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Glebe Report - March 2025

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Serving the Glebe community since 1973

March 7, 2025

www.glebereport.ca

ISSN 0702-7796 Vol. 53 No. 2 Issue no. 572

Bruce Scrivens has a century of rich memories

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What’s Inside

By Leslie Cole

Now 100 years old, Bruce Scrivens no longer skis or paddles his canoe – but you may still encounter him out along the canal pathways on his scooter. Scrivens has lived in the Glebe for most of his life. In three large green binders that he shows me in his secondfloor room at the Lord Lansdowne retirement home, he has recorded his life with photos and stories, letters and clippings of important events. The binders hold ration coupons from the Second World War and letters written on birch bark that he mailed to his parents from summer jobs in northern Ontario. Scrivens was born in 1925 to a family living on Sunset Boulevard when the area on that side of Bronson Avenue was largely a lumber yard owned by lumber baron J.R. Booth. He remembers his boyhood there fondly – the smell of freshly cut lumber and the challenge of scaling a 10-foot-high board fence to watch the machinery at work. He remembers milk, ice and laundry being delivered to the door and a popcorn truck making regular rounds on the street. A photo in his album shows a thriving vegetable “victory garden” planted in the backyard during the war. Scrivens went to Mutchmor Public School for grades one to six and Hopewell for grades seven and eight. In winter, he and his friends would clear the ice on nearby Dow’s Lake to play hockey, but they also set aside time just for skating. He says they also skied across Dow’s Lake to the Experimental Farm. There was a boathouse on Dow’s Lake at the time that later burned down. There was also

Mutchmor book sale....................................Page 3

Celebrating 10 years.......................................Page 13

Mark Your Calendars DOORS OPEN FOR MUSIC AT SOUTHMINSTER..............MARCH 12, 19, 26

12 P.M ART LENDING OTTAWA.......................................................... MARCH 15 JIM DURRELL R.C. SPRING PROGRAM REGISTRATION....................................MARCH 18 7 P.M., WWW.GNAG.CA GREAT BOWLS OF FIRE FUNDRAISER............................... MARCH 22 4-6 P.M., GCC GCA MONTHLY MEETING.......................................................MARCH 25 7 P.M., ZOOM CORPUS CHRISTI KINDERGARTEN INFO OPEN HOUSE...............MARCH 27

4:30-5:30 P.M., CORPUS CHRISTI MARY POPPINS....................................................................... APRIL 9-13

Bruce Scrivens has a lifetime of memories recorded in photos, letters and clippings. PHOTO: LESLIE COLE

a favourite corner store that sold ice cream by the original Bronson Avenue swing bridge.

Scrivens as a young man in his cedar-strip canoe with an added sail, on Dow’s Lake

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“Your Family’s Smile is our Family’s Business”

Scrivens earned enough money from his paper route to purchase a canoe, which he launched into Dow’s Lake in the summers. As he got older, he and a friend, Don Johnston, paddled longer distances, sometimes hauling up a lateen sail to catch the wind. They would set out on the last two weeks before school started in the fall and travel from Dow’s Lake down the Rideau Canal as far as Kingston, stopping at night to sleep in a field or, if it rained, to ask a farmer for shelter in his barn. On one canoe trip during the war, they were caught in waves from Corvettes, the smallest of warships, on Lake Ontario, and the canoe was badly damaged against the rocky shore. They sent the canoe by train directly to Peterborough where the company that had made his cedar strip canoe repaired it. He enjoyed school and was convinced by a canoeing friend to attend Article continued on page 2

7 P.M. DAILY, ALSO 2 P.M. APRIL 12-13, GCC

Index ABBOTSFORD������������������������������������������16 ACTING ����������������������������������������������������25 ART ����������������������������������������������������������26 BOOKS............................................3, 22, 23 BUSINESS �����������������������������������������13, 21 EDITORIAL ������������������������������������������������4 FILM ��������������������������������������������������������24 FITNESS ��������������������������������������������������33 GLEBOUS & COMICUS 28 GNAG 50TH ���������������������������������������������17 HEALTH ���������������������������������������������31, 32 LANSDOWNE ������������������������������������������18 LETTERS����������������������������������������������������5 OPINION ��������������������������������������������������14 PROFILE ������������������������������������������������1, 2 REPS & ORGS ������������������������� 9-12, 29, 35 RINKS ���������������������������������������������������� 6-8 SCHOOLS ������������������������������������������ 35-37 SENIORS �������������������������������������������������16 SPORTS ���������������������������������������������������34

NEXT ISSUE: Friday, April 11, 2025

EDITORIAL DEADLINE: Monday, March 24, 2025 ADVERTISING ARTWORK DEADLINE*: Wednesday, March 26, 2025 *Book ads well in advance to ensure space availability.


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