A “free-writing” exercise prompted this memoir of north-end Sydney.
With the bag of memorabilia that was produced at our last session, we were encouraged to write a short piece on what we garnered from the pickings. Household items, such as a button, an empty hand cream tin, a few toothpicks a packet of Kleenex tissues, a small battery, and a clothes pin, all seemed to stimulate our memory banks, and write about them we did. What was interesting to me was the discussion after each piece that seemed to bring us together in our memories of past times as the relationship to the household articles. We seemed to be on the same page or thought process when we discussed stories of our childhood years. With so many changes in the world today, it got me thinking that we were better off back in that time of our lives where less was actually more.
Growing up in the north-end of Sydney, to me was a real blessing. We lived on Dolbin Street and the backdoor to our house was less than 500 feet from the railroad tracks. Directly across the street was the Sunshine beverages bottling plant, around the comer was the Coca Cola factory, and the Havelock Home bottling company the next street over. Artesian wells apparently dominated the neighborhood. There were three schools in the north end, and we had two bakeries, Eastern's Butter-nut and Lynches Pan Dandy Bread, both located on Johnstone street. The Post Record was on the next street over and the harbour was three blocks to the west, and of course the business district up town, just minutes from home. The house we lived in couldn't have been situated any better than it was, everything was all connected within a small area.
With the CNR freight shed around the comer one way, and the CNR station and express depot around the comer the other way, and of course Ferry Street half a block away, that took the majority of workers to and from the Dosco steel mill, to say that the neighborhood was a beehive of activity would be an understatement. There was always something to do, the Sacred Heart outdoor rink in winter was a place to skate and to sled down off the banks of snow cleared from the ice surface, and of course a place to play ball in the summer time. There are numerous fond memories in all of these places and a story about each at another time.
In thinking about the CNR team tracks, I am reminded that just about everything that was produced for consumers back in the thirties, forties, and fifties, had to be unloaded at the railroad team tracks or the freight shed. Highway systems at the time were not properly thought out and pavement for the most part was a non -entity, and big trucks as transportation vehicles were unheard of. Everything that was produced here in the line of steel and coal left the island by rail.