Lethbridge, in southern Alberta. It turns out a lot of people living in Victoria are from there. I keep bumping into them. Maybe they left because of the -40 C winter days (which can warm up quickly thanks to the arrival of chinook winds), or the dust storms, or the complete lack of McDonald's until the mid-1970s (everyone had to go to Calgary for a Big Mac).
Sorry about the digression, though it does sort of set the scene. And those were some of the things that popped to mind during a recent visit to Lethbridge.
On to the Spudnut memories.
In a squarish building on a corner across the street from the outdoor swimming pool was Lethbridge's Spudnut Shop, sellers of ice cream, flavoured drinks and Spudnuts.
People dropped by for a snack after their swim. Or, in my case, dropped by after school, on my stroll home. The place was actually a bit intimidating. It seemed huge. The counter went on forever. And, frankly, the servers weren't always that friendly to a pipsqueak kid who wasn't spending all that much money. But I kept dropping by.
It turns out the Spudnut Shop holds fond memories for many people, and the Internet has several tributes.
In Lethbridge, the Spudnut held sway in the days before Tim Hortons took over the doughnut landscape.
Spudnuts were deep fried doughnuts, made from potato flour. They were a little like today's yeast doughnuts, covered in a sugar glaze. You could buy them one at a time, and eat them with a soft drink while sitting on a spin-able stool, at the horseshoe Spudnut counter. Or you could get a bulk supply, in a waxy paper bag.
My memory says the doughnuts were melt-in-your-mouth delicious.
Various Internet accounts say Spudnuts arrived on the scene from the U.S. in the 1950s.
In Lethbridge, the Spudnut Shop took over a building that was built in the 1900s and served as the town's music conservatory.
From that location, Spudnuts were churned out between about 1950 and 2000.
For several years after that, Lethbridge was without Spudnuts, until a place called the Crazy Cakes opened in the same location, specializing in fancy cupcakes. Once a week, on Thursdays, their website says, they make Spudnuts. My visit to Lethbridge didn't include a Thursday, so I missed out on Spudnuts.
Here's a Spudnut Shop tribute.
Plus a trove of Spudnut lore, including news that Spudnuts were revived because an outfit in the U.S. started making the Spudnut dry mix again.
Crazy Cakes tells its story here.
And buried in this document is something about Lethbridge city council voting to make the Spudnut Shop building a Municipal Historic Resource.
