Recently Yorkton residents were asked to take part in the Tale of a Town project.
It’s an interesting exercise to be sure. The process of gathering stories about what has in the past quintessentially been the heart of Canadian communities since the earliest settlers established a general store and other businesses began to congregate near them, creating a street around which a community could grow.
There is history on our main streets, from the architecture of the older buildings, to the stories of the buildings past owners, usually a tale of community builders with a vision to grow a town.
In some respects the current project to collect stories is a decade or two too late.
Many of the communities on the Prairies have roots far deeper than the memories of current residents go.
The situation is more pronounced in older areas of our country, Manitoba to the Maritimes.,
But the old adage better late than never certainly applies here. There would never be a perfect time to capture a snapshot of a history so big, so take what is available and work from there.
In this case there stories may have several benefits as they are collected.
To start downtowns in many communities show their age these days, and with many businesses preferring box store builds, or spots in strip malls, how to keep cores fresh is a challenge.
Within the collected stories will be ones which tell of the vibrancy of the past, and what made those streets once busy with activity might be recaptured.
And, the stories will also be an archive of a different time, as our communities evolve and our business patterns change with trends and technology.
Again a snapshot in time is worth preserving, and this project should do that well.
