My First Edmonton Experience, by Ruth Hamson; Childhood memoir of medical treatment in the 1930s

Date: 1929

My first memory of Edmonton was the sight of it from the berth of a Northern Alberta Railway train window. The year was 1929 and as a 9-year-old appendicitis patient I had spent a very long and tiring day on the nearly 200-mile trip from our homestead farm near Lesser Slave Lake in northern Alberta. My patient, anxious mother had read to me, and tried various ways to help me pass the time and keep my mind off the nagging pain in my side and the tedium of the journey. She pointed out the telegraph poles that lined the railway tracks and from time to time we would note some poles had a sign indicating the distance yet to be traveled.

The train approached the city from the north and after going through the Dunvegan Stock Yards it slowed to a crawl. From the train window I could see many buildings, which to my childish perspective were huge, and many more automobiles than I had dreamed possible in the whole world. On the horizon was a colossal eye-catching white milk bottle on the roof of a tall building advertising Edmonton City Dairy.

When the train finally came to a hesitant and jerky stop a dark man in a spiffy uniform helped my mother with the baggage and she carried me the length of the train car, down the steps and onto the train platform. Here my father's friend, Dr. May, met us in response to an urgent telegram sent late the night before. In moments I was placed on a stretcher by two white-clad men, who pushed me into the back of a waiting ambulance. The door was closed and with no windows, I felt as if I were in a cocoon. I could hear the rumble of the traffic and feel the unfamiliar motion of the vehicle beneath me.

My memory of entering the Royal Alexandra Hospital was one of endless white corridors and many busy preoccupied people. After a week or so that left me with blurred memories of pain, homesickness and fear I was discharged and taken to the home of my father's doctor friend where mother had been staying between visits to me at the hospital. In those days hospital visiting hours were restricted. Up to this point my impressions of Edmonton had not been at all favorable.

However, this was about to change. The beautiful modern home of Dr. and Mrs. May was like fairyland to my 9-year-old eyes - it had a curved staircase, a fireplace, and a bathroom! It was situated on Saskatchewan Drive and overlooked the North Saskatchewan River. From an upstairs bedroom window I could see the tall buildings of downtown Edmonton, where the lights at night were like a million stars to my child's mind.

Two days before taking the return train north, my mother and I were treated to a city drive that I will never forget - clattering street cars, a red brick school in an immense play-ground, hundreds of cars, and crowds of people walking on the paved sidewalks. I had previously seen only a few yards of wooden sidewalks.

Best of all was a drive over the High Level bridge where I could see a boat on the water below and a train crossing on a level of the bridge above us.

The High Level Bridge, built in 1913, is of course still an integral part of Edmonton City. The home that belonged to Dr. and Mrs. May has been declared a Heritage Building. It is located at 10319 Saskatchewan Drive. I long to visit it again.

The enormous milk bottle was for many years an important landmark in Edmonton, frequently used by flyers in navigating to the Industrial Airport. It was taken down when the building was demolished in 1976. A few weeks ago I began a search for information regarding the fate of the milk bottle. Some long- term Edmonton residents suggest it might have become a, feature in one of our historical parks. This proved not to be the case. I had an interesting and informative visit to the Edmonton City Archives, which made available to me many newspaper clippings as well as several photographs.

The fifty-foot high, eight ton steel plate milk bottle had been erected on the roof of the Edmonton City Dairy in 1926. It had been built on special order in New York City and assembled in Edmonton.

The location was 109 Street and 102 Avenue. The bottle served a very practical use, as it was the cooler for the condensers of the dairy's refrigeration for nearly 50 years. The dairy was sold many years later to Silverwood's Dairy but the name of the former owner remained on the bottle.

In 1977 the Dairy site and many others were demolished to make room for re-zoning and the introduction of the Madison Development Corporation, a 278-unit structure, between Jasper Avenue and 104 Avenue.

The fate of the giant milk bottle was controversial over many weeks. General feelings were expressed that it should go to the Edmonton Exhibition grounds and be erected on top of the Agricultural Building. A dairy farmer offered $7,000 for it. It would have been a great advertisement. However the demolition Company, who had been responsible for taking it down safely, claimed it. It therefore found a new home in the yard of JENKINS AND FLEENOR ENTERPRISES as an advertisement for that company's salvage and demolition business on 66th Street. Now, 25 years later, current city maps and the phone directory give no indication of that firm still being in existence.

Finally, at the suggestion of a young friend, I contacted Northlands Park to be told Yes, the giant milk bottle is now in the Exhibition Grounds in the sector called Bonanza Park where gold panning is demonstrated during Klondyke Days. It is there in tribute to a former director of Northlands who had been an official of the old Edmonton City Dairy.

How wonderful that such an interesting piece of Edmonton's early landscape should be preserved in such a way!