Temperatures will soon rise into the double digits, so you definitely don’t want to step on the melting ice of the Credit River. In fact, you aren’t really allowed to go on the ice.

But that’s not how it always was.

But back in 1960, Mississauga was a different place. Actually, there was no Mississauga as we know it, that wouldn’t arrive until 1974.

There was, however, a Port Credit, and 66 years ago, those who lived in the town would likely attest that the winter seemed a little colder, lasted a little longer, and the ice was a lot safer. And that is not just nostalgia talking.

According to historical records for southern Ontario, it was colder in the late 1950s right up until the early 1970s. There were more frequent and intense cold snaps, the persistent extreme chill was common, average winter temperatures were lower, and the chances of a white Christmas in 1960 were 20 per cent greater than they are today.

But as this film shows, people then knew how to bundle up and enjoy what nature threw at them and the skating was supported by the town, which maintained the skating surface.

Uploaded onto YouTube by HomeMoviesdotCa – Historical Films of Canada, the short film shows dozens of people…perhaps hundreds…taking to the frozen waters of the Credit River in Port Credit to skate. Remember, it was colder back then, and nobody chased you off the ice.

The film itself is a real nugget of information, and, as the uploader explains, it has been digitized from the original format that belongs to the Brock University Archives.

People have had a lot to say since the video appeared on YouTube.

“This is where I learnt to skate. I would be in the sleigh behind my Dad when I was too little to skate. We always went there on the weekends. Hot chocolate, fires and Christmas lights. Such great memories. We took our kids there a few times in the eighties before they closed it to public skating,” wrote one commenter about the video.

Here is what another commenter had to say: “I remember this, in fact, I could be one of those skating. The Lions Club had a hot chocolate stand and a big warming fire near the railroad bridge. Overnight, the Parks dept would resurface the ice by pumping water through holes from the river below.

In 1960, there were, of course, no cellphones that captured high-quality images. Instead, families lucky enough to own a movie camera typically used what was called 8 mm film to record special events. The quality in this film is grainy, there is no sound, and the images are kind of blurry. But all that doesn’t matter. Whoever took the time to film did us a favour by capturing a period of time that could have been easily forgotten.

 

 


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