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BRIEF REMINDERS
Saturday April 30, 2016
No stage of live has reverse gear – and nobody wants one, except as we get older that notion holds some appeal.
Nobody wants to go back to the 60’s, B&W TV, snail-mail and white-wall tires but time-travel in our minds is a reasonable indulgence sometimes.
We can never go back, can we?
Having no place of those I’ve lived that has a strong tug of ‘this is home’, Red Deer holds a peculiar place in my memory, in my experiences. I lived her from 8-17, certainly formative years. Driving around is always time-travel, the homes we lived in, schools I attended etc. and the place has grown substantially since then. I’m not so sure it has changed much …
The hotel I spent last night at – across from Waskasoo Creek and Rotary Park, at the foot of Piper’s Mountain (a.k.a. a toboggan hill) where I walked this morning. I remember two summers in a row when I attended a week-long day-camp in that park. The big shelter we huddled under during rain showers, the clanky old hand-pump water well (I tried it – it takes just as long to get that cold fresh water flowing) but otherwise the park seems so much smaller than I remember. Yes, I’m bigger, but in a different way. Memories of childhood are like watching a grainy old movie, flickering black and white, contrasted with colour today. Cool, green and quiet – without the squeals of kids playing games or running toward everything with that ‘I can’t wait’ feeling about everything.
I grew here. I grew up here.
Who says you can never go back?
I did, just now.
Mark Kolke
written / published from Baymont Inn, Red Deer, AB (I am in Red Deer for our Spring Toastmasters Convention)
morning walk: 5C/41F, overcast, negligible breeze – the creek burbles along, traffic is light – no dogs in sight; my gait was quick, as if speed might somehow tighten my waist-line, the walk was short but the trip too many years …
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