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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!
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Ice-boating on the inner harbour
Outdoor skating
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While outdoor skating remains popular, the venues are decidedly less pretty
Tobogganing
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Torontonians used to take their tobogganing very seriously (check out the one with the light on it!)
Hockey
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You didn't need artificial ice back then...
Skiing
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Urban skiing was a far more common site in the 1920s
Curling
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Outdoor curling!
Ice fishing
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Why dress down to ice fish?
And, naturally, snowball fights
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Some things never get old...
See also:
Photos from the Toronto Archives
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