Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 28/98) - Tillie Groff could hardly believe her eyes when she arrived in Yellowknife for the first time in the past 25 years last week.

When she last left the territorial capital, there were no street lights, no sidewalks and no fully paved roads.

She says her return to Yellowknife has been, to say the least, a little on the overwhelming side.

"It's not the same place at all," said Groff. "I couldn't even find my own house.

"There were no huge buildings like this when I left in 1973. It now looks to me like a very rich town."

Groff has returned to Yellowknife to attend the wedding of her close friends Faith and Kenny Embleton's daughter, Laurie.

She first arrived in Yellowknife in 1956, and called the city home for the next 17 years before moving to Campbell River, B.C.

She currently lives in Keremos, B.C., which, when translated, means the meeting of the winds.

"When we first arrived here, there were no house numbers. You'd tell someone you lived in the third house past the fire station or something like that.

"My husband Roy started here when they were putting in the DEW Line. He refuelled the planes going to the DEW Lines."

Groff said as she looks around the city, it's hard not to make comparisons to when she lived here.

She said she was here when the first Stanton Hospital burnt down and feels a different atmosphere in today's Yellowknife.

"I'm totally lost in this city today," she said almost wistfully, "I don't know where I am.

"When my four children went to school here at Yellowknife public school, we lived across from what they called the Lockstaves and now they have this Mildred Hall for a school monster.

"There's just no comparison."

Of Groff's four children -- Ronald, Douglas, Victor and Charlotte -- only Douglas, a carpenter by trade, remains in Yellowknife.

Ronald, she said, went to New Zealand to "learn all about telephones." Victor is a welder in Lethbridge, Alta. and Charlotte is a paymaster in Richmond, B.C.

Groff remembers the city only having two or three doctors and the same number of taxi cabs.

She said she recalls Bill Cole running the local movie house at that time and the theatre offering 25-cent shows for kids on Sunday afternoons.

"When I was here in Yellowknife, I looked after working women's children and those from families on welfare as well," said Groff.

"I look back at the Yellowknife I remember and it seemed alright to us. We were doing what everybody else seemed to be doing at the time, so we were pretty content."

Groff says there's no doubt today's Yellowknife is an impressive city, but more has changed than just the number of people and height of the buildings.

As impressive as it is, she still isn't convinced today's version is better than the old.

"I don't know if all the changes here in Yellowknife are a positive thing or not," she said truthfully.

"It looks to me to be real city living. The people here now have a lot of the things we didn't, but, somehow, it's just not the same.

"I head back on Sept. 9 and I guess the new city is alright, but I'll take the old Yellowknife."