This post doesn’t have a reason to exist, except for the fact that I want to write something, and therefore I was inspired to write about my hometown.
I am talking about Surrey, BC. The place that I have lived since I was thirteen years old. Technically speaking, I lived in North Delta until I was eighteen, but it’s really kind of the same thing.
There is a huge road called Scott Road that runs between Surrey and North Delta, I went to North Delta Senior Secondary for high school, and after high school, I kind of found myself floundering.
During those years when I didn’t really know what I was doing or where i was going, I spent a lot of years going for long miles long walks at night around the various neighborhoods I lived in.
I was forever looking for a sanctuary, a place that I could call my own where I could commune with the spirits, so to speak.
Around that time I realized that Surrey BC is the only place in BC that is both a city, and a valley all at the same time. No matter where you are in Surrey, you can see the cascades of the mountains in the background of the city. You can’t do this in Langley or New West the way you can in Surrey.
The differences between Surrey and Vancouver for instance, I have always thought, were mirrored well in the national television show “Arrow.”
Surrey is very much like the flats, with Vancouver being very much like Star City. The wealth differential is huge between these two cities.
The most expensive views in British Columbia are in North Vancouver, in a community called “The British Properties” in a neighborhood not ironically named “Billionaires Row”.
I went up there one night with my friend Shane, we looked over the bridge and the beautiful lights and I genuinely felt ontop of the world.
It’s tucked into the side of the Vancouver mountains, and honestly is a breath taking experience that most people who live in Surrey, will never experience, which is unfortunate.
It’s where some of the wealthiest families in the province live, and they aren’t very open to their neighborhood being treated like a tourist attraction.
New West is the one place where I feel genuinely close to Poseidon, largely because it is surrounded by the Fraser River. Along the riverside I used to sit nearly every week last summer, just gazing at the water. Sometimes writing stories other times imagining what it would be like to own land around the river.
It’s in New West that I came up with the story of Sanctuary Farms, which I took down but have every intention of putting back up one day.
New West has more wedding shops than anywhere else in the lower mainland, which is interesting because it used to be the mecca of local artists and artisans. Every year the New West Quay (key) hosts several art shows with local artisans peddling their work.
They also have a circus school, which is pretty neat.
To this day I swear that New Westminster was built by witches. There is something special about that city that brings to mind majick and power. There used to be a metaphysical store called Grimore’s Books in an actual Castle in New West. It was one of my favorite places to go and sit and talk with the owner about the world.
My favorite city to visit of all places in the lower mainland is Vancouver, British Columbia.
I used to go to Vancouver at least two or three times a week just to wander through Gas Town and check out some of my favorite shops. My favorite shop of all time was called Salmagundi’s and was the inspiration for several stories that I have yet to write down.
Vancouver has places that you can see the mountains, but if you are standing in the center of Downtown Vancouver, all you see is buildings.
Vancouver is called the Hollywood of the North because of the many numbers of films that were made here. Vancouver and the Lower Mainland are also the home of the Supernatural Series, and in fact the title of the show came from the fact that BC licence plates used to say “Supernatural BC”. Allegedly.
BC has won “Best Bud” in the world several times over, and is a wonderful diverse and beautiful place to live. While we deal with our fair share of racism, it’s still a wonderful place to raise your children.
Technically speaking, British Columbia is a living and thriving Rain Forest in the heart of the western hemisphere. We have a protected forest here called Burns Bog that is an actual living bog, the undergrowth has been on fire for more than a hundred years.
There are three forests within my community that are within walking distance, and when you are in them you feel like you are completely out of the city.
But it’s no Alberta.
Sending all my love,
Devon J Hall
Loud Mouth Brown Girl 