Friday, September 15, 2006

Ubiquitous like a Fortune Cookie ...



When I first moved to Minnedosa in 2000, my Grandmother sent me some articles that had appeared in her local paper that mentioned Minnedosa - a place Grandma had never heard of until her Grandson told her he was moving there ...

The first article was about the new owner of the paper - a guy named Izzy Asper who was born and raised in Minnedosa before he went on to become a Winnipeg based business man and media mogul. The Asper empire had just bought out the new papers owned by Conrad Black ...

The other article though was one about a prairie cultural institution: The Chinese Cafe. The article talked about how many of them there once were, how almost EVERY town on the prairies historically had a Chinese Cafe, run by a local family, or a cluster of families ...

The article mentioned a number of places including Minnedosa, a place the reporter had clearly stopped to have lunch (he was the author of the other piece on the Asper's roots in our little town) ...

When I came to town in 2000, there were two Chinese Food Restaurants. One still had the feel of a cafe, the other was more like a restaurant. Both served great food, and both were deeply woven into the fabric of our community ...

Since then because of the sudden death of the owner/operator, one of the Restaurants has closed ... and with it a long connection back to a place called The Dominion Cafe strained and broke ... As we reeled at the death of a community character, countless stories were told of how important and how central he and his Cafe were to the life of our community. Like the story told by Stuart McLean about the Half Moon Cafe run by the Wongs, Lee's became a mythic place filled with happy and wonderful memories.

Now, we are left with a single Chinese Food Restaurant. It still serves good food, it is still part of the community, but it isn't the same as Lee's. We lost alot when we lost Lee's ...

I remember the Chinese Food Restaurants of my youth. One inparticular looms large in my memories. It was a place called Gene's on the main street of Stratford. We spent a lot of time there over the years.

As we walked home after school, we often would stop in for the dinner special - by the time we walked rest of the way home we were ready for our "real" dinner there.

Gene's was the place we used to take our dates before heading to a movie ... maybe it was the atmosphere, or maybe it was the cost, maybe it was the food ... but whatever it was, we spent many a happy hour sitting around the arborite topped tables with our latest lady love ... Some went well and led to other dates back at Gene's while others went less well ... it was part of growing up I guess ...

It is as an adult that I've come to realize how important places like Lee's and Gene's are. They offer us comfort, they offer us a place we feel at home. We don't need to look at the menu. We might have a favourite dish, or a combo plate that tickles our fancy. We may end up on a first name basis with the staff. We feel at home there ...

When places like Lee's close ... we lose more then just a place to eat a meal ... we lose part of what makes small town life delightful ...

I realized that this week when at Presbytery I had to go wandering for food I could eat ... They were serving Lasagne, and I didn't dare try to eat it (Food allergies suck) ... so I walked to "downtown" Souris and found a Chinese Food Cafe with a lunch time special ...

"Sounds great to me ..." I stepped inside and had a lovely, simply lunch and a great conversation with the owner/operator who wondered who I was ... "you're not from here?" he asked as I sat down ...

It's places like that that makes the world a better place ...

Hmm ... I think today I'll have lunch at Sun Sun's ... it's a veritable institution ...

Oh, and my fortune on Wednesday: "You'll be recognised and honoured as a community leader ..." I liked that ... it was a good way to start the afternoon ...

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