Looking out the window from my room I can see trees at the edge of the park, Confederation Park more specifically. To us it is just known as Confed.
When I was a kid it seemed enormous. The area immediately attached to Rosemont that spans between 10th street and 14th street was as big as I could imagine. Then there was the area on the other side of the tunnel over towards Mount Pleasant. If you walked for long enough you would eventually find yourself at a 7/11 or you would end up at Cowboy Park—we called it this because it had an old chuck wagon, until the city decided that it was unsafe and took it away. A moment of silence mourned its loss.
Past this are the tennis courts and the cemetery. You can tell if you are from this area because the cemetery is just a landmark, another section of the park rather than a morbid place. It is just a part of our landscape.
Confed is at its best during the spring. This is when it rains in Calgary. As the downpour comes and the stream swells. When this happens I feel truly at home.
This is the place where I learned to ride a bike, jogged, and walked with friends late into the night on summer evenings. It is where I hesitantly crossed the rocks over the river and slipped cutting my leg. This is where our toboggan hill was. This is what unites Mount Pleasant, Rosemont and all the other surrounding communities whose names and boundaries I don’t know. This is what makes our community feel special.