About three miles south of Nottawasaga Bay, the Pretty River takes a graceful bend through a growth of willow trees and becomes shallow, flowing more quickly as it passes over a stony outcropping.
In springtime it runs fast and foamy on its way to the bay, drawing fisherman in the mornings, picnicking families on the weekends and, in the evenings, young people meeting for clandestine rendezvous they hope will go undetected under the embrace of the willows.
During the early years of the last century, a few of the local farming families, attracted by the proximity to the stream and one another, clustered their homes on the bluff above. In time, the dirt road between them became paved and, eventually, a highway legitimized with the designation of a number – 24. More homes emerged and, over time, about 100 souls began to consider themselves a community, made formal and proper by a name taken from the bay that could be seen from attic windows on a clear day.
Bio:
ANTHONY SANFILIPPO is a cardiologist, Kingston resident, medical educator, and first-generation Canadian who grew up in small-town Ontario. People and their stories have been his fascination and the heart of his work and teaching. He is the author of The Doctors We Need: Imagining a New Path for Physician Recruitment, which will be released this fall by Sutherland House Experts.
[IMAGE CAPTION: Artwork by Xiaorou Fan]