Reader J.H. sent in the following memoir of his days working on snow-clearing crews.----
In the early 1970s, I worked on city snow removal covering Snowdon. In much of west end Montreal back then, most of the city contracts were bid on by companies founded by Italian-Canadians who had garden centres or who did construction or paving work in the summer. Many were based along Upper Lachine Road (St. Jacques today). Snowblowers owned by the Nittolos and Bianchinis were familiar sights in NDG.
City salt and sand trucks went out as soon as a snowfall started. Contractors' plows went out as soon as the snow started accumulating. By the time it was around three inches, there would be enough to have it removed by using the snowblower once the snowfall and plowing were finished.
We had a priority list for what had to be done first when removing the snow. Major streets like Decarie and Queen Mary were at the top of the list. Any street with transit routes was also a priority. Then came the others. You tried to work by following the permanent "No Parking" signs.
At that time, many side streets like Coolbrook, Earnscliffe and Isabella, Dupuis had "No Parking" regulations between 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM or 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM on alternating sides of the street and on different days to allow for street cleaning in the summer or snow removal in the winter. During very severe snowfalls, the parking regulations could be superseded by those wooden sandwich board "no parking" signs we used to use.
By far the biggest problem was parked or abandoned cars. Some people would just leave their stalled cars in a snowstorm to pick up later. Others would leave them under a mound of snow parked where they were during the storm. Granted, snowplows would often leave a car behind a giant pile of snow but there is no other option when you are trying to plow a street clear for emergency vehicles or buses.
Then there were others who would park outside of plowed snowbanks for "just a minute" while they went into a store even though the sandwich board signs warned of imminent snow removal. The worst of that was always on Queen Mary and Decarie near Queen Mary. We could have three tow trucks with warning horns blaring and people would still come out in a daze surprised their cars were in the way.
For a time the city tried using orange "No Parking" lights but the idea was fairly costly and didn't seem to be an improvement. If the blaring horn didn't work, a Montreal cop in the tow truck would write out a parking ticket and the tow truck operator would hook up the car to be moved to another street where snow clearing was finished or wouldn't be done for a few days. The snow removal company paid the cop's wages.
After an average snowfall, snow removal began with a parade of plows. Graders with their blades were especially good at scraping down the sidewalks. They had to avoid trees and other obstructions so Bombardier sidewalk plows would clear the space between trees and so on. Then another grader would push the snowbank away from the curb making a nice neat pile. Yet another would then push the "dressed" snowbank back toward the curb so the truck and snowblower could fit side-by-side for loading.
Then came the star of the show: the Sicard Snowmaster snowblower. The right-hand drive Sicard would usually be operated by one person driving and also working the chute controls. A "leader" walked backwards in front of the snowblower to help the truck driver coordinate his speed and spacing with the snowblower. The "leader" also kept an eye on obstructions or debris in the snow before the blower got there. While the blower impeller blades and rollers are powerful, shear bolts will break as a safety measure if the blower were to pick up something other than snow. The impeller blades and rollers are finely balanced and could easily be damaged by solid items.
After large storms, we often used two snowblowers. A large plow would loosen the snowbanks for the first blower. Then came the graders and other plows followed by the second snowblower that did the final clearing.
Once the blowers passed, you would have a clean street with a definable sharp curb. The city foreman would be around in his pickup truck to make sure the streets were up to set standards.
While blowing snow onto lawns was the norm at one time in Montreal, increasing use of salt and abrasives soon put a stop to the practice as did a few broken basement windows. It might still occasionally be done during extreme snow emergencies.
Before anyone complains and as other have noted, very few other cities clear snow to a Montreal standard. Most leave the snowbanks for the spring thaw, especially on side streets.
Trucks --depending on where they were working -- used to dump their loads into the river off the Concordia Bridge, into city-operated snow melters, special sewer access points or in large open areas like the Turcot Yards, behind Blue Bonnets and so on. Many of these areas still had piles of blackened melting snow as late as June. Snow — to my knowledge — is no longer dumped into sewers or the river because of the residual salt and oils' effects on the environment.
