Davidson

Pop. 1025

Guan’s Davidson Kitchen—Chinese and Canadian Food—is on the town’s sleepy main street. I imagine many people eat at the A&W or the DQ on the nearby highway. When I had dinner, I was the only patron sitting at one of the restaurant’s dozen or so tables. But they were doing a brisk business in takeout.

The lady who served me what passes in rural Canada for Chinese cuisine spoke with a heavy Chinese accent. She said she and her husband had been running the restaurant for six years. They have four children, all in Saskatoon, one working and three at the University of Saskatchewan, so an immigrant story.

At one time, nearly every prairie town had a restaurant like this one, usually run by Chinese-Canadians, and often known to locals by what we now recognize as a slur.

I had stopped in Davidson because there is a free Level 2 charger at the Napa Auto Parts store. There are no fast chargers between Regina and Saskatoon, though I am told that will change soon. I probably could have made it but charged for an hour as insurance.

Screenshot from Gail Prpick Art’s website

Across the street from Guan’s Davidson Kitchen is Gail Prpick Art, which is housed in a century-old brick bank building, naturally long abandoned by the bank.

No, “Prpick” is not a misspelling. Gail, who is a cousin of an old CBC colleague and recent friend who lives in Regina, says the unusual spelling of her name is an asset on the internet where she sells 70% of her art and that of the other local artists she features. Her maiden name was Stewart, if I recall what she told me correctly. Those are dime-a-dozen.

If you like scenes of the prairies, you can check out her inventory here.

A painting on display at Gail Prpick Art

I bought a little painting of a sheaf of wheat to remind me of my transit through the prairies.