Salt Spring Island Archives
304_Florence-Dave-Davidson_Ruth-Sandwell_Pender_1998.mp3
otter.ai
9.02.2024
no
Outline
Unknown Speaker 0:01
Today is March 2 1998. And today I'm interviewing Florence and Dave Davidson at their home on Pender Island, Florence and Dave were the proprietors of the resort Roseland on Pender Island. My name is Ruth Sandwell. Okay, that's really, Dave, I'd like to begin by asking you about when you visit the very first time that you came to Pender.
Unknown Speaker 0:29
Oh, we came up on the Princess Mary, which sailed out of Vancouver cprw boat landed at part Washington. Mr. Rowe, senior Mattis with the launch.
Unknown Speaker 0:45
Is that Robert? Robert,
Unknown Speaker 0:47
there are both Robert row here. Robert row senior and the year 1926.
Unknown Speaker 0:56
And how did you know Robert wrote you? You were quite young at the time.
Unknown Speaker 1:00
I was six. Okay. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 1:03
So why did you come over? What prompted
Unknown Speaker 1:06
some family friends of ours came here and I think they only came one year but they really enjoyed it and told my parents about it. They were always interested in getting away to quiet places. And so they decided they have a go at it. What
Unknown Speaker 1:24
did your dad do in Vancouver? We were living in Vancouver at the time, were you?
Unknown Speaker 1:28
Yeah. At that time, he was an accountant for black brothers limited. And then he formed a partnership with three other men and they operate in the otter house limited on Harney Street, which was an automotive repair firm. And I worked there before the war and for quite a few years after the war to
Unknown Speaker 1:57
what did you do there?
Unknown Speaker 1:58
The Office ran the office.
Unknown Speaker 2:02
Okay, so you came over? Were you the only child or did you have brothers? No,
Unknown Speaker 2:07
I had a sister, three and a half years older than myself. Who is now dead.
Unknown Speaker 2:16
What so he picked you up on some of the warfare at Port
Unknown Speaker 2:20
Washington. Yeah. And did he bring you here? Yeah. Came around in his long train up to the private dock here at Roseland.
Unknown Speaker 2:29
And is it the same dock that's there now? Well.
Unknown Speaker 2:35
Nothing lasts that long and saltwater but the pilings are still the same, I think.
Unknown Speaker 2:43
So what what was it like? Do you remember? Oh,
Unknown Speaker 2:45
yeah, it was just heaven on earth.
Unknown Speaker 2:51
How many of the cottages were there that if there now
Unknown Speaker 2:55
well, hardly any of the cottages then you're still here. Mr. Rowe was forever taking them down and rebuilding them somewhere else in this third thing? He didn't like to do repair work. You like to start from scratch.
Unknown Speaker 3:16
So what were those, those cabins like the the early cabins he had he started in about 1917. I think I read he started the
Unknown Speaker 3:23
resort. Well, they considered the resort started about 10. But they started building cottages before then, you know? What were they like? Or plank floor? shake roof. No ceilings in a wood range. And color lamps. And a couple of buckets are here to carry your water and where was the water from? Where did they get the waterfall? There was Topo stand up types, different places in the property and you went to the nearest one and filled your bucket there. What's that? What is that? Davis stand up? Oh, it's just an outlet from the well. Pump? No, no, no, no, no, just gravity flow. There is no hydro. You see, so you couldn't put in anything that needed to be pumped during? Yes.
Unknown Speaker 4:26
But so there was no hydro to the island at all was
Unknown Speaker 4:30
no no, that didn't come until just after the war about 47.
Unknown Speaker 4:38
So how many cottages were there built when you arrived? Do you have any to number?
Unknown Speaker 4:43
No, I couldn't give you an accurate figure on that there probably be about 15
Unknown Speaker 4:50
And were they in this same the same sort of cleared area and back up behind the house are about way the same. It says They are now
Unknown Speaker 5:00
some of them were in the in just the same locations as the ones today. But there was two out in the end of the point that disappeared. He took them down. They weren't popular people didn't like carrying water that far.
Unknown Speaker 5:20
So he didn't own that point, though. Did he?
Unknown Speaker 5:22
Oh, yes. Yeah. The island that we're talking about he acquired later. Is a little island. Nodir Bay. Yeah, we can't see it from that. When? Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 5:34
Okay. So he's always on this part
Unknown Speaker 5:37
of LOD 87. Home. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 5:41
Okay, and how big were the cabins were they in terms of square footage, or
Unknown Speaker 5:48
four or 500 square feet? Very small. Two bedrooms in the kitchen, usually. And that was a double bed and each bedroom.
Unknown Speaker 5:59
And I guess no plumbing. No,
Unknown Speaker 6:02
no, no, no. Every place had a private outhouse.
Unknown Speaker 6:10
So you think so actually sounds quite a bit like, like when you except for the outhouses the electricity was at the same kind of family
Unknown Speaker 6:21
oriented place? Yeah, it's always been. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 6:25
So did your your parents that didn't have any? They weren't related to the rows? No, in any way. You just. So did you come every summer?
Unknown Speaker 6:34
Yep. Every summer.
Unknown Speaker 6:37
Till when
Unknown Speaker 6:39
I went away to the war.
