‘Ain’t got no key…’

East Kildonan

For a while I worked as an information officer at Portage Place, back when it was owned by Cadillac Fairview. It was an interesting job. The mall, like every mall, was its own particular organism, composed of people with many different jobs making up systems that worked together in a related network. These systems included a security force, rental administration, marketing and publicity arms, a cleaning department, on-site maintenance and more.

In my role, I did a fair amount of publicity tasks and worked closely with security staff, radioing security officers when necessary since my post at the information booth was very central — in Edmonton Court, close to the old city hall clock tower. Portage Place, like downtown Winnipeg itself, had its challenges but for a while it also had its own vitality, which I believe was special because it was downtown. I have always missed this vibrancy.

The information centre was often the mall’s first connection to the visiting public. We fielded questions, sought help for people and dealt with anything the public brought to us.

Today the mall is undergoing renovations, and will become home to affordable housing, health-care services and community space. I was a bit taken aback when I first saw the visual evidence of change, with an oversized crane sitting right where the information centre once stood, and the multi-storey glass wall along Portage Avenue at Edmonton Court now gone. The sweeping balconies inside are now open to the elements, resembling what one might see in a dystopian doomsday movie – but I know the end result will be glorious.

I recall my first day at Portage Place, when an older man ambled up to the booth with a genuinely quizzical expression on his face.

“Got a question for you,” he said, placing his outstretched arms upon the counter. “You got a can of ham, but you ain’t got no key. What are you gonna do?”

He looked at me with genuine perplexion, paused for a moment, then rapped his clenched hands in unison on the counter and was off before I could even start thinking about an answer.

For some reason, I think about that man once in a while, and I have always wondered if his inquiry was rooted in a desperate tale of war-time experience, where canned meat was the protein staple for soldiers in the field. This always leads me to think about trench warfare and what that was like and the evolution of canned foods and, well…

I can just say I am truly thankful for those who sacrificed so much so we could live in our precious democracy. To all veterans and especially those who died for our freedom, thank you so much. Good things are being done with it in downtown Winnipeg.