Edmonton Street News Christmas party

It's hard to believe I started this blog a year ago, but Christmas has rolled around again. I do the layout for Edmonton Street News, often from Indian computer shops. It's one of those tasks a person can do anywhere in the world and I like making a continuing contribution. I sold street newspapers on corners myself. I know that the money people can make doing this, while it may seem minuscule to those in the mainstream economy, is important to those whose lives sometimes hang by a thread, especially in winter. And the chance to tell your story and interact with people who have had the same experiences is therapeutic.



Last year we ran out of food before all the people who came to eat were fed, so this year we rounded up more food and sent off letters asking for donations. The amount of food that landed at the mission, even after we had brought our own was phenomenal.


But people kept coming and we kept on feeding them. The only problem was, we only had the use of the room until five when the regular mission people put on a supper. We were feeding people from twelve o'clock to four o'clock, they just kept coming. Finally we packed up all the leftovers and left them for the mission volunteers and with great difficulty got tables cleared and floors mopped while more people kept coming. It was pretty insane.

The number of homeless people in Edmonton has soared with recent rent increases. My rent went from $475 to $650. $650 is now the bottom line, people on welfare get $395, there is just nothing to rent for that. Even the ones on AISH like me are having to choose between food and shelter now. There were lots of people appreciated a free meal.


But there are lots of free meals at Christmas. Things start getting grim in January and February is the pits. I'm going to suggest we have a Valentines day party for our vendors. Maybe it wouldn't be quite such a zoo. We have about twenty regular vendors. About three hundred people showed up for the meal.




Of course one of our local politicians showed up, Hugh MacDonald and the television cameras. No wonder the Iraqis shoot those guys. They are looking more and more like cyborgs every year.

Curious stuff

I've been working on a family history. The Great Depression in the 1930's had a huge impact on our parents families so I have been cruising the official archives to get some photos of the era since our family doesn't have any photos from that time.

The Glenbow Archives, the Edmonton City Archives and the Edmonton Library historical website have all pulled their photos and stories of personal hardship and civil unrest from their collections. All you can access from those years are pictures of buildings and military doings. It's particularly noticeable in the Library website where so many pictures and blocks of text have been removed that there are big gaps left on the pages, (some of the text gaps have since been filled since I was in there). No web designer would design a page like that. Looks like the Alberta government has decided to edit the thirties from the history of Alberta. Wonder why? Afraid that people might start remembering that bust sometimes follows boom?

Blogger Blues

Went to a memorial for my friend Brenda. Pretty sad. Didn't know many people there except her family and an old boyfriend. Her daughter is so young, just 22 and moving out into her own world. I'm pretty sure her grandparents will be supportive but having her mother around to cheer her on would have been better. I'm wondering if the reason her doctors didn't suggest an operation in January when she finally got symptoms unequivocal enough to diagnose the problem was that they had to wait for her to use the MRI machine?

Over on my history blog I have been having nothing but trouble. It doesn't want to load any photos at all and not even any longer text pieces. Been jammed up for the last month. Totally frustrating. I notice on my email account they have upped my storage capacity to 5 gigs, like I really need that much. But email doesn't want to ship jpegs either, takes many tries before they will load. Google seems to be promising more and more and delivering less and less.

Stunned

Got a phone call that stunned me tonight. A friend who had gone into the hospital for a chest operation died yesterday. The operation she was to have, if performed in time is normally quite effective, but she left it too long. I'm devastated. We used to fight because I was never willing to be quite as negative about allopathic medicine as she was. She had just spent five years training as a homeopathic practitioner. I almost feel as if bloody political correctness killed my friend. I hate it when everything gets so politicized that people put their lives and health in jeopardy because of it.

Making friends

Well, I guess I've definitely succumbed to those Grandmother vibes. Was thrilled to learn today that my grandson has discovered the beast known to the rest of the family as Psycho Cat. And puss just sidles away when little fingers yard too hard on lush fur. None of that ears back hissing stuff with which she rewards any overture of friendship from anyone else. I've always figured that cats were the very best way to teach young humans to respect other living creatures very early on. But I was worried that one might be a little strict.

Making plans to go down to the coast, happy to learn it's still nice and warm and pleasant there still. We are getting quite a few of those cool rainy fall days now. I'm particularly interested in meeting a distant cousin I encountered on Facebook. She has a book about our shared family name I'm quite interested in seeing. She's the same generation as my daughter so I'm hoping to get Rainbow to come over on the ferry with me so we both can meet her. One thing about the McBryan name, there are relatively few of us, even fewer migrated out west in the early 1900's so with a little bit of effort it is usually simple to figure out which grandfather or great grandfather we share.

Dreamworks

Was having one of "those" dreams last night where I desperately want to scream or run and cannot. (Cannot remember much about the dream except someone was trying to poke a wire into me.) But this time, first time I can remember, when I did try to scream, I did. Felt wonderful. Of course a couple of seconds later when I woke up I felt embarrassed about what the people upstairs must have thought about a woman suddenly shrieking out at three o'clock in the morning. Ah well, can't have it all.

Back in Canada struggling through the family thicket

I've been back in Canada for a while and have been very lax about updating this blog. India was as usual wonderful. I was quite swept away by Kashmir.

Since I have been back I have been very busy reconnecting with my family. First with the newest arrival Martin Noel in North Van.

Then an invitation from my daughter opened up a whole new vista. There are other McBryan's on Facebook of another lineage than ours. Of course we are all interested in figuring out how we are all related. My brother Mike and I have been working on sorting out the family thicket. It's quite fascinating because my father was very reticent about his background and it was only after his death that we got access to information as simple as what his father's first name was. So, for the interest of siblings and children and any other interested parties Mike and I are bit by bit getting pictures and old documents online.

Check out: Profile Theresa McBryan Facebook
and
Blogspot Address: McBryan Historical documents

Lots more links, photos and interactions with the clan for anyone who is interested.