Once we were settled in Moncton,the road trip became a family ritual.Sometimes it was just out to the grocery store-you didn't have to go all the way downtown to find one,but there were not any really nearby either.The two we used most often were Dominion Stores and Sobey's,which were on opposite sides of Mountain Road,a block or two apart but still within view of each other.
We went downtown a lot too.That's where most of the stores were,and,the only real department stores.Main Street was the street where most of the stores were,right in the busiest part of downtown.Saint George street was the next busiest street.It was more or less parallel to Main Street,and it went out into the west end.That's where you went to get to the park,and in the summer time we were always off to the park,to the playground or wading pool.And in the winter,there were hill there for sledding.
Mountain Road was maybe the busiest street in town,even busier than Main Street,and much much longer.It began at King Street downtown,close to where King joined Main,in the oldest part of Moncton.Then it ran all the way out to the northwest end of town,past our street,Watson Avenue.It ran past the New Brunswick Institute of Technology,and by then you were nearly out in the country.But if you kept going you would pass a huge wrecking yard,with what seemed like acres of junk piled way back from the road.Follow it far enough and you came Magnetic Hill
Magnetic Hill is a bit hard to describe.As a child I didn't find it interesting at all,but it was about the only real tourist attraction Moncton was really known for.The idea was that you would drive down to this white post,put your car in neutral and watch it coast back up the hill you just drove down.Then you could watch all the other cars doing the same.Not very impressive really.
But Magnetic Hill had something that I was really interested in.There was an animal farm,or a kind of a zoo,with pony rides.At first there were not a lot of animals,maybe a couple of dozen or so,and they were all lined up in a row of cages which you could walk almost right up too.Most of the animals were local critters like skunks,porcupines,raccoons,pine martens,a few different sorts of weasels,a bobcat,a mountain lion and a beaver.I'm not sure what else,but I don't think there was a bear back then.They came along later and were kept in a big pit.There was also a big duck pond,and we all enjoyed feeding stale bread to the hungry ducks.
There were other birds there too.Of course all the local sorts of birds were around,but not in cages.They never went far though because there was always food there for them.Mostly,though it was just crows,chickadees and woodpeckers.There was the odd hummingbird too,and I loved to watch them because they were so different from the other birds.There were also pheasants,big gold and brown ones,and a flashy,noisy peacock.It didn't always display it's tail feathers,but it always made enough noise to wake the dead,two counties away.One day we were out someplace and when we returned home there was a big pheasant sitting right there on our front porch.I had no idea how it got there and we were all quite amazed.But my father said he'd brought it home in the car trunk.I thought we would have to catch it and take it back to the zoo.I didn't believe the story my father was saying because I didn't see him put it into the trunk,and I thought it would have made some noise if he had,but I didn't hear anything.So I supposed it had hopped all the way from Magnetic Hill,since they couldn't fly very well.Really though,it had likely been around in the neighborhood since it was still not well developed,and even recently,I've seen pheasants nearby.
The first car I recall my father having was an old Valiant.The kind with the funny trunk lid where the tire fits,and something like wings on the back.Not really big wings like some of the other cars though.It was white,with red seats.Then it was followed by an old Nash Rambler,dark blue.That was some time after we'd moved though.
Moncton was centrally located,and that likely had a lot to do with why my parents moved there.From there it was a bit closer for both of my parents when they wanted to visit their family.My mothers family still lived a long way off,but not quite as bad as before. Springhill,my fathers hometown was only about fifty miles away and the roads were decent.Not so going to my mothers hometown though.They were building a dam just above Fredricton,and for what seemed like forever,the road was under construction.The old road was to be flooded when the dam was finished,and for the first while when we were going up there the roads were more like a cow path.But,once we got settled,we were always going somewhere in the car.
We went downtown a lot too.That's where most of the stores were,and,the only real department stores.Main Street was the street where most of the stores were,right in the busiest part of downtown.Saint George street was the next busiest street.It was more or less parallel to Main Street,and it went out into the west end.That's where you went to get to the park,and in the summer time we were always off to the park,to the playground or wading pool.And in the winter,there were hill there for sledding.
Mountain Road was maybe the busiest street in town,even busier than Main Street,and much much longer.It began at King Street downtown,close to where King joined Main,in the oldest part of Moncton.Then it ran all the way out to the northwest end of town,past our street,Watson Avenue.It ran past the New Brunswick Institute of Technology,and by then you were nearly out in the country.But if you kept going you would pass a huge wrecking yard,with what seemed like acres of junk piled way back from the road.Follow it far enough and you came Magnetic Hill
Magnetic Hill is a bit hard to describe.As a child I didn't find it interesting at all,but it was about the only real tourist attraction Moncton was really known for.The idea was that you would drive down to this white post,put your car in neutral and watch it coast back up the hill you just drove down.Then you could watch all the other cars doing the same.Not very impressive really.
But Magnetic Hill had something that I was really interested in.There was an animal farm,or a kind of a zoo,with pony rides.At first there were not a lot of animals,maybe a couple of dozen or so,and they were all lined up in a row of cages which you could walk almost right up too.Most of the animals were local critters like skunks,porcupines,raccoons,pine martens,a few different sorts of weasels,a bobcat,a mountain lion and a beaver.I'm not sure what else,but I don't think there was a bear back then.They came along later and were kept in a big pit.There was also a big duck pond,and we all enjoyed feeding stale bread to the hungry ducks.
There were other birds there too.Of course all the local sorts of birds were around,but not in cages.They never went far though because there was always food there for them.Mostly,though it was just crows,chickadees and woodpeckers.There was the odd hummingbird too,and I loved to watch them because they were so different from the other birds.There were also pheasants,big gold and brown ones,and a flashy,noisy peacock.It didn't always display it's tail feathers,but it always made enough noise to wake the dead,two counties away.One day we were out someplace and when we returned home there was a big pheasant sitting right there on our front porch.I had no idea how it got there and we were all quite amazed.But my father said he'd brought it home in the car trunk.I thought we would have to catch it and take it back to the zoo.I didn't believe the story my father was saying because I didn't see him put it into the trunk,and I thought it would have made some noise if he had,but I didn't hear anything.So I supposed it had hopped all the way from Magnetic Hill,since they couldn't fly very well.Really though,it had likely been around in the neighborhood since it was still not well developed,and even recently,I've seen pheasants nearby.
The first car I recall my father having was an old Valiant.The kind with the funny trunk lid where the tire fits,and something like wings on the back.Not really big wings like some of the other cars though.It was white,with red seats.Then it was followed by an old Nash Rambler,dark blue.That was some time after we'd moved though.
Moncton was centrally located,and that likely had a lot to do with why my parents moved there.From there it was a bit closer for both of my parents when they wanted to visit their family.My mothers family still lived a long way off,but not quite as bad as before. Springhill,my fathers hometown was only about fifty miles away and the roads were decent.Not so going to my mothers hometown though.They were building a dam just above Fredricton,and for what seemed like forever,the road was under construction.The old road was to be flooded when the dam was finished,and for the first while when we were going up there the roads were more like a cow path.But,once we got settled,we were always going somewhere in the car.
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