Where Past is Present

21 September, Friday
Maple Creek, Saskatchewan

The sound of a train whistle pierces the prairie night. Somehow it is a friendly sound like the wave of an elderly woman as we walked past her home this evening or the bark of a neighborhood dog. This is cow country. A big sign in town says, “Support our Ranchers. Eat Canadian Beef.” Next to the train tracks is a grain elevator. I had been reading about this little town in a book by Stuart McLean called “Welcome Home.” He wrote it in 1992, so what were the chances that we would find his favorite places still here fifteen years later? Places like Carson Currah’s Bakery? Stuart wrote, “If you ever find yourself crossing Saskatchewan on the Trans-Canada Highway, you could do worse than drop down Highway 21 into Maple Creek for a coffee and one of Carson’s cinnamon buns.” Well Currah’s Bakery is still here, along with the best cinnamon buns I have ever tasted. We poured our own coffee from the pot and sat down at one of the five tables. Our hot cinnamon buns were brought to us on white ironstone plates, the melting butter dribbling over the edges. The buns were huge and filled with brown sugar, cinnamon, and raisins. We marveled that everything at the bakery was the same as Stuart McLean had described, even the screen door and huge variety of buns they offered. A bulletin board was near our table and we saw a poster advertising a CPR Steam Train ride from Maple Creek to Medicine Hat – a charity fundraiser for the Children’s Wish Foundation – to leave Maple Creek at 4:45 pm on September 21. This is September 21, and it is close to 4:45. Everything from here on is a dash and a flurry of activity including meeting the bakery owner Carson Currah, gulping down the last of our coffee, and rushing to the car to grab my camera. We get to the train tracks just as we hear a steam whistle. “It’s coming,” the crowd murmurs almost in unison. There is such excitement and anticipation as we all peer down the tracks at the headlamp that is coming our way. The hissing sound of steam and the beautiful black machine pulls in along with burgandy colored vintage dining, passenger, and baggage cars. Orange shirted crewmen descend upon the engine with oilcans, grease buckets, and whatever, just for a chance to be part of this rare occasion. Cameras frame the moment but cannot capture the emotion. It means something different to every person here, from the leather-faced cowboy to the small dark-skinned man of Asian or East Indian descent. I watch as this man moves toward the stationary engine and places his hands reverently upon the wheels, not in admiration but as some kind of remembrance. Then the steam whistle lets out a blast, the bell clangs, and the steam engine moves forward, chuff, chuff, chuff, picks up speed. A man near me exclaims, “God, isn’t that great?” The passengers wave. We wave. There are smiles everywhere. While we were drinking coffee and eating cinnamon buns at the bakery, Mr. Currah told us he remembers when the last steam engine went through the town he grew up in – “They took us school kids down to see it. It was a big deal. I remember when the first diesel train went through town too.” Everyone has a memory. Maple Creek’s motto is “Where past is present.” That was certainly true today. ... P. L. Morningstar