Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Vintage photos of winter sports in Toronto


Winter Sports Toronto Vintage
Winter in Toronto can be the pits depending on your disposition. I know more than a few people who pseudo-hibernate during the season's coldest periods — and who can really blame them? Forgetting the mildness of last year, it tends to get rather unwelcoming out there. Our forebearers, it would appear were a braver bunch. The Toronto Archives are littered with photos of city-folk out and about in the ice and snow making the most the cold weather.
And while most of the things they got up to remain familiar to us — there's hockey, skiing and tobogganing, of course — other activities like ice-boating have disappeared over the years, despite the fact that they look like they were a whole lot of fun. The inner harbour was a more active recreational space when it was guaranteed to freeze over. That time has passed, but we still have the photos.
Ice boating!
20121211-ice-boat-1911.jpg20121211-ice-boat-1912.jpgIce-boating on the inner harbour
Outdoor skating
20121211-skating-high-park-1910f1244_it0455.jpg20121211-speed-skater-1930s-f1257_s1057_it3026.jpg20121211-skating-varsity-stewart-reburn-sonie-henie-1930s-f1257_s1057_it4109.jpg20121211-skating-don-1910.jpg
While outdoor skating remains popular, the venues are decidedly less pretty
Tobogganing
20121211-high-park-tob.jpg20121211-fancy-tob.jpg20121211-toboggan-line-1910as-f1244_it0438c.jpg20121211-group-toboggan-1909-f1244_it0478a.jpg20121211-toboggan-slides-1916-f1548_s0393_it13881.jpgTorontonians used to take their tobogganing very seriously (check out the one with the light on it!)
Hockey
20121211-hockey.jpg
You didn't need artificial ice back then...
Skiing
20121211-skiing-rosedale-ravine-1908-f1244_it0471a.jpg20121211-ski-hjump-high-park-1914-f1231_it0564.jpg20121211-skiing-riverdale-1913-f1244_it0471.jpg20121211-sking.jpg
Urban skiing was a far more common site in the 1920s
Curling
20121211-curling.jpg
Outdoor curling!
Ice fishing
20121211-ice-fishing-1908-10.jpg
Why dress down to ice fish?
And, naturally, snowball fights
201214-snowball-rosedale-ravine-1912-f1244_it0472.jpg
Some things never get old...

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