Private contractors were not unionized and we worked until the job was done (usually four to five days). The standard shift was 12 hours with an hour to eat. If it was a larger storm, we would often put in a 36-hour day with meal breaks. Today, safety regulations probably wouldn't allow that.
There were many characters and memorable incidents during those years although I'm sure some wouldn't want the stories repeated.
25 comments:
J.H., it appears that you must have worked for the SouthWest contractor back in the 1980s when I would listen to you guys on my radio scanner as you negotiated the snowbanks and illegally-parked cars. I'd get a laugh hearing the foreman in his pickup truck making unrepeatable comments about some of the angry car owners and even about his own crew who, of course, weren't tuned into his frequency to hear them.
In particular, I remember one particular dump truck driver who somehow managed to get in the wrong lineup behind a contractor different from the one he was supposed to be following. Then, once he had been loaded up with snow, realizing his gaffe and in exasperation threatening over his CB radio to dump his load right in the street rather than be turned away at the Miron snow dump for having the wrong ticket (or whatever it was) identifying to whom he was officially contracted. Not sure how that was resolved, but surely such incidents did occur from time to time.
Anyway, your teams did a very professional job, generally managing to avoid obstacles such as chunks of wood hidden in the snowbanks which sometimes did manage to slip through and wreak havoc with the blowers' impeller blades! Instant downtime!
Thankfully, on rare occasion there would be a news report about someone who would manage to slip in front of a blower and end up mangled between the spinning augers and the impeller blades! Arrgh! Not a pretty way to die.
I don't know why our snowblower manufacturers haven't raked in a fortune selling their equipment to the Russians and other former East Bloc nations who for some ridiculous reason still haven't figured out how to deal with snowstorms on their city streets. Sure, you will see American-made police cars in droves over there, but hardly a snowblower--if any. Go figure!
But, by all means, J.H., DO tell us some more stories.
My dad used to call sidewalk plows "Italian tanks" because they would've belonged to the Italian family businesses mentioned in this item. We were living in Snowdon at the time.
Westmount and Hampstead still use the No Parking lights. I thought they were good.
Interesting to hear about the operations of clearing snow. Growing up in Dorval due to having the airport there, the city of Dorval for safety access reasons for emergency situations at the airport, cleared the streets super fast when I grew up there in the 1970's and 80's. Snow blowers would spray the snow on to our lawns or freshly cleared driveways! I did not mind as I shoveled snow for money. Our lawns were always covered with 5-6' of snow! The clearing was especially efficient on the north side of highway 20 where Pine Beach, Clement etc all ended at the fields beside the runways right by our houses. And we used to call the little sidewalk plows Nazi Tanks because the rumour was in elementary school that they would chase you and try and run you over! So of course we would run screaming every time we saw them coming. Maybe the drivers noticed and for fun did chase us..or because we were le Tetes Carres! Robert
No I didn't work for South West although I knew the company. The company for which I worked, is no longer involved in city snow removal work and the two founders have passed away. At that time, we didn't use radios. The company owners would drive around relaying messages and instructions to the crew.
Yes, there were many times when car owners would come racing out of their homes in pyjamas to move their cars before the tow truck arrived.
Most of the dump truck drivers were owner-operators living in many of the smaller farm towns on the south side of the St. Lawrence River. They were paid by the hour based on their truck's capacity. That's why you would often see the dump box's sides extended upwards with four-by-fours and plywood. Sometimes they would extend to almost ridiculous heights. One side would always have to be lower so the snowblower could load the truck. Each driver was given a timecard that would be punched by a "puncher" or timekeeper at whatever time they loaded.
