrades.

We get the feeling however, that he thinks he will be able to rejoin the battle at any minute.

He does not yet understand that he is one of the fallen.



Welland, Ontario



This astonishing monument looms across Chippawa Park in Welland.

According to the plaque it was the last monument made in Canada commemorating World War 1. It was dedicated in 1939 on the day after World War II broke out.

The Canadian soldier is protecting a female figure from a terrible evil. His fighting stance tells us he will never give up, never retreat.

In 1939 the woman represented Great Britain and other European allies.

Today she represents Afghanistan.

***

Thank you to our veterans and thank you to the men and women who are in uniform serving our country today.