Memory Lane...

       I was out for a walk the other day when I caught something out of the corner of my eye I (aye aye) hadn't seen in along time...a lane...


      It must have  something to do with property values now but neighbourhoods just aren't designed with lanes anymore.  Growing up in North Burnaby lanes were a major part of life, the  virtual social hub of each and every block. As a kid I met all of my friends in the alley ways of 4100/4200 blocks of Union St.-- nobody ever went out the front door to play, we always met in the lane and called on kids at their back doors and usually ended up in our backyard. We never had a lawn.

     There were sheds and carports to hang out (and play "doctor"in) if it was raining, in the summertime there were plenty of gardens and fruit trees to raid and lots of rocks to throw. On more than one occasion I came home with a bleeding head (you should have seen the look on Mom's face) from a rotten apple fight that had turned into a rock fight. We used to fabricate swords out of scrap wood we found and use those galvanized garbage can lids as shields. It was a real score if you got the lid with the handle in the centre instead of on the side...better balance. There were bow and arrows to be made, sword fights with discarded venetian blinds (can you say stitches?) to be had and who can forget whipping the shit out of each other with willow branches. Most of us learned how to ride our bikes in the lane.

    Eventually they paved the alleyways (no more rock fights-- great for ball hockey though) but before they did in the summer the city would drive up and down each lane and spray this disgusting, sludgy oil on it to keep the dust down. "Shoes off, they oiled the lane today!" I can still hear Mom calling us from the back porch for lunch or dinner as most parents did while we were busy playing out in "the lane." It was weird to see kids from other lanes on our turf-- I remember us feeling a sense of protection about it, almost a gang thing. I'm amazed now at what an important part of our lives it was.

    The lane made me think of the ditch. Walking all the way home from school in them in a downpour, filling up my gumboots and catching shit for it. Building dams and throwing GI Joe in the pool, "Help me ! I'm drowning and being attacked by a giant crocodile!" And the mudfights, aah the mudfights...