Borden Park in the 1930s - A Real Adventure! By Sheila McGugan Petersen

Date: 1930s

Perhaps I was ten or eleven - it was just before school started and a Saturday. My dad had grown a huge crop of corn that year.

When I got up Mother said "Phone two friends and I'll take all of you to Borden Park for a picnic". My friends were thrilled. They came over after lunch and we husked corn. Mother boiled it, wrapped the cobs two by two, in tea towels and then newspaper to keep it warm. Carefully we put butter in a jar. We packed salt, pepper, ketchup, mustard, matches, tablecloth and serviettes.

Each of us had a load to carry as we walked out to 109 Street in Garneau and the red and white streetcar going north. Over the high level bridge, down Jasper Avenue to 101 Street where we transferred to a blue and white bus which took us to the west side of Borden Park. There we got off and at that stop there was a grocery story where drinks (so they were called), wieners and buns were purchased.

A couple of blocks into the park was a fire pit with wood where mom built a fire and we took turns using the two long forks to cook our wieners - so good! However, the very best was the corn, still warm dipped in the butter with a dash of salt and pepper.

Of course, mother did the cleaning up as we sent off to see the sights including monkeys and a gorgeous peacock. Upon our return we tasted what mother carried all the way on the bus - a chocolate cake with an inch of icing - the perfect ending to the journey to Borden Park.

Note: My family has lived in Edmonton since 1920. My father Angus Cecil McGugan has a Nursing home (part of the Norwood Continuing Care) named after him. He was Superintendent of the U of A Hospital from 1941 - 1960. He then started Hospital District 24, which built the Grandview Lynnwood and Dickensfield centers. Another part of his career was being a city Alderman from 1959 - 1968 with one short break.

My grandmother Arabella Cusack McGugan came to Edmonton in the early 1920's to keep house for my dad while he studied medicine. His wife, my mother, was not allowed to teach school in Edmonton as she was married so taught in places such as Tofield, Poplar Lake, etc. She earned the money to put Dad through University.

This explains part of my interest in Edmonton's history. To follow: