Paul, I am LOVING your journey. We have all been to the same Chinese restaurant with the same Chinese Canadian Chinese food and a similar (and lovely) immigrant story. Thank you for keeping us posted.
There used to be car racing in Davidson in the 50s and 60s on a course laid out on an airfield that may have been used as a commonwealth air training base in WW2 - is the airfield still there?
Davidson as I remember it Paul, sorta. As you know, I grew up relatively nearby, but we divided our time shopping and hauling grain and so on pretty much equally between the nearby hamlet of Bladworth, the slightly larger village of Kenaston a little further north and Davidson. Our family farm was positioned in such a way it was equidistant from each of these places it was pretty much a coin flip over where our parents would send us to school. But I think it was the presence of my grandparents in Kenaston that decided it and so we were schooled there. So, if any of these urban places — urban to me, anyway — felt like home to this particular farm kid it was Kenaston. And compared to Kenaston, Davidson was Metropolis. When I was a kid in the ‘60s and ‘70s it was thriving and had plenty of things it doesn’t have now, including a bakery, a dentist, a small but well stocked department store, a newspaper — “The Davidson Leader” — a government liquor store, the old Royal Bank (now my cousin’s art gallery) and more. The Chinese restaurant you dined in was operating even then as a Chinese restaurant, but was in the hands of another family. If memory serves it was called the New Owl Cafe, which was a wonderful name. In time I became more Davidson-centric and even at one point dated the daughter of the Mayor (now a successful physician and medical prof in Saskatoon and, as I never tire of telling people, a kinswoman of Cole Porter). A fun fact: a stretch of the country road the Prpicks regularly drove on their way into Davidson was rumoured to be the same bit of Prairie country road featured on the back of the old and extinct Canadian $1 bill. If it wasn’t, it sure looked the same. Anyway, should you should drive back past Davidson on your way back East, I recommend pulling into the Shell truck stop just south of town on the west side of the highway. The eatery there, Keeper’s, is my favourite local one and I was introduced to it by cousin Gail, who sold you that painting, and her husband Tom. The restaurant features the finest of Saskatchewan home cooking. Then after the meal drop by my place for another coffee, a Level 2 charge and an update on your trip.
In North Vancouver? “Westview Oriental Restaurant “ …. 🤷♀️ For historical reasons there are many Chinese restaurants (handed through generations) in Vancouver. But also in small town BC . My son’s mother-in-law arrived from China at age 13 to Nelson BC
As you drive through that part of Saskatchewan I hope you’ve got Joni Mitchell’s Song for Sharon or other music by her board. She wrote about where she grew up in such poetic and memorable ways.
Paul, I am LOVING your journey. We have all been to the same Chinese restaurant with the same Chinese Canadian Chinese food and a similar (and lovely) immigrant story. Thank you for keeping us posted.
There used to be car racing in Davidson in the 50s and 60s on a course laid out on an airfield that may have been used as a commonwealth air training base in WW2 - is the airfield still there?
Wow. Had no idea.
We stopped in Davidson on our way to Saskatoon, too. Just a little too close for comfort to go straight from Regina.
Davidson as I remember it Paul, sorta. As you know, I grew up relatively nearby, but we divided our time shopping and hauling grain and so on pretty much equally between the nearby hamlet of Bladworth, the slightly larger village of Kenaston a little further north and Davidson. Our family farm was positioned in such a way it was equidistant from each of these places it was pretty much a coin flip over where our parents would send us to school. But I think it was the presence of my grandparents in Kenaston that decided it and so we were schooled there. So, if any of these urban places — urban to me, anyway — felt like home to this particular farm kid it was Kenaston. And compared to Kenaston, Davidson was Metropolis. When I was a kid in the ‘60s and ‘70s it was thriving and had plenty of things it doesn’t have now, including a bakery, a dentist, a small but well stocked department store, a newspaper — “The Davidson Leader” — a government liquor store, the old Royal Bank (now my cousin’s art gallery) and more. The Chinese restaurant you dined in was operating even then as a Chinese restaurant, but was in the hands of another family. If memory serves it was called the New Owl Cafe, which was a wonderful name. In time I became more Davidson-centric and even at one point dated the daughter of the Mayor (now a successful physician and medical prof in Saskatoon and, as I never tire of telling people, a kinswoman of Cole Porter). A fun fact: a stretch of the country road the Prpicks regularly drove on their way into Davidson was rumoured to be the same bit of Prairie country road featured on the back of the old and extinct Canadian $1 bill. If it wasn’t, it sure looked the same. Anyway, should you should drive back past Davidson on your way back East, I recommend pulling into the Shell truck stop just south of town on the west side of the highway. The eatery there, Keeper’s, is my favourite local one and I was introduced to it by cousin Gail, who sold you that painting, and her husband Tom. The restaurant features the finest of Saskatchewan home cooking. Then after the meal drop by my place for another coffee, a Level 2 charge and an update on your trip.
Thanks for this wonderful reminiscence
Been through Davidson, several times. Reminds me of Lee's in Baldur, Manitoba, where my mom grew up.
In North Vancouver? “Westview Oriental Restaurant “ …. 🤷♀️ For historical reasons there are many Chinese restaurants (handed through generations) in Vancouver. But also in small town BC . My son’s mother-in-law arrived from China at age 13 to Nelson BC
As you drive through that part of Saskatchewan I hope you’ve got Joni Mitchell’s Song for Sharon or other music by her board. She wrote about where she grew up in such poetic and memorable ways.