A View of Summer and Thoughts of Old Garbage

A View of Summer and Thoughts of Old Garbage
14 November 2008

Cold, wet weekend ahead, so a warm look at a July sunset from Grand Bend. to remind you of warmer times.

In case you do not realize, you can click on the photos for a larger image on your screen.

The last of the Brunswick Hotel should be taken down and carted away today. I was down there around 4:00 p.m. yesterday, and as far as I can tell (and from lack of any mention in the media), thankfully nobody was found in the ruins of the 'Wick, so that's some good news.

The actual landfill being used is NOT the City dump, but the privately owned commercial landfill just outside the south end of the city. I forget the name of the site, but it is the same landfill that has the contract to handle Toronto's garbage in the coming years.

The basement of the 'Wick is still full of water from fighting the fire, so I do not know what will happen there. I am curious about the land below the basement and around the old hotel, as it is possibly one of the few chunks of land in the downtown core not touched or disturbed since pioneer times.

A specific example of what I am thinking of is the real possibility of a garbage dump out back some where. In 1855 there was no such thing as a city garbage dump or garbage collection. Many homes and businesses just dug a pit out back and buried everything.

Today these old garbage dumps, when found - and preserved and examined - are a treasure trove of relics into our forgotten past. As I have pointed out before, the horrible depression of 1857 left a big "memory hole" in our local history for roughly a 4 to 5 year period. While the chances of finding something specific from that time period are very slim, "very slim" still beats the heck out of no chance at all, so I hope we have the chance to examine the site before it is all excavated some day.