Unknown Speaker 6:43
And so Florence, you came over first in my
Unknown Speaker 6:46
being 40 Just before we were married, just for a short visit. And then we were married in 1942. And then I didn't come till about 1947 After Dave got back. Do you remember your first visit here? What was it? What was it like? Oh, I loved it, too. And we stayed in the little cottage down here that we eventually when we moved over, we stayed in that house for six years while we were building this house. So it was a lot. It was remodeled a lot from then, but I can't remember a lot about it. But I enjoyed it. And it was very rustic. And it was fun to stay in a cottage or you didn't have to worry about vacuuming. You just took a broom and wash over the floor. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 7:39
So you came over with with Dave and I guess by that point, you must have been quite good friends with the with the rose.
Unknown Speaker 7:46
Oh gosh, and the I can't remember exactly when it started but my phone call was came up in the first two weeks of July. And it was I got a bit older. The rows wouldn't say move in with us for the rest of the summer. You know, like oh yeah, I spend all my summer here is a mine.
Unknown Speaker 8:07
So did you do Did you work? Did you do work around?
Unknown Speaker 8:10
I thought I work but you know, but teenagers your life? Yeah. They muck up as much as they do good. But anyway, I thought I worked hard and I wasn't paid or anything. It was just a friendship thing you know? And I truly enjoyed it. They were very good to me the rose Burton, Irene i This time the old man had died. He died in about 39 I guess.
Unknown Speaker 8:43
Can you tell me a little bit more? I should maybe write this down about the rules when they first came to the island and what their names were the do you know when the very first row around?
Unknown Speaker 8:59
Mr. Rowe senior was Robert row, of course and his wife was Margaret. Okay. They brought with them. I think they all came together. George, son and Willie. Okay,
Unknown Speaker 9:12
so George was Robert and Margaret son and Robert, Jr.
Unknown Speaker 9:23
and Ella was now right. Well,
Unknown Speaker 9:28
Ella was a niece of Burt's Oh, okay. Well, not sure where she figured in the family tree.
Unknown Speaker 9:35
So it's it's Robert. Bert. Yeah. Robert
Unknown Speaker 9:38
ro Jr. was known as Bert. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 9:41
All right. That makes him Elise here. So Robert and Margaret senior came over. What year
Unknown Speaker 9:51
about the turn of the century? Okay,
Unknown Speaker 9:55
do you know what this is really going back? I know. But do you know why they came to Pender? No.
Unknown Speaker 9:59
I didn't know
Unknown Speaker 10:04
how old was Bert? Was Was he born here? Or did he come with his parents?
Unknown Speaker 10:11
He wasn't the one on Pender. No.
Unknown Speaker 10:15
He'd be very young. So when he came
Unknown Speaker 10:24
Okay, so Robert senior died in about 1939. And his son, Burt inherited all of all of that property. Do you know?
Unknown Speaker 10:34
Well, I don't know. Yeah. I guess we shouldn't go into the family problems and
Unknown Speaker 10:44
tell me when it turns out
Unknown Speaker 10:47
that he eventually did gain title to the property.
Unknown Speaker 10:51
Okay, and how do you know how big the entire property was? It was a lot bigger than than Roseland is right now. Oh, goodness.
Unknown Speaker 10:59
Yeah, it was a square mile. Plus that up here over a square mile.
Unknown Speaker 11:06
So from where to where about? Did we have it on maps and stuff put it up past shingle Bay, we're saying
Unknown Speaker 11:12
that weren't included, went down the west coast here and included nearly all of shingle Bay and then traveled inland and included roll Lake. team came back up to Otter Bay, and there's about 600 acres in that area. Well, there's 640 acres all together and that was a mile. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 11:43
And did that Robert Rowe senior? Did he sell off any of the properties do you know?
Unknown Speaker 11:50
Yeah, I know. What
Unknown Speaker 11:52
about this decently end of The Simpsons?
Unknown Speaker 11:58
Yeah, he was still alive and Simpson.
Unknown Speaker 12:02
So he must have been the one that sold
Unknown Speaker 12:04
on that head of Otter beta farmer known as Jimmy Simpson. Scotsman.
Unknown Speaker 12:15
So but Bert inherited most of it. Took it over probably in the late 30s to 39 and to keep the band
Unknown Speaker 12:25
Yeah, well of course he took over the operation of the whole place more and more and more every year you know, as he grew up. So he had he was pretty well in complete control by the early 30s I guess.
Unknown Speaker 12:45
It was a graduate takeover. Now where did they live? Exactly? The the royal family you know, the first Margaret and
Unknown Speaker 12:52
then Robert across Ohio sir.
Unknown Speaker 12:55
So the one with the bay window. Do you know when that was built?
Unknown Speaker 13:00
You know it? Well? Yeah. So
Unknown Speaker 13:02
that was probably while they were certainly here in 1908
Unknown Speaker 13:07
they didn't first come to this property didn't they? Didn't read my little history did they go they had a small farm and the Port Washington Road and farm there for a few years and then heard about this property and bought it moved over here.
Unknown Speaker 13:28
That history is in that piece of Peter Campbell did in the recent past. I don't think you made reference to that in your park
Unknown Speaker 13:39
did they come here to farm they so they left the farm over there? Did they come here to farm or did they come here to have a resort to
Unknown Speaker 13:46
Oh no no no to farm Marie's aren't grew up by accident really? Yeah. They just put out one cottage for family and friends to visit known so popular they. They put up additional cottages in the wintertime when they weren't busy and by 1917 was considered a resort.
