Boyle McCauley News

Since 1979 • April-May 2024 • Circulation 5000

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Getting Acquainted

In the first Edmonton neighbourhood I lived in, I met my neighbours at the playground, at playschool, and at Sunday School. It was a new subdivision and we had little children in common. In the second neighbourhood I lived in, I met my neighbours as we stood on the street watching our houses being built and comparing notes.

Now I live in McCauley. I met my nearest neighbours when the Edmonton Police SWAT team surrounded our house, phoned, and told us to come out with our hands up. A neighbour thought he had seen a weapon in our house and called 911. That’s when I learned that in McCauley, we look out for one another and the police take us seriously.

As we settled in, we found other ways to meet neighbours. Our paths cross at Giovanni Park where we sit on a bench to watch our grandchildren and the other kids that come to swing on the saucer swing and muck about in the sand and water. We meet at the school bus stop where we supply 12 kids to Mother Teresa School classes. We meet at the Italian Centre while on the prowl for good gluten free pasta and a block of parmesan cheese. We meet at Zocolo at the long table for a cup of good coffee amidst the smell of fresh flowers. We meet at McCauley Drugs where Raj knows our names and our medical foibles. We meet at spring soccer where neighbours, thankfully, step up to manage a team all decked out in Tim Hortons jerseys. We meet at Heart of the City while we recline on the hill to hear great music and watch the hula-hoop performers. We meet monthly at the community league swim night at the Rec Centre. Last summer, we met more new neighbours in a blocked off back alley for an ice cream party, complements of Neighbourhood Revitalization.

I’ve lived in Edmonton for 45 years and this is the friendliest neighbourhood I’ve experienced. The Van Booms have impromptu parties around their fire pit and happen to know everyone for blocks. Our letter carrier, Michelle, asks after the grandchildren by name. Our neighbourhood permaculture expert helped prune our new apple tree. We had a neighbourhood historian in Alice, who lived in McCauley for 60 years, and thankfully shared her story in McCauley Then and Now before she died. We learned how she raised seven children in a 775 square foot house.

McCauley reminds me of growing up in Bentley, in central Alberta, where our lives were intertwined, as they must be for a farm community to thrive. When disaster struck, casseroles and concern arrived at the door. Cinnamon buns arrived for joyous celebrations. That reminds me that the family down the street must have a new baby by now. We met at the bus stop where she was shuffling on ice because of advanced pregnancy and I was doing the penguin walk so as to not fall and break a hip. I’d better get some cookies going so I can meet the new babe.

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