COLUMN: Surroundings are becoming familiar

New has a way of becoming familiar soon enough, a notion that came up over dinner last Friday. 

I reminded my wife that it was Good Friday of 2022 when we laid eyes on Okotoks for the first time. That seems like a while ago now given we’re comfortable in our new surroundings, but it hasn’t even been two years (Good Friday was in mid-April that year) since we made our way from Beaumont. 

We were planning to move south from the Edmonton area to be closer to our son, and knew we would eventually end up somewhere in the Calgary region, but didn’t have any clue where that would be.  

I remember making the trek along Highway 2, first stopping in Airdrie, then in several neighbourhoods of Calgary, before arriving in Okotoks in mid-afternoon. We definitely weren’t sold on anything we saw early on, but as we drove along Highway 2A, with the Rockies beaming to the west, the day started to get a little brighter, and became even more so as we made our way through town. 

I had glanced at Google Maps in the days before we left so I knew a tiny bit of what we’d likely encounter, but I didn’t share any of that with my wife, preferring to let her be surprised by what she’d see. 

The scenery — the rolling hills and mountains in the distance — initially grabbed her but it was adding plentiful commercial amenities and attractive neighbourhoods to the mix that ultimately sealed the deal. 

I remember heading south on Northridge Drive as we took turns oohing and aahing over what we saw on both sides of the road. We had lived in two similarly-sized towns, one in Alberta, the other in B.C., neither of which had anywhere near the breadth of commercial offerings that Okotoks does, so it seemed foreign to us to have so much close by. I recall making the left at the edge of town and then a left again to head north on 32 Avenue, where Costco and Winners most definitely pushed things over the edge. 

After a series of loops and turns, never exactly sure where we were headed, we had managed to visit Olde Towne, Seaman Stadium, Veterans Way, Sheep River Park and more. By the end of our impromptu tour, we were suitably impressed, convinced that Okotoks, even though it’s about as far as we can get from our son while still staying in the Calgary region, was the place for us. 

Almost two years later, we continue to feel that way, which I suppose obligates us to oppose anything and everthing that would dare change the character of the town. I write that in jest as we recognize that stopping growth, and others from enjoying what we all do, is a shortsighted approach. 

That’s not to say we want Okotoks to change because it’s a wonderful mix of small-town charm and big-city amenities, but just as we all found it at one time or another, it seems selfish that we don’t welcome others to do the same.