Harrowsmith Fall 2019 | 125SMALL PONDSSpeed” between Goldie’s Mill and
Monkey’s Bridge.
Best date spot?
Riverside Park.
Favourite sports team?
Ross Royals.
Best swimming hole?
Elora Quarry.
Best place to get in trouble?
See “best date spot” or the
Wellington Hotel.
Favourite rink?
Either on the river, or the rink the
firefighters used to flood behind
the fire station at Riverview and
Speedvale.
Nicest road for a hike/bike/drive?
Highway 7 to Rockwood, or
Highway 6 to Elora. Speed River to
the Grand and on to Lake Erie (a
river road).
Your town’s claim to fame
(before you)?
Tim Ryan, the founder of five-pin
bowling is supposed to have
come from Guelph, but I’m not sure
this is true. This is true: Guelph Elastic
Hosiery (whose CEO was a patient of
my dad’s) invented the jock strap.
Unofficial/suggested town slogan?
“Not Toronto, or Goderich.”
“Flanders Other Fields.”
What part of this place do you
wish you could bring with you on
the road?
The smell of the river. The sound of
summer cicadas.
Last time you were home?
Can’t remember.
Your local mentor, if any?
Ken Milne, physics teacher. Keith
Ronald, dean of biological sciences
at U of G.
How has this place contributed to
your career?
Connected me to the “Mighty
Speed” and the possibilities of
flowing water in a nation of rivers.
Why do/did you like living there?
Or what do you like about this
small town compared with the
other places you have lived?
Small enough to try all kinds of
stuff. Big enough to hide when you
needed that. And no matter where
you were, where you lived, the
country was just a bike ride away.
What else do you want people to
know about this place?
Guelph has been a friendly
place since the very beginning.
Founded by John Galt, a Scottish
Presbyterian, in return for advice in
forming the Canada Company, he
deeded land at the prow of the most
prominent hill at the junction of the
Speed and Eramosa rivers to his
friend Bishop Macdonell, who built
Church of Our Lady (now Basilica of
Our Lady Immaculate), which can
be seen from almost everywhere
in town. That always struck me as
funny in an aw-shucks kind of way.
Last words?
I’m a first-gen Canadian, son of a
surgeon lieutenant in the British
navy and a Scottish midwife who,
of all the places they might have
landed in the Commonwealth,
chose Guelph, Ontario, Canada,
as the place to raise a family.
That choice put a river in the
middle of our lives, where it has
remained in the most persistent
and reassuring ways.