Nickel King - October 7, 2017
“What would this be called?” I hollered to my husband, Laurence, “Scrabbling or scrambling?”
What the “sam hill” were we doing, you may be wondering. Playing a board game or making a meal? Nah! We were climbing up the rocky hill that takes us to the Big Nickel in Sudbury. Why were we doing that? Well, that will take a little explaining.
Yes, we now live in St. Catharines, Ontario and have for two years. But for 32 years we lived and worked in Sudbury. And except for the black flies and mosquitoes and the lack of paying work for me, we loved it there. We “lived the life and then some” as the saying goes – doing stuff we could never get to do in a more established city.
But when Laur retired and my part-time job disappeared again, we decided it would be a good time to move closer to family. Our two oldest kids settled out in Southern Ontario, and my mom lives in Southern Ontario as do our siblings. Our kid that lives in the North may not stay there and our other kid lives and works in South Korea.
So, in 2015 we gave away all of our furniture and most of our books, sold our house, and moved ourselves down to St. Catharines – which incidentally is where we first met in 1975. And we have very good lives in St. Cats. But I miss Sudbury a ridiculous amount and Laur likes driving, so we return north about once a month to drive longingly by our old house and to visit with our Sudbury family. And to visit some of our favourite haunts – mostly restaurants. 😊
Our Sudbury family has three adults and four cats in a one-bedroom apartment – no room in that inn. So Laur and I stay at the Economic-Lodgings (not it’s real name) on Lorne St. If you know Sudbury, you might ask yourself “Why would they stay there?! It’s on Lorne St. and that section looks a tad sketchy.” Lorne St. is famous for being voted one of the worse roads in Canada. It is constantly under construction for potholes or to try and make the traffic flow better at the many intersections that all have a train running through them. It’s a planner’s worst nightmare.
But Laur and I like old motels and the jagged parts of Sudbury. In the 60s this used to be The Cassio and it was THE place to stay. Fifty years later it looks a bit like a lonely storehouse from the outside, but inside it is just fine. It’s remodelled enough, it’s well-priced (cheaper), it has all the things we need (two beds and lots of outlets to plug our gear into,) and a free breakfast.
But the best part is the view outside our window. OK, if you look straight out you’ll see a junk yard and some abandoned-looking buildings, but it you look way up, you’ll see both the Big Nickel and the Sudbury Superstack. These are a proud part of Sudbury’s mining history – cathedrals of the north, you might say.
We had just had lunch in our motel room when the cleaner knocked on our door, asking to come in and tidy things up. We really wanted that – we were out of coffee and our garbage was full – so we opted to go for a short walk. We walked right to the base of this rocky hill and started on our way up.
Spontaneous hikes sound good, but they are not very smart. It had rained earlier in the day so the rock face was slippery. There was a lot of scrub to trip over and lots of large chunks of gravel that shifted as we climbed. We made it to the top safely if a little calamitously – past initials and dates carved by youthful urban explorers in 1967 - and enjoyed our up close and personal view of King George on this gigantic nickel, who has been there since 1964.
The trip down was a bit of a slide down. It’s always harder to come down because you can see what you’re going to fall into if you misstep. By the time we got back to our motel, our room was all cleaned up and ready for two old adventurers to have a nap, or at least try to.
We thought we were pretty adventurous and nimble (for our age) until later that day. In the twilight we saw a couple of lads who were doing “urban exploring.” They climbed up the sides of some of these old warehouses, ran around on the rooves, and then hiked down the other side. Then off to the next cluster of buildings to do the same thing. What they were doing is not legal, but they do no harm. Doing this very likely keeps them out of real trouble. They didn’t have flashlights so we might not have seen them, save that we were looking out our motel room at the exact same time as they scrambled by.
Yes, the correct word for what we were doing and they were doing is “scrambling.” “Scrabbling” refers to trying to farm land that is hard and unyielding. Though that would definitely describe this nickel basin that still has a claim on my heart. How does the song by Charlie Angus and the Grievous Angels go? (Yes, the MP Charlie Angus of the NDP – when he led an alt-roots band and not a constituency.)
We love this life we got here.
Carved it from this ground.