Unknown Speaker 14:11
And they didn't grow senior didn't stay here all year round. They went back into Victoria. And they left Bert as quite a young man, young boy he was just a boy. They left him to look after the police. When I got to know him, he his wife Irene told me that Bert would never let her have a Christmas tree or put up Christmas decorations because Christmas had been such a bleak time for him that he had. She had had come from the loving family and from Duluth, Minnesota and she was used to Christmas and you know all the decorations. So when we first came, we put up a little Three, four, and she was just like a little girl getting her first toy because she was so excited.
Unknown Speaker 15:08
You know, to be fair on that, that Saturday, Scott did not celebrate Christmas, not the way
Unknown Speaker 15:18
it's New Year mostly it
Unknown Speaker 15:19
was Hogmanay. New Years at the Scots people celebrated. English celebrated Christmas but not the scotch.
Unknown Speaker 15:30
Do you know how Bert met his his wife Irene.
Unknown Speaker 15:33
She came here with their mother as a guest at the resort.
Unknown Speaker 15:39
Do you know when they were married?
Unknown Speaker 15:41
Yeah. 1920 a temperature.
Unknown Speaker 15:46
And so they came from Minnesota? No,
Unknown Speaker 15:48
no, no, no, they were living in Victoria by this time. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 15:53
And so they got married and I guess lived here and reserved
Unknown Speaker 15:57
together and built the house up their own
Unknown Speaker 16:01
thing, really. So that's the one across the street from the original house.
Unknown Speaker 16:06
Right on the other side of the driveway.
Unknown Speaker 16:11
And Irene at that time, was teaching school on Saltspring. And she was boarding with the Mort family. That was Irene burned. Oh, and she stayed with them. Well, here's the one that there's no, Mrs. Thornaby. Oh, yeah. Jessie, definitely I think. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 16:42
She was Irene burns. And that was bu r n e. S.
Unknown Speaker 16:49
And funnily enough, Margaret, roll her mother in law. Her last name was birds to
Unknown Speaker 17:00
be you RNs. Yeah. Like Robbie Burns? Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 17:06
So there's quite a few questions I want to ask you about, about the property. Maybe I should finish asking you the ones just about about the roles and about their their ownership of the property. So when when Barrett and Irene took it over, they had the whole very large property. You were mentioning Dave that they sold off parts of it over the years. Is that fair to say? Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 17:34
Mr. Mr. Rowe did develop the road down to Irene Bay, and he subdivided the properties that Irene Bay and so the MA individually, and he sold the one acre across the road up there. a chap called McAndrew and he had had plans to sell lots along the road there but the freeze came in you know, they they put in the subdivision freeze. And I don't know that he would have gone any farther with it anyway.
Unknown Speaker 18:12
What what you're about was that they started putting a freeze on subdivisions
Unknown Speaker 18:19
after that magic Lake subdivision in
Unknown Speaker 18:21
the 70s. Was it?
Unknown Speaker 18:23
Yeah, yeah. This time we moved over I think there was a freezin because
Unknown Speaker 18:29
when our daughter and they, they were going to move over, they would have liked to have just bought an acre from Irene but they couldn't they had to buy the 10 acres. So which was turned out to be nice for them because now they have the time they really didn't want to be didn't want that much property. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 18:57
Can you tell me anything about George row? There's a George row that I found in the in the land records before 1920. Do you know anything about him?
Unknown Speaker 19:13
property next door here.
Unknown Speaker 19:15
I'm not sure exactly what property it was. Dave. It was one of those ones that kept branch but it was early on. It was it was quite early.
Unknown Speaker 19:25
Yeah. Well, soon after they. They bought this property.
Unknown Speaker 19:33
George row.
Unknown Speaker 19:36
Got the almost 20 acres next door there and he built a farm house and had a farm and an orchard and then he abandoned it. He finally gave up I mean, you know it's hard to squeak out a living on these islands.
Unknown Speaker 19:57
Do you know what kind of farming they are? They did.
Unknown Speaker 20:00
Well, I think it was just mixed farming just like it was here. There was everything, lots of vegetables and orchard. Some animals, you know, cow, workhorse pigs.
Unknown Speaker 20:15
Somebody was telling me from main island that they took, that they took the people would ship their cream over to the creamery on Saltspring. Did you ever hear anything about that? Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 20:26
I've heard about that. Yeah, I don't think any of the rows did.
Unknown Speaker 20:33
The name. Quantity,
Unknown Speaker 20:34
there was only two milk cows on this property, you know, okay. And George probably only had one. I don't know for sure.
Unknown Speaker 20:43
Okay. Do you know if they shipped any of the of the fruit from the island? Or was it mainly for their own use?
Unknown Speaker 20:50
Yeah, I think Mr. Rowe sold his apples through this store up there. Because in the wintertime, when all the fishermen are here, the commercial fishermen, they bought a lot of the apples. They like the king apples, and they kept well.
Unknown Speaker 21:11
Can you tell me about about commercial fishing? as it related to Pender, I don't have a good sense of the that part of the island life here.
Unknown Speaker 21:24
Yeah, well, there was. Japanese fishermen were probably in the majority Japanese Canadian fishermen, you know. And there was Aboriginal fishermen, and there was some Caucasian fishermen. And they all had the small fish boats that used to see around, you know, seal East hope engine in them can bunk upon a couple. And it was one day from here in the southeast. And if you were a fisherman, and you wanted to unload your catch, and take a day to grind the season, the day to come back. So the Packers used to come up here and meet the fleet in Otter Bay, and transfer the catch. And then the votes could reprovision up here at the store and get back out onto the fishing grounds and save two days. Just see one into station and one back out.
