As another Niagara-on-the-Lake summer winds down, many of us are looking forward to one last long weekend before autumn arrives. Labour Day has long marked the unofficial end of summer, but it was once one of the biggest celebrations of the year in town. Organized by the local fire department, Labour Day celebrations along the Niagara River were packed with entertainment. There were boat races, games in the park, an evening hop, canoe-tipping contests and the infamous greasy pole competition, which sounds every bit as painful as it looks in this photograph. One year, organizers decided to add a greased pig race. We can only assume it ended in complete chaos, because it never appeared again in an event listing. Another crowd favourite was, you guessed it, another greased event: the watermelon race. A greased watermelon was tossed into the Niagara River, and the first person to wrestle it ashore won a prize. However you spend this Labour Day weekend, we hope you enjoy the final long weekend of summer, and that it’s considerably less greasy than those of Niagara-on-the-Lake’s past.