My husband and recently spent the day roaming around Heritage Park. The park is a historical village based around the year 1910, assembled from old Alberta buildings. We have not been there in a long time and noticed quite a few additions. We were very pleased to discover that the bakery is still in fine form and we bought sausage rolls some of our favourite gingerbread man cookies.
We love the nostalgia for our grandparents’ time, seeing things that were part of their daily lives. They have a “soddie”, which is a house constructed of sod “bricks”. There was little wood on the prairies and fewer saw mills when the pioneers came west. Sod holds heat, so with a wood stove, people were able to survive the weather until a more traditional home could be built. Besides, a lot of sod had to be removed to clear the land for planting crops. “Waste not, want not.” Now that is a totally recyclable home! The rafters were made out of boards from the wagons they arrived in. My grandmother came to Alberta from South Dakota in 1912 when she was five years old. She remembered sleeping under the wagon during the trip and living in a soddie for the first year they homesteaded. What a wild time her life encompassed: sod houses, indoor plumbing, automobiles, men on the moon and computers.
In the farmhouse, there is a china cabinet that is like the one my grandparents purchased before my mother was born. I inherited their cabinet and it gives me a frisson every time I see the one at the park. Here they are:
Here are a few other scenes I enjoyed:
Everyday Cheer 
Love the photos.
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Thank you. The park makes it easy to imagine yourself in another time.
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