In 1965 we were living at 10 Maple Lane in the Edinburgh section of Ottawa. Less than 2 blocks away was the wrought iron fence surrounding the huge estate known as Rideau Hall, the official residence of the Governor General of Canada.
A friend of mine (I believe from the boy scouts, but I don’t recall his name) suggested one night that we sneak through the fence and go exploring. This, of course, would be tresspassing and could get us into trouble, so I wasn’t keen to participate. However, he explained that his father was the Aide de camp (personal assistant) to the Governor General (at the time Jules Leger), and so he had been on the grounds before.
In any case, being adventurous 12-year olds, we did sneak in. Looking at pictures of that fence today I can’t imagine how we got through. I just remember that somehow where the wrought iron posts met with the cement columns the space was enough for us to barely squeeze through.
We spent probably about 40 minutes walking around and exploring in the dark. For some reason I don’t recall anymore, my friend was carrying a coffee can filled with Red devil firecrackers!
My friend instructed me that if anyone saw us or asked us what we were doing I should not say anything but let him do the talking. He explained that there were other houses on the property that various servants lived in with their families, so it was not unusual to see children on the grounds.
As it turns out, we took a much greater risk than we anticipated… because that night there was a foreign diplomat visiting Rideau Hall, and RCMP officers were everywhere
At one point as we were walking down a small dark street, a security guard pointed a flashlight at us. My friend simply waved at him and said hi with a big smile and walked on! He explained to me that since he didn’t run away but acted as though he belonged there, the guard simply assumed he was one of the children who lived on the property.
After that we decided we’d better leave since we noticed the large presence of police. So that was our adventure, one that luckily ended without incident. Who knows what would have happened had they stopped us and noticed the can of firecrackers!
