An Evening in Brooks

When overnighting it on some extended adventure, we like to get to know our temporary hometown. Come evening we’ll often wander about randomly and play the curious visitor. It’s a great way to unwind and any chance to soak up a local vibe is something we love. Maybe it’s things epic awaiting us, or just little treasures that can only be appreciated on close inspection. It’s all good. The camera’s optional, but usually we bring it.

It”s twilight time, it’s summer 2019 (how the world was different then) and we’re in Brooks Alberta. Recently reaching city status, population 14k and growing, in many ways it still feels the small town. If you like a big ol’ rib eye, it may have come from here. There’s a huge meat plant that employs a lot of people. Brooks dates back to about 1910.

This post is just for fun.

Movie Experts: Here’s a hold over from another era, even if that era wasn’t all that long ago, an honest to goodness movie rental place. Remember those? Late fees? Rushing to the shop to get the latest title before they were all were rented out? The two disc set where one went missing? That made useless copy of whatever you had to buy due to your VCR jamming and shredding it to pieces? Yes, yes, yes and yes. ”Paid forty bucks for a ruined Johnny Mnemonic”, he said ashamedly.

Amazingly this business held on until recently. I swear it was open in 2018 and recall giving a double take on passing it back then. “A what?” Video places were big business once but in recent times, they’re a rare breed. Tumbleweed Theatre, I guess, is a new tenant. Sam’s restaurant to the right makes some yummy Pho. I see a photographer, oh, and that’s what the BIGDoer-mobile sees when it looks in a mirror.

Tiny House: Here’s a teenie-weenie place, simple and plain, we suspect was slated for demolition. We’re on the wrong side of the tracks – a part of of town we always make a bee-line for – well that and downtown. It’s where the character is.

Lori’s Corner Store: Here’s a rare independent market all nice and lit up. The memories come rushing back – picking up the paper for the folks, and smokes too, a grab bag of penny candy or a rare treat, a tall cold one. Cream Soda was the drink of choice.

We have always made it a point to patronize small town businesses like this (and we did). We’re on a tight budget so it’s never much we purchase, but we hope it helps all the same. Be it accommodations, an eatery or a grocery stop, we do it local when we can. And that’s doubly so during Covid, with so many mom & pop places struggling due to all the lock downs and complicated usage rules. It’s always tough to make a go of it, but now it’s insane.

Hotel Newell: It’s an odd L-shaped structure that wraps around another building in downtown. Here’s the lesser end. The other part is much larger, with more stories and fronts on a different street. Maybe one day we’ll do some digging to find out why it has this odd configuration. Or, if you know…hint, hint. Was it built then expanded on later? It almost looks it. A quick ‘n’ dirty search offered no clues.

The Newell goes back to the early times. We found some photos dated ca 1920 showing it, but it might be a bit older than that. This would have been the first hotel people would see in Brooks when coming off the train and accommodations in this prestigious location were usually the swankiest. It sounds strange, but being by the tracks was a smart business move at the time. They’re just behind our shooting position.

Like most heritage hotels, it’s the pub, off sales and VLTs that pays the bills. Rooms often stay empty or might be rented out long term to old timers, but rarely to travellers, if at all.

Brooks Hotel: Another old one, a block or so away. We’ve got a thing for Bolers, we’ve got a thing for stuff that’s bright yellow and we’ve got a thing for neon. Here’s an old sign on a building that no doubt has much history. We might have to research it sometime. We fight the urge to stop in the Beer Parlour for a frosty one. So many vices, so little time and we gotta go.

Ben’s Bowling: A lot of small town alleys still offer five pin like they do here. It’s a Canadian thing. The firm’s social media account reminds us the business had been closed for the better part of a decade before being reopened recently. Kudos to those willing to take the chance. And then this year happened and I bet the challenges are now several fold. If they didn’t have grey hair before… It was closed this night, but a sign mentioned it was a temporary thing. Summer vacation or something.

Aren’t bowling shoes the most stylish ever?! Said no one.

Bootcamp: For some reason we find buildings plain and utilitarian somehow fascinating. I mean you couldn’t get any less appealing than an old Quonset type place. No design cues, zero style, all function over form, yet it seems to work and with that we’re fans for some strange reason. Weird. A workout place occupied the building on our visit.

Telstar Motor Inn: The signage is pure vintage but the building’s newer. Nice that they kept it when they rebuilt the place – the old motel (not motor inn then) was a single story affair. We asked if they could light up the rest of the sign but said it was not functioning properly that night. It always happens with us. Still, half lit, it’s no less interesting. Telstar was the name of some early communication satellites. Phone calls from space! And soon we’ll have flying cars!

The first Telstars were launched in the early 1960s and so the sign would be from around then. Cutting edge and something very new at the time, satellites then were front page news and spoke of a bright tech-filled future. They pictured the Jetsons, but instead we got a strange dystopian nightmare. There’s modern Telstars, but to purists only the early ones are deserved of the name and those first ones are still up there orbiting the earth as space junk. They went dark a long time ago.

God bless our Canadian Armed Forces: It’s simple words of support captured a year ago (yes, were that behind) that in today’s politically charged climate is probably something wrong to say. This message alternated with another cheering on the oil industry, a second don’t go there subject currently. Strange times are these, this big burning pile of poo that is 2020, where everything is made an ism and therefor bad.

We’d love to hear what you think, so why not comment below the photos.

More small town goodness…
Red Deer River Valley Wanderings.
Stettler, After Hours.
Wandering Cranbrook.
Exploring Viking.

If you wish more information on what you’ve seen here, by all means contact us!

Date of Adventure: July, 2019.
Location: Brooks, AB.
Article references and thanks:

This hold out from another era only recently closed.

Vacant and empty.

We always give them the business.

From the early days.

We’ve got a thing for neon.

Been a while since we did a little five pin.

Slush Puppies for all!

Plain & utilitarian but we like it for some reason.

Old school signage at the Telstar.

God bless our Canadian Armed Forces.