One year our company decided to try paying by the load. It was felt the drivers would do more loads this way. The exact amount was again determined by capacity and axle count. One of the drivers — a bit of an eccentric from the Chateauguay Valley — drove an old International Harvester with two axles. Well he promptly chained on another axle complete with wheels to get a higher rate. He was a giant of a man with incredible strength. He could single-handedly lift a dump truck's steel tailboard, something that would require at least four large men to do. There was also a rumour he had taken a chainsaw to his town's local bar and made a few nicks in the decor when some locals had angered him. That's why no one objected when he would drive a block ahead and then back up to the snowblower instead of waiting his turn in the line. Nobody wanted their front end damaged so they would let him do it. It took the smallest man driving a company dump truck to finally complain. He went up to the International driver's open cab window and let go with one expletive better than the next and told him in no uncertain terms to wait his turn in the line. We all waited to see what would happen. The big man didn't move in his cab although you could see the pressure building in his face. He reached for a huge wrench on his seat and started repeatedly hitting his own driver's side door while yelling. He managed to break his own rear view mirror. But he never got out of his truck. And he also continued butting into the line and racing back and forth to the snow dump. We needed all the drivers so we didn't ask him to leave although we were hoping he might.
We changed back to an hourly pay system because of him and also because too many other drivers were taking chances going through red lights in the middle of the night trying to get more loads done for a bigger paycheque.
They were all talented drivers but especially when we started using tractor-trailer dump trucks. We had a number of block-long dead end streets (Byron, Musset, Dalou, Saranac, etc.) on our contract. With large snowbanks and narrow streets made narrower by parked cars, sometimes the dump trucks would have to be loaded while they were moving in reverse although the snowblower was moving forward. Imagine doing that with a tractor-trailer dump truck at night with parked cars just inches away on one side while you are trying to match your speed with the snowblower and staying just inches from it on the other side. In my years with the company, insurance claims were very rare.
Kate,
The Bombardier sidewalk plows were very much like little tanks with their caterpillar tracks. They were rudimentary machines with a gear shift, clutch and throttle. You steered with two levers which would essentially be brakes for the treads. If you pulled on the right lever for example, the right side treads would stop and you would make a right turn as long as you gave it a little throttle. There were also controls to hydraulically raise or lower the plow. To angle the blade, you would have to get out and manually move it and then lock it with a pin.
They rode on rubber tires riding in a channel of the treads. The treads were also hard rubber with bolted on steel inserts. A ratcheted wheel powered the treads.
The early models had narrow cabs that were inside the treads. The top of the cab flipped open so the operator could climb in. These models could make relatively high speed turns on their own axis without flipping over. The newer models had full-width cabs with a side door for access. These were a little more top heavy and could be flipped on their sides.
When the plows were raised, both models bounced with a forward/backward seesaw motion especially at speeds above 20 mph. The engines were noisy and they were behind the operator. Visibility wasn't the greatest, especially when reversing and if you were wearing thick layers of winter clothing. The cab heat was never quite right because there were too many hairline openings where drafts would come in. Most machines were stuffed with rags and newspapers to try to keep the heat inside. Invariably though, it would always be too hot or too cold in the cab.
The cab was fairly cramped and that contributed to a common injury. While plowing — even at low speed — if you hit a sewer or manhole cover's lip, the machine would stop instantly while you continued at the machine's earlier trajectory into the windshield. The windshield wiper's motor was attached just above the windshield with three bolts. You could always tell the sidewalk plow drivers apart from the others by the three bolt-patterned scars on their foreheads.
Today's machines are vastly superior and safer too.
Urban Legend,
I worked in the early 1970s so we didn't have radios and the equipment was less sophisticated than today.
Thankfully accidents like people falling in front of working snowblowers were very rare. In all my years, I had never heard of one from anyone working in Montreal. The "leader" would keep people away from the machine and the operator would stop to allow people to move away to a safe area.
While you might end up losing a leg or arm, the shear bolts would probably stop the augers and impeller blades before they did more damage. Very icy or heavy wet snow would also break the bolts. That meant getting under the machine on your back to change them, often in minus 20 to 30 degree temperatures — not much fun. The shear bolts were roughly under the cab in the drive train between the snowblower unit or bucket in the front and the diesel engine in the back. The snowblower truck itself was propelled by a gasoline engine under the hood.
