I'm from Edmonton in Alberta where we used to take axes out into the street on a spring day and chop up the ice which was covering the road. My family went to church every Sunday and one week we all took pictures of ourselves dressed up for church to send the pics to my dad who was out of town. I stood there with my little grin and held up my offering envelope for the camera.
I'm from the lady whose fur coat - muskrat actually - looked exactly like my mom's and one day I followed the fur coat out of church and into the parking lot only to find out that my mom wasn't inside it.
I'm from not trying to feel embarrassed about it.
I'm from Coquitlam BC, from a house where there's a creek and a culvert going under the road, and where it always rains and turns the creek into a river! I'm from falling into the creek on the first day we arrived, because I couldn't make the leap across like my big brothers and sister. (I was four.) I'm from peeing in the creek and being blackmailed by my sister for several years afterward because we knew we weren't supposed to pee in the creek and she threatened to tell mom. I finally told mom myself a couple years ago.
I'm from the Port Mann mile long bridge and the new Potello Bridge which looked the same, and we crossed those bridges so many times. I'm from Stanley Park and walking along the ocean at White Rock and reading about some unfortunate person who died when he "perished on the dashing rocks below." I'm from my neighbours the Thompsons, who lived across the street. I'm from the place of grief where they mourn for the oldest daughter Kelly who was my sister's best friend and was killed in a car crash in Kelowna.
I'm from Kelowna because my uncle, my aunt and my grandma all lived there for a time, and they all died there. Kelowna is a beautiful place. When we were kids we took a holiday in Kelowna and swam in Okanagan Lake. I'm from the drop off where the lake goes from long and shallow to quick and deep into darkness. My cousin Neil remembers swimming that day so many years ago. I saw Neil at aunt Lorraine's funeral this year. It had been about 30 years.
I'm from Calgary because that's where aunt Lorraine lived and raised her four kids Mary-Ann, Sandy, Bob and Neil by herself after uncle Mac died. I met some of Mac's family at Lorraine's funeral for the first time.
I'm from Red Deer because Uncle Don and Aunt Joan always lived there and we visited them, especially that one time at Christmas when we moved out east, and we packed up our stuff from Coquitlam before Christmas, went to Red Deer for Christmas with nana Hepburn, and then continued on our move to Oakville. The septic tank broke and we had to walk to the neighbour's to go to the bathroom. It was eight weeks before we saw our stuff because the moving van broke down and they left it sitting somewhere on the highway.
I'm from Boston Bar, BC, because my dad lived there for many years starting when he was a teenager. My grandpa bought a cabin business there when he sold his garage in Viking , AB. My uncle Bob lived in Boston Bar and we stayed with them a few times in their log cabin house right on the trans-Canada highway with the trucks barelling by all night long.
