What's the best thing about Thunder Bay? We asked MP Patty Hajdu
Wild Goose Beach is a busy summertime spot on the shore of Lake Superior
Patty Hajdu has many fond memories of Wild Goose Beach, on the shore of Lake Superior, just east of Thunder Bay, Ont., in the Municipality of Shuniah.
The public beach was a favourite summertime spot for her and her two sons when they were young, said Hajdu, the MP for Thunder Bay-Superior North, and Minister of Status of Women.
It's those memories that make the small strip of sandy beach her pick to represent the best thing about Thunder Bay.
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"For me [Wild Goose Beach] was a really great thing about Thunder Bay because as a single mom, often times in the summer you want to take your kids to the lake ... and this was a really accessible, free place that I could take my children," she said.
She recalls visiting the beach several times a week in the summer, bringing a picnic and watching her boys swim and play. A favourite pastime was hunting for treasures in the sand.
"We would walk up and down the shores and we would collect beach glass," she said.
"I have an entire vase at home of beach glass that we've collected, primarily here," said Hajdu, adding that although her son's are now both in their 20s, that jar of smooth-edged glass "instantly brings back memories," for all of them.
While the beach is a place that brings back many personal memories, Hajdu said it also evokes the connection that people living in Thunder Bay feel to Lake Superior.
The lake is "so much part of our DNA," she said. "It's something that no matter where you live, you're attached, I think, to that piece of our geography."