Ghosts on the hill

We didn't know why we weren't allowed outside for recess, but I remember being upset about it. When you're in fifth grade those 15 minutes are the gas that keeps you running until lunch time. All we knew was recess was to be spent inside. Police dogs roamed the back woods and sniffed around swing-sets while we pressed our noses to the glass to catch a glimpse of our playground.

That day in class was the morning after the most shocking event to happen in my community in my short life-- an event whose ghosts still haunt my community. It was May 7th, 1992 when three employees at a McDonald's Restaurant in Sydney River, Nova Scotia, were murdered and a fourth permanently disabled in an attempted robbery. It was the first fast-food murder in Canada-- a 10 minute walk from my house when I was 10 years old.

The McDonald's sat on top a hill, the kind of hill where you scrap the bottom of your car and your dad curses if he's not too careful. It was Mecca for us because of the 49 cent twist cone and the happy meal you know you could get your parents to buy for you on Friday nights when they were too tired to cook.

I remember when it reopened after the murders everyone was nervous to say they had been to the restaurant again. Eventually they just tore the place down and there has been nothing built on that hill for the past 14 years. It remains a concrete hill without a memorial. I would drive past everyday and sometimes think about the ghosts that haunt the hill. At least they have a nice view of the harbour.

I recently went home for a much needed vacation. I walked past the McDonald's with my boyfriend and told him the story. It's grizzly but it is a part of my home and a part of all of our memories. No matter what is built on top of the hill, it will always be the place where I never wanted to go anymore after the day I couldn't go outside for recess.

http://www.mcmurder.com/1990/1992-05-07.html