Kate and Sarah had spent months of chanting songs in order to convince their parents to bring them to Marineland:
1996 Marineland
“There’s a place I know in Ontario
Where the sea lions kiss, so the story goes
It’s amazing shows and Friendship Cove
Everyone loves Marine Land
You’ll be spinning, diving and soaring high
Our roller coaster ride will fly you to the sky
Now you know what you’ll say when you leave here today
Everyone loves Marine Land”
“Everyone loves a holiday
Watching the whales and dolphins play
They jump in the air
Splashing waves in your hair
Everyone loves Marineland
Niagara falls Ontario
Is always a fun place to go
Seeing friends you miss
A great big kiss
Everyone loves Marineland”
It finally worked.
1996 Niagara Falls
“Is this Vegas??” A ten-year-old Kate exclaimed when she saw the bright flashing lights around the falls at night. Like thousands of multicoloured fireflies, flickering to light a dark path, the sky around the falls was illuminated with neon lights. Kate knew that the United States was right across from Niagara falls. With little knowledge of geography (she earned the name wrong-way-Kate because she never knew where anything, including herself, was), Kate only had the lights to go by. From what she had seen on television, flashing neon lights must mean Vegas!
At Marineland, Kate was amazed. She actually watched whales and dolphins play in the water. She even got splashed when the whale swam around the tank! But the most wonderful part of Marineland was the roller coaster. The world’s longest steel roller coaster awaited her. Just tall enough, she went on with her father. It was the most amazing thing ever! She had to go again! But no one, including her father, wanted to go. She begged and pleaded until finally she was allowed on by herself. And this time, she sat in the front! And then in the back! It was AMAZING. Kate LOVED Marineland.
1996 Marineland
*****
While in Marineland, and over the next few summers, Kate’s forest slowly disappeared as it was bulldozed to build houses. No more foxes, no more bats, no more trees. No more cross-country skiing. No more wandering the woods, finding broken down cars. They took away the haunted car before Kate could ever find out if it was truly haunted. They took away the
1990 Fox in the backyard
marshes so the ducks had nowhere to live. They took away the view of the airport and the beautiful sunrises. All to build a few lousy houses, each exactly like the last. Row on row of identical boxes without character, without beauty. Kate would never accept this, but she had no choice. She missed her forest dearly.
*****
After a relaxing Christmas break, kids everywhere rubbed sleep out of their eyes and started back to school. The weather was mild, and Kate was excited to see all of her friends again. At the end of the day, it started to rain. At some point after Kate had gone to bed, the power went out. This was not unusual, Kate’s home was on a bad circuit, and the power usually went off a few time a month. It would be back on by morning, her parents assumed, and made sure that there was a battery in the alarm clock.
1998 Ice storm
But the power did not come on the next morning. Kate woke up in the dark to find that the world outside the windows was covered in a thick layers of ice. Trees drooped, wearied by the extra weight. The birch tree in the front yard was trying to touch its toes! Power lines sagged, some right to the ground. Hopeful, The Poirier’s sat around the battery powered radio at the breakfast table, anxiously awaiting…
“And yes, the schools are closed! All schools on the island of Montreal are closed today!”
A great cheer went up. Snow day! Kate jumped into her snowsuit to go and play on the marvellous skating rink that spread across the entire city.
As beautiful as it was, when freezing rain kept falling, the novelty soon wore off.
1998 Ice Storm
Trees were no longer just sagging, they were breaking to pieces. Power lines were no longer just drooping to the ground, they were breaking, and falling in the middle of the streets. The house was getting cold—very cold. By the third night without power, Kate’s room was too cold to sleep in. The whole upstairs was too cold! So they rearranged some furniture, carried mattresses downstairs, and the whole family slept around the fire. This went on for 8 nights. What was fun at first became tedious. Kate longed for a hot shower and a warm room to herself. She wanted to eat food that did not come in a Chinese food box—somehow, the only restaurant that was open the whole time was Chinese food.
After 8 days, the power finally started coming back on, and life could go back to normal. Kate was glad that she could sleep in her room again, but she did kind of miss the excitement when the whole thing was over…
1998 Ice storm