Cresent Park!

As many of you know I have had the misfortune of growing up in Moose Jaw. Some people ask me why do you feel that way and others just give me a sympathetic glance when they hear where I grew up. For those that ask why?

1) The people there are not really that friendly.
2) As a teenager and young adult there was truthfully nothing to do there.
3) The people there still remember what did when you were 11 and hold it against you as an adult.
4) There is a large population of Canadian Rednecks. And the majority of the people that I had been around were in one way or another a racist, sexist, or classist. Mutlitculturalism does not exist in MJ. When I grew up there was two families that were not caucasian. Ironically enough a member of one of those families was my previous boss. There is a population of Canadian Asians however they kept to themselves for the most part as the rest of the community did not open their doors and minds to them.

Now maybe some of these things I am remembering from an inexperienced perspective. I don't think so. Whenever I return for a family visit I still feel the same way. I am always confused why my mother decided to keep us in Moose Jaw. She did not enjoy her time there and was happiest when away from there. These questions will never be answered but I do know that I will not be returning there for more than a two day trip. I have become a MJ tourist.

As I feel rather negative towards this place Drang and I were discussing the other day my fear of heights and his unease with gravity. It brought me back to the Nat (where Drang actually participated in swimming lessons) and how between the ages of 10 and 13 I would ride my bike downtown everyday to go for a swim. Sometimes with friends and sometimes without. It was during this conversation that I realized that the I am correct when I say the value of Moose Jaw is a three block radius. Cresent Park is amazing and peaceful. The swimming pool, the small river that runs through it, and the library. It was also here that I drank my first beer.

I do not like MJ but will give it credit for what it does have.