1953 vs 2011

My grandmother has recently been cleaning out boxes and she came across a bunch of old photos.  She even found an old photo album that my Great-Grandmother started.  My grandfather played professional hockey so they were on the road a lot.  Its not like the current league where they sign a long term contract and a no trade clause.  In the 1950's you basically signed your life over to the team.  There were only 6 teams back then so to even make the team was huge.  Now, anyone can make it.

My grandfather is from Edmonton.  He was signed by Toronto.  In 1949, Toronto sent him to Los Angeles for training camp.  He ended up playing down here for a couple of years before they called him back up to the Toronto area.  Flying was almost unheard of at that time unless you had a lot of money.  Since they were making the trip up for almost 9 months, they drove so they could take a lot of their stuff with them.

My grandmother said that each time, they would take a different route to get up to Ontario so they have a TON of photos.  Most pictures they can't tell where they are or what the picture is of.  They didn't write much down in those days.

But this one album has a bunch of pictures from 1953-1954 when my mom was born.  They travelled up to Sioux St. Marie for the season right after she was born and went through Canada.  They stopped to see my grandfathers family in Edmonton on the way.  Funny enough, they stopped at the Calgary Stampede and a few other places.  Looking through these photos, I spotted two immediately.

 My grandmother holding my mom at Lake Louise. 1954

Nick and I at Lake Louise. 2011

 Stampede - Earlton Gate 1954

Stampede - Earlton Gate 2011