Milton (Page 19)

A school mate and I trudged along the small muddy path along the Mill Pond in downtown Milton, the pond that was created by Jasper Martin to help drive his grist and saw mills. But what I did not expect to find was an abandoned rail bridge. What made things all the more interesting is that the bridge did not match in with Milton’s two main rail corridors, this one was different older almost. But let’s go back, back to the middle of the 19th Century. The first major railroads to form in Canada West (Ontario Today) were Great Western, Grand Trunk, and Ontario, Simcoe,Read More →

If you’re of a certain age, you might recognise the title as being part of the school song for EW Foster. Foster is the school that I have some of the fondest memories from, and that’s even including High School. As a school, Foster isn’t that special, being built in the 1980s; it is a brown one-floor brick building with no details at all. Typical 80s, but I mean Milton has only one historic school that still stands. But the real magic of Foster happened inside the walls for me, from planting a maple key in a styrofoam cup in Kindergarten that grew to higherRead More →

I can probably trace my curiosity to peer behind the board up windows to Waldie’s Blacksmith shop. For much of my life, the building sat empty and abandoned. Sitting next to St. Paul’s United Church. But I also didn’t know the rich history behind the building that had captured that curiosity. James A. Waldie came to Canada taking over a business in Acton first before establishing his shop in Milton in 1865. The shop’s operations peaked in the 1890s when it operated around the clock employing five blacksmiths, two woodworkers, a painter, and a trimmer. After the death of James Senior in 1900, his sonRead More →

When I was little there wasn’t anything like Junior Kindergarten, in fact, it didn’t exist. Instead, we called it Nursery School, and honestly, it’s the same thing. The Nursery school I attended along with many of the kids that would go on to become my first circle of friends took place here at St. Paul’s United Church in downtown Milton. As a cooperative, parents would assist the teachers as volunteers, and for a fee, the kids could attend. Now the memories I have of nursery school are a little muddled, mostly from details that my parents have told me about. That I much preferred theRead More →

I’m not a farmer, in any sense of the word. I’ve never driven a tractor, milked a cow, tended a field. Yet for much of my life, I lived in a rural community. But Milton does stick to its small-town roots and one of the biggest ways that show is the fall fair. The Fall Fair is a local icon, the animals, the arts, crafts, and baked goods. The midway, salespeople, but the biggest part of it for me is the Demolition Derby. This might come as a surprise but I love a good demolition derby. There’s just something about having car on car destruction.Read More →