Today while listening to the intermittent bangs of the propane cannons in the nearby blueberry fields, something stuck out. One cannon is making a huge blast that is a good two to three times louder than the regular propane cannons. That one made me sit up and take notice.
Like any other noise that goes with the territory after awhile I didn't notice it anymore.
I'm wondering if the blueberry farmers are getting fed up with the protestors and have located an extra loud propane cannon and are using it in retaliation.
Yup, this new cannon is a good blaster all right. Whether or not it scares the birds is debatable. Whether or not it will bug the crap out of the complaining neighbors is a foregone conclusion.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
The Blueberry Wars
Kerry phoned me on his way home on Wednesday night and said on the radio traffic there was a protest happening in Cloverdale at Highway 10 and 168th Street. I said it probably had something to do with the blueberries and the propane cannons. Although we live nearby I wasn't piqued enough to go check it out and get stuck in a traffic jam.
In yesterday's Surrey Leader there was a photo and short story. Yes, it had to do with the cannons in the blueberry fields.
A couple of the farmers farm blueberries on the south west corner of the intersection showed up and a shouting match ensued. They've been farming blueberries there for nearly 20 years and using propane cannons the whole time. They blame the recent homeowners who build or buy half a million to million dollar homes in the area and don't do their homework about farms in the area and then complain about it later.
If people are building or buying in the fall and winter months the cannons are silent. Its kind of like people buying a house in Richmond or somewhere else near a flight path and then complaining of the noise.
Growing up around here we had worse to dal with than propane cannons. There was the mushroom farms. Now man that was some stench in the evenings when they were gassing off. Same problem. More people move into the area, complain about the smell, and eventually they shut down either for good or move elsewhere. And who could forget the pig farms? Depending on which way the wind was blowing that aroma would blanket Cloverdale.
Am I the only person in Cloverdale who has invested in earplugs and wears them?
In yesterday's Surrey Leader there was a photo and short story. Yes, it had to do with the cannons in the blueberry fields.
A couple of the farmers farm blueberries on the south west corner of the intersection showed up and a shouting match ensued. They've been farming blueberries there for nearly 20 years and using propane cannons the whole time. They blame the recent homeowners who build or buy half a million to million dollar homes in the area and don't do their homework about farms in the area and then complain about it later.
If people are building or buying in the fall and winter months the cannons are silent. Its kind of like people buying a house in Richmond or somewhere else near a flight path and then complaining of the noise.
Growing up around here we had worse to dal with than propane cannons. There was the mushroom farms. Now man that was some stench in the evenings when they were gassing off. Same problem. More people move into the area, complain about the smell, and eventually they shut down either for good or move elsewhere. And who could forget the pig farms? Depending on which way the wind was blowing that aroma would blanket Cloverdale.
Am I the only person in Cloverdale who has invested in earplugs and wears them?
Free puppies and kittens
When I was a kid we'd go to the grocery store or fairgrounds or walking down the street and there would be someone set up out of the back of their pick up truck or sitting on the sidewalk with a cardboard box and a sign for free puppies or free kittens, hoping for a passerby to take one home. Sometimes people would have a sign posted on their driveway to give away their litters. These would generally be mixed breeds, like oops I didn't get my pet spayed in time, she got out of the house, and look what happened.
Yesterday I saw an ad in the paper for mixed breed kittens for $125 each! Yikes!
Yesterday I saw an ad in the paper for mixed breed kittens for $125 each! Yikes!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
The Cloverdale Library #2
In 1972 a new police station was built in Cloverdale, basically next door to their old building on Highway 10 and 176A Street.
That left the old red brick building vacant and the Cloverdale Library moved into the old police station. And expanded because the old cop shop was much bigger than the tiny library on 58th Avenue and 176A Street.
The young adult section was upstairs and I was regular visitor to the now much larger selection of reading materials. By now my favorite books to read were the Trixie Belden series, but I remember reading other books about teenage girl detectives.
With the expanded library space came tables, chairs, and I think there was also a meeting room. There was more of an archive section too with a microfiche reader and access to old newspapers.
The library remained in this building for a few years, and then it became home to the senior's centre for many years, and now it houses the Surrey Archives.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Kuss Drugstore
Growing up in Cloverdale the only drugstore was Kuss's. They filled prescriptions, sold pharmacy goods, candies, magazines, books, and gifts. This was the place to go if you needed to buy a birthday card and a present, especially at the last minute.
