Prairie Sky- Prairie Girl
I have just returned from one of my best vacations ever-- a long dreamed of vacation- a car trip to the prairies. The trip was a nostalgic one to my childhood places-the places deep in my heart. As everyone born in the prairies knows, you can be taken out of the prairies but the prairies can’t be taken out of your heart and I have certainly proved this.
My preparation for this trip was detailed –nothing of importance left out. First of all was the importance of what to wear. As all my fashion conscious readers know, and I hope that includes all of you, a trip can be enhanced or totally ruined by wearing the wrong clothes and what looks wonderful in Victoria does not go over so hotly in –let’s say- Paris. I carefully purchased a peasant skirt in light cotton which, thank goodness, is the hot item of this season and as brief as is possibly appropriate to my age, skimpy tops. I also packed my biggest warm black sweater which can wrap around all of me if needed, socks to wear with my sandals and my tough waterproof jacket. No! jeans and sneakers were not packed, and of course, the inevitable scarf in the current fashionable yellow pink hot colours was included. All these items were well used in this predictably extreme prairie climate and I was pleased with my choices. As you can imagine, I made a great fashion statement. Unfortunately there were no peasant skirts in sight in Alberta or even in Saskatchewan and every woman I saw looked excessively sophisticated in the current understated yoga wear or fashionable tights and tops and of course the inevitable uniform -jeans and sneakers Nary a sock and sandal combination or peasant skirt could be seen. You may be assured that this did not bother me a bit- I felt very prairie appropriate despite the stares.
The next preparation was to go to the library to take out CDs to play as we drove through mile after mile of delicious prairie countryside. The ones I chose were favourites of my older brother, and constituted my first introduction to music- Wilf Carter, the Carter family, Sons of the Pioneers and lots of fiddle and cowboy music complete with yodeling. This was my contribution to the trip. My travelling companion who was also doing the same nostalgic trip did all the rest of the unimportant stuff such as map planning and car maintenance and driving.
My plan was to play these CDs the minute we rolled out of the Rockies and hit the prairie road and I did just that as soon as we rolled out of Hinton, Alberta. As we cruised at a fast speed down into the flat prairies with the wind blowing through our hair -that glorious prairie wind- I turned up the CD to full volume and listened to Wilf Carter singing “Always Look on the sunny Side” and laughed out loud and gazed raptly at the highest, bluest sky in the universe and was filled with joy and amazement and I was content. The sky, the wind, the vast prairies had not diminished a whit since I was a child. I am so glad I am a prairie girl.
All we ever had in the house growing up was a copy of Sgt. Peppers and another of Abbey road. I always thought my mom was a hippie not a prairie girl. The grass skirts and sandals sound familiar though... glad you had a good trip mom, I would think you would listen to Here Comes the Sun while rolling out of the Rockies....
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