by Sandra Kilbride, Brighton
I believe I was fortunate to grow up in Brighton with Chandler Pond and Gallagher Park in my back yard. I was six years old in 1942 when we moved here and don't know if I fully appreciated my surroundings at that early age. I look back now with fond memories of this lovely place. I spent most of the days outdoors, either riding my bike around the pond, running through the field of grass looking for dandelions or wild flowers or playing with my friends. Once, I attempted to fish out here with my cousin but didn't like to put the squirmy bait on the pole; he had to help me with it and that was the beginning and end of my fishing.
Sometimes my friends and I would play squash ball in the field, chalk up the walkway for hopscotch, climb trees or in the fall when the city would rake up all the leaves into a pile, jump in and mess it all up; that was fun.
In the winter the skates went on and that was the best for me, I could walk out my back door, through the yard, down the steps that my grandfather built; right to the ice. My Dad was a skater and taught me how to skate. We skated at night as well, when my uncle from his second floor would shine a flood light on the ice. When it got cold we went in the cellar to have hot chocolate. But early in the season we couldn't go on the ice until the young men from St. John's Seminary would skate; then we new it was safe.
We also sled, tobogganed and skied the hills of the the Commonwealth Golf Course. Those hills came right down to where the Chandler Pond apartments are today.
There was a large horse barn in that area with lots of horses. On the Sunday auction day the Surreys were parked out on the dirt rode and I would climb up on one and pretend to be going somewhere. I saw lost of movies, it was easy to pretend!
I loved going in the barn and visiting the horses. We were never allowed to ride them. Sadly it burned down many years ago. I remember that so vividly! The horses were set loose because my cousins saw the fire and ran over to open the gates and let them escape. They were all over the neighborhood including one in our driveway. Most of them got out but a few didn't make it. There were also goats and pigs at the barn; I never found out what happened to them.
Coincidentally the two cousins who opened the gate to rescue the horses just a few years earlier had been rescued themselves. They fell through the ice while skating in the weakest area of the pond by the spring on the Kenrick St. side. They were rescued by two men from the fire department; it was posted in the newspaper.
Lots of wide open spaces to explore and play. My favorite location was among the huge piles of granite located before the Lake Shore Rd. gate. Most of the granite was removed, a few are still around. I'm sure there were snakes among all those rock piles; I guess I wasn't thinking about that!
After supper we played hide and seek and squash ball in the street and would need to hold up the game when a car would happen to drive up.
When the lights came on it was time to go home!
