Home Town

My town is small.  It is true, there is no getting around it.  Not so much now, but when I first moved back after living in both St. Catharines, and Toronto for schooling, friends would always ask why I moved back here.  Besides the obvious (it was home) there are many things to love about this little town.

What this town lacks in size it more than makes up for in heart. 

There are beautiful trails that lead to waterfalls, to cliffs that look out over the bay.  There is a park in the middle of town that is truly amazing.  There are four museums, several art galleries, and an award winning library.  There are quaint shopping opportunities, and unique restaurants.You can watch the fish jump.  Every Christmas our town lights up with the Northern Lights, which I dare say are more impressive than any light festival I have every been to.   .  You can attend many lectures in topics ranging from history to art to astronomy.  Streets shut down for Celtic festivals. There's bike clubs, free skating, plays, concerts, running clubs, cooking classes.  We have a theatre company, and a symphony. There a splash pad, a bmx park, a skateboard park and an awesome tobogganing hill.  We still have a drive in theatre.  Summer nights there are free movies in the park, and Harbour nights have music under the stars.  There is a farmer's market for amazing local fresh food available year round.  There's horseback riding, and dog sledding.     

But more than things there is a sense of community with amazing people.  In the middle of a particular bad snow storm strangers repeatedly stopped to see if they could drive me home as I walked home from the bus stop.  People say hi when you pass in the street.  Our highschool kids win green challenge awards.  As a child everyone gathered for lighting the northern lights, for the Christmas tree bonfires. When the Olympic torch passed through the whole town gathered despite the freezing weather not just to see it but to watch one of our own carry it in.  I have neighbours I have rarely talked to that snow blow the end of my driveway after the plow goes by.  Crowds gather for parades, or zombie walks, or new year's balloon drops.  Come rain or shine three thousands strangers sway in the dark and sing the most beautiful rendition of "goodnight irene" you have every heard at Summerolk.  Every Saturday night for twenty years our hockey team played to almost capacity crowds despite the fact that they rarely made the playoffs and  last year when our boys proved the critics wrong and won the ontario championship we lined the streets all the way to Dundalk (an hour away), to show them how proud we were of them. 

Wherever you go in life, Owen Sound will stay with you, and I have found pockets of us Owen Sounders everywhere I go, we seem to seek each other out, and somehow have a bond that distance time and space does not seem to break.  I have made amazing friends here, and found the love of my life.  So yes this town is small,  but it sure feels big in my heart.