In Black and White . . .

Last week in Calgary we spent an afternoon at Heritage Park where they have gathered old buildings, cars and community effects to give you the impression you were walking the dusty old streets of your childhood...well, your childhood if you were born 50 years ago or more and lived in a small prairie town.

It brought back many memories . . .

from the reminders of old farm houses . . . ours (of course) was a large 2-storey log house, much more glamourous than this but I can appreciate more than one kind of farm-house architecture. . .

to vehicles of another era.  We never had a truck like this but I do admire these early ones. Imagine the men who designed and built these vehicles.  What a thrill it must have been for them.

Notice the name on this building.   This is the old pharmacy from one our former hometowns, Vulcan.  Now they have made it into an ice-cream shop.  Funny thing was, while we were on the train provided for movement throughout the park, Marilyn and I were talking about Vulcan and a lady leaned forward and said, 'Are you from Vulcan'?  Nice coincidence.

Have loved the romance of train travel since I was a young girl.  We left the Peace River country in a train.  Often on a summer evening we would all get in the car, get ice cream cones in town and sit by the train station watching the trains go by.  The hiss and the roar of the old engines were very fascinating to me as a kid.

And then there were the horses.  The photo above is probably my favourite of the day.  'Shredder' and 'Splinter' are great specimens and were the horses on our wagon ride later in the afternoon.

I was seriously struck with the difference between this park and our lives today with the technology and changes in just a few years.  It is difficult to imagine that this park will hold much interest for the next couple generations until enough years have gone by to make it a major curiosity piece.

But if you are looking for a quiet, peaceful look at the past it could be time well spent.

Thanks Marilyn for a great day.