Unknown Speaker 22:24
So today's packers with a refrigerator boats Do you know Oh,
Unknown Speaker 22:27
no, no, no, no, maybe just take it probably be ice on most
Unknown Speaker 22:34
days and wear these. So they used to do that trade here?
Unknown Speaker 22:38
Yeah. Yeah, the wintertime was very busy here for the rose. Because you know, there could be as many as 40 boats tied up here overnight. And they had a sauna down on the wharf that the Japanese fishermen love to put a fire in and truck it up and steam themselves.
Unknown Speaker 23:03
Yeah, so were they were they local people days or where they were? Who were who were fishing in these boats? Who would congregate here?
Unknown Speaker 23:13
Oh, no, no, they weren't. You know, probably the southeastern area.
Unknown Speaker 23:21
Okay, so not weather people on Pender in those years who fished commercially.
Unknown Speaker 23:26
I guess there was the odd one, but it was never a prime area for fishing right here, you know, didn't attract to for that reason.
Unknown Speaker 23:36
Right? What about this fish reduction plant? Tell me about the fish reduction plant. You're mentioning it and I've heard about it from other people too. Do you know when it was put in?
Unknown Speaker 23:50
Well in the early 20s Because it had been in use, I think before we ever came here in 1926. And then it had been shut down and then it was reactivated. A few years later. They got sky loads of fish guts from the canneries up the coast. And sometimes carload of dog fish and whatnot. Take fish that was in the market alone, they rendered it into oil and fertilizer.
Unknown Speaker 24:31
So where the people from tender who worked there?
Unknown Speaker 24:33
Oh, yeah, some of them are still around. Pranks I'm known gentleman that lives next door to the ferry wharf over there. He worked the fish reduction plan.
Unknown Speaker 24:47
I remember somebody challenged me from main island again about how nobody wanted to dance with those guys.
Unknown Speaker 24:52
Oh, it was terrible. We used to go to a dance at home pay and these guys would Come in with all the perfume in the world. They smell like something from the Far East. But as soon as they started to sweat Oh, God, there was a terrible smell. They got right into your pores.
Unknown Speaker 25:17
Yeah, What business did it? Did it smell bad? Did it make the did it pollute the air? Did it pollute the air of the fish production plant? Could you smell it here? For example? No,
Unknown Speaker 25:27
no, there was never any smell here from the team to hang around the plant itself. And of course often there was a west wind here in blue that across the other sectors. Yeah. And I never heard anyone complain about him and the smell of the plant was terrible.
Unknown Speaker 25:45
You were telling me a story about Mr. Rowe being afraid that they were going to be extending that operation. And that's why he purchased that island. Is that right?
Unknown Speaker 25:57
Yeah, they bought the island to prevent them from their proposed business of tying up snow loads of fish guts in Otter Bay as he when they didn't have room at the wharfage shingle bank. And that would have been that would have not helped the resort business at all. No.
Unknown Speaker 26:17
So he moved in that was about 1963. I think. So yeah. It's called row. Is that row Island?
Unknown Speaker 26:24
No, actually on the chart. So the point here is known as row Island. Yeah. That's called the eyelet not obey.
Unknown Speaker 26:37
Okay. Okay, what I wanted? Well, there's a bunch of things that I'd like to get to now, which is about when you guys took it over? You came so you've been coming here for years? You've been cut? Did you come here for summers when you were married? And you had your own? Oh, sure. Yeah. Living in in Vancouver. Time. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 27:03
Our family all learn to swim here. And on this was their summer vacation spot. Great spot to come. Oh, yeah. It's just beautiful. What
Unknown Speaker 27:16
time when did the cabins that are here now on the property when we you know, when they were built?
Unknown Speaker 27:26
Over the years. I mean,
Unknown Speaker 27:32
that first little log cabin on point was just built when we came when Jeff was a baby in 1947. So that was one of the last to be built that I knew.
Unknown Speaker 27:47
I think number 414 and 15. Okay, 15 Looks like the oldest one in the place. And that's the newest one.
Unknown Speaker 28:01
A you know, sometimes they're moved from one location to another and oh, yeah, they'd be hardly taken down and then rebuilt. Bathrooms ran into a lot of them. You know,
Unknown Speaker 28:17
when was the plumbing put in? Was it all put in at once? Or did he do them? Bit by bit? It was in in Burt's time? Yeah. I guess.
Unknown Speaker 28:35
I think a lot of the toilet facilities went in during the war years when I wasn't here. Oh, yeah. And electricity,
Unknown Speaker 28:44
the end of the war? Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 28:46
Did he get electricity to these cabins? As soon after it came to the to the no, yeah. Do you know how do you know anything about that process of getting electricity to Pender Island?
Unknown Speaker 29:00
Well, it comes in by an underwater cable from Saltspring to Irene Bay. That's where it lands on the island. And then the distribution starts from Irene Bay.
Unknown Speaker 29:12
Did people have to pay for their own polls? Or was it just a service that was provided by the government? No, you weren't living here then? Do you? Know
Unknown Speaker 29:21
I was that was in a private business by hydro as far as I know. But I know Mr. Rowe had to guarantee them a certain amount of income from this place in order to get them to deliver power to Oh, really? Yeah, they wanted a bit of a contract. I think that he would buy so much electricity in the course of the year and I don't think he had any problems meeting the contract and
Unknown Speaker 29:52
the rate that they wanted to know up front. They're gonna get some return
Unknown Speaker 29:57
or in the
Unknown Speaker 29:59
early 50s and late 40s When we were coming, I remember we would have the power on for a couple hours or something at night in Berlin for India that the power was going off. So I guess it was a restricted
Unknown Speaker 30:16
it was birthstone generator that was he had a diesel electric January. That was later years. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 30:22
that was before they got the power. Oh, yes.
