Story by Chantale Spencer

“This past summer I was sitting on the logs in OURSpace (the fenced field behind the High Park Forest School that now houses the Nature Centre) with some children during lunch. There were approximately 50 people in the field all engaged in activities. Then all of sudden we noticed a squirrel running through the field with something in her mouth. At first we thought it might have been a sock or some kind of food she was carrying. Once we spotted the squirrel she quickly ran up the tree and was gone. We all went back to our activities when we saw the squirrel again with something similar in her mouth. Two leaders and 10 children all stopped their activities and watched the squirrel, who, we quickly realized was moving her babies from one squirrel drey to another. She did this 3 more times for a total of 5 times. I found it so interesting that she felt comfortable enough to move her babies in front of us. Later that week the oak tree that held her original nest was trimmed. It was almost like she knew this was going to happen and moved her babies beforehand.”

Story by Leslie Nemeth

“It was the summer of 1983. High Park was quieter then. It felt like the whole park was ours, to do what we wanted. This was an unfamiliar feeling for me. We had recently moved to Canada from Hungary. My nagymama (pronounced nodge-mama and which means grandma in Hungarian) would spend the day with my cousin and me once a week. Sometimes we would go to the Island, to the Ex or to High Park, but my favourite was High Park.

I didn’t know my grandmother well before this. She came to Canada from Hungary in 1966 and I had only met her a few times before. It was on those days that I began to know my nagymama. She was hard working and quiet with a unexpected sense of humour.

At the park our routine was always the same. We would go swimming, then we would have hamburgers at the restaurant, then we would go paddle boating in Grenadier pond.

It felt like we were building a family tradition.”