My favorite burger in town is the Classic with Cheddar at Local. This could be because of the frequency in which I have it, but it takes a pretty nice picture doesn't it? Barb and I met up for a beer on Wednesday night and enjoyed hanging out on the patio for the first time this year.
We always seem to come here when we're in the middle of the latest project at Stream Media, or because we're overdue for a hangout. This time it was a bit of both really. And being in a place that's become so familiar it was interesting that the topic of the evening was centered around change.
I've been wrestling more lately with my potential in a place like Medicine Hat and I do feel like between Stream and the video and photography work I do for the Weddingstar website, there's no new benchmark to expand to - at least not that I can see yet. Barb even noted that my Around the Hat photo series almost seemed like a way of saying goodbye to the city, especially with my recent set of the Citadel building. There might be something to that.
All of this was kind of a precursor to the discussion I knew I'd be having that evening with my friend Tyler over skype. I knew he was going to tell me that he had decided to move to Ontario from Saskatchewan. It had me thinking about Regina, the place we all went to film school, and what it meant for future hangouts if we were all living further away from one another. All of my friends, it seems, are further spread out than they've ever been and if it weren't for the weddings or planned trips, I know we'd almost never see each other.
It's scary, if I'm honest, to be on the cusp of big changes that aren't your own. I can feel things are moving again, and I tell myself it's just the growing pains of entering a new phase of adulthood. On one hand the life I've built here is pretty darn good, but as if it's a downside, it's become comfortable and all of the recent shifting has seemed to emphasize it.
I'm addicted to change in a lot of ways. This blog began as a way of documenting and holding myself accountable to it. Yet, it's tough to feel like a spectator when it's simply happening around you. As I sat on the patio that night, about to take another bite of my favorite burger, I couldn't help but think that as good as it was, there were no surprises in having the same thing again.
Opened in downtown Medicine Hat in 1958, the Towne Theatre was a popular venue to see the latest flicks for several decades. In 1979 the movie theatre was twinned, and in 1984 it became known as the Towne 3 when it was triplexed. Originally the Towne was noted for having balcony seating, but renovations in the seventies saw it replaced with the upstairs cinemas.
I have a lot of memories of coming here as a kid in the 1990s. The Towne actually had the biggest screen in the city until the Cineplex opened in 1998. From that point on things began to decline for the downtown movie theatres, the Towne and the Monarch. Most people opted for the newer and bigger cinema, while the Towne started falling further into disrepair. Both the Towne and Monarch theatres, owned by Landmark Cinemas at the time, closed their doors in 2007.
The Monarch Theatre has since been restored and was reopened in 2009, however the Towne has remained vacant. At this point there's no sign that the Towne Theatre will be restored or converted for other uses. That old neon sign is still pretty cool though.
Explore the interior of the Towne Theatre with these photo sets:
The rail lines were an essential and direct link to the earliest industries to spring up in Medicine Hat, Alberta during the early years of the last century. Located at Medalta Potteries are a couple of vintage Canadian Pacific train cars on display along a small loading platform. The box car and caboose look right at home in the historic clay district and hark back to a time when this industry thrived.
