Bicycles got us anywhere and everywhere. We
explored everything. Life for a kid on a bike was fantastic. St. Catharines is
known for the canal systems that for the past two hundred years have joined
Lakes Erie and Ontario and provided arteries for the shipment of goods. Four
distinct canal systems operated during those years, each larger and more
sophisticated than the previous ones. A very old and unused version once ran
behind St. Paul Street, the main
artery in downtown St. Catharines. The stores,
apartments and factories that fronted on St. Paul Street all had rear accesses,
storage and garbage and parking areas. One of the businesses was a leather
goods store. All manner of leather products were made in the rear section, jackets, belts,
bags, shoes. Behind the building over the years, a discard of leather scraps had grown into a
hill twenty feet tall. We found it. We, meaning my friends and me. We climbed
it, rolled down it, picked through it, covered ourselves with it and scared the rats from underneath it. From
it we made our own leather bracelets, badges, knife sheaths, and leather pads for sling
shots. We wet home wearing the scent of leather.
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