elanya

Today's question is another from fishmalk who actually went through and added prompts for half my remaining days. Maybe I should cut him off. There are still days remaining though! Even days from now through the end of the month, unless someone has added any since I started writing this.
Today's question is: Tell me about what you consider to be your home town. What about it most sticks in your memory?

My hometown is Fredericton, New Brunswick. I was born elsewhere, but moved when I was very young. Fredericton is where I grew up. I even went to undergrad at the University of New Brunswick there, on the principle that it was a fine school, that it didn't really matter where I got my first degree, and it was going to be cheaper to stay at home. I actually have no regrets, either.

Lots of things about it stick in my memory! I'm actually not sure the best place to start! People, of course - I am still in regular touch with a lot of folks from 'back home', though most of them have also already dispersed elsewhere.

Places are probably easiest to talk about, and I'm sure they will bring up other stuff as well.

I'll start with my home neighborhood. It grew up a lot over my life. When I was younger, there was a year where we couldn't play in the woods nearby because there was a bear that had torn up one of the neighbor's sheds. There were treehouses and campfire/drinking sites that some of the older kids had built back there - by the time I was old enough to appreciate such things, the woods were pretty much gone though. I remember there being a culvert where my sister and another friend spent the summer catching crayfish. We kept one as a pet. We named him BigBob and buried him in the back yard with a painted wooden headstone. When my parents got divorced (I was...12? maybe?) my mom first moved to an apartment and then a house that were still quite close. The house was in easy walking distance, which made life easy when we moved between households ever 2 weeks. There was a park that was slightly closer to my mother's house, and in the winters I used to go skating there by myself at night on Monday's after the community band practice got out. It was nice and empty and I could turn up my music on my walkman. Then we had a couple of winters when it was too warm and they stopped freezing it, alas.

My sister and I walked all over the place when we were living there - to friends paces, into town. I walked a few times out to my boyfriend's place in Lincoln when I was in highschool and later. They ripped up all the train tracks and put in walking trails that were quite nice. I never felt afraid to walk there on my own. I used to walk to the university at times as well. I always found that walking through raging snowstorms in the winter should be an adventure and I remember bundling up and heading out into terrible weather for very trivial reasons - gaming sessions, to hang out with friends, and so on. I'd get there, unbundle, and feel proud of my mini adventure. My sister would usually not share my enthusiasm if I'd dragged her along.

Uh... other places - The trails I already mentioned, but they also tore up the old train bridge and it was and is still one of my very favourite spots. You could stand out over the river and just... watch it be a river, which was cool. (Fredericton is a really fucking pretty city, okay? We have a beautiful huge river, and the university is all up on a hill overlooking it, and then downtown is flat - we have building injunctions against tall buildings downtown - nothing higher than the cathedral steeple. We have Gothic churches. We have Trees! We have Victorian architecture on the gorgeous river!) Along with the trails and the bridge is the Green - the park extending along the river banks, which has trails, of course. Very pretty, also cool to watch it flood in the spring. In my head, floods are a thing that happens when the snow melts in the spring, not a thing that can happen any time there is heavy rain. I miss seasons :p Anyway, there were really nice old trees (elms and willows), fountains, and such. At the far end of of the southside green is the Old Loyalist Burial Ground, which is sort of camouflaged in some trees, but is totally there. There is really not much to see, as it is an area that floods regularly. I'm not sure if there are still bodies there or not - I vaguely recall that they had been moved? There is another big burial ground, creatively called The Old Burial Ground, right in the heart of downtown, beside the school where I went to Junior High (like middle school - it was grades 7-9 when I went). It had some cool old stones, though, and, of course, a waking path through it.

Back to the green - the Beaverbrook Art Gallery was also right on the paths. They have my favourite painting ever (still - probably because of early exposure) - a Giant Dali called Santiago el Grande. It is HUGE and very impressive, in that it leaves an impression - or it certainly has on me. The collection itself has some surprising gems!

Moving along downtown, there is officer square, where I spent...two? Maybe one? summer being the local equivalent of the Buckingham palace guards, wearing a 19th century uniform and standing at attention in various scenic locations for tourists to take pictures of for hour long shifts. or maybe they were two hours? I forget. Wool is hot. The Craft School, where I spent a lot of time because my sister went there, is also right there. I have fond memories of the place!

I actually lived downtown, when I came back from the UK in 2002 - or rather when I came back from misadventures in Ontario. I lived in an old Victorian house that was converted into apartments, with my sister and Pretentia, and it was pretty much super duper awesome. I was working two jobs then, one at the bakery/lunch counter downtown (Out 2 Lunch), and another at the lotto booth/Information Desk at an uptown mall that no longer exists. At one point we have like...7? chinchillas. I am very allergic to chinchillas. I couldn't breathe very well, so they are lucky they are cute! Two of the chinchillas were mine...

The other big memorable super awesome thing I want to make sure not to forget, also downtown, is the Boyce farmer's Market. I am spoiled on markets. Huge varieties of fresh produce, locally raised meats, massive cheese selection... they used to have apple cider. The Lebanese guy with the sandwiches that are kiiind of like schwarma only not (extra garlic paste on mine please, just a little hot sauce). The samosa from Fredericton have a History, and also they are the most delicious. I am sorry to anyone who has never had them, and ti everyone who will never know the deliciousness of a Patel's samosa. I am more sorry to those of us who *do* know, and can only mourn and stand in long lines to acquire second rate (but still far superior) Fredericton Samosa form Samoa Delight and their Ilk. There is also the German Baker. I would cut a bitch for a Delfter stick, or a butterfly, or a raspberry corner or, or or... I miss the market.

Another awesome place is Odell Park, which has sort of set the bar for me for city parks. It is huge (400 acres), it has (used to have?) a deer enclosure and ducks and geese and a stable. I used to have band practice there on Monday nights. We used a secluded area off one of the walking trails as our Cairn for Live Action Werewolf - there were some old boulders that made a really great spot for it. There are great climbing trees, too. Plus playgrounds, hiking/skiing paths, etc. You can ski on the duckpond in the winter. They used to have a little enclosure with other birds (owls and such), but I think that is long gone. I know they have changed up the duck enclosure since I was young. Not sure about the deer these days. I used to go to the swings near the lodge when we had our band break to get lost in my thoughts for a bit.

I probably could go on more, but I feel like quite possibly this is enough! I haven't even started on restaurants... TL;DR version - I really love my hometown and would move back there in a heartbeat.

Meanwhile, naryrising claimed most of my remaining open slots, but there are still a few that I will leave for anyone else who might want to ask me something! On DW|On LJ