Town from Your Past [Archive] - The Shania Forums

09-06-2006, 1:31pm

Shania Twain speaks fondly of the town in which she grew up, Timmins Ontario

I see the Meet and Greet Forum here, has a subforum to describe your country "Countries Of The World," and a thread in there to "Introduce Your Town."

http://www.shaniaforums.com/showthread.php?t=38136

However, if you grew up in a town different than where you now live, it could be interesting to describe the "Town from your Past." Who knows, you might someday make it as famous as Shania has done for her home town. People have interesting memories, and often different/deeper perspectives about a place they knew, long ago and far away.

09-06-2006, 1:33pm

Canoilers and I were recently discussing memories and feelings about the hometowns of our past. He had some interesting observations and personal stories. Somehow we got onto that topic, as a tangent within a thread called "FanCon 4 bandmembers talk."

I hope Canoilers doesn't mind if I copy those posts over to this new thread. If we succeed in getting those posts here, Mods/Admins may later be able to remove the off-topic posts from that original thread, and leave just a link there, redirecting to here.

09-06-2006, 1:35pm

Yeah Timmin's is defiantly gonna need it, the town will never be the same after that. It'll be my first and last fan con as everyone in town will run me out. :p

It will be great to meet you in person. Hope your plans turn out well.

If I want it bad enough it will happen and now I want it bad enough.... even if it means I'm walking there. :D

I'll bet you have some interesting stories about Dawson Creek. Have you ever written about that somewhere on this mb? Any stories you could share? You sound like a colorful character.

Very colourful! :funny:

(First excerpt transfer = above.)

09-06-2006, 1:37pm

Second excerpt transfer below:

I may have a couple but there will be no Dawson Creek shows on any time soon......... well probably not again. :p

Dawson Creek is an intriguing name. My first experience related to it, was in
a radio program I listened to in the 1950's called Sergeant Preston and Yukon
King. I'd forgotten there was a more recent TV series with the D. C. name.
So I googled it just now. Wow, it ran for half a dozen or more years, with
hundreds of episodes, though it's now ended. After reading the description
of the pilot and 2nd show, I guess that environ was not anything I related to,
so never watched the show.

09-06-2006, 1:38pm

Excerpt #3:

Well if it had to do with the Yukon it was probably Dawson City. Both are named after the same person though, George Mercer Dawson. He surveyed the area. There are alot of tourists that go through Dawson because its Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway. Anybody going to Alaska have to go through Dawson Creek. Other than that its a sleepy little farm town. But things are booming there now, theres lots of natural gas around the area.

Yukón is an interesting place I would love to meet up someday, next to Alaska to sky and skate over the snow, wow:)

09-06-2006, 1:40pm

Excerpt #4:

Thanks for the added info.
I was familiar with Dawson City in the Yukon, usually called just Dawson by locals, and old timers.
I was not familar with Dawson Creek in British Columbia, though I am familiar with the Alaska Highway.

I remain unfamiliar with Dawson Creek the TV series, which was set supposedly on
an Atlantic Coastal Town, called Capeside.

I did spend a couple weeks in Alaska in Sep 2001. But we flew rather than taking the Alaska Hwy.
Not sure if the plane wouldn've flown over Dawson Creek area. We didn't notice the really
great scenery until we got near the coast, with it's blue ocean, green hills rising up to
brown mountains capped with gleaming white snow and glaciers. So stunningly pretty
it almost seemed unreal.

So Dawson Creek used to be a sleepy little farming town? I grew up outside a rather
quiet little town on the far edge of farming country in northern Wisconsin. It got down
to 40 below zero each February there back in those days.

Was Dawson Creek cold in winter too? Or was it protected by the coastal mountain ranges
somewhat?

We call Dawson Creek Dawson too. I never seen a -40 until I moved too Alberta, if I did I was too young to remeber. We'd get Chinooks from the Pacific. That would bring warm weather which was pretty nice. Edmonton gets Chinooks too but not like Dawson. There are no Mountains around Dawson creek, just rolling hills. There was Bear Mountain but that was really a hill and not a very big one at that either. :p

I don't think the TV series had an Art Gallery made out of an old grain elevator. There was alot of them in Dawson, with the last one they decided to turn into their art gallery. I'm kinda glad they did that, because you don't see them any more, they are slowly disapearing from the Canadian west. Hard to believe they once dominated the western landscape, now most of them are left to rot it out. I kinda find that sad in a way, those buildings we're a big part in building the life and culture out here. Almost as big as Hockey in the winter or Baseball in the summer. God I feel old now, I should probably stop or I'll cry or something. :p

09-06-2006, 1:44pm

Excerpt #5:

:funny:
Yep, there's a Roy Orbison song waiting in the wings for you. Wind up that falsetto of his for:

:music: CRY... eye...EYE... eye...ing...,
oh...VER... you...,:music:

Man I do I ever know the feeling you described!
I've watch so many farms and 'gray ghosts' of old barns, slowly fading into oblivion.

We had two grain elevators in our small town. I knew them well. Last time I went back to
my home town, the closest elevator, with the most distinctive shape and big sign painted on
highest wall, turned up missing. Now just an empty space, along a street leading down to a river,
where a bridge once used to be the main route into town. Now it's all mostly just weeds.
The newer bridge is a couple blocks down-river and was built about 10 years after I moved away.
That's now 35 yrs ago.

Thanks so much for sharing your brief vignette about Dawson Creek. Your home town name at
least has a nicer ring than mine did. Merrill. It's original name was Jenny, from Jenny Falls.
That was used to create a big lagoon for sawmills back in the mid 1800's. At least
that was before my time, thank goodness. My lousy vision didn't slow me down much
at farming. But I think it would have at logging.