The most likely cause of accidents was usually anything from a chunk of ice or piece of debris being flung outward by the augers. The "leader" always had to be aware of the danger and walk off to the side and far enough ahead to avoid getting hit. I recall one of them was killed in the Cote-des-Neiges area when a piece of debris was flung from the front of the blower and it hit the worker in the head.
The operators would often work with the windows open and the heat on full. Besides gallons of coffee, this helped stave off fatigue on those long shifts. The noise from the rear-mounted diesel engine was as loud inside as outside the cab. Nowadays, safety regulations would probably require the operators to wear ear protection. Back then, it was just something you tolerated.
After finishing a snow removal cycle, the ringing in your ears and the smell of diesel fuel and exhaust wouldn't go away for a week.
Most companies and the city used one of two models of self-propelled snowblower — either Sicard's Snowmaster or the smaller Sicard Snowmaster Junior . The City of Montreal also used the basic Sicard truck chassis for other duties. They were used as street flushers in the summer. In the winter, they had sand hoppers with sanding units and plows mounted underneath between the axles. They could also have standard front-mount plows installed. Some Sicard trucks were equipped with dump boxes.
Arthur Sicard of Quebec invented the self-propelled snowblower in 1925, having been inspired by railroad rotary snowplows. Railroad rotary plows or snowblowers were also invented by a Canadian in Ontario. Outremont bought the first self-propelled Sicard snowblower, which was the subject of a recent Canadian stamp.
Very informative anecdotes, J.H., concerning an essential function of winter city life that has surely puzzled many of us since childhood.
Even as a kid, I would certainly wonder how blower drivers tolerated that skull-shattering noise--never mind the fact that we residents were regularly (and are sometimes STILL!) woken up out of bed at 4 a.m. whenever they passed by!
But why on earth weren't mufflers fitted to the blower engine from the very beginning? Cheapskate contractors? It was only around the 1970s that I began to notice mufflers retro-fitted onto some of the Sicard machines--which must have been a relief to the drivers who were fortunate enough to be assigned a muffled blower, never mind that another of his cohorts employed by that same contractor might be assigned an non-muffled one! Or was that considered some kind of perverse "seniority"?
A little research has turned up information about Mr. Arthur Sicard who lived in a modest dwelling at 1805 Bennett; his company then located at 2055 Bennett (now apartment buildings) just south of the Olympic Stadium. He passed away on Sept. 13, 1946, with a brief article about him in the Gazette of Sept. 14, page 12. How many Montrealer inventors can boast of leaving such a legacy, as "mundane" as it might seem to many?
There are, of course, several related websites, and according the following site, there is some debate regarding efficiency: the power-to-clearance-volume ratio, etc., of such equipment.
See: http://flagro.fladby.com/en/snowblower
In recent years, however, Sicard/Snowmaster seems to have fallen out of favour among contractors who have either opted for the quieter, sleeker Vohl machines or in winter simply attach a separate blower unit to replace the bucket of a front-end loader, thereby being able to more efficiently utilize their equipment all year round.
I have to mention that some of the sidewalk Bombardier drivers are cowboys who seem bent on plowing pedestrians out of their way along with the snow! Yes, I realize that such a job can become pretty monotonous and frustrating, but if they don't exercize more caution, somebody someday is going to be killed, just as has already occurred with recently, well-publicized tragic deaths from street equipment.
I also wonder why the city has opted for grit (crushed stone) to be spread on sidewalks rather than the brown sand they used to use. Is grit really cheaper than sand? For one thing, the grit remains a mess on the sidewalks and adjacent lawns well into the spring months long after the snow and ice has gone and our sewers must be clogged with the stuff, which can't be a good thing. In addition, the sharp-edged grit cuts painfully into the paws of dogs whose owners should consider putting protective boots on them because of it! I have seem women carrying their dogs rather than have them suffer the grit.
As far as where the snow is dumped, there are snow drains especially installed; one of which is on Stinson Road north of Hodge, a part of the Decarie-Raimbault collector.