Unknown Speaker 30:27
That was in all the cabins or was that just Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 30:29
it was just the segfault test, just kind of roughly wired into the cabins had about one light from they couldn't run anything off it you know, just for lighting.
Unknown Speaker 30:44
So when you were coming here today, what kind of amenities we say. Did they have electric stoves at the time?
Unknown Speaker 30:59
Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 30:59
so there was a tank? Is it? Are they still there? Are there? Oh, yeah, like
Unknown Speaker 31:06
30 tanks still here. 100 pound tanks of propane.
Unknown Speaker 31:11
When did they bought me electricity and because there are a few cabins with electric stoves on the interesting.
Unknown Speaker 31:20
Well
Unknown Speaker 31:28
maybe the early 50s They only had 100 Watt service I think brought in. So that wouldn't run electric ranges. Except in one or two cottages and then the restaurant just have it for lightning.
Unknown Speaker 31:48
Okay, so when you when you took it over in 1970 Why did you do that?
Unknown Speaker 31:56
Mr. Rowe died in 69. And yes, I visited him of course when he was dying. He asked me if there's any chance we can take it over. I said we would, because they'd been so good to me when I was a boy, you know.
Unknown Speaker 32:18
And you were working in Vancouver at the time I was
Unknown Speaker 32:21
teaching in North. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 32:25
How old were your kids at that time? About? We're almost grown
Unknown Speaker 32:30
to just finish school. Yeah, I was in her last year at school. Yeah, it was doing a grade 12.
Unknown Speaker 32:39
And the oldest girl Gail had been married in 1970. From our home in Vancouver just before we moved, she's the one that lives across from us now.
Unknown Speaker 32:52
So he asked you if you'd like to take it over. I his wife Irene was still alive?
Unknown Speaker 32:57
Oh, yeah, sure. This was half of the thinking. I think on his part, it was cheaper home for her, you know? Like I was happy to do. So
Unknown Speaker 33:08
where do you did Irene? Live up? So you took the property over? Was there any formal? Like, did you purchase the property where you left? Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 33:19
I bought a half interest in 87, which is the main part of the property.
Unknown Speaker 33:28
And it was quite a complicated deal with the lawyer. Her lawyer worked out between us and her it was very satisfactory for us because we could never have bought you know this place.
Unknown Speaker 33:44
Right? And I guess by that time property property was beginning to get pricey listed on the Gulf Islands. But it Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 33:51
it was but nothing like it is.
Unknown Speaker 33:55
Yeah. One of the earlier real estate, boom
Unknown Speaker 33:58
services real estate done in your house up there. You know, that was her home and where did you Where did you live? We lived in a cottage down here by the water.
Unknown Speaker 34:08
White one right now. Okay, I think yeah,
Unknown Speaker 34:13
yeah. Number three.
Unknown Speaker 34:14
He lived in it for six years while Dave was building this. And then
Unknown Speaker 34:20
didn't take me six years to build this but when we came up, Mr. Rowe had been sick for years and I didn't realize how far behind everything was so I had to spend most of my effort on trying to get the place back first
Unknown Speaker 34:38
three years she worked on getting a place into some kind of shape started
Unknown Speaker 34:43
so the cabins are quite rundown where they date
Unknown Speaker 34:46
Oh, yeah. And the water system was leaking and you know, the usual prayers, a
Unknown Speaker 34:53
lot of work to keep an old resort going.
Unknown Speaker 34:59
Where did the work come from for the resort. So groundwater
Unknown Speaker 35:02
surface wells.
Unknown Speaker 35:06
So the one that I saw up the hill
Unknown Speaker 35:10
one of the wells, you know, where
Unknown Speaker 35:12
are the others is there
Unknown Speaker 35:16
there's three right across this field and in the lower part of that hill and then there's another two well beyond the road.
Unknown Speaker 35:29
So is it is it gravity fed?
Unknown Speaker 35:31
Yeah, well, yeah.
Unknown Speaker 35:33
Do you pretend that you pump stuff too or anything? Or does it all just come come down from
Unknown Speaker 35:38
No, there is there is a small tank that is filled with a pump because they found that the end of the point for instance, if everybody was using the water in the last house didn't care it was gravity feed. Yeah, guess what in the pump just to boost the pressure of it.
Unknown Speaker 36:06
And I guess you had septic
Unknown Speaker 36:07
tanks? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Do each each cabin.
Unknown Speaker 36:13
Septic Tank.
Unknown Speaker 36:18
So pretty out there.
Unknown Speaker 36:20
Okay, so when you took it over was it in had even though Mr. Rowe had not been very well, had they been able to keep the clientele and
Unknown Speaker 36:33
oh, yeah, yeah,
Unknown Speaker 36:34
I guess I'm asking was it a flourishing business or had it really declined because he hadn't been able to put put work into it or wasn't?
Unknown Speaker 36:43
It was I came over on the May 24 holiday in 69. To see how they were doing, I hadn't heard from them for a while I found that he was very sick. As a matter of fact, during that weekend, I took him into the hospital in Victoria and left him there because Mrs really didn't drive or anything.
