Aylmer Express "MoHo" Extravaganza 2006

quiddity \KWID-ih-tee\, noun:
1. The essence, nature, or distinctive peculiarity of a thing.
2. A hairsplitting distinction; a trifling point; a quibble.
3. An eccentricity; an odd feature.

Here we are in Edmonton, home of the “Oilers”. Boy, this town loves their hockey. The Oilers had a great run all the way to the Stanley Cup final this year only to lose in the 7th game. You can still see many businesses still displaying their “Go Oilers Go” cheer on their signs. They are either huge fans or huge procrastinators … or both. As Edmonton is the Capital of Alberta, we had no choice but to check out their legislative building. A nice building to be sure but not quite as impressive as Regina’s which, in turn, was not quite as impressive as Winnipeg’s. All three where built in the same era with Edmonton’s being started in 1907 and completed in 1913 at a cost of $4 million. I know this because I looked it up on Wikipedia and I looked it up there because our tour guide sucked! About the only interesting facts I gleaned from the guide was that three different former Edmonton Eskimos (football players) went on to become premiers of the province and that there are 638 light bulbs in the legislative assembly. OK, it wasn’t quite that bad but I must admit that it seems the tour guides at the legislative buildings we have visited seem to be dwindling in quality as we move west. There was one interesting fact the tour guide did provide which was that the legislative building was the first building in Edmonton that had electricity … hence all the light bulbs.

After our tour we then did something that we haven’t done the during the entire 5 weeks of our trip so far … we got soaked in the rain running to the car! I think we picked the worst 30 seconds to make the dash but we kind of enjoyed the novelty of it all. We were then off to Chantal’s great aunt Alice’s place which we did not realize was only about 1 km away. Chantal thought it was close and by the time I got the GPS set up and it found enough satellites to tell us where to go (as it were) the only instruction it gave us was, “destination 100 metres on the right”. Good timing! Well, that GPS is nothing if not accurate.

Alice, Chantal’s great aunt, is one incredible woman. She is 95 years old and although she is somewhat frail, she speaks and has the mannerisms like someone in their 60’s. Even Morgan and André-Paul noticed this and told me that she didn’t seem that old at all. When was the last time you spoke to someone over 9 times as old as you are and had an interesting conversation? She is still very sharp. She knows what is going on with all her children, grand children, great grand children and great, great grandchildren. Yup, you read that correctly, 5 generations!. That is actually more impressive that it sounds because she got married when she was 16 and had, now get this, 8 boys! But that is not all, she also had some girls … 8 of them too! That’s right, 16 children in all. I’d have trouble just remembering all their names. I only have two kids and get their names mixed up all the time. Heck, I’d have trouble coming up with 16 different names! It reminds me of the Dr. Seuss story called “Twenty three Daves”. You should read it if you haven’t … lots of fun. And on top of her 16 kids, she now has about 50 grandchildren, give or take. With this many descendents, I wouldn’t be surprised if you see her picture in the dictionary beside the word consanguineous. And one of her grandchildren is a chip off the old block and is about to have his 7th child. Sometimes the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, eh?
We also got the chance to meet three of her daughters, Lise, Colette and Delores, who where there to greet us as well. Delores actually lives with Alice. What amazed me is how young-at-heart everyone in this family seems. You’d swear you are talking to someone 20 years younger. Good genes I guess. Or maybe there is something in the water in northern Alberta, near Peace River, where they all grew up. We enjoyed a nice visit and a wonderful dinner before we had to say goodbye. It is hard to imagine what it must be like to have been born before the Model T or air travel or television (or radio!) and live through the depression, 2 world wars, your husband’s death and even the death of some of your children. That’s quite a journey and it is not over yet!