nostalgia 1; change 10
Anyone who's known me for more than a month can tell you I am extremely nostalgic. I live for revelling in the past. I think its a hobby. The older I get the more fertile the soil for my nostalgia. It grows in my head and heart like knapweed in the Nicola Valley.It usually goes something like this: "Remember the cider we drank ast October in Montreal. It was soo good. Soooo good." I can't wait to go have it again." (I also have an annoying habit of repeating words or phrases when I get excited but that's another blog entry, for sure. Fooor sure.)
Or
Almost everytime I see a certain high school girlfriend I run through a memory I really should let go of: "Tonya, remember when we used to drive around in your tempo with Scatman on full blast and I'd pull your ebrake going around corners in the snow!"
I'm especially like that with my hometown and my hometown friends. The older I get the rosier my past becomes. Like the first 18 years of my life growing up in a rural BC town was friggen Shangri-la. Yeah right. I'm sure a counsellor would tell me this is my brain's way of blocking the bad with the good. When I lived here I couldn't wait to get out and thought it was so backwards and hillbilly. Now, words like quaint, community, safe is how I describe the Merritt I grew up in.
Here I am 10 years after leaving and wondering if high school kids in Merritt have ever experienced a real home made donut. Not Timmy Hos up on the hill. From grades 8-11 we'd walk every lunch hour to the local bakery ran by a fantastically calm woman named Mrs. Sehkon. We'd gorge ourselves on butterhorns, donuts and egg salad sandwiches before sneaking a cigarette or attempting flirt with a crush. I also wonder if my brothers have had mom'n'pop style friend chicken, not KFC. Finally I wonder if Centennial games is still the site of romantic make ups and breakups.
Merritt has changed so much since I left that sometimes I have to rub my eyes and take a second glance at the downtown core. It's shrivelled and full of gawd awful country music murals and sidewalk stars. Its developing like crazy to the northeast of town. One day we'll be like a mini-Kelowna or Nanaimo with our strip malls.
Our franchise total:
1 Walmart (puke, barf, choke)
1 Canadian Tire
1 Lordco
1 Napa Autoparts
1 Timmy Ho's
1 Taco Del Mar (Now its for sale, $125K, anytakers. I'm sorry but I love Tex-Mex food but in Merritt? Where we have exactly 2.75 of latino descent. Where's the market there?)
1 Coopers
1 Superstore (again, why?)
1 McDonald's
What next, Starbucks?
New developments that have my stamp of approval: the Skateboard Park, the Rotary Amphitheatre, the mountain bike park (right behind the copshop, love it!), Mandolin's Cafe, Work'n'Play, 378 Boardshop and Wekusko coffee shop. Let's hope they grow like the nostalgia in my head. I want to take the city planners on a whistle stop tour of funky, awesome towns that have avoided the strip mall sprall and nurtured individual business owners to set up shop (ie. Nelson, Cumberland, Qualicum Beach).
So here I am cradling the tiny, rosey memories of what was, hoping that others are too.
posted by Miranda @ Sunday, November 19, 2006
6 Comments:
Hi from Merritt. Actually, Starbucks is slated to open sometime next year, in the old Robin's Donuts place. But what next after that???
Only 1 Tim Horton's? I thought Merrit was like Owen Sound...but the 'sound has 6 or 7 in the city and a few more on the outskirts...even the hospital cafeteria is run by Tim Horton's.
You can still shop at the Post's, eh? :)
hey I just perused the star walk - I think it's kinda impressive :P
I like how the stars aren't really on one street but kinda "strewn" everywhere... What do you guys do? Ambush country singers and make them put their hand in concrete? haha
We actually just get them really drunk, heave them over to campsite C, arrange some good old Merritt Mountain Music fest hospitality. If they survive the night then they get a star.
hahahaha :)
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