TIM HUNT’S
MAIN STREET
SKETCHES

TIM HUNT

The view looking north towards Immaculata High School at the end of Glenora Street looks much the way it did years ago when we parked our car in a snowbank and trudged through the snow to get our first glimpse of the place where we now live. We liked the mix of houses (old and older), and the dead-end street with the schoolyard and track in behind had a natural traffic-calming effect. Our kids could cut across the field on their walk to Lady Evelyn school, avoiding the Main Street traffic. At night, when Immaculata dutifully turned out its lights, the field was a great spot from which to view the night sky. For decades this was a regular shortcut for neighbours walking to Main Street or to the Pretoria bridge and beyond, and on weekends, locals used the track and the park for games of ultimate frisbee, family picnics and even Quidditch matches! Now, there is a fence at the end of the street, and on summer nights the field is flooded with lights and the sounds of whistles and chatter from soccer matches. The old-fashioned winter we are currently experiencing brings me back to the year we first moved to this community, Ottawa’s best kept secret.