W H E N The Street Lights Come On

My Nannie’s general rule of thumb for raising her 5 kids in the 60’s in Toronto was that you were allowed to play (make mayhem) on the street until the streetlights came on. The quick flick of that light meant that dinner was ready, you better wash your hands quick and take your hat off at the dinner table.

Growing up by the water in the 40’s, she might not have had street lights to give her the green light, but she definitely relied on Mother Nature.

Nannie (far left) remembers the mill at the top of the road where they would spend their summers camping on Sandy Beach, Lake Simcoe. When the winds would blow enough, it would send the sawdust billowing down to the lake, turning the lake completely black, and letting her cousins & sister know that they should swim for the shore.

“When the sawdust blew in, we knew a storm was coming.”

The dark sawdust carpeted the lake like pollen, blowing right down the beach and covering all who dared to swim through it. Unless you were fine to swim through a storm, the sawdust let the lake lovers know when to take cover and to at least make their very best attempt to avoid any lightning.

As of 2021, the mill no longer exists but I guess we can be thankful that The Weather Network @weathernetwork does.

Photograph: Sandy Beach, Lake Simcoe, 1942