See: http://spacingmontreal.ca/2009/04/01/montreals-underground-underdogs/
In Montreal West (1950's, 1960's), I remember sand/salt being spread on the streets by a guy standing in the back of a (moving) dump truck with a shovel. And the obligatory blowing of snow onto front lawns (as previously mentioned). Snow that was not dumped onto lawns ended up on Hodgson Field - usually guaranteeing that the baseball season would not start before late May.
Greatly interesting anecdotes that show extend of pride J.H. & his colleagues took in their work.
Have to agree that the sidewalk cowboys can get a tad rambunctious though, especially at night. We had two Bell boxes knocked off our building in the course of 1 1/2 yrs.
And someone really should come up with something less damaging & painful than gravel, even salt. It's just gotta exist.
While cycling through the city during the milder months, I would often notice weird gashes and gouges in the asphalt, and wonder what had caused them.
Then one day it finally dawned on me that it had likely been street plows scraping too low, and sometimes even breaking off pieces of the curb when they came too close.
According to what I have read, plows and graders are supposed to leave a certain clearance from the actual road surface, otherwise--as J.H. has already confirmed--a shear-pin will immediately disengage the plow's blade should it catch anything too solid in order to prevent any serious damage to both the blade and the pavement.
As for street salt and the damage it causes to the environment, a few years ago on CBC's Dragons' Den there was a deal made with two entrepreneurs who had developed a street salt substitute. I forget what the product was called, but by now you would think it ought to be well on its way to replacing salt.
You're right about quieter snowblowers being introduced in the 1970s, Urban Legend. Sicard came out with an updated and completely re-designed Snowmaster in the early to mid-1970s. It looked much more modern than the old Snowmaster and the smaller Snowmaster Junior. It had a much quieter diesel engine and more comfortable and quieter cab.
I don't think it was a question of not having the right muffler or not wanting to pay for a better muffler but more the overall design of the whole unit. The old diesel engines were just noisier and vibrated more. That means everything from service doors to body panels also vibrated more adding to the noise. Technology and materials are always being improved and so it is with everything including diesel engines. Like today's transport trucks and railroad locomotives — better design and materials make for quieter, safer and more efficient vehicles and equipment.
Oddly when we tried the new snowblower, we weren't impressed. Although it cleared snow beautifully and just as well as the older machine, somehow to us it didn't seem to have the same power. Obviously psychology was at work here and we were equating loud sounds with more power. Marketers know that psychology all too well.
You're also right about more Vohl machines being used. I just had a conversation about that very subject with my brother who also worked on snow removal (as did a third brother). The Vohl machines are more like pivoting loaders and far more manoeuvrable, which is important when working in close quarters. The Sicards on the other hand were trucks with steering mechanisms that had a much larger turning radius.
Safety is something else that has improved. Back then there were no reflective materials. Crews who worked outside on foot at night usually wore dark clothing because that's all that was available in winter work clothing. Today everyone wears reflective clothing or vests. We never wore seatbelts and most everyone crashed into the windshield at least once when your machine hit a manhole cover lip. Today seatbelts are a must. Most people also wear safety boots along with ear and sometimes eye protection.
Everyone is probably right about some of the sidewalk plow jockeys being cowboys. Those little Bombardiers were just fun to drive. You had to be careful though on narrow sidewalks where there was a row of parked cars beside you buried under the snow. If you hit a patch of ice or the blade hit something while at speed, your machine could easily be jarred to one side causing extensive damage to cars or other property. Before the Bombardier tracked sidewalk plows were introduced, snow clearing companies and the city used what looked like miniature farm tractors. They were about as wide as a sidewalk and had an enclosed cab. They had chains on their large rear wheels for more traction.