Unknown Speaker 37:07
And there was no doctor on the island at that time.
Unknown Speaker 37:11
So she had all these requests for reservations in the summer and she hadn't known whether to accept them or not, you know, she was in a miserable situation.
Unknown Speaker 37:24
Was her health good or bad? At that point? She
Unknown Speaker 37:27
was very good. She was quite unhealthy lady as soon as I got back to Vancouver, I discussed it with Florence and I could take the summer off and we could come over and help her for the summer. 69 Yeah, so she was very relieved when she accepted the applications for reservation
Unknown Speaker 37:54
seems to have a busy summer. And when did Mr. Rowe down
Unknown Speaker 38:00
in October of 69
Unknown Speaker 38:05
Okay, so then you moved over here to the little house. What are two the first house what is that house like?
Unknown Speaker 38:14
a two bedroom house with a kitchen.
Unknown Speaker 38:16
We can show it to you.
Unknown Speaker 38:21
lectric Ranger has hot water Now it didn't have them. Because they just just had cold water. They always did. Water. This drill figured it wouldn't be enough water if they put in hot
Unknown Speaker 38:39
water. I guess that's right. How was the water supply here? Never
Unknown Speaker 38:43
ran out. We used to worry about it every year.
Unknown Speaker 38:48
I guess it gets pretty low around August's Yes, it
Unknown Speaker 38:51
does. Some years did.
Unknown Speaker 38:54
Did you notice. Did you find any difference after they put in that magic lakes? You know, I've heard Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 39:01
I don't think it affected us here then I couldn't be sure.
Unknown Speaker 39:06
Yeah. Okay. So how would you describe running the resort?
Unknown Speaker 39:14
full time job?
Unknown Speaker 39:19
More than full time I've got some people
Unknown Speaker 39:21
guests with me arriving in the evening in the early morning and we used to pick people off if they didn't have a car.
Unknown Speaker 39:31
Did most people bring their cars?
Unknown Speaker 39:33
Oh yes. Yes. In our time. Yeah. When I was a boy nobody brought a car you know, there was no
Unknown Speaker 39:40
car ferry was there? No, it was just the Princess
Unknown Speaker 39:43
Mary would bring car car up as freight but it came once and never went back.
Unknown Speaker 39:52
On the island.
Unknown Speaker 39:54
The picking up that we did was not with summer guests. Because they all brought other cars could they bought supplies. But weekends during the offseason, often people couldn't get reservations on a Friday night from Vancouver. So same old they even those days, so we would pick them up and then, you know taking them back on a Sunday. So that was a busy time.
Unknown Speaker 40:20
So did you have a stay a length of stay requirements in the summer? Did most people come and stay?
Unknown Speaker 40:27
Minimum in the summertime? Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 40:32
We have one of our ex guests who now lives in Hong Kong. And he bought the property down the room here. He wrote me a letter once we were operating it said he would like to come back to Roselyn from Hong Kong, and they'd like to come for a month. And I had to write back and say, Deke read haven't gone a month in the summer, you know, we, we were booked every year by the same people. And we had people on a waiting list who were waiting to get an extra week. And as long as we operated, it never happened. Because if people didn't come when summer, they would take a temporary kind of break leave of absence, and then ask us to keep it for them the following year. And so I would make out of thing and pence of light for I if I was doing it. Now I would have everything for this summer filled in, in pencil. And then after people came and paid their bill, then they could just, I could put it in ink. But they wanted those same two weeks. And I remember once somebody looked at that and said, How do you know we're gonna come next year? I said, Well, I can't take a chance on. You know, somebody phoning and catching me by surprise. And I might put somebody in. Yeah, so I had to do it that way. And it was nice, because you see, like people like the printer was I knew exactly when they were coming for three weeks in the summer, right in the middle of the summer, and they went to the cabinet and the point. So it was, so people
Unknown Speaker 42:15
would go to the same cabins each year, and
Unknown Speaker 42:18
everyone had his favorite camera, or
Unknown Speaker 42:21
nose like that. Number 11.0. So you must
Unknown Speaker 42:27
have got to know the people quite well
Unknown Speaker 42:32
get invited to their weddings and
Unknown Speaker 42:36
came up here as guests ourselves. We got to know the other guests. And those were the people eventually became clients of ours was really
Unknown Speaker 42:45
like a big homecoming every summer. So
Unknown Speaker 42:49
if you had to characterize the people who came here, the kinds of people would come would you say that there was a particular kind of person? Or were they really different? Or were they all? What would you say about them?
Unknown Speaker 43:04
They were real family oriented. The people that came here,
Unknown Speaker 43:08
they were all diverse and for many different walks. They
Unknown Speaker 43:12
all loved the natural atmosphere. Yeah. They didn't complain about the lack of telephones or TVs or anything like that, you know, the Bruno's,
Unknown Speaker 43:23
they just love to be away from all that kind of thing, because they are very much into the university life. And the Americans that came people from Seattle or from the university level, they're the same. They said, There's nothing left like this in the states anymore, and they just loved up here. It's interesting. There isn't?
Unknown Speaker 43:47
No, there's nothing left in Canada now that we've closed.
