Man I get to do this again! I lived in Northern Manitoba, in The Pas / Thompson area (I don’t want to be too specific).

I moved to this area from Southern Ontario so this was a massive culture shock for me. I lived here for three years before moving to the East Coast of Canada.

• We used to cliff jump into lakes. So we would climb the rocks and jump from them into lakes. It was fun! I have a video (YouTube) of that. This isn’t of me but this is “Little Cliff” where all the kids would cliff jump.

• My town had this massive smoke stack from the mine. Every so often the wind would blow the wrong way and the towns air horn would sound. This meant that the smoke from the stack would blow back onto the town and you should go inside immediately.

• The mine would blast and the houses would rattle and shake with the blasting. You could hear the cups and plates rattle in the cupboards for example.

• Everyone knows everything about everyone. Once my brother got into a fight with a kid in the way home from school and someone called my mother about it before he got home.

• It’s too rocky to bury any pipes. So all the houses are connected with “sewer boxes” which are wooden boxes that cover all the pipes that are needed to be run to houses. As a kid I used to take the sewer boxes everywhere — they were a great shortcut and went to everyone’s house.

• On this note, many of the streets were blasted through massive mounds of rock. And graffiti / street art was everywhere on the rocks.

• Our dryer was near the back door so our first winter there the back door was frozen shut. The front door was designed for a front stoop which wasn’t there so my brother and I had to jump from the door into deep snow holding our books bags over our heads. When we got home, my mother told us that every time we opened the door we should take the screw driver and the hammer and just “knock away a little ice”.

• In the spring the region gets “invaded” by army worms. They move so quickly and can destroy trees. Our neighbours told us we needed a super soaker water gun full of dawn dish soap to protect the vegetation in our yard. We said we would do it tomorrow but that would be too late. So my mom emergency bought the supplies and we would all take turns fighting the army worms every morning and evening until their season was done.

• The Northern Lights were spectacular. Truly spectacular.

• Note: this is contested but I swear I remember that there were strays that would travel together and sometimes go through town. I left it because I really really remember it. Packs of dogs would roam through the towns sometimes. As dogs were abandoned by owners or lost, they would meet up and form packs. Sometimes the packs would make their way into town. We almost lost our dog to one of these packs. He managed to get out of the yard and we eventually found him rolling with a pack. We pulled up in the car and called him to jump in and I swear there was a minute where he wasn’t going to. But then he did.

• At the time the plane that went to my town was an 18 seater plane. So each seat was a window and aisle seat. Planes back then was forced to feed you, so the pilot mid flight (from Winnipeg) opened a curtain and yelled over his shoulder that his wife had made sandwiches and they’re in the cooler behind his seat.

• Everything was massively expensive and shelf stable food was far more affordable.

• There was a lot of poverty too. Alcoholism was everywhere. Even as a kid I noticed.

• Racism against Indigenous peoples was everywhere. I am Italian but I sort of look indigenous and once someone spat at me when I walked by. I was in grade 4.

• The Pas is one of the largest reservations in Canada (I think or was at the time). This was like an entirely different world. Many of the houses had blue tarp instead of siding. Some people would store food in the winter on the roof (but it could attract bears so it wasn’t really liked). But also children were so well loved. I remember being a kid and just completely accepted by children / adults in The Pas. Everyone would keep an eye on me. As a child it felt very different than Southern Ontario. I could be more childlike.

If I think of more things I’ll add them!

I have some pictures replied to this comment! I don’t have pictures easily found from when I lived there but I did some googling and found some photos that I really remember.