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Red Green stopping in to say bye
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Early days in a new city
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2019
WELCOME TO LONGWORTH, THE TOWN THAT TIME FORGOT CHRISTINE HINZMANN 97/16 staff
It’s 10 o’clock on a Monday morning and the old Longworth school house, now the post office, is a hub of activity. There are two cars and an ATV in the parking lot. For a town with a population of 21. “Looks like it’s going to be busy,” Post mistress Robin Wills says with a smile, scanning the four other people in the room. There are long tables set in a square in the middle of the room with chairs at the ready. There are handmade quilts, crocheted blankets, handknit scarves, cloth dolls, rustic postcards and fruit preserves on display along the walls. Everything’s for sale. The coffee station is in the far corner and most everyone eventually makes their way to it. As more people trickle in, they deposit their contributions on the table. Cookies in a Tupperware container, banana bread on a paper plate, fancy cookies in a tin. About a dozen people settle in for a chat over coffee. This is what it looks like three mornings a week in Longworth, 160 km east of Prince George. There’s talk of someone needing eggs, another’s hand goes up signalling she’s got some to spare. The give and take of a 21-person town already starts to show. “If I had a tape recorder I could push play right now because we’re going to hear the same old stories,” Robin teases. But those stories are new to some people at the table. Dave, a retired forest service worker from Clearwater who spent a short time in Longworth in 1959, has stopped by to visit. He’s on a road trip to Alaska and thought he’d make the trek to see the town that made such an impression so long ago.
97/16 photos by James Doyle
Above: Robin Wills is the Longworth post mistress. Below: The Longworth Community Hall.
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