Issuing a challenge to determine the city’s ‘finest hill’
On May 6, as usual, I took part in Jane’s Walk. Saturday morning I explored London Road while in the afternoon I, along with 109 others, trekked through Upper Victoria Park with their dynamic leader, Kevin MacLean.
Kevin, you did a great job, but as a member of the long-established London Road Neighbourhood Association, your upstart, “Johnnycome-lately organization” is just getting too big for its britches.
Think about what you did. You enticed us London Roaders across 13 Street with great stories. Slowly and meticulously we followed the “Pied Piper” further and further away from our home base. Then, at the very end of your presentation, you arranged to blast us with a cloudburst that left us hightailing it home soaked to the bone.
But that “kick in the face” was not the worst insult you dealt to this London Roader. Partway through your presentation you stopped at Cherry Hill (15 Street) and told us “it was the Goldilocks of hills in the city of Lethbridge,” implying it was the finest hill in the city for kids, even backing up this story with quotes from local celebrities.
“Fake news,” I say and this must not be allowed to become part of Lethbridge history. Consider this letter a challenge for you to prove what you said. Oldtimers from the ’40s and ’50s remember that London Road’s Pill Hill (11 Street), in addition to everyday activity, was where the annual Soap Box Derby was held.
My challenge to you is that with your vast connections to the Galt Museum and the city, you arrange for, as part of next year’s Jane’s Walk, a showdown to prove your statement. Put on your helmet and, after making a soapbox or finding one from the artifacts in the museum, we’ll record and compare your time and distance on both hills. We can call it the Cherry Pill Challenge.
Are you up to it? Or as they used to say: “I dare you. And don’t you double dare me, I’m too old, you young whippersnapper.”
Kevin MacLean really is a great guy. I like him. He and his Upper Victoria Park group are making Lethbridge great again, believe me.
Bruce Haig
Lethbridge