\nAs a kid in the early 80s, I lived in an old farming region in the Maritimes. It was a beautiful place with great agricultural output. However, the economic changes of the late 70s and early 80s didn’t always seem to help it.<\/p>\n
\nSome people, apparently, left the family farm for higher income in the city – very often, Toronto. Barely in my teens, even I noticed the consequences of declining investment in the farming region those folks left behind. Some old buildings and structures were simply left unoccupied or unused.<\/p>\n
\nThe left-over buildings and structures remained landmarks. Some were more noticeable, being right in the village grid, while others were on routes no longer traveled except by explorers. Yet, the place didn’t have mountains like the west coast has, so even the deserted routes remained fairly easy to follow.<\/p>\n
\nI was an explorer, and heard about a route to a nearby village that didn’t involve the main road. Yet, to reach the other village you needed to cross a river. Word was that this route used an old railroad bridge.<\/p>\n\n
The first time I heard about it was in winter, so it was out of reach because I couldn’t ride a bike there, then. The next time I heard about it was late spring. I started to believe it was a real thing, and that I should go check it out. None of my friends had brought me there, and it did sound further afield than we normally went. Interestingly, those who told me about it each said they had gone there alone.<\/p>\n
\nI asked someone who had never mentioned the old bridge to me if they knew about it. “Yes, and I’ve been there once, but it’s been taken down now.” He continued with a brief description of how to get there; it wasn’t far, but in a part of the village I’d never been to.<\/p>\n
\nI went there, from his directions, by myself, as apparently everyone else did who went to the bridge. Topping a hill, then beginning down its other side, I could see the bridge supports still on either bank. The bridge itself was missing, however.<\/p>\n
\nMany unanswered questions remain for me about that bridge. When was it used? How long had it been disused? Why did kids visit it, yet so rarely?<\/p>\n
\nOne speculates that the bridge was taken down for safety reasons. Such “clean-ups” seem to be done in a place that’s receding. That place was, albeit very charmingly.<\/p>\nJack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane,<\/a> Campbell River, BC.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Self-tutoring about people and events from the past: the tutor reflects about a clean-up. As a kid in the early 80s, I lived in an old farming region in the Maritimes. It was a beautiful place with great agricultural output. …<\/p>\n