Our contracts with the city were in effect from November 15 to March 15. If there was a large snowfall on March 15, you still had to clear it even though it would take you past the contracted date. If there was no snow near the end of the contract, the city would send the contractors out to break up ice build-ups along the curb. The ice build-ups would block the flow of melting snow and ice to storm drains as the temperatures started warming up. Graders were particularly effective cutting away the ice from curbs with their blades. Often the blade would smoke as it scraped the sidewalk or pavement if the operator had it a little too low. This could also dislodge bits of concrete or pavement if those surfaces were already weak.
I'm not sure why the city switched to abrasives instead of sand. Price may be part of it or perhaps it's more effective than sand in spite of its lingering nature in the spring. Salt can only be used in a fairly narrow temperature window. If it gets too cold it doesn't work at all. Contractors were only responsible for plowing and snow removal in their districts. The city was responsible for spreading abrasives or salt. As other writers have noted, spreading techniques have also greatly changed. At one time, a worker standing in a dump truck box, spread sand with a shovel off the back. Sidewalks were done with a dump truck filled with sand and two workmen on foot. The workmen would go to the truck, load their shovels, and then with one hand holding the shovel near its neck, they used their other hand to spread the sand from their shovels onto the sidewalk with a flat stick.
Snow removal and plowing is a relatively recent idea. Quebec's rural roads weren't regularly plowed until the late 1940s. That's what inspired Armand Bombardier to build his first snow machines, which resembled a large beetle with caterpillar tracks and skis. They were built with an enclosed compartment with porthole windows to carry several people and freight. In the 1920s, kits by other companies were also available to convert cars into snow machines in the winter. They featured skis for the front and a caterpillar track for the rear. You had to attach a second rear axle and wheels and then put the tracks on the four rear wheels.
In Montreal, the private streetcar company was responsible for snow clearing along and on either side of their tracks. Even in the 1930s and 1940s, motorists had to sometimes follow streets with streetcar tracks to be able to drive after a snowstorm.
The early Sicard Snowmasters had a Gas truck engine and a large Gasoline blower engine in the rear.
These were never muffled and threw blue and orange flames into the night, the rear engines being enclosed in a bread box like hood with upward-sliding wooden doors similar to those found on old roll-top desks.
The Gasoline blowers were NOISY!! Even the first split-window Snowmaster Juniors were LOUD!!
A Split-Window Junior.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4j7mESJuxko/S1Ebtw6SdJI/AAAAAAAAAcU/SO6hVMh-3so/s400/7957+Sicard.JPG
A Large Cab Senior.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_4j7mESJuxko/S1EbSIJerSI/AAAAAAAAAcM/jJTE8IfV5cI/s400/8624+Sicard+(Large).JPG
A traditional Sicard Blower 'Drove' on the right to follow the curb or sidewalk side. The left-side man operated the chute, this side better to keep an eye on the truck he was loading.
A 1969 Senior. Note steering wheel on right. Sicard often purchased Dodge Truck cabs, as here.
http://www.hceacanada.org/Photos%20HCEA%20Canada%20Equip/1969%20Sicard%20Snowblower%201.jpg
But, Sicard also made their own cabs, as here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/83724340@N05/8004036781/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Miron used to be Miron et Freres thru 1962. Colours used to be Orange on Red, then reversed to Red on Orange as here.
Before planned snow removal, the City of Montreal went around placing red, hinged sandwich boards on the snow banks, the signs bearing wording in white in both Official Languages saying, 'No Parking, Snow Removal, $40 fine' or something like that
The City would then descend with sidewalk plows, Champion and Cat Graders, the big-cab Sicard plows, Diamond T dump truck plows, and, then, the blower.
At first the snow was 'blown' onto the lawns, then, later, trucks were used to haul the snow to Turcot Yard, snow sewers, etc.
There was a snow sewer near West Hill High and Draper somewhere on CSL.
Snow used to be dumped in the park East of Cornation between Chester and Cote St. Luc in NDG, but, the adjacent tax payers claimed the constant vibrations of bulldozers pushing the snow into mountains cracked their plaster walls.
The City of Montreal colours were Grey with Red wheels into the Sixties, including the first small-cab Bombardier sidewalk plows.
Green with Yellow Trim took over c. 1964.
