Growing up in Prince Rupert, a small town in Northern BC known as the city of rainbows was a unique experience that I’ll forever be grateful for.
Looking back now to the first street I grew up on, Omineca; my siblings and I would spend the summers playing outside with our neighbors until 10 pm. We were blessed with daylight until 10:30 PM. Seeing how my older cousins and friends don’t let their children run around on the street in the evenings, I feel that I grew up in a unique era where most parents felt that the streets were safe in Rupert. There was not many places to do fun things but the bowling alley was always a fun place to have birthday parties. I remember attending many birthdays there during the year. It was unfortunate when it closed down.
If I could describe Prince Rupert in two words it would be, community and connection. Throughout my childhood, I remember a lot of community events that are special memories and I value as they taught me the meaning of connection. In my elementary school, I remember always having a multicultural day where we would spend the whole day learning about various cultures and at lunch time our families would join us for lunch where we would all have a buffet style meal and eat lunch with our families in our classrooms. This was a day I remember everyone feeling excited and loved. It was so nice to see parents and siblings enjoying a meal together and connecting over food and culture. My classmates and I had conversations about food traditions, it was a nice way for everyone to share about special meals with their families. The common ground was “connection” everyone connected over food, similarities and some differences, sharing their love for food.
Attending the Sikh temple every Sunday as a kid was a valuable experience as I got to learn about my culture and connect with other children my age. At the time, I hated going to Punjabi class on the weekends, however, looking back now, I am glad my parents kept me in those classes because now I can still speak, read and write Punjabi. After the prayers on Sundays, my friends and I would go play outside and we would always find ways to be creative using things we found on the ground and in the bushes. Branches, rocks, mud, as we created little towns and had our own imaginary worlds. I love how creative we were in finding ways to construct objects from nature items.
The yearly Seafest parade was another event I remember where the town worked together to create an entertaining day for the community. People would spend months creating and decorating their floats. I noticed some groups of people going around giving out water and snacks to the parade participants. Everyone was lending a helping hand where needed. It was such a unique way for all cultures to represent themselves and for everyone to enjoy the music, dances and food.
Another aspect of growing up there was the connection with our family friends. It was wonderful how my dad maintained his friendships from his early 20’s when he arrived to Prince Rupert. When all of them got married and had children, every few weeks all the friends would meet up and have dinner parties or get togethers outside during the warm days. Christmas time was unique as every night there was a dinner party sometimes straight for 14 nights, every night we would be at at a different family friends for dinner. The same company, different food and memorable conversations. In the summer time we started having highway parties, we would take some food and games to spots along the water on the highway and find a spot to have a fire. While the parents made the food, the children would play tag games or explore the area. Those are some of my favourite memories and as we got older, it was unique to continue those traditions. Sometimes, when I was in my early twenties, my friends and I would go without our parents and have our own small highway parties. We continued a traditions our parents started and learned the most valuable lesson, to cherish connections and to always make time for our loved ones.
It was the spontaneous plans that I remember the most. After the temple, sometimes the parents would decide to all go hiking together at butze. We would go home pack some snacks, change and meet at the trail. There were at least 30-40 of us walking along the trail. One we got to beach area, we would have a picnic and connect with one another. Play time. I remember the kids just wondering around, looking for rocks and shells. We would play tag games and create things with all the material we found on the beach. There was so much wonder, curiosity and play at that time.