GREAT SAMARITAN

A True Story

By Izzy Ess of Wilderness

Today, I bicycled from Welland to Port Robinson.  In the old days, I would have made it to Niagara Falls, Ontario and New York, connected by the beautiful Rainbow Bridge.  After four or five years of not bicycling, I’ve had to learn again what routes are makeable and which are not.  So far, this year, in which I may be giving up my car because of limited, fixed incomes, my bicycling has increased gradually, to where I could pedal to Port Colbourne and back without a problem.  Today, exhausted, I was walking my bicycle on Cataract Road and a man stopped who told me that his dad once tried to ride to Vineland and come back and had to call for help.  He wondered if me or my bicycle were disabled and if I needed a lift.  He was a life-saver.  He had an open trailer and a massive, friendly dog and an understanding of such folks as I, aged and remembering the times gone by without always recognizing that the days gone by are definitely gone.

There was a time, when I could pedal back and forth to Buffalo and Welland.  In fact, I did it during the Taste of Buffalo and was able to get to downtown, before the noontime eating frenzy and return before the evening meal in Welland.  I dream of it and of the tales I told, including that it took 3 hours to get to Buffalo and 6 hours to get back.  It wasn’t because fatigue set in.  It is because Buffalo is downhill from Welland, about a drop of 50 to 100 feet, as part of the escarpment drop from Welland to Lake Erie.  The biggest drop is at Niagara Falls, some 200 feet, where the water changes from being level with the Niagara River to being level with Lake Ontario.  This drop of some 250 feet is what is negotiated by the Locks along the new Welland Canal and the Locks along the old Erie Canal from Buffalo to the Hudson River, outside the city of Manhattan, NY.  Both the canals competed at one time, but I think the Welland Canal and St. Lawrence Seaway systems have won out.  Both canals are able to bring ocean liners from the Atlantic Ocean to Lake Superior and connect with systems that allow transportation to the West coast of USA and Canada.  For example, a connection at Chicago, at one time, would have connected into the famous railroad systems which would come together at Chicago and the famous airplane cargo systems which flew out of Midway and O’Hare airports.

To get from Welland to Niagara Falls, Ontario, one must somehow cross or go under the New Welland Canal, the 4^th version of this Waterway, the 5^th shelved for the time being by the powers that be.  Today, I chose, or it was chosen for me because of extensive improvements being made to the 406, to use the underpass on Main Street, a big hill down and an equally big hill up.  I wanted to get to Port Robinson but the sign, wrongly, said, “Exit to Port Robinson Road Forbidden until it is unblocked on Sunday, June 23.  Fines for Speeding doubled if there are men on the construction site.  Please drive defensively.  Beware of overhead wires!”  The hills, up and down, I could not negotiate safely without getting off the bicycle and walking it.  Going down was easy; walking up was very hard for me.  It was getting hot and windy and the going was slow.  On my slow walk under the canal, I mentally recorded several objects which made up my mystery.  It was an actual mystery as I, myself, didn’t know the answer.  Let me list the objects that I found and found curiously interesting:

(1)Three dead snails.

(2)Five live brown beetles that looked like small cockroaches.

(3)The skeleton of a small snake almost making a figure eight.

(4)A brown and white ragged blanket with a bulky something or other in its folds, about the size of a 5 year old child or a fair sized Rottweiler, with what looked like a head and a body and thin, closely held, limbs.

a.   An oily, dead bird about the size of a swallow.

b.  The shiny bezel of an expensive silver or platinum watch.

c.   A greasy, dirty, steel, ball-bearing about 3 mm. in diameter.

d.  A soggy, empty package of Players Light.

e.   A plastic, closed bottle with about an ounce of Cola remaining.

f.    Two flattened, empty, plastic soda bottles.

g.   A nest of about a dozen small cockroaches.

h.  Some small red ants as I walked up the hill after the tunnel.

i.    A large, empty triangular box of Toblerone Chocolate, of Berne, Switzerland, with four languages on it, French, English, Italian and German.  [I worked right next door to the Toblerone Factory for two years.  Every time I opened my basement laboratory window, I would breathe in the rich smell of dark chocolate, thereby gaining another pound or two, in weight, altogether 50 lbs. in 2 years…

j.    A child’s old, left running shoe, without the shoelaces.

k.  Three ground level doors to pipes or stairwells probably leading to and from the bottom or inside of the new canal.

l.    Huge bulrushes in the ridges of the hill, beside the sidewalk, indicating that this land was underwater for some time, perhaps part of the Welland Canal.  The chambers to which these stairwells and tunnels led were possibly still useable and might have been used for living or office quarters of workers living and working on site for a certain period of time, perhaps in the early 20^th Century, when the New 4^th Welland Canal was built.

m.A ladies lipstick case with a tiny nub of the remaining lipstick, coloured a reddish, deep orange, a rather sensuous modern colour.

n.  A discarded warning sign for drivers, “Construction Zone.  Slow Down!”  The new sign in red, read, “New.  Speed Limit 50.”

It took about an hour to negotiate the double hills to get to the beginning of Hwy. 140, which leads to Port Colbourne.  The massive construction project will extend the 406 to become the new route to Port Colbourne, making the 406 a four lane, divided highway form Ste. Catharines to Port Colbourne, skirting the edge of the City of Welland and basically making the land connection from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, to match the water’s connection by the New Welland Canal.  By the time I bicycled East to Port Robinson, I was exhausted by the effort, the rising heat and the wind in my face.  I stopped frequently to rest and relieve the pressure on my buttocks.  I had brief conversations with bicyclists and local residents, out for a walk or just sitting on their porches, staying out of the heat.

I’ve always enjoyed the ferry trip across the Canal at Port Robinson.  There used to be a bridge that linked the east side to the west side of the town divided forever by the Canal.  About ten years ago, the bridge was knocked down by an ocean liner by someone’s error in judgement.  The town became a ghost town but has somewhat recovered in the past three to four years.  A bar-restaurant, the only one in town, has been re-opened as a favourite drinking hole for the town and surrounding agricultural lands.  The improved roads and the small ferry for people and bicycles have done the trick.  It seems to be a nice quiet place in which to rear children and be convenient to the many farms and factories in the area.

Once on the other side of the Welland Canal, I found that the construction on the 406 made it again a limited access to my favourite paths and routes.  By the time I got to Cataract Road, I was exhausted, and must have looked it.  My life-saver, Paul, took me right to my door, for which I was very grateful.  The Rose Parade was going on today and Lincoln Street was partially blocked.  Luckily, my apartment house was accessible.  Paul might have had some difficulties getting to his destination inasmuch as the parade was intersecting his intended route.  I hope he’s not stranded somewhere.

On Monday, I was relating this story to some folks at Tim Horton’s enjoying morning coffee and donuts and/or breakfast.  Two men immediately asked me about Paul and then said they knew him and his family.  They confirmed that he was a beloved member of his family and that he was particularly kind and gentle and had the personality that would have made him a Great Samaritan and a Special Teacher for Special Education kids.  They also knew about his keen interest in small pieces of wood which he refinished and reassembled to create beautiful furniture.  They confirmed that it would just like Paul to get me to my front door, even if it meant going out of his way.

Well, Paul, whose name I still haven’t remembered, wherever you are today and whatever you’re doing, I’m sure you’re doing it with kindness and generosity, skill and diligence.  I’m delighted with our encounter and feel I made you think of your father, who, like me, takes bicycle rides that are not feasible, but do it anyway.  Thank you again.  May all your problems be little ones…

THE END

© izzy sommers, md

Welland, Canada

June 25, 2013