Before the narrow-cab Bombardier plows, Narrow-Gauge Case rubber-tired with chains tractors with large cabs were used to plow sidewalks, along with a fleet of narrow gauge steel-tracked bulldozers such as Cletracs.
These latter had no cab, the driver surrounded in canvas to hold in the heat blown back from the engine by the rad fan.
Another version of small Case tractor had a small snow blower on front, they going around to clear natural-ice hockey rinks in parks.
If you did not 'Like' someone long before Facebook, you hid their sleigh, hockey stick or shovel in the snow bank so the next blower would digest it and spew the results all over a lawn.
A spring surprise!
Snow removal had lots of noise and action and brought kids from all over to watch.
( In the mid-Sixties the City of Montreal tried a trailer-mounted oil-fired snow melter and tested it on Westmore btwn Somerled and Fielding, it's progress charted by a rising column of steam.
The water went down the catch basins.
It was deemed too slow, as a snow blower could put a dense snow load in faster than the burners could melt it.
Montreal West had a stationary snow melter in their City Yard off of Bedbrook around 1967.
Horse plows could still be seen just after the War.
http://www.musee-mccord.qc.ca//uploads/z1032_copy.jpg
As were steam rollers. Example.
http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/0_edin_t/0_edinburgh_transport_steam_roller_1960s.jpg
Thank You.
Really interesting comments on here. Almost makes me shiver reading them.
Back in the 50s and 60s the only thing nice about snow was what it looked like when it was fresh.
We often made forts and slides out of the snow stacked on the front lawn by snowblowers. I do remember seeing at least one ground up tobaggan.
By spring time (which seemed to last forever) most kids had had enough with snow. We wanted to play baseball again and even after the snow was song the grass was soggy for weeks and the April showers came.
My guess is that gardeners who took pride in their front lawns cursed sometimes about all the dog poop left over from the winter.
Where we lived, on Harvard Avenue, a private contractor named Mr, Beauchemin had a tractor and plowed just some of the drive ways between houses. He had a tractor with a 45 gallon drum on each side. I have no clue what was in the drums.
Most of the 4 plexes in NDG back then were owned or managed by trust companies.
Each fall some guys would come around and put on the winter windows and replace them with screen windows in late spring.
The winter windows had a slot at the bottom of them that had a cover. As a kid I wondered what that slot was for.
I also recall the radiators hissing in the winter. I have no clue as to how the house temperature was monitored. We didn't have a thermostat.
The vestibule in our house often looked like a dog's breakfast in the winter with wet boots being the cause.
I don't miss those long winters. It was OK as a kid but...
Am off to Cabo for the 3rd staight year in a few weeks.
We don't do much shoveling on the west coast but even we need a break. At least you guys get some sunny days in the winter.
After the snowblowers had dumped their filthy snow load onto our tiny lawn in front of our duplex, we kids would get mad and threaten to shovel it right back onto the road.
We never did, of course, but I often wondered what would have happened if we had ganged up together and not budged an inch as the snowblower approached, daring the driver to dump it all over us.
Maybe that's one of reasons they usually came late at night when we were in bed!
In the spring, of course, what remained for weeks on end was a dirty black mass of snow which we then eagerly shovelled right into the street to melt.
Once early summer had arrived, how well I remember in the 1950s the thousands of grasshoppers swarming all over the neighbourhood! We kids used to collect hundreds of them in jars, where I'd bring them inside and show them to my mother and chase my little sister who screamed in fright! The greenish ones were easy, but those superfast, winged black ones were virtually impossible to catch!
Once (only once!) the grasshoppers escaped from my jar inside the house, driving everyone nuts trying to catch them!
I don't know exactly why, but I have never since seen such an infestation in the city; only the odd grasshopper here and there. Otherwise, of course, they can still be found in fields.
We caught bumblebees, too, of course, but that's another story.
UrbanLegend...One of the worst things about Montreal winters were the giant puddles. I rememeber waiting for a bus on Cote de Neiges Road at Forest Hill to go to work and getting drenched from head to toe by a passing packed bus.