Kuss's Drugstore was on the main street of Cloverdale, on 176th Street, between Highway 10 and 57th Avenue. There is a beauty shop now in that location.
The Kuss family lived in Cloverdale and their daughter Liz was a year ahead of me in school. They knew everyone in town because everyone walked through their doors at some point to buy something they needed.
I remember they had a collection of bad cheques they used to tape up on their window, offering to let the writer buy it back. I guess this public embarrassment of having your name displayed as writing an NSF cheque would motivate people to pay up their debt. Nowadays with the Privacy Act that wouldn't fly.
Our recent hot weather has reminded me of a hot summer around 1970. Back then there was no air conditioning and Kuss had put all their chocolates on sale at half price because they were melting. My father was in the drugstore to buy something and noticed the sale and bought a box. Out of every kind of chocolate you'd think he could have bought something good. But no. He bought a box of chocolate gingers. Ewww yuck! And he enjoyed them all to himself. Good strategy now that I think of it.
Shopper's Drug Mart showed up in Cloverdale around 1973. Around that time Kuss's store name changed to the Pharmasave. I can't remember when he sold it, but late 1980's is my guess. The owner Henry kept it at the 176th Street location for several years and then moved it to the current location on 176A Street and 57th Avenue.
Kuss's Drugstore was on the main street of Cloverdale, on 176th Street, between Highway 10 and 57th Avenue. There is a beauty shop now in that location.
The Kuss family lived in Cloverdale and their daughter Liz was a year ahead of me in school. They knew everyone in town because everyone walked through their doors at some point to buy something they needed.
I remember they had a collection of bad cheques they used to tape up on their window, offering to let the writer buy it back. I guess this public embarrassment of having your name displayed as writing an NSF cheque would motivate people to pay up their debt. Nowadays with the Privacy Act that wouldn't fly.
Our recent hot weather has reminded me of a hot summer around 1970. Back then there was no air conditioning and Kuss had put all their chocolates on sale at half price because they were melting. My father was in the drugstore to buy something and noticed the sale and bought a box. Out of every kind of chocolate you'd think he could have bought something good. But no. He bought a box of chocolate gingers. Ewww yuck! And he enjoyed them all to himself. Good strategy now that I think of it.
Shopper's Drug Mart showed up in Cloverdale around 1973. Around that time Kuss's store name changed to the Pharmasave. I can't remember when he sold it, but late 1980's is my guess. The owner Henry kept it at the 176th Street location for several years and then moved it to the current location on 176A Street and 57th Avenue.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Blueberry for sale
OK, this has bugged me for years. The handpainted signs outside farms that proclaim "blueberry for sale". Yes, that is correct. Blueberry singular. If you want to buy one blueberry then this is the place to shop.
I have no problem with the handpainted signs. Whatever people can do to save a few bucks is fine with me. The handpainted signs are OK. Except for the ones that have run out of room before getting their message across. They should go find another piece of wood and start over. It looks so unprofessional:
ies
Blueberr
For Sale
But today takes the cake. I saw a handpainted sign that read:
Blue barry for sale
I have no problem with the handpainted signs. Whatever people can do to save a few bucks is fine with me. The handpainted signs are OK. Except for the ones that have run out of room before getting their message across. They should go find another piece of wood and start over. It looks so unprofessional:
ies
Blueberr
For Sale
But today takes the cake. I saw a handpainted sign that read:
Blue barry for sale
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Blueberries and the cannons
When I was growing up in Cloverdale most of the farms around here produced corn, lettuce, potatoes, and other vegetables. Blueberries came on the scene in the early to mid seventies. And with them came the battle cries of the propane cannons that the farmers believed would scare away the birds intent on eating the profits. But after awhile the birds got used to the noise. Fake propane cannons weren't going to stop a hungry flock of birds from chowing down on fresh blueberries. During the summer the Surrey Leader published letters from Cloverdale residents annoyed at the noise. Particularly annoyed at the farmers who left their cannons running all night long. I remember those nights!
The city has noise bylaws but enforcing them is not an easy task. Many times the farmers who've set up the propane cannons leased the fields and did not live on site. Catching the farmers at night to turn off their cannons was pretty much impossible.
As the years progressed some blueberry farmers found other ways to protect their crops. The most effective, and expensive, way to protect their blueberry crops from hungry birds is setting up netting over the fields. Also effective and less expensive and quieter than the cannons is setting up brightly colored tin foil to flap in the breeze. Add in a few fake hawks on a kite string. And in some cases, live hawks who are trained to stay in one area.
