Playing on the Streets

When I was growing up in Cloverdale kids played on the streets. We lived on 182 Street which was relatively quiet. There was a house across the street owned by the Scott's was on 10 acres. Next to that was all bushland right up to 58th Avenue. On my side of the street the first 4 houses, ours being the 4th, were on regular sized lots. The house next to us belonging to the Mattick's was on a bit of acreage, mostly woods, for about a block to the next house on acreage, owned by Mr. Shears. He was a nice old man who drove an old black truck. Every time he drove past us kids we'd wave at him and he'd wave back. He sold about 10 acres of his property in 1967/68 and the Nesselbeck's built a house and moved in with a family of 4 kids.

We rode our bikes to each other's houses, used chalk to make hopscotch squares, played marbles, played hide and seek, and explored the woods and fields. We also thought nothing of riding our bikes or walking up to a mile to visit friends unescorted by adults. We also walked down to Greenaway Park and the fairgrounds without adult escorts.

The woods and fields all became new houses by the late 70's, early 80's. There are no neat places left to explore. Many streets around Cloverdale have a fair amount of traffic, many who don't observe the 50 km speed limit. I still see some kids attempting to play street hockey, skateboard, or play basketball. In most cases its not safe for them to do so and many of these kids seem totally oblivious or maybe just disrespectful to traffic whizzing past them.

The 2 big stories when I was a kid were 2 kids who did get hit by cars. The first was when I was 5 or 6 and a neighbor's car back over a boy in the driveway. Sadly he died from the injuries. The second was girl a couple of years later struck by a car crossing 60th Avenue to Greenaway Park. More than likely the driver was not observing the playground speed limit. Probably the little girl ran out without looking for cars. Fortunately she survived with a broken leg.

We still have Greenaway Park and with the new subdivisions there are now several other parks around Cloverdale. There's a skateboard bowl on 64th Avenue just east of 176th Street beyond the Millenium Park. Even though kids no longer play in the street and there aren't any more woods and trails to explore, there are lots of parks to play in safely.