My dad was transferred to Kamloops to work on the CNR. So we packed up all our belongings and said goodbye to our friends. As we all got in the car to drive to Kamloops, I took one last look around at the little town I grew up in, which held so many happy childhood memories. I knew I was off to make a new life and new memories in a new city.

I remember the last time I was back to visit Blue River. I was with my mother and Poppa Bob. It was sad to see how much the town had changed during the years I was away. Almost all of the buildings had caved in or crumbled down. The houses looked much older and had an unkempt look about them. Everything had changed and looked different. It was not the town I remembered. There is a ski lodge there now. Houses now have telephones and televisions. The old houses were gone. Some new houses were in their places. Most of all, the families I knew had moved away, so had most of the kids I went to school with. But you know something? I wouldn't have traded anything in the world for having had the chance to grow up in Blue River. And if I stand still, shut my eyes tight and think really hard, the memories will come back, about how the town used to be when I lived there. Memories are always nice to keep and store away. That is the true story of my childhood in Blue River. I know I was the daughter of a railroad worker.

Patty Grah wrote this story to show us what life was like when she was a child in a small town in the interior of British Columbia.

Patty Grah as a child in her Blue River home.