Page 7 - Book Eleven Havelock

POND Written January 15 2012 Page 5
We always thought Havelock was just about the end of civilization. Familiar towns were all located before you get to Havelock, not after. Norwood was our chief rival in most sports and everybody went there once in a while. Likewise Campbellford. That was farther away and it required a lot of planning to venture that far on our bikes or hitch-hiking but it was a bit more exciting. Now Peterborough, hey, that was really exciting. We only went there on special occasions. Then there was Toronto and the memorable Exhibition every August, also in the same direction. Everything was either west or south of Havelock. East was a complete mystery to me although we heard there were towns such as Marmora, Madoc and Ottawa somewhere way down the road that direction. On very rare occasions we went some place to the north of town. Like our annual Sunday School picnic at McCutcheon􏰀s Landing on Round Lake and once on a fishing trip up north some place. This story is about our pond which was in the very near woods just north of Havelock. Anything beyond the pond was 􏰁out in the bush􏰂 but the pond area was a familiar place for all of us to hang out.
Visitors from big cities derided us for having the audacity to label each end of the town stretched along the CPR railway track. Who ever heard of such a miniscule village having an 􏰃East End􏰀 and a 􏰃West End􏰀􏰄 But it was important locall􏰅 and hand􏰅 for hockey games on the 􏰃Dam􏰀􏰆 You didn􏰀t have to choose up􏰆 But the downside was the dam was away over beyond the CPR railway tracks
Aqueduct Engineers CLARENCE PRICE & ALLAN GOHEEN
cover the pond with ice.
The pond was close and always there except when it sometimes dried up in summer. It got bigger after a rainy spell and if it froze after heavy rains it was almost big enough to play pickup hockey games. Led by Allan who likely thought up the idea, we decided if the pond were a lot bigger we could play bigger and better hockey games. The guys, including Cecil Revoy and Clarence Price planned and engineered a way to do it. There was a creek which ran close by, proceeded past our house, across the pasture field and drained into a big man-hole where the water went somewhere. That creek was an important part of our lives for our boat races in the spring. The water disappeared into a man-hole at the end of the creek. Who knows where the water went after that? Nobody knew or cared.
Our engineers came up with a plan to dam up the creek and divert the water
into our pond to make it bigger. They worked hard and completed their project in time for the freeze to
Like I said, nobody paid any attention to where the water went after it disappeared down the big man-hole. Except maybe the town council or the town works committee 􏰇 they were likely all the same one or two men. That winter they decided to erect boards and flood an outdoor skating rink in the town park. It happens that the town park was just beyond that big man-hole I told you about. They had pretty nice equipment to do their job 􏰇 pumps and hoses and all - very nice compared to the shovels and primitive tools we used to erect our dam in the creek and to dig the aqueduct to our pond.
So the town had the equipment. But WE had the water. The town men set up their operation and went to work dutifully. However they were soon dismayed at the pitiful tiny stream of water they were able muster to do their big job to flood a big town rink. They examined the big man-hole and I􏰀m certain one of them must have said􏰈 􏰁I thought there was more water coming down the creek than that􏰆􏰂 After a few days they discovered our dam, farther up-stream and just out of sight. The town 􏰃ma􏰅or􏰀􏰈 Reeve Seeney went to Dad and instructed him to order our engineers to open up the dam and let the town have the water. We were out-ranked so we lost our water source. Fortunately we had already collected enough water to make the biggest pond we ever had. Our big 􏰁rink􏰂 was a huge success and our pond became the centre of pickup hockey for everybody. It attracted boys from all over town and was far more convenient than going away over to the dam.
Our success prompted us to repeat the process every year early before the town needed the water. The quality and life span of our ice was wide ranging but we enjoyed hundreds of games there and spent thousands of hours preparing it, re-flooding it and getting wet feet from breaking through 􏰃rubber􏰀 ice earl􏰅 in the season􏰆 That happened ever􏰅 􏰅ear􏰆
Clearing the snow was our biggest problem. No! We had an even bigger problem. How to deal with the guys who always deserted us every time we had a big snow storm. After each heavy snow fall they always claimed they had an 􏰁early supper􏰂 that night.