“If you can remember the 60s, you weren’t really there.” That’s what Jefferson Airplane guitarist Paul Kantner famously said about the decade of debauchery, drugs and free love. But what about the 70s? Well, if you were in Jasper during that momentous ten-year period, Chris Garnham certainly hopes you still remember.

Garnham moved to Jasper in 1969, when the town was home to a little more than 2,000 people. Over the next ten years, the world learned about Jasper, and many stayed. The population practically doubled in about eight years, Garnham recalled.

“This town really did expand to what we think of as ‘normal Jasper’ in that decade,” he said. “It was a very important time in the human history of Jasper.”

It was an unforgettable era for Garnham and his friends, who found themselves surrounded by old acquaintances in more recent, but less pleasant circumstances.

“Several years ago some members of our generation died prematurely,” Garnham said. “Donnie Nordgren was the most indicative of that. He was a well-loved man in Jasper and he had a huge skill in putting on a party.”

When Nordgren died in 2003, it was fitting that his passing was marked by a memorial party later that spring.

“The memorial turned into a reunion for our generation,” Garnham recalled. “We kind of thought that we ought to get together to celebrate our lives, rather than keep meeting up at memorials.”

Garnham, along with several other long-time Jasperites, have proceeded to organize a major reunion event for this fall. When Labour Day 2006 rolls around, Garnham hopes to see up to 300 of his closest friends celebrating at the Atha-B.

“There have been reunions outside of Jasper, but it’s not enough,” he said. “It’s not the sweet spot that former Jasperites really dig.”

The sweet spot that Garnham hopes to find will help to transport attendees to the days of the Can-u-Canoe Race, where hundreds would gather to float down the Athabasca River, blasting spectators along the way with a gas-powered water gun. It will be a chance, if only for three days, to return to a time when every part turned into a massive social event involving the entire community.

“We couldn’t have just a simple house party,” Garnham said. “It had to be an event.”

The itinerary for the weekend includes a major party at the Atha-B on Friday, September 1, followed by two days of activities and well... nighttime events that could be described as a nostalgic look back at the bacchanalia that still makes Garnham’s eyes mist over when he describes it.

Planning the reunion has been quite the trip down memory lane for Garnham.

“This is two or three of these things that I’ve been involved in so I’m getting used to it,” he said. “One of my original comments was I don’t know, I thought it might be too soon.”

Despite these early reservations, Garnham is convinced that revisiting Jasper’s wilder, woolier days is a very healthy thing, in spiritual terms.

“It turns out to be really important for humans to reconnect with our youth,” he said. “We need to know that we come from somewhere and others did too. Reunions do that. It’s a remarkably positive force. The people that you’re close to when you are 22 are going to be important to you when you are 55 to 60 and it’s spiritually important to reconnect.”

Garnham and his fellow organizers have spent their time thus far cementing the particulars and trying to convince the Jasper diaspora that the force is with them. They have had interested responses from people as far afield as the UK and New Zealand, but Garnham admits that former Jasperites haven’t left behind their tendency to decide at the last minute.

“People are going to be people and we’ll end up with 300 and 200 won’t be able to make it because they can’t find accommodation,” he said with a rueful grin. “The point to be made here is that we’ve had to reach outside the community before we reached out to the locals.”

Now, Garnham plans to get busy, propositioning long-term residents at the Post Office. Locals still have time to take advantage of the early bird price deal, and Garnham encourages people to do so.

“Have a look at the list of people who say they are coming, and if you recognize some of the names then we’re looking forward to seeing you,” he said. “We may never do another one. There’s a strong possibility that we won’t.”