The Old Hometown!

June 01, 2019

Sadly, today we have to say goodbye to John and Carol and continue our journey.  After a hearty breakfast, we battened down the trailer and said goodbye to our long lasting friends.  They assured us that they would visit us when we returned to our home in Nanaimo. They were hospitable hosts. 

The smoke was still in the sky but had lightened somewhat. It was now time to go to my hometown of Brooks, to visit my brother John and his wife Helga.  The drive to Brooks is about one hour and the road has not changed much since the many times I travelled it during my ill spent youth. The #1 Trans Canada highway boasts to have the longest piece of straight highway with no curves, in North America, between Medicine Hat and Tilley, Alberta.  

The southern Alberta prairie plains roll out in all directions with very little human habitation. In my youth, large herds of antelope ranged in the area, however, sadly their population has dwindled and we only saw the occasional lonely one ranging in the grasses.  The prairie is still nice and green with some blooming wild flowers.  The area is known for its intense heat in the height of summer and the prairie then loses its color and becomes dry and brown.  A strong steady wind was blowing in from the west and bringing with it the northern smoke.

As we neared Brooks, from the east, I could already see the many changes to my “old home town”.  My family and I had lived on the Alberta Horticultural Center. My father was employed there as a Horticultural Technician since our immigration to Canada in 1954.  It is (was) located approximately 4 kms. east of Brooks.  It is now called the Crop Diversification Research Centre South and the boundary of Brooks is less than a kilometer from the center.

The economy of Brooks has been diverse for quite some time. Historically, it was a farming town, however, the oil industry has been an influencing factor and most recently the development of the largest livestock feedlot in Canada has also been a significant factor in the economy and employment to this now city.

We wound our way through the familiar and not so familiar streets until we located my brother John’s house.  They gave us a warm welcome and allowed us to relax under their sunshade as we brought each other up to date.  

Later in the afternoon, John drove us around Brooks, showing us the many changes that had occurred since the last time we had been in Brooks.  We drove out to the Crop Diversification Research Centre and noticed that our house had been removed and many familiar test plots, and familiar landscape sites had changed, relocated or removed.  I felt sadness and a reluctance to accept those changes and remarked that this would probably be my last visit to the center.   

We then set out to see Kinbrook Provincial Park.  Lake Newell is the lake within the park and was a favorite place for our family and the folks living in Brooks.  This large man made lake is part of the Eastern Irrigation District’s ambitious plan to bring irrigated water to the farmer’s crops in the southern Alberta region.   Since I left, the lake was developed into a Provincial Park and has many campsites and family day camps.  There is a large sandy beach and a modern boat launch and jetty.  On this weekend, the campsites were busy, and many people were enjoying the park. Kinbrook is considered to be the most family friendly Provincial Park in Alberta.  Driving through the park brought back many happy memories.  It is also the place where our graduating class had its after grad party, a party that I can’t remember much of.  

We then drove back into Brooks, and cruised by the new hockey arena where the Brooks Juniors won the Canadian finals this year. The building is very impressive and murals have been painted on its walls depicting important scenes of the development of the region. One mural depicts the above ground aquaduct that was built at the turn of the century as part of the irrigation system. We lived a short distance from this structure.

We then toured past my sisters’ homes as well as the house my parents owned after my father retired. Again, floods of many happy memories. It was getting late in the day so we enjoyed a great meal at Montanas family restaurant and then finally went to bed after making plans for our day tomorrow.