Nature does some weird things. I too remember the summer of the geasshoppers. It seemed that one year there would be a lot of Monarch butterflies and other years an over abundance of bees or yellow or white butterflies.
Out in the country shag flies would be everywhere one summer and almost no existant the next. I also remember those big bugs that kind of flew like helicopters...the Dragonflies. And don't forget the wasps, hornets and mosquitoes.
Allied Chemical marketed a product in the 60s -- "Break the ice with calcium chloride". Allied had factories in Amherstburg,ON and Valleyfield,QC with their head office first in the CIBC Building at 1155 Dorchester, then from 1972-79 at 237 Hymus in Pointe-Claire. Allied was headed up in the 60s by retired Air Vice Marshal Maxwell Hendrick, an integral player in the Avro Arrow file, and then in the 70s by Alexander Trowbridge, who served as Secretary of Commerce under Lyndon Johnson. Funny that we don't hear about calcium chloride as a winter solution these days...Allied Chemical became Honeywell in a reverse takeover.
Colin,
I suspect that main reason for the grasshopper (locust!) infestation back in the day was due to the large piles of snow dumped onto the lawns by blowers. Insects apprently multiply more quickly and easily underground beneath heavy snow.
Funny you mention Forest Hill and Cote des Neiges, because the Petro-Canada gas station originally on the southeast corner had been abandoned for years before finally being replaced only weeks ago by a huge condo.
Further east up CDN, there still exists that oddball, solitary apartment complex called the Clifton, recently renovated as well. See them in the link:
https://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&ll=45.495563,-73.606939&spn=0.00003,0.01929&t=m&z=16&layer=c&cbll=45.495608,-73.60707&panoid=h86-b52zGdxlw56ZrKLIPg&cbp=12,173.89,,0,-0.9
This, by the way, is right near the tragedy of a few years back where a huge tree fell on a passing motorist during a violent storm, killing him. This was a big news story.
His family's attempt to receive compensation from Westmount due to negligence regarding the half-dead tree failed in court. Case closed.
Since discussion here touched on the subject of Grasshoppers, I wondered if any of Coolopolis' learned contributors could help me.
When I first came to Montreal, I was driven crazy by the high-pitched, metallic drone in the air every summer. No one ever seemed to know where it was coming from, if they could hear it. Best explanation I did have was that it was issued by some sort of Cicada-like insect. Worse on muggy days. Anyone?!
Definitely cicadas. Zzzzzzzzzzzz!
I recently read an article about them in that Metro newpaper available free in the Montreal Metro (subway).
In late July, early September, the buzzing males begin to die off and if you look closely on the ground you will spot them wriggling and even singing their mating call.
Last September, I was surprised when I gently kicked an apparently dead one lying on the sidewalk and it immediately flew off!
In late August you will also hear crickets chirping in the bushes.
Thanks Urban Legend. Has taken all these years to have a definitive answer!
Used to drone now, but will never really like it.
According to Wikipedia (see link), there are 2500 species of cicadas around the world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada
The species I saw in Auckland, N.Z. made a different sound, like a chattering "chicka-chicka-chicka-zzzzzzz" noise, and they were all over the place clinging to the sides of trees, telephone poles, etc.
Amazing insects!
Got me on a roll here regarding those cicadas zinging away here during the summer.
Evidently, our species is the Tibicen Canicularis, and you can hear the male singing on this fantastic website: it's the third song down:
http://www.insectsingers.com/100th_meridian_cicadas/
The NZ one I would hear is this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rVM4botanM
That is LOUD!
Some people have no clue. They think the sound are the Hydro wires vibrating!
Wiki article has freaky photo of red-eyed monster bug of the type we have here:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/HeadCicadidae.jpg
" Magicicada septendecim, 17-year-periodical cicada"..
These insects can live from 13-17 yrs~longer than some cats & dogs.
And yes, have I ever heard the "Hydro Wire" explanation Urban Legend!
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