Unknown Speaker 43:55
To have this much property with a resort, it's an extravagant use of land that can't be done anymore. We only could do it because we liked the way of life and we weren't anxious about making a lot of money. Yeah. But anybody that had to take this over, they'd have to, yeah, yeah, really do a lot. charge a lot more. When we were closing, some of our guests would come and say, you know, we'll gladly pay double if you could keep going. They always reprimanded us that we didn't charge enough. And we didn't. We got into that situation from when we took over the role was because they The place was getting rundown. They didn't charge hardly anything. So it was hard for us to jump in immediately. charge a lot. So gradually, we brought it up to some realistic for you, but did
Unknown Speaker 44:56
Mrs. Rowe have anything to do with the running of the property after her has been done it. No, no, you guys basically. She was
Unknown Speaker 45:04
very nice. And she was kind of relieved. She was tired by
Unknown Speaker 45:07
that. She didn't want to do with the operation No, but she enjoyed meeting her old friends when they came, you know,
Unknown Speaker 45:14
phone down and visit with everybody.
Unknown Speaker 45:17
What would people do? Like what what would your guests do typically
Unknown Speaker 45:21
when they came, Kendra was on the beach. They're swimming playing. We had rental robots. And the fathers who fished had a boat. My kids Oh used to vote. My father is that golfer over on the golf course. And
Unknown Speaker 45:41
the kids all would spend hours and hours in Otter Bay fishing for soul or it used to be full of soul. He could go out and get your lunch within an hour or two. Our kids spend a lot of time just leaning over the side of the boat with the sole lines.
Unknown Speaker 46:04
What so did you have boats here? Oh, yeah. So and they would just be able to use those. We
Unknown Speaker 46:10
had our own floats down there in
Unknown Speaker 46:16
the volunteer rant and you know,
Unknown Speaker 46:19
what else did you have? Like what kind of, you know recreational sort of stuff did you have for the guests
Unknown Speaker 46:26
on the kids played baseball and volleyball and horseshoes over in the field over there? tetherball. Couple of swings here and there. Now they had to make their own fun pretty well. But there's a lot of baseball.
Unknown Speaker 46:49
Did they get along together? The families if the kids would play together? What about the adults? Did they? Oh
Unknown Speaker 46:54
gosh, they used to plan away ahead every year they're in a special theme for their party night. And remember, they were Roman something in Rome one year. And one of the guys had one of those long pieces account you know and that was a rep to me was repping his wife or that they were dressed up in kind of toga outfits and
Unknown Speaker 47:30
so were they did people become friends here and make
Unknown Speaker 47:35
Oh yeah, they had a fine the karma suffer? You know, the
Unknown Speaker 47:46
barbecue and cookout gathering you mean?
Unknown Speaker 47:50
Yeah. That was they all bought when you when you each bring something? potluck? Yeah, there'll be a potluck supper every year. People at all. None of our guests are in touch with each other all year round. They got to know each other.
Unknown Speaker 48:09
But most of the guests from from Vancouver would you say the
Unknown Speaker 48:12
most were from Vancouver?
Unknown Speaker 48:14
Where else did they come from?
Unknown Speaker 48:16
I'm from Vancouver. She carrying what am I saying some of her men who
Unknown Speaker 48:26
do you from Calgary?
Unknown Speaker 48:27
Yeah. Oh over really? And some Americans are saying from the early days a lot came from Revelstoke because they got a pass on the CPR Princess Mary was a part of the CPR
Unknown Speaker 48:45
Yeah. How How would you I want to ask you first of all I asked you so what else what did the adults do? Mainly a few. Some of them played golf. Some of them
Unknown Speaker 48:57
were in session. Some of them looked after their kids. Mostly people have little kids that you know left have
Unknown Speaker 49:09
visited visited in the afternoon the women would all gather around
Unknown Speaker 49:18
playing bridge Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 49:21
I heard about your library.
Unknown Speaker 49:22
Oh yeah.
Unknown Speaker 49:25
So that was in Ole Miss is not Mrs. Rose house. Original row.
Unknown Speaker 49:31
Still there.
Unknown Speaker 49:34
people help themselves and then left books they didn't want to leave the library went down and later years.
Unknown Speaker 49:50
I had games in the big cars for the kids and shovels and pails.
Unknown Speaker 49:58
So basically they were just one into to go somewhere where they could get away from
Unknown Speaker 50:02
city or just getting away from city
Unknown Speaker 50:06
and then the field over their head and volleyball and often the guests would organize games you know come competition games in the evening and make a party thing out of it.
Unknown Speaker 50:20
Did you have fun? Did you ever have trouble with gas? You know too much partying or what what did that happen often?
Unknown Speaker 50:30
We kicked one couple hours to place on the 20 odd years.
Unknown Speaker 50:35
That's very good to most people so you had basically had a really solid clientele and then when other people would come we'd find out at like sort of be referred by other Oh yeah.
Unknown Speaker 50:52
latterly we dropped our listing in the VC tourist accommodation guide because you know people would people from the states would pick that up and we even got a call from New York one and they wanted to come and you see we were booked up and we thought well you know this isn't fair people think they can come and we can't accommodate and so we didn't we just drop service
Unknown Speaker 51:21
don't seem to have made a difference for sure. What what what changes did you see here to Rose land over the years that you both knew it
Unknown Speaker 51:36
well the farm disappeared no more animals here the barns gone. Where was the barn? By the road up there
Unknown Speaker 51:50
so no more farm I guess the cabins as he said have moved around and changed and been replaced and did you build any new cabins? No. So since 1970
Unknown Speaker 52:00
This is the only thing I built this house yeah. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 52:04
How long did it take? Did you build this house yourself? Yeah, it's beautiful by the way it's just lovely. It took you about three years three winters
Unknown Speaker 52:12
Yeah, I couldn't work out in the summer you see when we had her yes here Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 52:18
He did have some help from like our son in law oh yeah
Unknown Speaker 52:28
it's just beautiful. It Are you on are you on municipal water you do you have well water as well well water so yeah, you didn't want them running out either? I guess. What What about on Pender island itself? What changes have you seen here over the years?
