When Aly Boltman saw Leora Eades' photograph of tobogganing down 9th Street West Hill, she recognized the house on the right immediately. "That's MY house!" She said she had no idea that at one time 9th St used to be so narrow  and that "the community's kids pretty much claimed it for their own each winter, up until the city widened the road."

Today, some of Owen Sound's old stories and memories have come back to life as the picture is a 10 foot by 8 foot sign on the side of Aly's Victorian house on the east side of Evans Park where 4th Ave. W. deadends.  She hopes it "gives the people driving or walking or biking down the 9th St. West hill a smile."

It was a community effort - Steve Good designed it, Parsons Foto Source scanned it in high resiolution and Sign Street manufactured and installed it. Then Sign Street and more than a dozen other community members with imagination and memories crowdfunded the money and the sign went up today.

Aly wants everyone to enjoy the new addition to the neighbourhood - "Come visit the new sign at Evans Park! Have a peek into the past and celebrate community pride! And let's hope for a few big snow days for some good tobogganing this year!"

And she shares this wisdom from Mark Abley, Spoken Here; Travels Among Threatened Languages.: "Without the stories, the land turns into real estate."

source: Facebook, Aly Boltman