Pace on Earth

Slip Slidin' Away

This great photo (Ray Bourgeois) appeared in the Gleaner the other day. It is a cool shot, very striking. As I read the caption I realized it was a view I had seen many times walking down MacKay Dr. before is does it's big sweep left to meet University Ave at the UNB gate. It's the exact same view as the top of what was Buchanan Hill. This was the sliding hill of my youth. It is now home to one of the largest construction projects in the city and future home of the Richard J. Currie Center at UNB. The center will be a new (and overdue) state-of-the-art gym and convocation hall whose visitors will enjoy the same view as the construction worker above with better insulation. I am glad it is being built but there is a large, nostalgic part of me that was very sad to see construction start there last year.

When I was young we spent large chunks of our winter bombing down that hill on a toboggan, crazy carpet, intertube, or, later on, Beaver Bogs made out of Beaver Foods cafeteria trays. It was an absolutely fantastic sliding hill. Steep and fast and long but not so long the walk back up was too much. There may have been opposition to the development but it did not come from wistful sliders like me. In fact, thanks to one too many stupid kids slamming into the telepone pole light stanchion in the middle of the hill sliders and their sleds had been banned from the hill for over a decade. I probably hadn't slid down it in the two decades before it was dug up but I am nevertheless sad to see it go and sad to think that local snotnosed kids won't have a place to drag their sleds to when a new snowfall comes every winter. Luckily I still have some good memories. I caught air off an air bump at the bottom of the hill going top speed on a GT Racer and it was the first time I ever felt like I could fly. I landed clean and slid all the way to the fence on the other end of Buchanan Field. I was the king of the snotnosed kids that day.

Pace out.

posted by Vitamin S @ 7:13 p.m.