Forward to the Future...with a Pop-Star

The view on the drive to Calgary

Going Back in Time with Futuristic Pop-Star

Jenniveve, local Vancouver up-and-coming pop sensation invited me to her hometown Calgary for an overnight visit and a trip to Calgary's Heritage Park Historical Village. I was apprehensive at first. Images of a tacky Disneyland ride came to mind; the wild west meets "Big Thunder Mountain Railroad Rollercoaster".

The steam locomotive

Arriving in Calgary at 11am, Jenniveve's excitement was barely containable. Imagine a chihuahua that has just consumed 4 packets of coffee beans. We sped through the sprawling streets of Cow-town. The sky was bright blue. Puffy white clouds sat high in the sky. The sky is much bigger here on the Prairies than in Vancouver.

Big, puffy clouds

More big puffy rain clouds

We parked, bought tickets and proceeded to hike a large cement path, to what will be now known as "the portal to the new dimension" because with each 10 metres we went back in time 10 years. A delorian time machine would have been more appropriate. We started running to the hit the 80 miles per hour to engage the flux capacitor to hopefully "see some serious shit", but perhaps we didn't have enough plutonium to make the reaction happen (Note to self: eat more beans to engage flux capacitor). If we were going 'Back to the Future', we wouldn't have a need for roads. We stopped for a photo to capture our adventre.

Going back in time

The first sign that we were not in "Kansas" anymore was the large steam train and horse and buggy. We decided that Prince house, our first attraction, was haunted. The paintings eyes on the walls followed us. We left promptly and found ourselves in the Jewish Synagogue - the first in Calgary. I took pictures for Tamir, Jenniveve's life partner. I tried to look pious and rich.

Pious and Rich

We meandered into town. One can only walk in a meandering fashion when you are living in 1810. We stopped in for 19th century candy, Jenniveve got a pumice stone and then we went into the Heritage town pub. Every pub is the same around the world, but this one in particular reminded me of a country Australia pub. I could almost smell the stale West End Draft. There was a moose head on the wall.

The Main Street

Were you the Moose in Northern Exposure?

We are good girls from the 21st century

Deciding that we needed more culture, a trip to the local school house was in order. To our surprise, Miss Nickle was in the school house! I sat gingerly down at the small wooden desk and scratched out a message to Jenniveve: "I like to eat poo" and made Jenniveve read it aloud. Miss Nickle was a little taken aback, but did not scald us. She preferred texting to berating. What a good teacher!

Miss Nickle

Jenniveve the good student

The butter-making girl was similarly sweet and demure, minus the hickey on her neck. I think she had spent too much time rolling around in the hay with the local bo-hunks rather than dedicating time to perfecting her butter shaking skills.

Stylin' it at Hudson's Bay

An Old Ford

The steam train was approaching. We bolted across the tee-pee lawn to make it. The lovely attendant didn't charge us. In a sea of "Little house on the Prairie" high-necked ladies, I guess he was overcome with our modern beauty and short skirts.

So happy we didn't have to pay!!

 

My favorite part of the day was paying homage to the Chinese launders of the 1900's. It seems that the park has doctored the pictures that show a 'traditional Chinese person' working in the laundry. In one photo, dated 1890, it shows the picture of an 'oriental lady in the laundry'. In the 2nd photo dated 1910, it shows the picture of an 'oriental man in the laundry'. They are the same person. I'm not sure if they are trying to trick the park visitors with the idea that all foreigners think Asian people look the same, or if they were really short of photos for the exhibit and thought nobody would notice. I guess the two people could very well be related...yet another ghostly mystery at Heritage Park.

(see the ghosts in the window?)

What I thought was going to be a tacky exploration of the Calgarian Wild West, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with the 1800's. Thanks, Jenniveve for a fun trip back in time. And we didn't even need 1.21 gigawatts or a bolt of lightening to return! Yeehaw!