Jennie Visser's Five Memories Of Growing Up In Edmonton
Jennie (Nicolai) Visser has lived in Edmonton and area for over 70 years. Her husband Clarence Visser came to Edmonton from Holland in 1947. Together they have lived on a farm at the northeast edge of the city for 56 years. The farm was annexed to the city in 1982. Children and grandchildren now also live on the same land, which continues to be used as a market garden.- Walking through the Hudson Bay Reserve. Located north of the Royal Alexandra Hospital, it was then a big open space where you could hear the songs of the meadowlark.
- Picnicking near an ever-running spring of clear, clean water. Just across the Dawson Bridge near a coal mine, the spot is now part of a golf course.
- Traveling by streetcar. For five cents, we could ride the streetcars all over the city. Crossing the High Level Bridge was always exciting.
- Being quarantined. I don’t remember ever being ill during my preschool days in Saskatchewan, but in Edmonton we broke out with many contagious diseases and were quarantined with door signs for measles, chicken pox, mumps and scarlet fever. Many days we missed school, and I spent a long stretch in the Royal Alexandra Hospital.
- Front yard gardens. Always there were gardens. Most people’s front lawns were covered with potatoes. Dad delivered many vegetables to help pay for my hospital stay—and that was pre-Medicare. His garden was his life of neighbourliness. When he became ill in the ‘80s, his big concern was who would tend his beloved garden. Today a grandson living in his house in the Norwood district keeps a well-tended garden.
