Favorite 2008 Memories
By Andrew Zwicker
Looking back and contemplating life as 2008 comes to a close, we here at the Telegraph are asking you to let us know what highlights of the past year stood out in your mind as the most memorable events: people, snowstorms, adventures, stories (make us laugh, make us mist up), books, films, or anything else that really touched your heart and soul and which you see as worth storing in the community memory bank. Anyone you want to thank publicly for a helping hand or a kind word? Now’s your chance.
We had a busy year. Rossland as a whole went through some major events, from standoffs and protests around our watershed to a Stanley Cup parade down Columbia Avenue. We saw the emergence of the Rossland Telegraph in the latter half of the year as a new voice for Rossland, along with what seemed like election after election refilling our leadership spots with some new faces, and a national election that seems to be continuing on ad infinitum with no real resolution. Aside from being a typically great year on the mountains and trails, 2008 was a banner year for Rossland’s cultural side: the Joe Hill Coffee House returned and Rossland got its first piece of public art AND a new art gallery.
To finish out the year in style, we ask all of you to submit your favourite memories from the past year for next week’s Christmas issue. Dedicated to content from you, our treasured readers, we’ll be posting your tales all week long. Whether long or short, we want to hear your 2008 highlights. Send them in via e-mail to editor@rosslandtelegraph.com and watch for them to be published during Christmas week.
Speaking for myself, the people of Rossland played a huge part in making 2008 a banner year. From new friends met through new business ventures, to owners of ski hills who opened doors for a young entrepreneur, great neighbours on our block that are always ready to lend a hand shovelling out on a big snow day, to the many single serving friends met on a chairlift that shared a run or two here and there on solo ski days, new friends made us feel welcome in our new community.
Events, which provide a portal to showcase Rossland’s culture, facilitated many hilarious and memorable moments. Dancing in the Ice Bar on Columbia Avenue as a pickup truck towing a readymade fire pit complete with burning flames and marshmallow roasters in tow drove past without a second glance, to our own hometown hero Dallas Drake tearing up as he thanked Rosslanders for raising a champion, volunteering and getting up and close to some budding ski stars at the freeski competition, through to diving out of the way of errant homemade bobsleds during winter carnival. Rossland certainly knows how to throw a good party, and unfortunately a good many of them have been lost into the depths of a few too many beers or homemade wine.
My taste buds have had another banner year with highlights including our family’s excursion into the world of the slow cooker. While not exactly a new concept, the addition of hot stews, pulled pork, slow cooked turkeys and roasts ready to eat as you come in the door after a day on the slopes was a major quality of life improvement in our household. Making our rounds through Rossland’s restaurant scene from piscado tacos at Mazatlan, the Basa fish special covered in Mango Chutney at Idgies to gluten-free treats at the Sunshine Café, our small town provided numerous culinary highlights. Not to be outdone the beverage world had numerous if not slightly fuzzy memories starting with copious beers in Canada’s most soulful and rickety old mountain lodge, Rafters, on a cold night during the Freeskiing comp, Margaritas at the new Mazatlan in Trail, and hot sakes times four on the trusty “Shot Ski” that every little mountain town house shouldn’t be without.
While it is said that all boring stories involve tales of the weather, Rossland’s good and bad times seem to live and die by what Mother Nature has in store for us. Thankfully, the snow gods looked favourably on us last season. After a slow start that counts as part of 2007’s story, 2008 kept snowfall after snowfall coming late into the spring providing some sweet touring turns well into late May for the dedicated diehards. Summer then came through in its full glory, providing a long time coastal resident with a shocking number of sunny and scorching hot days that saw us create many memories on our newly built sundeck. The biking scene in Rossland truly went off in my world as I was drawn back into a steady relationship with a sport that had been separated from my daily activities for the past several years. Surviving the steep drop, bank turn and super long ladder near the end of the Flume trail stands out along with late fall high speed rippers over frost covered leaves on Oasis as the crown jewels of my riding season.
I could go on for the rest of the year describing all of the highlights of the year gone by in what amounted to for our family to be a tremendously happy, healthy and successful year in our newly adopted home of Rossland. From me to all of you, here is a big thank you for making life in our peaceful little mountain town so enjoyable and memorable and the subject of many e-mails to jealous friends from far and wide extolling the virtues of a simple yet spectacular way of life.
