Joe McWilliams
Every six weeks or so, the reporters here have to wrangle something for this space. You’d think it would get easier with all the practice, but it doesn’t. I seem to be running out of things I haven’t already ranted on or idly speculated about. What’s left?
My summer holidays? OK, here goes!
One thing we’ve found pleasant is checking out little towns here and there; places that we’d have no reason to go to as ‘destinations.’ We’ll seek out a downtown café for breakfast, maybe. Check out a musty little museum. Enjoy the early 20th Century brick architecture a lot of these places have. Stop at the local library. Check out the shops generally.
Note the local eccentrics!
One thing became obvious on a recent trip: the closer a town is to a bigger centre, the worse off its local business core is doing.
Crossfield is very much in this boat. A few years ago, we happened to pass through Crossfield and stopped for lunch. It was [and is] a tiny downtown, but not without its charm. We liked it, so this time, needing to do some business in Calgary, we booked a room at the Crossfield Country Inn – conveniently, if not all that esthetically – located in an industrial area. About half the downtown retail spaces seemed empty. We asked about it.
“Too close to Airdrie,” she said.
“Everybody goes there to shop.”
On the other hand, new residential neighbourhoods had cropped up. So although businesses struggle, the municipality has new property tax cash to spend, which it is doing sprucing up the downtown. Lots of new flowerbeds in front of windows sporting ‘for rent’ signs.
As for restaurants, we found two: a downtown burger joint and a supper place/pub next to our motel, which leads to the second part of this saga.
While dining and enjoying a nice industrial view, we witnessed the aftermath of what must have been some kind of robbery across the street. A small car pulled into the yard; a man, woman and a boy of about 13 or 14 got out and went inside the place, which sold surplus construction equipment. The next time I looked up, the man and some other woman were struggling with the big gate. She was trying to close it and he wasn’t letting her. She was mad as hell, yelling at him, pulling on the gate with one hand and holding her phone to her ear with the other. At one point she picked up a stick and swung it at him.
It turned out she was trying to lock the trio’s car inside the compound, so it would be there when the police arrived.
It didn’t work. The guy was too strong for her and she gave up. The bandit woman backed the car out, the guy jumped in [weirdly, he was recording the whole thing on his phone] after exchanging more words with the proprietress, and they motored off.
About three minutes later the police arrived. Was this a family of thieves? We never found out, but it was good entertainment value for the money. The food wasn’t bad as well.
Nowhere to get brekkie [that we could see] in Crossfield, so we checked out Carstairs. Nice little downtown, but no cafés evident, so on to Didsbury. There we got lucky. Right in the heart of downtown was one of those old places that look as if they’ve been in business since the 1950s.
Not only that, there was a signed photo of Kevin Costner on the wall. Sure enough, he had dined there while filming in the area a couple of years ago.
Fortified with good old eggs and bacon, we made it home in once piece.