My First Hometown

I recently came across this aerial view of my first hometown - a village of 300 - where I spent the first six years of my life.

I have nothing but pleasant memories of living here - in Hay Lakes, Alberta, a community where everyone knew everyone. I remember - from age 4 or 5 - wandering  about freely. I knew every street and who lived where. Living there allowed my childhood independence to flourish.

This above picture shows the village school on the bottom right. (A row of school buses are parked outside.) It's a lot bigger than the two-room school that housed all the grades when my mother was a teacher there. My mother taught the younger kids in one of the classrooms. I think the old school was located where the playground is now.

I hadn't started school yet, when we lived in Hay Lakes, so I used to to go out walking daily. I'd start out at my father's garage, where we lived in an apartment upstairs. If nothing interesting was happening there, I'd continue down the street, heading to the blacksmith's barn - where kids would sometimes play house and make "mud pies." Sometimes I'd walk past the home of an older, retired couple. If they were gardening, I'd stop and watch. Their garden had lovely blue pansies, I recall. Sometimes I'd be there at tea time, and they'd offer me a homemade cookie.

Then off I'd go...

At mealtime, I'd head home.

How big was Hay Lakes? Terry once asked...

I could still see it in my mind - the community hall, the dairy, the corner store, the hotel,  the curling rink, the church...

About five blocks by four blocks, I replied

Looking at this aerial view, I see it's still about the same size. 

One difference is that on one edge if town, towards the top of the picture, between the town and the green fields, there used to be train tracks, a train station and a grain elevator. Now I only see a road. Turn left and you'll connect with the road that goes from Edmonton to Camrose. Turn right, and you'll head towards Edmonton, the big city,  the capital of Alberta.Turn left to go to Camrose - a smaller city with stores, shopping centres and a hospital.

Interestingly, this Google arial view shows a building that looks like the old railway station, on Railway Avenue. I didn't check it out last time I visited the town briefly, though I did notice the grain elevator was gone.

As I look at these photos, it fills me with such nostalgia! It would be lovely to wander those streets once again!