But some farmers still use the old propane cannons. We hear them going off starting around 6:30 or 7:00 in the morning. Oh, well. Story of my life during the summertime in Cloverdale.
And as is typical for this time of the year the Surrey Leader is publishing letters and stories of residents around Cloverdale who are complaining of the noise. Interestingly the complaints are coming from residents who live in the vicinity of 32nd Avenue west of 168th Street and up through the Morgan Heights and Rosemary Heights areas. In other words, fairly recently built subdivisions, some built within the past 3 years.
Its the old problem of developing some of the farm land and the people who move into these new neighborhoods. The farmers were there first. These propane cannons have been firing for 30 years, long before Morgan Heights was even a figment of someone's imagination.
Has the City of Surrey allowed too much residential development too close to established blueberry farms? They say no. But look around Cloverdale. Many of the old established farms from when I was a kid are long gone, replaced with condos, business centres, and houses on postage stamp sized lots.
The city has noise bylaws but enforcing them is not an easy task. Many times the farmers who've set up the propane cannons leased the fields and did not live on site. Catching the farmers at night to turn off their cannons was pretty much impossible.
As the years progressed some blueberry farmers found other ways to protect their crops. The most effective, and expensive, way to protect their blueberry crops from hungry birds is setting up netting over the fields. Also effective and less expensive and quieter than the cannons is setting up brightly colored tin foil to flap in the breeze. Add in a few fake hawks on a kite string. And in some cases, live hawks who are trained to stay in one area.
But some farmers still use the old propane cannons. We hear them going off starting around 6:30 or 7:00 in the morning. Oh, well. Story of my life during the summertime in Cloverdale.
And as is typical for this time of the year the Surrey Leader is publishing letters and stories of residents around Cloverdale who are complaining of the noise. Interestingly the complaints are coming from residents who live in the vicinity of 32nd Avenue west of 168th Street and up through the Morgan Heights and Rosemary Heights areas. In other words, fairly recently built subdivisions, some built within the past 3 years.
Its the old problem of developing some of the farm land and the people who move into these new neighborhoods. The farmers were there first. These propane cannons have been firing for 30 years, long before Morgan Heights was even a figment of someone's imagination.
Has the City of Surrey allowed too much residential development too close to established blueberry farms? They say no. But look around Cloverdale. Many of the old established farms from when I was a kid are long gone, replaced with condos, business centres, and houses on postage stamp sized lots.
When the apple is ripe it will drop
Our Transparent apple tree is dropping apples. Today I picked up two buckets to take out to the farm for the horses. Transparents are a yellow, soft apple. They tend to ripen on the tree and by the time they fall to the ground are starting to bruise. They're not very tasty to me, but the horses like them.
In 2004 we picked up two mini donkeys from a horse rescue. They "might" be pregnant we were told. That had to do with a gelded donkey they'd bought at auction but they didn't actually check his plumbing. He was intact. We asked our vet about pregnancy test for mini donkeys because they can't be palpated like a full sized horse. Our vet wasn't a big donkey fan to begin with but he said a blood test could be done but was rather pricey at $200 each. His advice? When the apple is ripe it will drop.
The following March each of our mini donkeys dropped a cute little baby.
In 2004 we picked up two mini donkeys from a horse rescue. They "might" be pregnant we were told. That had to do with a gelded donkey they'd bought at auction but they didn't actually check his plumbing. He was intact. We asked our vet about pregnancy test for mini donkeys because they can't be palpated like a full sized horse. Our vet wasn't a big donkey fan to begin with but he said a blood test could be done but was rather pricey at $200 each. His advice? When the apple is ripe it will drop.
The following March each of our mini donkeys dropped a cute little baby.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Blueberries and raspberries and cherries! Yum yum!
Yes its summertime. Fresh local berries are in season. We often stop at local farms who have a table set up outside on their front lawn, but more often than not we end up at Kraus Berry Farm in Aldergrove for our summer berries. Today we stopped at two local stores to buy their berries.
