Happy Canada Day!

Did you enjoy your Canada Day celebrations? What are your favourite Canada Day memories? My earliest memories established my excitement for Canada Day for life. My parents loaded us up in the vehicle when we were young and we drove to Maidstone, Saskatchewan for the July 1st Sports Day. We had many relatives on my mother’s side who lived there. It would always be a great reunion as well as enjoying the festivities of Canada Day. We would stay overnight for one night with my aunt and uncle who happened to live beside the Sports grounds. Their large yard had an orchard of fruit trees at the back and tucked beyond the trees was a gate. To us kids, that gate felt almost magical. On one side: relatives, beds, and probably instructions to behave. On the other side: the Sports Grounds, the festivities, the noise, the excitement, and a huge Canada Day party waiting for us.

The day began with a parade down Main Street, everyone crowding the sidewalks to wave, cheer, and take it all in.

I loved the horse races. One of my older cousins was a jockey and from a young age I fancied myself a jockey, flying around the track on one of those high powered Thoroughbreds. In reality, our horses were western pleasure and working cow horses, so my racing career never quite got off the ground. I suppose the closest I ever came to that jockey crouch was when I was getting bucked off, which may not have counted officially, but it certainly gave me the full thrill of speed, balance, and a very sudden stop.

The ball diamonds were busy all day with champions playing champions. We generally knew somebody on a team, and being ball players ourselves, we cheered, clapped, and coached from the sidelines! One time, one of my cousins got hit by a ball during one of his games and he got a black eye and wore it like a badge.

There were games for the kids too, the kind that looked simple until you were the one trying to knock bottles over with a ball while everyone watched. There were foot races as well, participants sorted by age, so every child had a fair chance to run, stumble, grin, and hopefully cross the finish line.

Further afield, there were food booths “manned” by community members. The smell of hot dogs and hamburgers wafted through the air. Even though mom and dad packed a homemade picnic lunch for us, they would treat us to a piece of delicious homemade pie which was (and still is) a very popular desert at the booth. There was a smaller colourful decorated booth that looked like it had wandered away from the circus that sold delightful treats; cotton candy, popcorn, candy apples, marshmallow treats, candy bags and peanuts. Beside the food booths was the bingo booth where the caller was blaring out the numbers which added to the cheerful commotion! Another booth had tables and chairs for people to get out of the sun, have a cold drink, a snack and a visit.

By early evening, many of us cousins had run out of both energy and good sense, so we would wander back through the gate to Aunt Violet’s house. We would sit across from one another in the living room telling secrets and scary stories. One time, just when we had the room quiet enough for goosebumps, a head slowly appeared around the corner. We screamed in surprise and jumped to our feet! It was the cousin with the black eye, looking like the ghost of July 1st. After that, no scary story stood a chance.

Today, Canada Day still invites us to pause and reflect on the coming together of people, provinces, and ideas to build a nation rooted in freedom, peace, and shared responsibility. Especially these days marked by disruption and unrest, (this is not new, check Canadian history disruptions) we should celebrate the values that continue to hold us together. I love the prayer in our national anthem, “God keep our land, glorious and free, O Canada we stand on guard for thee.”