![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
agoodwinsmithI mentioned before that we went for a vacation to Pentiction, where I grew up and graduated from high school.
I had a chance this visit to see some of my friend from high school, whom I haven't seen since I was 21 or so. My goodness, it is so weird. More than 30 years have passed, and yes they are wrinklely, and so am I, but they are so entirely the same people as ever. Alan has made that mustache-smoothing gesture since I met him when we were 10, and he didn't have a mustache to smooth. Laura is as intense as ever - and she tells the best stories. Deb & I have kept in touch since we met up again in our 30's, but it is just the same. Wrinkles or not, they are exactly the same people they were when we were kids. Yes, everyone has suffered their triumphs and disasters, and those leave their stamp on a person, but they don't reach the core that the person was from the womb.
I remember in my 30's being very unhappy about various changes that were happening in Pentiction - mostly the destruction of places where I had played as a kid, and it was tinged a little with the regret that other people wouldn't be able to enjoy those things. But no, it is just like my friends. Yes, the cosmetics have changed in a big way, and you can't forget those changes, but nothing that anyone can do will ever really change Penticton and its beauty. Not really. The orchards are gone, and with them the sounds of the big aluminium sprinklers (such a weedy little word for pipes that were as big in diameter as a ten-year old's thigh, with nozzles that sent out a stream 20 - 30 feet long) going "tsh tsh tsh" all night long. Very soothing sound, and the cool air that would roll out of an orchard was such a blessing in that heat-blasted landscape.
But the sky is blue, and the lake is blue, and the mountains are blue when seen from a distance. And the wind shakes the leaves, and pushes the water up on the sandy beaches, and blows your hair out of your eyes so that you can see everything and smile at it.
Ahem.
Have some photo albums:
Pentiction
http://pics.livejournal.com/agoodwinsmith/gallery/0002s247
Ponderosa Pine Trees
http://pics.livejournal.com/agoodwinsmith/gallery/0002x58p
Okanagan Landscapes
http://pics.livejournal.com/agoodwinsmith/gallery/0002ytec
I had a chance this visit to see some of my friend from high school, whom I haven't seen since I was 21 or so. My goodness, it is so weird. More than 30 years have passed, and yes they are wrinklely, and so am I, but they are so entirely the same people as ever. Alan has made that mustache-smoothing gesture since I met him when we were 10, and he didn't have a mustache to smooth. Laura is as intense as ever - and she tells the best stories. Deb & I have kept in touch since we met up again in our 30's, but it is just the same. Wrinkles or not, they are exactly the same people they were when we were kids. Yes, everyone has suffered their triumphs and disasters, and those leave their stamp on a person, but they don't reach the core that the person was from the womb.
I remember in my 30's being very unhappy about various changes that were happening in Pentiction - mostly the destruction of places where I had played as a kid, and it was tinged a little with the regret that other people wouldn't be able to enjoy those things. But no, it is just like my friends. Yes, the cosmetics have changed in a big way, and you can't forget those changes, but nothing that anyone can do will ever really change Penticton and its beauty. Not really. The orchards are gone, and with them the sounds of the big aluminium sprinklers (such a weedy little word for pipes that were as big in diameter as a ten-year old's thigh, with nozzles that sent out a stream 20 - 30 feet long) going "tsh tsh tsh" all night long. Very soothing sound, and the cool air that would roll out of an orchard was such a blessing in that heat-blasted landscape.
But the sky is blue, and the lake is blue, and the mountains are blue when seen from a distance. And the wind shakes the leaves, and pushes the water up on the sandy beaches, and blows your hair out of your eyes so that you can see everything and smile at it.
Ahem.
Have some photo albums:
Pentiction
http://pics.livejournal.com/agoodwinsmith/gallery/0002s247
Ponderosa Pine Trees
http://pics.livejournal.com/agoodwinsmith/gallery/0002x58p
Okanagan Landscapes
http://pics.livejournal.com/agoodwinsmith/gallery/0002ytec
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-09-24 07:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-24 03:24 pm (UTC)It is possible, because of the low humidity, to tolerate the very beastly temperatures. It can reach 40 C in the middle of the day for weeks on end in July & August. (Coming home yesterday, I was in an air conditioned bus until we pulled into Chilliwack, and the little amount of heat (probably 23 or 24 C), was just disgusting because of the humidity. Great big lungsful of soggy hot air. Bleah.) I mean: you don't stand around outside in that, if you can avoid it, of course, but even so.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-24 04:07 pm (UTC)Oh, I see - thanks for explaining. I hope you didn't think I was criticising the place though, I just wanted to understand how things work there. Here, if the landscape looked like that, you'd assume there'd been a severe drought, and I wondered if it was the same or not.
I'm not sure I could cope with 40 C, low humidity or not - I'm not a warm weather person :)
no subject
Date: 2011-09-24 05:14 pm (UTC)I agree with you about the heat - I do most of my coping inside cool buildings or in the lake. :)
Mid-September, which is when we went, is the best time of year - still warm, but not lethal. Also, the mad crowds of tourists are mostly gone (I was careful to choose our week between events).
no subject
Date: 2011-09-24 05:56 pm (UTC)No need to apologise - it just struck me after I'd posted that my nosiness might have been interpreted that way.
For similar reasons, we go to Italy in March, when we go :-)