He requested Council pay her doctors and hospital accounts.
(1944)

Harry Jackson of 1808 Midmar Avenue complained during
November 1944, his wife had stumbled over the hose that
was connected to a standpipe on Gallagher and Keewatin
to Pattersons Barn and Mr. Astericks Riding Stables (next to
Barn).

You will note that there used to be ditches either side of the
roads for drainage, with small foot bridges crossing at
intervals for residents to gain access to their homes. These
ditches were only just removed in the late 70’s to 1981 when
storm sewer service and roads were completed.

Les Mondor told me a short story of how he used to “pole”
down to the standpipe to get a morning pail of water. This
was basically a matter of getting onto part of the wooden
sidewalk and using a stick, raft the short distance to the tap,
fill up the pail and return home the same way. This mode of
travel was not the normal means of gathering water, he would
do it just to see if it could be done!

Jenny Stuparyk told me how the children used to have fun
on the wooden sidewalks in the spring when the ditches were
filled with water. With them jumping up and down on the
wooden sidewalks squirting water up onto others which was
great fun!. They often would make rafts from railroad ties
and what ever other material was around. The ditches were
quite deep in parts and children could actually swim in them.

In 1957 sanitary sewers and watermains were installed on
the remaining streets. A letter that year from town council to
the city discussed installing a sewer along St. James Street
to Dublin Street from Notre Dame Avenue. This would
connect the Brooklands sewer into the cities system. The
city at that time stipulated a maximum flow of four cubic feet
per second. At the same time the town also proposed a
system of ditches to drain surface water away from homes

48