There's a store on 152 Street a few blocks south of Colebrook Road called The Blueberry Store. We've driven by it many times on our travels back and forth from White Rock but never stopped. It only has a short season when its open during the summer when blueberries are ripe. Today we stopped and bought a good sized basket of blueberries for $5.00. The same size basket cost us $8.00 and $9.00 three or four years ago at their competitors. But for the past couple of years there is a glut of blueberries and prices have dropped in half. Look around when driving in the rural areas of Cloverdale, Abbotsford, and Pitt Meadows. Every spare acre has been converted to blueberry plants. Too many people got into the market and dropped the price. Good for us consumers but not the farmers. The blueberries from The Blueberry Store are OK but they're not as sweet as the ones we get from Kraus. We also bought a basket of cherries for $5.00 and they are soooo good.
When we finished at The Blueberry Store we headed to Surrey Farm Markets on the corner of Colebrook and 152. We've noticed a sign out front for the past week advertising raspberries for $9.99 a flat. I've been in here in the past and I find their fruit and veggie prices on the high side compared to the other fresh produce stores in the area. The flat of raspberries consists of 5 baskets per flat. The size of baskets that can be bought at the grocery store anywhere from $2.00 to $5.00 so we bought a flat. The raspberries are so sweet. Very nice.
Dinner tonight consisted of yogurt, blueberries, and raspberries. I searched online for a raspberry/blueberry cake and came up with one that I baked tonight. It was fairly easy. The hard part was making a run to the grocery store for sour cream, the only ingredient I didn't have on hand. Looks good. Its cooling now and I'll be giving it the taste test tomorrow. In my search I also found a recipe of sorts from a woman who experimented with her lemon pound cake and added a cup each of blueberries and raspberries and its delicious. I'm going to give that a try tomorrow too and see how it goes.
That's kind of the sad thing about finding good deals on berries. One must quickly use them before they go bad. I'm not the type of person who does much freezing and I don't make jam, so I'm going with the cakes, and if it goes well, I might freeze the whole cake.
For anyone interested here is the link for the cake I baked tonight.
http://www.chefdecuisine.com/all_fruit/raspberry/RASPBERRY-BLUEBERRY_CAKE.asp
There's a store on 152 Street a few blocks south of Colebrook Road called The Blueberry Store. We've driven by it many times on our travels back and forth from White Rock but never stopped. It only has a short season when its open during the summer when blueberries are ripe. Today we stopped and bought a good sized basket of blueberries for $5.00. The same size basket cost us $8.00 and $9.00 three or four years ago at their competitors. But for the past couple of years there is a glut of blueberries and prices have dropped in half. Look around when driving in the rural areas of Cloverdale, Abbotsford, and Pitt Meadows. Every spare acre has been converted to blueberry plants. Too many people got into the market and dropped the price. Good for us consumers but not the farmers. The blueberries from The Blueberry Store are OK but they're not as sweet as the ones we get from Kraus. We also bought a basket of cherries for $5.00 and they are soooo good.
When we finished at The Blueberry Store we headed to Surrey Farm Markets on the corner of Colebrook and 152. We've noticed a sign out front for the past week advertising raspberries for $9.99 a flat. I've been in here in the past and I find their fruit and veggie prices on the high side compared to the other fresh produce stores in the area. The flat of raspberries consists of 5 baskets per flat. The size of baskets that can be bought at the grocery store anywhere from $2.00 to $5.00 so we bought a flat. The raspberries are so sweet. Very nice.
Dinner tonight consisted of yogurt, blueberries, and raspberries. I searched online for a raspberry/blueberry cake and came up with one that I baked tonight. It was fairly easy. The hard part was making a run to the grocery store for sour cream, the only ingredient I didn't have on hand. Looks good. Its cooling now and I'll be giving it the taste test tomorrow. In my search I also found a recipe of sorts from a woman who experimented with her lemon pound cake and added a cup each of blueberries and raspberries and its delicious. I'm going to give that a try tomorrow too and see how it goes.
That's kind of the sad thing about finding good deals on berries. One must quickly use them before they go bad. I'm not the type of person who does much freezing and I don't make jam, so I'm going with the cakes, and if it goes well, I might freeze the whole cake.
For anyone interested here is the link for the cake I baked tonight.
http://www.chefdecuisine.com/all_fruit/raspberry/RASPBERRY-BLUEBERRY_CAKE.asp
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
The Cloverdale Library #1
Since I’ve been alive I’ve known the Cloverdale Library to have three locations around town.
