Each year, I* host two social gatherings for PVL that set aside work and science and allow us all to interact with one another in a more informal context. The summer version has come to be known as "Dr. John's Pizza Party in the Park" due to the many excellent pizza places located in Toronto. The 2020 edition was held virtually, but in 2021 we decided to go with a socially distanced in-person event. Rents being what they are in Toronto and with everyone working from home, the group is spread across a large geographic region. As a result, we elected to move this year's event to a more central location for the group - Rouge Beach in Scarborough. Here's a water-side photo from the event.
(*in case you didn't know, dear reader, all these short intros to the PVL articles are written by the lab director)
by Charissa Campbell
A few weeks ago, our research group decided to take a big step and have an outdoor socially distant gathering. In some cases, some members of our group have never met each other in person, seen campus or even know the height of our supervisor. The pandemic has changed so much in our daily lives, but now with basically all of us fully vaccinated, we figured it was a good first step to finally meet each other in person.
We decided to go to Rouge National Urban Park, which is a rather large park but has a great section right on the lake with lots of trails, views and even a boardwalk through a swampy area. The area we were specifically interested in was Rouge Beach, right on the lake. One convenience about this part of the park is the nearby GO train station that connects to multiple cities. They are double decker trains traveling between Toronto (Union) and Oshawa on that particular line. It definitely makes visiting that park ideal because of the ability to access it directly off the train.
Trains have always been an interest of mine and I have many memories of watching the trains go by wondering if there was a caboose or not at the end. A caboose was placed at the end of the train and were a manned railway car. The crew were able to monitor the train from the back and apply emergency brakes if necessary. However, with the rise of technology an alternative was created called the end-of-train device that is a suitcase-sized box that attaches to the last car. It relays air-brake pressure measurements and the velocity at the end of the train, all to the engineer at the front (https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1995-02-02-9502020309-story.html). This smaller, more portable version eventually replaced the caboose and in 1989 the first cabooseless train made its first trip between Winnipeg and Thunder Bay (https://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/1989-railways-reduce-caboose-use). By the time I was a kid watching the trains go by, a caboose was rather rare but occasionally you’d see one which was worth the wait. Unfortunately, the Go trains do not have a caboose, but the double decker feature makes for great views of the lake.
A caboose on display at the Toronto Railway Historical Association
Once we all arrived at the park, we spent some time at some conveniently placed rocks. They were right on the water and was a great spot to get an updated lab photo. Several people have left the group since our last big group adventure, such as PDFs Christina Smith and Paul Godin, but we’ve also gained several valuable members to our team (Haley, Grace, Conor, Justin). Over time our group will change here and there as people graduate and, hopefully, we will be able to keep up with lab photos to see more of the progression from year to year.
Next, we moved to a grassier area that allowed us to sit in a good socially distant manner. We engaged in frisbee and volleyball and simply took the time to get to know each other. Pizza is the typical food we eat for group outings, so we shared some pizza, sat on the grass and chatted about whatever came on our mind. It was really great to be back in a situation where you can see people face to face. To do this, it is very important to go get your vaccine so you too can start making the progression back to the life we used to remember.
It’s been quite some time since life was all maskless events. I have a picture frame in my office that still says “coming soon…” for my son, Arthur, and yet he just turned 14 months. Now that I have been fully vaccinated, I have applied for lab access so I can slowly start returning to my office and start working on a big lab-based project I am leading. The only way this is possible is to get vaccinated so that not only you can be protected, but so that it doesn’t spread to children who cannot get a vaccine yet. This is still a concern of mine as unfortunately my son won’t be able to get the vaccine for a while still. Therefore, there is still a chance he could still catch covid, unless more people get vaccinated. Things may not go back to what we remember them to be, but I know myself and my family will be better off now that we’ve got our vaccines.
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