Growing Up Country: The Fun Stuff

I grew up outside of Port Hope, Ontario. My mom and step-dad still live on the 18 acre lot that I remember as home from grade 6-12 and still love visiting today. And when I look out the windows or daydream about “the old days”, these are some of the things I’m thankful that I got to do when I was a kid out there.

Drive a dump truck.

True story. When I was 14 I started working for farmers during hay season. It was hard work, always. But it paid in cash and I got a tan.

When I was 16 I started working for an old farmer named Doug who baled his hay while I was working day shifts at Wendy’s and then when I rode my bike to his place he’d meet me in the yard and we’d head down to the back fields. Doug would pick up bales with the forks on the tractor and load them into the back of the dump truck that I was slowly rolling through the field. And then when we were loaded up I got to drive the dump truck through the field, up the trail and to the barn. I never got past second gear, but it was really cool to be a skinny teenager rumbling along in that heavy truck.

Climb trees… like all the time… really big ones.

Our favorite tree to climb was probably only a 5 minute walk from the house. A quick climb of a fence, over a small stream, up the bank and there it was. The lowest branch was about 6 feet high which meant that the youngest of our 5 siblings needed a boost to get to it… so we boosted them up and then I followed, last.

This tree was big, big enough for 5 (or more if friends were over) to climb at the same time. So climb we did, high enough that I could see over the tops of the rest of the trees in the woods and out onto the road that runs past our house. And if I was feeling really brave, I could feel the tree waving in the wind with me in it before I started to climb back down again.

Swim and fish in the back yard.

I grew up on a great property with a lot of green space, trees and a 2 acre pond in the back. The pond has a diving board that my step-dad made out of 2x4s. We had an orange paddle boat to cruise around and dive off of in the middle of the water. There’s a small sunken island that was once home to a duck house, but is now a cool place to swim to and then rest.

And there were fish. Bass, goldfish, catfish and maybe a few strays from the neighbour’s pond lived together and we fished them out. There were 2 great spots to cast from if you were looking for bass and no matter the size, they were often fun to fight with to bring in. And, when the whole family came out to fish together we had a killer fish fry and ate until we were full and happy.

Skate all winter.

That same pond made for a great skating rink. When I got home from school I would burn through my homework so I could lace up my skates and walk up the hill through to snow to the ice. I’d take a shovel and my hockey stick and skate until my feet hurt/my legs were sore/I was ready to go to bed. We had a light on the hill that let me skate late into the night and it was awesome.

Once, to make the ice as perfect as possible we ran an extension cord up the hill, chopped a hole in the ice, ran a sump pump to flood the surface and used huge squeegees to spread it around. Our rink was like glass.

Camp any night of the week.

All summer long we had a tent in the back yard, or we had the trampoline. And any night that we felt like it, we slept outside. Our old canvas army tent fit 5 sleeping bags and a dog and sometimes 2 pet raccoons. And the trampoline had no trouble fitting all of us side by side. The only concern was mosquitoes… so we had bug spray.

Fun fact: My youngest brother Kevin could sleep through anything when he was a kid. So, when we all woke up one at a time we would take our sleeping bags and pile them on the poor kid. By the time he woke up the late morning sun was getting high in the sky and Kevin was sweating hard with 5 sleeping bags on top of him.

There were a lot of great things about growing up in the sticks. Maybe some day I’ll write about more of them. But until then, the moral of the story is this…

Thank God I’m a country boy.