Got a lot of hope and a lot of dreams
In this hard-rock town.
What the “sam hill” were we doing, you may be wondering. Playing a board game or making a meal? Nah! We were climbing up the rocky hill that takes us to the Big Nickel in Sudbury. Why were we doing that? Well, that will take a little explaining.
Yes, we now live in St. Catharines, Ontario and have for two years. But for 32 years we lived and worked in Sudbury. And except for the black flies and mosquitoes and the lack of paying work for me, we loved it there. We “lived the life and then some” as the saying goes – doing stuff we could never get to do in a more established city.
But when Laur retired and my part-time job disappeared again, we decided it would be a good time to move closer to family. Our two oldest kids settled out in Southern Ontario, and my mom lives in Southern Ontario as do our siblings. Our kid that lives in the North may not stay there and our other kid lives and works in South Korea.
So, in 2015 we gave away all of our furniture and most of our books, sold our house, and moved ourselves down to St. Catharines – which incidentally is where we first met in 1975. And we have very good lives in St. Cats. But I miss Sudbury a ridiculous amount and Laur likes driving, so we return north about once a month to drive longingly by our old house and to visit with our Sudbury family. And to visit some of our favourite haunts – mostly restaurants. 😊
Our Sudbury family has three adults and four cats in a one-bedroom apartment – no room in that inn. So Laur and I stay at the Economic-Lodgings (not it’s real name) on Lorne St. If you know Sudbury, you might ask yourself “Why would they stay there?! It’s on Lorne St. and that section looks a tad sketchy.” Lorne St. is famous for being voted one of the worse roads in Canada. It is constantly under construction for potholes or to try and make the traffic flow better at the many intersections that all have a train running through them. It’s a planner’s worst nightmare.
But Laur and I like old motels and the jagged parts of Sudbury. In the 60s this used to be The Cassio and it was THE place to stay. Fifty years later it looks a bit like a lonely storehouse from the outside, but inside it is just fine. It’s remodelled enough, it’s well-priced (cheaper), it has all the things we need (two beds and lots of outlets to plug our gear into,) and a free breakfast.
But the best part is the view outside our window. OK, if you look straight out you’ll see a junk yard and some abandoned-looking buildings, but it you look way up, you’ll see both the Big Nickel and the Sudbury Superstack. These are a proud part of Sudbury’s mining history – cathedrals of the north, you might say.
We had just had lunch in our motel room when the cleaner knocked on our door, asking to come in and tidy things up. We really wanted that – we were out of coffee and our garbage was full – so we opted to go for a short walk. We walked right to the base of this rocky hill and started on our way up.
Spontaneous hikes sound good, but they are not very smart. It had rained earlier in the day so the rock face was slippery. There was a lot of scrub to trip over and lots of large chunks of gravel that shifted as we climbed. We made it to the top safely if a little calamitously – past initials and dates carved by youthful urban explorers in 1967 - and enjoyed our up close and personal view of King George on this gigantic nickel, who has been there since 1964.
The trip down was a bit of a slide down. It’s always harder to come down because you can see what you’re going to fall into if you misstep. By the time we got back to our motel, our room was all cleaned up and ready for two old adventurers to have a nap, or at least try to.
We thought we were pretty adventurous and nimble (for our age) until later that day. In the twilight we saw a couple of lads who were doing “urban exploring.” They climbed up the sides of some of these old warehouses, ran around on the rooves, and then hiked down the other side. Then off to the next cluster of buildings to do the same thing. What they were doing is not legal, but they do no harm. Doing this very likely keeps them out of real trouble. They didn’t have flashlights so we might not have seen them, save that we were looking out our motel room at the exact same time as they scrambled by.
Yes, the correct word for what we were doing and they were doing is “scrambling.” “Scrabbling” refers to trying to farm land that is hard and unyielding. Though that would definitely describe this nickel basin that still has a claim on my heart. How does the song by Charlie Angus and the Grievous Angels go? (Yes, the MP Charlie Angus of the NDP – when he led an alt-roots band and not a constituency.)
We love this life we got here.
Carved it from this ground.
Got a lot of hope and a lot of dreams
In this hard-rock town.