Drown your who what?

DROWN SHORE LUNCH FIRES, of course.

So there we were, rolling into Ontario from out west. Good bye prairies, hello Canadian Shield. The views changed, but we weren’t expecting road sign language changes just yet.

I mean, the welcome sign made sense. Forest fire hazard sign? For sure. The other one, not so much. At least not to me. Or my crew. Read on…

What Does “Drown Shore Lunch Fires” Mean?

That’s the sign that greeted us as we crossed the Manitoba border. Right there, first thing. Welcome to Ontario it says. Forest fire hazard low it says. And then… that yellow strip at the bottom. DROWN SHORE LUNCH FIRES.

I stared at it. The Dutchman stared at it. The First Mate stared at it and said “what does that mean?”

Honestly, kid. Same question.

So what’s a gal to do to decipher this baffling gibberish? Well, on a whim I decided to post it to my Facebook page and a couple of RV groups with a simple ask: can anyone decipher the yellow bit? Frankly, I was amused and thought others would think so too.

Oh my gosh.

The responses came in fast and they were all over the map. Some people were wonderfully generous. Quick, kind explanations. A little nod to the confusion, a “fair enough, not everyone knows this one.” Those are my people.

Some were equally confused. Turns out there are Ontarians who have lived there their entire lives and have never once heard the expression. Which honestly made me feel a lot better.

And then, well… there were the others. You know the ones. The ones who somehow decided that I was an idiot (and as much as said so) and lacked basic common sense for not knowing what a shore lunch is. As if this is universal Canadian knowledge that was handed out at birth and I simply wasn’t paying attention.

Oh social media groups, you did not disappoint. It turns out that phrase is completely decipherable if you grew up in Ontario fishing culture. Completely baffling if you didn’t.

Shore Lunch: An Ontario Fishing Tradition

Here’s the thing. I know what lunch is. I know what a shore is. I did not know that “shore lunch” is a specific Ontario fishing tradition, a lakeside fish fry that’s practically a cultural institution in these parts. Usually part of a guided fishing trip. Fresh-caught walleye, fried up right on the lake’s edge. I’m sure it’s wonderful. I’m also sure that if you didn’t grow up here, you have absolutely no frame of reference that those words even go together. And of course, it bears asking, what about shore breakfasts? Or shore dinners? What about fires enjoyed at locations other than the shore? This BC girl has so many more questions.

This little GrandFamily has so much more to learn as I carry them .coast to coast across this big, beautiful country. And let me tell you, Canada does not have one shared set of colloquialisms. They seem to shift every few hundred kilometres.

What This Trip Is Teaching Us About Canadian Regional Language

Honestly? That might be my favourite thing about this trip so far. Every province has handed us something we didn’t know we didn’t know. Ontario just did it with a road sign. I suspect it won’t be the last time.

Well dearest readers, that’s it for me today, thanks for reading.
Love, Harvey