When I was growing up Cloverdale’s library was a small red brick building on the corner of 58th Avenue and 176 A Street. It was a tiny building, about a third of it for the children’s section, and the balance would have been adult’s fiction and non-fiction. It had the old catalogue card system of finding books – wooden drawers full of cards carefully typed with the book’s name, author, etc. No room in this small place for chairs and tables. We chose a book and took it home to read. I seem to recall there was a story time on Saturdays and a librarian would read to a bunch of kids who sat on the floor. Of course, like everything else in Cloverdale, the library was closed on Mondays and back then was not open in the evenings. In comparison, the school library at Cloverdale Elementary school was about 4 times larger than this library.
The librarians handwrote our library cards, numbering each card in the order that people came in to the library. Library cards were reissued every year. I must have spent a fair amount of time at the library because my library card numbers were usually small in number: 3, 4, 19, 20. Miss Partington, who lived down the street from us, always got card number 1 every year because she was Cloverdale’s first librarian.
The selection of books was small but the good news was that we were part of Surrey’s public library system and if we were interested in a book we could put in a request to see if the book was available at another library and if it was it would be shipped to Cloverdale. This was all back in the days before computers and it might take a few days to find out if the book was in the system or not. The librarians made the calls and would phone us to let us know the status of the book and when we might expect it.
The Cloverdale library moved to a new location on Highway 10 in 1973 but the original building still stands and has been used as a daycare for many years.
When I was growing up Cloverdale’s library was a small red brick building on the corner of 58th Avenue and 176 A Street. It was a tiny building, about a third of it for the children’s section, and the balance would have been adult’s fiction and non-fiction. It had the old catalogue card system of finding books – wooden drawers full of cards carefully typed with the book’s name, author, etc. No room in this small place for chairs and tables. We chose a book and took it home to read. I seem to recall there was a story time on Saturdays and a librarian would read to a bunch of kids who sat on the floor. Of course, like everything else in Cloverdale, the library was closed on Mondays and back then was not open in the evenings. In comparison, the school library at Cloverdale Elementary school was about 4 times larger than this library.
The librarians handwrote our library cards, numbering each card in the order that people came in to the library. Library cards were reissued every year. I must have spent a fair amount of time at the library because my library card numbers were usually small in number: 3, 4, 19, 20. Miss Partington, who lived down the street from us, always got card number 1 every year because she was Cloverdale’s first librarian.
The selection of books was small but the good news was that we were part of Surrey’s public library system and if we were interested in a book we could put in a request to see if the book was available at another library and if it was it would be shipped to Cloverdale. This was all back in the days before computers and it might take a few days to find out if the book was in the system or not. The librarians made the calls and would phone us to let us know the status of the book and when we might expect it.
The Cloverdale library moved to a new location on Highway 10 in 1973 but the original building still stands and has been used as a daycare for many years.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
What's happening in Cloverdale in July 2009?
There's not too much happening around Cloverdale this July now that the big event of the Canada Day celebration has passed.
There are a couple of sporting events at the Cloverdale Athletic Park but those are usually only of interest if there is a family member participating.
A little out of town and of interest to railway buffs is the Sullivan Station open house on July 19 from noon till 4pm. On the corner of 152 Street and 64th Avenue. For more information, see their website http://www.fvhrs.org/
If you like honey, the Honeybee Centre on the corner of 176th Street and Fraser Highway is having an open house on July 25 and 26 from 10am till 4pm. They're holding a little fair with activities and food as well. See their web page for more information http://www.honeybeecentre.com/
There are a couple of sporting events at the Cloverdale Athletic Park but those are usually only of interest if there is a family member participating.
A little out of town and of interest to railway buffs is the Sullivan Station open house on July 19 from noon till 4pm. On the corner of 152 Street and 64th Avenue. For more information, see their website http://www.fvhrs.org/
If you like honey, the Honeybee Centre on the corner of 176th Street and Fraser Highway is having an open house on July 25 and 26 from 10am till 4pm. They're holding a little fair with activities and food as well. See their web page for more information http://www.honeybeecentre.com/
Another Canada Day has passed
We started off Canada Day by going out to Kraus Berry Barms in Aldergrove for the free pancake breakfast. We rode our motorbikes out there. We arrived around 9:30am and the parking lot was already full of cars with several staff directing parking. Because we were on the motorbikes they parked us under a tree across from the store. Very nice. Then we stood in line for 20 minutes to get 2 pancakes topped with fresh raspberries and strawberry syrup. They were good, but they weren't worth the wait. We bought baskets of raspberries and strawberries, a loaf of cheese and asparagus, and raspberry shortcakes. All became part of our Canada Day dinner later on that evening. When we drove out the driveway was now packed with cars and there was no more room. People had to park on the street. There had to be more than a hundred cars on the property. Most of the people showed up with buckets in hand ready to pick their own berries after eating the pancakes. I'm sure Kraus made more money on July 1 than they will in the rest of the month put together. It was a great way to get lots of people to descend upon their farm, most of whom would be paying customers of some berry merchandise. But I think we'll pass next year on their Canada Day free pancakes.
