Lisa Scott
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 06/03) - Jennifer Pagonis remembers when her neighbours ran outside to gape at the passing ambulances. Not anymore, says the mother of three.

It used to be a novelty, "now it's commonplace," says the stay-at-home mom.

Pagonis is a lifetime Yellowknifer. She remembers people taking the time to pat her on the head when she was a little girl. Now she doesn't recognize passing people on the street.

"I'd rather my kids not be outside because people are racing up my street at all hours," she says, referring to the cars that speed down the smooth road surface of her Range Lake neighbourhood.

"I was no saint, but I respected people I lived near," she says of her youth, as she disentangles her one-year-old from the lamp cord.

Pagonis is hesitant to lay blame, but figures that big city attitudes are infiltrating the small town she remembers. "Everyone needs to go and they want it done now," she says with frustration.

As the city grows, it's inevitable that familiar faces become fewer and fewer, but Pagonis wants her kids to grow up in the quiet Yellowknife she remembers.

The current noise bylaw designating 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. as quiet time doesn't help Pagonis and her family.

Almost every night she tosses in her sheets because of the ambulances screeching around town. "It's an everyday thing," she says resignedly.

Airport noise fills her cozy house, due to the increase in jet traffic in the last decade. "It's unbelievable," says Pagonis .

Howard Davies first came to the city in 1964, straight out of the army. "People are not as friendly as before," he says, guessing the population to be around 1,400 people back then. "It's not like it used to be," the former Giant Mine worker says.

He attributes crime, drugs, and people here to make a quick buck to the changes his favourite city has undergone.

Pagonis will raise her children in the growing city, just as her parents raised her.

But the stories her two sons and daughter hear of her childhood will contain something theirs won't -- silence.