http://falaise.wordpress.com/2007/07/05/of-trails-and-wars-in-the-1940s-and-1950s/ a unique urban green space in montreal Fri, 22 May 2009 07:41:02 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 http://falaise.wordpress.com/2007/07/05/of-trails-and-wars-in-the-1940s-and-1950s/#comment-97 Ron Thu, 02 Aug 2007 22:21:24 +0000 http://falaise.wordpress.com/2007/07/05/of-trails-and-wars-in-the-1940s-and-1950s/#comment-97 I lived on Regent Street below the tracks between 1949 and 1959. As kids, we spent our summers playing in the Falaise. We used it for our BB/pellet gun wars; raced soapbox carts down the paved road that led to the rail yards; stole track bombs from the rail yards and then put them on the street car tracks on Western Avenue; raided the many vegetable gardens tended to by Italian immigrants; and, swam in the creek at the bottom of the embankment during the summer months. When I was 8 years old, I started delivering the Montreal Star. I delivered newspapers on every route between Decarie and Grand Blvds substituting for delivery boys away on vacation. I was eventually given my own route between Clifton and Grand Blvd because it was too small and no one wanted it. However, in 1958/59 construction started on the apartment buildings on Beaconsfield Avenue. Within a year, I had the largest route with over 100 customers. I presently own my own real estate company. I got my start in life as an entrepreneur by knocking on doors prospecting for new customers for my newspaper route; competing with the Italian kids for business delivering groceries with our wagons at Steinberg’s on Sherbrooke Street; knocking on doors and looking for empty pop bottles we could trade in for cash; and, by shoveling sidewalks in the winter. Not one of my friends received an allowance from their parents; we got our spending money the old-fashioned way—by working for it. I lived on Regent Street below the tracks between 1949 and 1959. As kids, we spent our summers playing in the Falaise. We used it for our BB/pellet gun wars; raced soapbox carts down the paved road that led to the rail yards; stole track bombs from the rail yards and then put them on the street car tracks on Western Avenue; raided the many vegetable gardens tended to by Italian immigrants; and, swam in the creek at the bottom of the embankment during the summer months.
When I was 8 years old, I started delivering the Montreal Star. I delivered newspapers on every route between Decarie and Grand Blvds substituting for delivery boys away on vacation. I was eventually given my own route between Clifton and Grand Blvd because it was too small and no one wanted it. However, in 1958/59 construction started on the apartment buildings on Beaconsfield Avenue. Within a year, I had the largest route with over 100 customers.
I presently own my own real estate company. I got my start in life as an entrepreneur by knocking on doors prospecting for new customers for my newspaper route; competing with the Italian kids for business delivering groceries with our wagons at Steinberg’s on Sherbrooke Street; knocking on doors and looking for empty pop bottles we could trade in for cash; and, by shoveling sidewalks in the winter. Not one of my friends received an allowance from their parents; we got our spending money the old-fashioned way—by working for it.

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