It’s Wayback Wednesday: March throwback

Welcome to Wayback Wednesday sponsored by Cavalcade Color Lab! Every week, we’ll be sharing a vintage photo and asking our readers to chime in with anything you can recall about the photo, other related memories, or even a funny caption. Have some vintage photos of your own? Send them to [email protected] and we may share them with our readers!

Scroll down to see last week’s photo.

This week, a throwback to another March day. Can you guess the year? Do you recognize any of the Main Street businesses that were there at the time? (Photo courtesy of Muskoka Heritage Place)

Wayback Wednesday is sponsored by Cavalcade Color Lab

This photo, courtesy of Muskoka Digital Archives, is of Ken Brown and his father Alan Brown cutting ice at Fairyport, on Fairy Lake in the 1930s.

Wendy Brown recognized her family members right away and commented: “That picture is my Uncle and my Grandfather on Fairy Lake cutting ice, not sure what year it would have been but probably around the 20s maybe.

Brian Tapley added his own ice-cutting memories: “Looks just like my Dad and his team looked but this is not him. I remember cutting ice in the 50s and they had done it for many years before that. Being little (and light) I got the job of going along the edge of the opening and hitting each crack with an ice chisel nearly as big as I was to break the blocks free. Then the bigger (smarter) men would guide these blocks to the little conveyor that lifted them up to the sleigh or truck as the case might be, for their trip to the local ice houses. I fell in a few times. They hauled me out and sent me packing up to see Mom for fresh clothes and I was expected to be back at work in less than half an hour… or else! Hey it was not all that bad, I had no smart phone so did not realize it was child labor and it was kind of fun.”

Thanks for sharing, Brian!