Sometimes when I go back to Merrill, Wisconsin from where I live here in Michigan,
I go around Lake Michigan via Chicago. Out west of Chicago a ways is a town called
DeKalb, Illinois. It's one of the corn growing hot spots. It's also one of the few small towns
I've seen in recent years, with a thriving downtown area, well maintained. Town is around 20,000
in population not counting a small private college. Town has a high wall, maybe 3 stories, with
some fine artwork painted on it. 3 story cornstalks and a bunch of other colorful stuff.
An empty parking lot is next to it, and a main intersection with traffic light beyond that.
So you can get a great view of it driving thru town (coming this way back to Michgian).
Then the next block or two along main street, has these old fashioned store fronts with stylistic
architecture above, for offices or apartments. Pretty cool place. Not much of this rural
Americana around any more, that is well maintained. The U.S. is increasingly becoming a society
where we consume and throw away quickly. I just hope our disposable society,
doesn't get us people thrown out someday, along with all our stuff.

09-06-2006, 1:46pm

Excerpt #6:

:cry: Yeah I know what you mean, especially about the sign. Theres a town here called Shonts and on the elevator somebody changed it to Dirty Shorts, that cracks me up. The first thing you see for miles is Dirty Shorts. :p

Dawson Creek doesn't have any old arcitecture, thats cause the moved the whole town. Still before I left alot of people were leaving. it had 18,000 in it at one time, after we left I heard it was down to 8,000.

Things are getting better though, its starting to boom and the population is back up too 12,000 now. Actually thats how things are going pretty much across the west, they were dying but because of our Economy they are starting to come back.

09-06-2006, 1:47pm

I've looked thru the Wikipedia site info about Dawson Creek. May post a few key items from that here, if I get some time.

canoilers

09-07-2006, 12:48am

Edmonton too, I lived in this city the longest now. I almost feel like I've been here my whole life. Dawson Creek almost feels like a life time now.

http://www.shaniaforums.com/showpost.php?p=736394&postcount=64

The city where it all started for me, Dawson Creek British Columbia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawson_Creek,_British_Columbia

Alex

09-10-2006, 12:00am

I don't actually get this thread, and dunno why my post from the other thread is copied here. :huh: someone wanna explain me more simple?

09-10-2006, 2:43am

I don't actually get this thread, and dunno why my post from the other thread is copied here. :huh: someone wanna explain me more simple?
I tried to explain in the first post, the purpose of this thread.

I encouraged Canoilers to talk about memories of his former home town. Memories about home towns can be interesting and enjoyable. But then I realized we did that in the wrong place, in a thread about Shania's Band.

Those are two different topics. So I started a new thread for this topic, and copied related posts here. When we talked about Dawson and the Yukon, you joined that talk. So that one post of yours about the Yukon,was included here.

If you want me to remove my copy of your one post, let me know.

canoilers

09-10-2006, 5:54am

09-10-2006, 1:40pm

I don't know if I have any exciting ones. I do remeber staying at a friends house in Dawson Creek. His dad went to a party and when he drove us home he kinda went beserk. We got to my buddy's house and there was a car parked in the drive way. He thought his wife was cheating on him, turns out a friend of his and his wife stopped by. He tried pushing the car out of the driveway with his car and when that didn't work he drove into the house. I'll forget the guys wife coming out screaming her brains out, what the F are you doing......... Thats one story, something like that. Thats what they call having the pee scared outta. I was so scared, but thats not the scarest thing I've ever faced.
Whew! Your story sounds pretty exciting to me.

Most of my excitement, when I was growing up, did not come from people fighting.
It came from an angry bull, a raging cow protecting it's new born calf, powerful
farm machinery out of control, electrical current going where it wasn't supposed to,
etc.

Strange, I remember almost no violence at all. We were more religious than normal,
and well behaved. I even studied to be a religious leader for several years.

However many years later, reliable aunts and uncles who came to visit us on our farm
in remote northern Wisconsin, told me they didn't expect to see me live to adulthood.
They remember me and my older brother getting into fights, and him choking me till I
turned blue and almost died, on more than one occasion. I don't remember that at all.

Back to your story. I've always been interested in how easily people can misunderstand,
then act so forcefully, based on what they don't know. Misunderstanding can lead to
our worst fears, fear often leads to anger, and anger spreads into violence and destruction.

Nearly every human being alive has inside of us, that ability to hate and fight. And for
sure, we all have the ability to misunderstand. There's just way too much information
in the big universe for anyone to know more than a small portion.

Although some people and groups are more likely to be honest about their ignorance,
or be more patient in avoiding fights or war, that doesn't always do us much good,
if the other side is even worse than we are, and hell bent on lack of self restraint.
Then it becomes the lowest common denominator, and we must get down into
the gutter with them, in order to defend ourself and survive.

One reason I know this, is because I've always had a calmer view than average.
With my borderline low blood sugar, I only have enough energy to get my work done,
and a bit left over for recreation and sports. No energy to waste on fighting, if others
leave me alone.

I've always preferred to cooperate, or at least compete constructively, to
make progress, and satisfy needs, rather than bullying other people or groups,
to get ahead at their expense.

But lots of people have extra energy, and they love to use it any way that
strikes their mood. I noticed that in class mates in grade school when I was a kid.
I noticed it in my fellow trainees who were studying to be supposedly
peaceful religious leaders. And I noticed it in my college and graduate school
peers, who studied science and supposedly tried to understand better, the
people and world around us.

People have their good points and their bad points. Have to cope with that,
even if we try to help folks emphasize their good side. Very few people rise
completely above their own personal shortcomings, in a way that makes them
valuable to nearly everyone they get to know.

Perhaps that's why fans appreciate someone like Shania Twain.