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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Good day to say I just love this town

Posted: 02/14/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES Holy Trinity Church has a great house band. Below, Palm Room is a swell locale.

This is the weekend for over-the-top demonstrations of love.

Teenage boys will be dropping 20 bucks on heart-shaped boxes of bonbons. The price of a dozen red roses will skyrocket. You won't be able to get a reservation at any restaurant with a tablecloth.

Smug marrieds will declare the holiday a scam, much to the chagrin of their children who believe this attitude marks the end of what passed for romance among the elders.

Consider this column my Valentine to Winnipeg.

This is the city where I was born, grew up, fled like I was on fire and discovered again in early adulthood.

I love this city for simple, corny reasons. It's the place that holds my earliest childhood memories, my first crush and first job.

This is where I came to the understanding that where you come from defines who you become.

Here are some of the things I love most about our city:

Assiniboine Park: Where else can you see half the city on a sunny summer weekend, playing, walking or riding their bikes? Where else can you watch crisply dressed cricket players? Where else can you feed the ducks, admire the flowers and have a great meal?

Holy Trinity Church: Because a church in the centre of downtown is a wonderful thing and Winnipeg has several. But I'm sweet on Holy Trinity because they've got a great house band, a commitment to working with inner-city residents and a congregation that defies the odds and fills the pews each week.

Our libraries: I can't play favourites. I worked at the West Kildonan branch when I was 13 and judged just smart enough to reshelve the books.

But I love the feeling in the old Cornish branch and the massive swagger of the Millennium library and really anyplace that is filled with books and the people who love to read them.

The Bay Downtown: Because I remember when you could buy candy at sweeping counters on the main floor. Because they used to sell books. Because the Paddlewheel restaurant may have been the first place I had fries and gravy.

Falafel Place: Not just because the owner is my neighbour or because they serve the best hash browns in town. I love the restaurant because it proves a guy who works hard, loves his job and values his customers can be a raging success in Winnipeg.

Sam Katz: Because he's larger than life. And because he loves this city too.

Pollock's Hardware store: Because when I was a kid and my dad let me tag along on the Saturday-morning errands, we'd always stop at Pollock's. It had a mystery and romance no big-box store can ever emulate. And because enough people share my memories that it's been kept alive.

The Palm Room: Because it's swell.

My husband: Because he puts up with me, a yeoman's task on the best of days.

Osborne Village: Because generations of Winnipeggers can claim memories of the street. Because there used to be a restaurant that let university students linger over sharp glasses of cheap white wine and bowls of brown rice for hours.

Because I still hold a sick affection for Donini as a result.

Agape Table for Kids: Because until there's no longer a need, it's essential someone makes sure kids are fed.

McNally Robinson: Because it's actually a bookstore and not an excuse to sell scented candles and knick-knacks.

The Forks: Because the doubters said it would never work. And it did.

Alycia's: Because although my mother makes the best perogies in town (and she wishes I'd stop advertising that fact), she's not opening a restaurant. This is second choice.

Free Press readers: Because even when you're cranky and mean, you're still committed to reading a newspaper and engaging in a conversation. Because I understand that's how I earn my salary.

And because sometimes, you're sweeter than sugar.

Happy Valentine's Day, Winnipeg.

lindor.reynolds@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 14, 2009 A2

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