Winter in Ryal Side

One of Nanny Thibeadeu's rules was if it's daytime and not storming you must go outdoors and play.It did not matter if it was 10 below and windy or 40 and thawing. So needless to say there was a lot of sledding and skating.Being as how there was no real steep hills around sledding was not really a whole lot of fun.It was mostly drudgery,dragging your flexible flyer around in search of a decent hill. Skating on the other hand was great, Just off of Bridge street right below Cressy avenue there was a natural wet land. The water in this area was never more than a couple of feet deep,But it made a great skating pond. The pond was shaped like a side ways exclamation point,the end near Bridge street was small and round. There was a small gap that opened up to a long rectangular area, that bordered on the Lindsay ave. and Eaton ave area.This part was where the girls and assorted adults pretended they were figure skaters.But it was the small round area where the boys pretended like they belonged in the NHL. I particularly remember Andy Nelson being a real good stick handler,the puck just seemed to be glued to his stick. At the Ryal Side grammar school the area around the back of the school was hot top.I know it's hard to believe that would be the case in the early 50's, but it was. And right after a snow storm the janitor would hand out these big wide wooden snow pushers to the bigger more ambitious kids, so that the walks out front and the hot topped play area would be open for recess and comings and goings. A couple of things stand out in my memory that happened outside of the school.(things that I remember from inside I will get to on another day) There was a chain link fence on the northern side of the hot topped area,and we thought it was funny to chant a verse about one of the kids named Ray Arsenault. It went like this "Ray Ray went over the fence arse in all" Hey what are you going to do kid humor! Getting back to the skating area there was a path that ran from Eaton ave, past the pond and up to Cressy ave. where the notorious Ploof brothers lived.Clem was the oldest and all though he looked he was really tough, He never really bothered us younger kids.His brother Vernon on the other hand was a different story all together.Vernon was our age but big for his age and the only character I can think of to compare him to is Scut Farkus.I remember very vividly one cold winter day on that path, Vernon with a size ten pair of steel toed brogans kicking me in the shins.Also on a similar note I remember meeting Bobby Berg on the sidewalk on lower Bridge street where we agreed to fight,I do not remember why we agreed to that but we did.We agreed that there would be no hitting in the face,Bobby proceeded to kick the crap out of me.The beating was not bad,it was the embarrassment of having two or three girls standing there cheering for Bobby. Well I guess that's enough for today.