The Cloverdale Millenium park had an estimated 125,000 people show up. We stayed well away from the intersection of 176th and 64th. At 10pm we drove up to Lord Tweedsmuir to watch the fireworks from the football field. We weren't the only ones with this idea. A lot of people were already there but there was plenty of parking. The fireworks were supposed to start at 10:15 but 10:35 was more like it. By that time we were being eaten alive by the mosquitoes and after about 5 minutes we headed back to the car, slowly so we could still watch. We were planning to drive back down 180th Street to 58th Avenue to head home, again trying to avoid the general area of the fairgrounds. By the time we left the police had blocked off traffic on 60th Avenue heading downhill towards Greenaway Park and the fairgrounds. The only options were to go up 60th or continue along 180th. I guess they wanted traffic to head to Highway 10 to get out of town, and bottom line that was probably the fastest way for the partygoers to go. We still had a pretty good view of the fireworks on the way home and we parked for awhile in the parking lot of the old Shop Easy. What do they call that grocery store now? Cloverdale Market? We could see the police were set up on the corner of 58th Avenue and the Cloverdale Bypass, so when the fireworks ended we drove alongside the old Cloverdale Mall and out 57th Avenue and home. No problem with traffic other than going a couple of blocks out of our way. One of the advantages of knowing your way around Cloverdale. However shortly after 11pm when the fireworks ended we were inundated with traffic coming along our quiet street. Cars were lined up way down the street, a huge traffic jam. Cars were driving down the no exit street alongside our house and then driving out again. Honking and yelling until well past midnight. I don't know what was up with so many cars. Our neighborhood is kind of a weird one that way, not set up for a lot of through traffic. No exit streets and if you go on long enough you end up in cowtown driving in circles. A lot of lost people trying to find a quick way out of Cloverdale. The unfortunate thing is most of them ended up turning back towards 60th Avenue, which I'm sure was jammed packed with wall to wall cars trying to get out of Cloverdale. Bad choice choosing our street as a get out town fast route.
The Cloverdale Millenium park had an estimated 125,000 people show up. We stayed well away from the intersection of 176th and 64th. At 10pm we drove up to Lord Tweedsmuir to watch the fireworks from the football field. We weren't the only ones with this idea. A lot of people were already there but there was plenty of parking. The fireworks were supposed to start at 10:15 but 10:35 was more like it. By that time we were being eaten alive by the mosquitoes and after about 5 minutes we headed back to the car, slowly so we could still watch. We were planning to drive back down 180th Street to 58th Avenue to head home, again trying to avoid the general area of the fairgrounds. By the time we left the police had blocked off traffic on 60th Avenue heading downhill towards Greenaway Park and the fairgrounds. The only options were to go up 60th or continue along 180th. I guess they wanted traffic to head to Highway 10 to get out of town, and bottom line that was probably the fastest way for the partygoers to go. We still had a pretty good view of the fireworks on the way home and we parked for awhile in the parking lot of the old Shop Easy. What do they call that grocery store now? Cloverdale Market? We could see the police were set up on the corner of 58th Avenue and the Cloverdale Bypass, so when the fireworks ended we drove alongside the old Cloverdale Mall and out 57th Avenue and home. No problem with traffic other than going a couple of blocks out of our way. One of the advantages of knowing your way around Cloverdale. However shortly after 11pm when the fireworks ended we were inundated with traffic coming along our quiet street. Cars were lined up way down the street, a huge traffic jam. Cars were driving down the no exit street alongside our house and then driving out again. Honking and yelling until well past midnight. I don't know what was up with so many cars. Our neighborhood is kind of a weird one that way, not set up for a lot of through traffic. No exit streets and if you go on long enough you end up in cowtown driving in circles. A lot of lost people trying to find a quick way out of Cloverdale. The unfortunate thing is most of them ended up turning back towards 60th Avenue, which I'm sure was jammed packed with wall to wall cars trying to get out of Cloverdale. Bad choice choosing our street as a get out town fast route.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)