Growing up in Edmonton, 1936 -46, by Denny May

Date: 1936 - 1949

Memories of my time here between 1936 and 1949 are varied. Prior to the War there are few memories. During the war I can't remember much, however your request has opened a flood of memories of a wonderful time growing up in West Edmonton. The memories are, I'm afraid ones that kids today will never have - there was so much freedom to be "kids" - to explore the world around us, to wander at will - our parents did not seem to worry or if they did it was not evident.


I remember.....


- Kindergarten and the teacher giving each of us a Tomato off a vine - a brand new experience

- running behind the Ice Wagon to get slivers of ice to suck

- watching the Milkman's horse start and stop with no direction from the milkman

- learning to ride my bike with my Dad running behind me

- walking home from my first day of school - at morning recess - thinking "is that all there is?"

- falling out of a tree in our front yard

- the girl across getting Scarlet Fever - I think that she died

- my first and last piano lesson - that was no fun

- the dentist next door taking out my loose tooth

- trying to pull the stitches out of my pyjama bottoms with my teeth when Kay Dunlop had sewn the legs together - I lost a tooth

- my Dad arriving home with an adopted baby sister and how my nose was out of joint

- having my thumbnail smashed by a large rock and my friend running away after he dropped it

- the snowstorm in 1942 - the city stopped. We had Australian pilots staying with us and they helped us shovel out the back lane - all the way to the corner so Daddy could get to work

- the parties when the pilots from other countries would visit

- my Aunt getting married and adopting a baby they found "under the cabbage bush"

- getting caught riding a bike double on a sidewalk and having to pay a $1.00 fine

- my Dad taking me for rides on his motor scooter - and selling it before I could learn to ride

- watching the train run along Victoria hill

- tobogganing down the Victoria Hill on to the golf course

- going with my Dad onto the ice of the Saskatchewan River to watch the Arctic Ice Company men cut large blocks of ice and load them on the wagons behind the teams of horses

- riding my sled down McKinnon Ravine and my cousin breaking his arm doing that

- the board sidewalks where I could hide under when I threw snowballs at cars

- riding my horse in West Edmonton - along 142 nd Street

- dogs running loose 'round the neighbourhood

- playing with firecrackers - small and LARGE

- playing in the forest across the street - from our house on 42 nd St (142 nd ) to 35 th St was all bush

- going downtown on Saturdays to go to the stamp shop

- riding the elevator in the Birks Building - the elevator man collected match covers and they were lining the inside of the elevator cage

- riding the elevator in Johnston Walker's - slow and elegant

- going downtown at Christmas time to see the animated winter scene in the HBC windows then going out to supper at the Purple Lantern

- my fiend and I riding our bikes out to Spruce Grove to pick up clay pigeons at the shooting club

- the excitement of the Soap Box races and the thrill of seeing my friend win, and towing him home behind my bike - it was hard work

- going out at Halloween - the pranks - apples on the spikes holding up awnings and putting a park bench on a doorstep

- getting beaten up on the way home from school

- getting the strap in grade 4 - I put a girl's pigtails in the inkwell

- the skating rink at Glenora school - the smell of the changing room - the heat on a cold night

- delivering the Star Weekly Magazine - my route was ALL of Jasper Place town

- delivering the Edmonton Bulletin newspaper - my route was where I live now

- picking up a large Parrot from a man who lived in a house under the High Level Bridge - and asking my Dad why he gave it to us - it had bitten the man's thumb off

- Joe Morris coming to the house every year to pick up my Dad's car licence Plate 635 - Joe had Edmonton's first car and collected licence plates

- my Dad driving us to school and one day kept my sister and I in the car and took us for an airplane ride over the city

- the Edmonton air shows at Blatchford Field - people asking for my Dad's autograph

- our version of the "Terror Run" - a narrow bike trail along Groat Ravine - how fast could we make the run without smashing our bikes up

- going with my Dad on the first leg of the Train Trip to Calgary - from the CPR Station on 9 th Street across to Strathcona Station

- Riding the Street cars - the heater in the middle of the car in winter - the view from the top of the High Level Bridge

- the sing-songs - my Mom playing the piano and all of us standing around singing the war songs

- playing "pick-up sticks"

- the first record player my dad brought home - cactus needles, and the first record "Rhapsody in Blue" - we all loved that

- watching the Bombers come and go from the Air Observer School at Blatchford Field

- the Big American B-29 bomber flying low over the city on November 11 th

- the Wolf Cubs at Robertson Church - the fun

- the Scout Troop at Robertson Church - and the visit from George Dupre

- being picked as one of the Edmonton Scouts to go to the 1 st Canadian Jamboree in Ottawa in 1949

- a visit to the G.W.G. Factory

- the cold winters - our thermometer reading -77 o F.

- the big double lot where all the kids could play games, and pick Clover - 10¢ for the afternoon

- the field where we played baseball

- a bat caught up in the awning on our house

- the auction sale when our house was sold in 1949

- the sadness at moving away from one great city to another (Vancouver)


Thanks for the memories.....