Today Jack phoned to let me know my home for much of my growing up years has been demolished.

It was the building across the street from the Elks Hall. Having been boarded up for quite a while, it had become an eyesore.

My parents, Don and Cevie Becker, ran several successful businesses from the front section with our living quarters in the back. The businesses through the years included owning and running the villages ambulance before provincial administration, emergency answering services, and Greyhound bus depot. Their main business was the towns taxi service which was started while living on Main Street in the original building in the location where H&R Block is now located. There are still people in and around town who remember riding in their taxis.

When we first moved there (about 1959) the lumber yard was across the alley where the Dollar store parking lot is now. Lumber was also stored behind our place. This was great for climbing, skinning yourself and finding scraps to make play swords. No law suits in those days. The bowling alley was across the narrow lane, Mary Popoff had rental cabins behind us, the McKinnon’s and their mean German Shepherd lived farther down the alley.

A side story: the Shepherd had cornered our younger cat. His upset mother, all 7 pounds of her, jumped on his back, dug in her claws and rode the yelping dog all the way home. He never came near our yard again.

The old neighborhood has changed a lot since those days. Can’t wait to see what is built there in the future.

Linda Isaak