Discussions

As I posted in two threads tonight, one on the Sportsplex pool, and the other on old Fort built in Brandon, I thought about all the threads of things being built or needed in Brandon, and decided to post this...  
 
Yes, I am an old fart, but this what Brandon had and now is gone.....  
 
I was born in a small red brick hospital on the East part of town..... everyone had to make that journey to the east End, no matter which part of town you lived...  
 
I ran laps on the upper level of the YMCA, around and round the creaky old wood boards, watching them play basketball, below...or gymnastics on the cowhide covered pommel horse.  
 
I played baseball in an old wooden stadium, painted green to honor the men who served and died in the wars.  
 
I ran track and threw shotput in that same stadium....the races started behind the creaky wood bleachers, and my school mates would stand on the tops and cheer the runners on..... as they ran yards, even parts of miles on the coarse clay and gravel, kept watered down, so as not to raise dust...  
 
I stood proudly in front of the City Hall, in my cute Boy Scout uniform, as they raised the new red and white flag up the staff for the very first time.... the old metal pole shining brightly in front of the massive stone tower of the grand entrance to City Hall. I held the flag's corners, as it was tied to the ropes, and slowly pulled up as the band played O Canada.  
 
I was tired as I climbed the steep steps of the Wheat City Arena.... dark and dirty, but the Arena always so bright with the flags and decorations hanging from the old metal beams... The noise and smell of farm animals during the fair, the sweet smell and noise of a hockey game played without helmets..... the fog horn sounding when a goal was scored, blaring loudly from the rafters above.  
 
We would run, till we dropped, up and down the Grand Stand steps...one two three...35, 36......at the top...you could see downtown, or at least the City Hall Tower, Prince Edward, and St Augustine's. Sit and watch the RCMP musical ride, or the harness races, as they raced around the corner, coming down the track from close to the railway tracks.... I played in the band, when the Queen, sitting in the third row, turned and waved to the thousands of cheering admirers, sitting in the Grand Stand behind her and Phillip. It was the show piece of the City, it was the center of all major events...  
 
 
Getting on TV, was never very hard, especially when they did Reach For The Top, or game shows or Western Music with Russ Gurr.... It was amazing what they could broadcast, from the small one room studio on 8th Street, next to the City Hall... The tower just North of the building was always attempting to climb.  
 
But not as tempting as the water Tower next to the Jail .... I'm sure what I painted has long since been painted over or cleaned off... Kilroy was here, actually started in WWI, didn't it. From the top, you could see the inmates playing football or running in the jail yard....so scary that huge barbed wire and stone wall that kept them in... it was at least 20 feet, I couldn't climb it from the outside, so I am sure they couldn't climb OUT either...  
 
But being young and going to Central School, we were in the heart of the City. Downtown was just a minute away after school. Maybe run down to Fedoruk's to get a banana , or the Prince Edward Cafe, for hot chocolate, served in fine china.  
 
Even staring out from the outside staircase at the front of the Prince Edward, looking out at the whole downtown before you... Or run around to the back, and watch the passenger trains come in from the North... watch them unload freight into the long freight docks, that later in life, I had my first underage alcohol drink, at the Red Caboose. Leave a few buttons open on your best dress shirt, and flash a couple of those fresh new chest hairs...heck they never asked if you were old enough...  
 
Going to Earl Haig, across the street from the nuns and St, MIcheals, the old school and stone face of the Nunnery, made for a grand corner at First and Vic.  
 
On weekend's it was a treat to go to the Zoo. Watch the deer running around the large enclosed field. Pet a rabbit, or feed the birds...and watch the turtles basking in the sun. The Zoo, on the South part of the Exhibition Grounds, in the Green space and park.  
 
I needed to go for some therapy on my leg, so off we went up Tenth Street, just past the motel (Twin Pines) on Queens, to the Sanitorium..... most of the long term TB patients had been moved to Ninette.  
 
I broke batteries at the scrap yard on First, and watched them salt the hides....little did I know the damage I would leave the City. SORRY.  
 
I stood and watched as some politicians put their shovels in the Ground, and started something they called 'the Keystone Center'  
 
Built a log cabin in the Fort on the North Hill, not far from the natural spring that ran constantly with crystal clear water.....  
 
But earlier I had watched as the Grand Stand was taken down... the Wheat City Arena came down, I was there when they blew up the Prince Edward, took a wrecking ball to City Hall, dug out a massive hole in downtown, where the record store (Autumn Stone)had been,down to the hardware store on Ninth, it was huge!  
 
Brandon was to host the CANADA WINTER GAMES!!! lots of open free land on the North Hill, to build a world class facility.... On the North Hill, where Brandon was expanding TO . 50 - 100 new houses will be built in the YEARS to come!  
 
Watched as they built the new City Hall, with the Police Station in the basement..wow it looked great from Victoria Avenue. The long walkway with it's full grown trees planted during construction, leading straight to Victoria, the building towering over the small houses on the east side of ninth. What a show piece, a welcoming to Downtown. Thank God, they tore up the tracks and built a new Provincial building. They both looked great looking North from Wilton's car lot. Then came the bank, then the Econo Mart and Safeway, then the Superstore and then the Renaisance Station...and City Hall is buried just off Victoria somewhere, isn't it.  
 
Didn't travel that far to the South End of town, often, but had to make the trip, as they were building this large thing they called a Mall, north of the cemetery ! Besides, there was a new eating place opening up behind our favorite drive-in restaurant , something with large golden arches...and burgers were like 29cents..., in fact the whole 18th street, itself was being re-built to accommodate the traffic flow to these new places....  
 
 
Oh well, a million old things, just remembered when they were younger things...  
 
But through all of this, I also remember the challenges, too.  
 
Nothing has changed, really, for as I look back at all of these things, maybe they have never been replaced, or neglected and ignored, or poorly planned or used beyond their intended purpose or mis-used .  
 
Funny we still talk about a Grand Stand, or stadium....talk about buildings with character, but failed to save some of the best....  
 
Just wish we had planned ahead, like the Romans.... plan ahead in terms of decades and centuries....  
 
maybe some of them would still be here, maybe some of them could have been saved.... maybe we would have kept something to look at, instead of having to renovate something to look classy...  
 
maybe we gave up our class and character, and now have to sacrifice our future to get it back....