(Day 2) The Epitome

Whenever I wake up in the wood-panelled basement bedroom at my parents’ house and smell the musty dank basement smell, I’m pretty much at the centre of my universe. The room might have different furnishings now, but the SK8 stickers and weird little Mexican stuffed animals hanging from the ceiling are still intact. Oh yeah, and the Old Dutch sign I stole from Chitaqua still hangs below my bedroom window. Aaaaand, of course, the Silverchair Neon Ballroom poster is still there, because Daniel Johns circa 1999 is still hot. Ahem! Moving on…

I was so excited to get into Altona and be a part of the Sunflower Festival. Most people from Altona will acknowledge that the Sunflower Festival holds a dear place in their hearts…it was the highlight of the summer for all of us as kids. The parade draws pretty much everyone in the area street-side on Saturday morning.




Settling in…I had packed up a blanket, snacks, water, coffee, an umbrella…I was ready for anything.


Reeeeeally enthusiastic Winkler Bible Camp counsellors.



My cousin’s son died this past spring in an ATV accident and they had a float in the parade dedicated to him. To be honest, this was really best float because they gave away such good stuff – hot dogs, energy drinks, Coke, green wavy things, etc. I’m only a little sad because I didn’t actually get a hot dog. I love hot dogs!






Ronald McDonald…who USED to give out coupons for a free small fries. This year, he came up empty handed…wtf Ronald.

And randomly, there were some old people riding their motorized wheelchair/scooters, knacking zot.


Only in southern MB.

All in all, I was pretty pleased with the experience, except that I felt it was too short. And where was the pig that squirted water from his nostrils? That was a perennial favourite.

After the parade, I met up with Shannon and Brent at the Pioneer Centre for the Mennonite food buffet. It was…OK. I’ve been spoiled throughout the years with a Mother who is a stellar cook so I say the schmaunt faht wasn’t flavourful enough and the perogies were way too big and tasteless on their own. I’m such a whiner.





After stuffing ourselves, we headed over the park to check out the festival scene. Unfortunately, it is a sad shell of its former self…in its heyday, we had a midway, food booths galore, airplanes dropping ping pong balls with prizes, face painting, the whole nine. Now, it’s this.


That’s about it. But there was also a petting zoo.

















They were doing some silly and unnecessary dangerous motorbike stuff near the car when we were leaving…




Good heavens! You would not find me on one of those doing that.

We then carried on with our wild adventures at the Altona Mall because Shannon wanted to go to Ten Thousand Villages. I almost wrote that as “10,000 Villages”. The feeling is alive!



I spent some time at Friesens looking for a box of birthday cards for work. I couldn’t find a single one without a religious connotation. We are certainly in the Bible Belt.

I also spent some time in the mall bathroom. So many memories in there (non-bowel or excretory system-related.) Oi.



I spent some time checking out the bulletin board in the mall as well. There was one posting that was fun to read simply because of their amazingly-poor sentence structure skill.



We then left town in Shannon and Brent’s’ rental, but not before stopping at McDonalds from some Chilled Glaces. I love you Chilled Glace!


Thanks Brent and Shannon!

Thankfully, I had just re-introduced myself to Suzy’s kids the night before, so they remembered me. However, they would now also not leave me alone. I’m such a baby-magnet. Shannon also did some bonding with the little guys…


She’s a braver soul than I…who knows where little boy hands have all been! It’s just a fact of life. lol.


I wanted a better faces-pressed photo than this, but he wasn’t cooperating.

After making a pit stop at Suzy’s grocery store, we were back to Altona and I met up with my aunt, uncle, and cousins for some Mennonite food…at the buffet again. I was still full, so I just chugged my energy drink and proceeded to talk at ever increasing speeds. From there, I headed home to kill the final hours before my Sunflower Social debut. A social! At the Pioneer Centre! I haven’t been dancing in there since my high school graduation.

My Dad dropped me off and our crew bought tickets from the picnic table outside the doors…and inside we went. It was amazing! Ninety-nine percent of those present were between the ages of 18 and 22 and they were all standing around drinking. Yay! To summarize (because I need to follow the unofficial ‘party code’ and zip it - rotfl), I hung out with Shannon, Brent, her friend, and my wonderful cousins. Thanks for being a shoulder to lean on Jamie! Literally. lol. I also made some new teenage friends and they said they couldn’t believe I was so old. Erm, yay! Then I went home to bed. The end.