Moose Jaw Main Street

Few things were as striking to me as Moose Jaw's Main Street when I first moved to town.  I mean, really!  There is the cobbler, the coffee shops, the Mae Wilson Theatre.  At Christmas they string lights across the road (think "It's a Wonderful Life" come to life) and in the summer they shut it down for Sidewalk Days and small town parades.  While some things have changed, much has stayed the same for a number of years.

Main Street in Moose Jaw is where you see the tourists pop in for the Underground Tunnel tours and where locals sit out on benches to watch the world go by.  You see more people meeting and greeting on Main Street than anywhere else in the Jaw.  In the winter you might see someone skiing down the middle of the road and in the summer, people strolling by shop windows.

My good friend Daniel visited a few weeks ago and he marvelled at how many people were walking from place to place.  That's the thing about a small town with a Main Street like this...you can walk and talk and slow down and breathe and notice things you just don't when you are whizzing by the miles of strip malls prevalent in so many cities these days.

At one end, Main Street is flanked by the old Train Station, now a Saskatachewan Liquor store, but still maintaining its grace and stature at the end of the road.  The other way leads up, up and away toward Diefenbaker Lake or Saskatoon, depending on your mood.

Main Streets are passing fancies in most places...relics of times gone by.  I'm happy to know that Moose Jaw's continues to thrive and create spaces for the people who live and visit to enjoy their town just that much more.