Marie and Ivadel remember the same incident c 1908:
Marie's story:
We lived at the corner of Garrison and Military and beyond the Rouge River there were only farms. We went coasting down the Long [family named Long] hill in the winter and skating on the Rouge.
One New Year's Day my two brothers, Ivadel Moore, Jessie Long and I went skating. It was a sunny day but the river was well frozen except for one spot at a turn where the sun hit the ice and it was "rubber" ice. Each time we would over it with our hands on the shoulders of the skater in front of us. It would give a little more until finally it gave way and down we went in the water!
My older brother got me to the shore and gave me a branch of a tree to hold on to, my younger brother was trying to swim and somehow we all scrambled to safety. Tom Long stood back at some distance and laughed and laughed. His sister started up the hill with her skates on. Tom kept calling to her, "Jessie, take off your skates!" but she would just groan and go on. We were a bedraggled looking group as we hurried home.
Mother dumped us in a tub of hot water, one after the other, including Ivadel Moore, wrapped us in bathrobes and fed us. We played games and had a fine time most of the day.
Ivadel's story:
In winter the river was frozen over and many of us learned to skate on its winding icy trails. I remember well the New Years Day in about 1908 when the three Van Dore children and Jessie Long and I were skating just east of the Rouge bridge where the big tree is broken off and bends over the river today. We were holding each other by the waist in column fashion and as we neared the tree I remember calling out "It will break, it will break!" The next thing I knew I was pulling the others out of the icy water.
The youngest boy, Wade, was being held up by his clothing or swimming, I am not susre, but we all survived. Jessie, who lived at the top of the hill, and still does, wore her skates all the way home and sort of groaned as she climbed the hill.
No comments:
Post a Comment