My 37th year of living in Edmonton is fast approaching.

Moving here in 1975 was quite a shock to my system. I arrived in February from Vancouver to start a job with Syncrude. I knew Edmonton was very far north, but didn’t realize what living in a winter city actually meant. I heard people talking about things I had no clue about. I didn’t know what ice fog, black ice and ground grips were. Day after day of -30 C soon taught me about ice fog. I learned about black ice the hard way. And I finally figured out that ground grips were snow tires.

One of the things that really confused me was people talking about having to go to the vendor’s. Eventually I asked what was vended at the vendor’s and learned that it was what I had learned to call the LCBO in Toronto. It also took me a while to understand that when people were talking about something on 5th street, they meant 105th street. In 1975, there was no 5th street.

Over time, I learned not to order a western sandwich but to ask for a Denver instead. I also learned that if I wanted to have an espresso, I was going to have to make the trip to Little Italy. Having a coffee in those days usually meant drinking a tasteless, hot, brown liquid. If it weren’t for the Italian Centre, it would have been years before I was able to make myself a café latte.

I was also unprepared for moving to a much smaller city than what I was used to. I could easily walk the entire downtown area. One of the first things I noticed when I was doing that was how many mentally ill people there were on the streets. Every time I stopped for a red light, people would try to talk to me. Based on my experience growing up in Toronto, this meant that in a very short while they were going to start telling me about how the tinfoil they were wearing in their hats was protecting them from the messages aliens were trying to send into their brains. But after a while, I realized that people were just trying to be friendly.

It was a strange concept that took some time to get used to. It was also one of the reasons I decided to stay here.