We are currently engaged in a struggle between winter and spring. One day, lots of wet snow. The next, three days of warm winds and lots of melt. Today it is 0° C, right on the cusp, damp and grey and chilly, with a warm afternoon promised.
In our school district, it is "March Break" - what used to be "Easter Break" when I was a child. This means that the movie theatre if full most nights, and Tim Horton's is overfull most days. Tim's usually attracts a large group of elders - seniors, retired farmers, people on days off. This week, there is the added load of adolescents when jam into booths, order outrageous drinks and fries from Wendy's next door, and either talk of play with their phones for an hour.
It's quite a jolly and eclectic place, the closest thing to "town centre" that we have in Ponoka. Down in the centre of the old business district, there is a little coffee shop that could be the Town centre, except that there is nowhere to ark, and this is a car and truck (mostly truck) town. The little place makes nice lunches, but is generally funeral-ly quiet.Kiss of death, unless you want to read the paper in peace.
Tim Horton's is out on Highway 2A, the road that rips right through the middle of town.Central it is, these days. It's build on an old swamp where some of the men who coffee there caught frogs when they were boys, and love to tell you about it! The Premier dropped in the other afternoon as part of the start up of her election campaign. She has work to do to hold this riding, after the MLA pay scandal of recent weeks.
It seems to be a universal fact of small town life on the prairies that in each place, no matter how small and fading, there is one place that dominates the coffee circuit. Here in Ponoka, it's Tim's. There is a MacDonald's - mediocre business; there is an A&W, busy early AM, there is the downtown Coffee Hut, quiet most of the time.
How do people decide which place it will be? What factors go into the choice they make? Two things seem to figure in the decision here. First off, it's highly visible, and there's easy access from two directions. Secondly, Tim's is associated with hockey. Sidney Crosby's picture looks large. Before that, an old black-and-white of the original Tim Horton pulled in the old boys. How long this will last for them is anybody's guess. It looks like "forever," but we know that sooner or later, something will change, and everything will shift.
Which seems to be the one certainty that can be gleaned from life currently: 'something will change, and everything will shift.' Reading and reflecting on 'The Hunger Games' phenomenon underlines that statement heavily. In the story, this recurring fact moves the story along, and seems guaranteed to help young adults identify with that fact cum bromide, and ponder the ways they might influence those changes. (I hope it prompts some of the +18's to VOTE in April, in the Provincial elections. Last election, only 2 out of five eligible voters cast a ballot, a poorer percentage that even Afghanistan can boast!)
Much of the time in Alberta, the general population is sitting back on its heels, and change is initiated by "the establishment" - the Province or Big Oil. Most of the prosed changes that 'slide through' involve the gradual eroding of individual rights, or safety. At the moment, it's all about "fracking." I'll attempt to explain fracking next time
In our school district, it is "March Break" - what used to be "Easter Break" when I was a child. This means that the movie theatre if full most nights, and Tim Horton's is overfull most days. Tim's usually attracts a large group of elders - seniors, retired farmers, people on days off. This week, there is the added load of adolescents when jam into booths, order outrageous drinks and fries from Wendy's next door, and either talk of play with their phones for an hour.
It's quite a jolly and eclectic place, the closest thing to "town centre" that we have in Ponoka. Down in the centre of the old business district, there is a little coffee shop that could be the Town centre, except that there is nowhere to ark, and this is a car and truck (mostly truck) town. The little place makes nice lunches, but is generally funeral-ly quiet.Kiss of death, unless you want to read the paper in peace.
Tim Horton's is out on Highway 2A, the road that rips right through the middle of town.Central it is, these days. It's build on an old swamp where some of the men who coffee there caught frogs when they were boys, and love to tell you about it! The Premier dropped in the other afternoon as part of the start up of her election campaign. She has work to do to hold this riding, after the MLA pay scandal of recent weeks.
It seems to be a universal fact of small town life on the prairies that in each place, no matter how small and fading, there is one place that dominates the coffee circuit. Here in Ponoka, it's Tim's. There is a MacDonald's - mediocre business; there is an A&W, busy early AM, there is the downtown Coffee Hut, quiet most of the time.
How do people decide which place it will be? What factors go into the choice they make? Two things seem to figure in the decision here. First off, it's highly visible, and there's easy access from two directions. Secondly, Tim's is associated with hockey. Sidney Crosby's picture looks large. Before that, an old black-and-white of the original Tim Horton pulled in the old boys. How long this will last for them is anybody's guess. It looks like "forever," but we know that sooner or later, something will change, and everything will shift.
Which seems to be the one certainty that can be gleaned from life currently: 'something will change, and everything will shift.' Reading and reflecting on 'The Hunger Games' phenomenon underlines that statement heavily. In the story, this recurring fact moves the story along, and seems guaranteed to help young adults identify with that fact cum bromide, and ponder the ways they might influence those changes. (I hope it prompts some of the +18's to VOTE in April, in the Provincial elections. Last election, only 2 out of five eligible voters cast a ballot, a poorer percentage that even Afghanistan can boast!)
Much of the time in Alberta, the general population is sitting back on its heels, and change is initiated by "the establishment" - the Province or Big Oil. Most of the prosed changes that 'slide through' involve the gradual eroding of individual rights, or safety. At the moment, it's all about "fracking." I'll attempt to explain fracking next time
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