Unknown Speaker 52:47
Oh, terrific increase in population which brings all kinds of changes and costs are first year here I think the taxes are $300 in 1970 and by the time we shut down they were well over $10,000
Unknown Speaker 53:14
Will you really closely monitored by government organizations for running a resort where there a lot of
Unknown Speaker 53:23
health people came around and check the water about every two weeks. That was about the only intrusions we had from government wasn't it
Unknown Speaker 53:35
at one time there was a new girl on an inspector and she was quite efficient I guess and she started being critical and I said to her you know I bet are the water here is better than Victoria water right now. Because that was the time when they were having a lot of trouble with some pond kind of seeping she said that has nothing to do with your your running Ares. But I thought it had a lot to do. Anyway
Unknown Speaker 54:15
so um so Pender Island, the population has increased what what changes is that brought to the island that you both probably remember that from the pre war or the
Unknown Speaker 54:31
pre work or if it was just dirt roads.
Unknown Speaker 54:36
You always said that things changed when they started bringing in too many rules and regulations that you know people came here because they could have chickens or they could have this and nobody cared. But then they started to make it kind of like more of a residential area and we had to conform. That was the thing that you You notice that it was no longer a place where you can just come and do what you wanted? Yeah, that's the way it has to be. Yes. Was
Unknown Speaker 55:10
that was that change around the time of the islands trust stick to the islands trust itself make a big change in those ways? Well,
Unknown Speaker 55:19
current, they reflected the change. The big subdivision that Mandy plank was what triggered the formation of the island trust,
Unknown Speaker 55:34
to control subdivisions in the future and that sort of thing. And they clamped a freeze on subdivisions for a short time, and then they came up with a 10 acre freeze, you can subdivide anything into smaller than 10 acres. And that held until we developed our own community plan. So we all worked hard at nights on community planning, meeting after meeting after meeting.
Unknown Speaker 56:08
What was the island very divided about those kinds of things? Oh, wow, lots
Unknown Speaker 56:12
of differences of opinion. It was really hard on some of the old timers who were just at the point of retiring when this took place, and they had planned on selling a little bit of land to get retirement money and then they weren't able to you know, that really screws up everybody's plans
Unknown Speaker 56:40
The rolls are really poor. They were land land rich. You know, they didn't during the depression and that they didn't have any cash. I don't think Oh, it's just
Unknown Speaker 56:54
oh, they didn't there were some summers that we came to the resort here. And we were the only gas your
Unknown Speaker 57:01
mom and dad. Yeah. Yeah. I
Unknown Speaker 57:05
don't mean what Florence but my family, my original family.
Unknown Speaker 57:12
And I guess the farm well, that were there. It's still running the farm through the 30s. I managed and just for their own. Oh, gosh,
Unknown Speaker 57:18
yeah, the farm stayed until well after the war, you know?
Unknown Speaker 57:23
Yeah. So would you say that the people who need to pander are different from the from the earlier? You know, like, the people who came before see the second record? Oh,
Unknown Speaker 57:38
basically, yeah. The only people that lived on pandering in those days was the very self reliant. Didn't expect anything from government. Not a thing. I mean, the government had the attitude that time you're crazy enough to go and live on an island? Good riddance, you can look after yourself. You know, there is there is no effort made really to do anything for you. But people today at cars, they kind of come here and they expect to be treated like residents of a city or something like that, you know, so
Unknown Speaker 58:19
that's why there's the increase in amenities you know, stores. Oh,
Unknown Speaker 58:24
yes. There
Unknown Speaker 58:25
are a lot of new stores
Unknown Speaker 58:28
and medical services. Medical Services, too. Is there's Is there a doctor who lives on the island? There's
Unknown Speaker 58:36
two doctors about dentists. Yeah, there's a part time Davis from a part time optician team.
Unknown Speaker 58:44
A physiotherapist?
Unknown Speaker 58:46
Is there a health center here? Yeah. Right
Unknown Speaker 58:50
across from the school. Okay,
Unknown Speaker 58:52
middle. Yeah. And what about fire hall?
Unknown Speaker 58:58
Yeah, there's two fire halls on North Penn during one of them. So and there.
Unknown Speaker 59:02
Were there? Was there a lot of community debate about that kind of thing?
Unknown Speaker 59:08
Oh, I think everybody was satisfied. Now. The fire departments created even though costs money that didn't before that we all had to go out and fight fires, you know? Whether we want it to or not, they felt obligated to answer the call. Whenever
Unknown Speaker 59:33
one time there was a fire next door there and some of our guests were over there fighting. Yeah. Yeah, that was before the days of
Unknown Speaker 59:44
the road crew used to do its best to control any blazes that started out that we had to depend on. And that took a long time and the fire was burned out. By the time they would get there you know? Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 1:00:01
So what kind of issues do you think? Divide people on Pender Island or current issues, divide them go to people, I have a friend who's
Unknown Speaker 1:00:16
we can tell you a lot about that. We got in the middle of it all on people that don't want any more development and and take a more moderate view. And we came in that by just by the fact that we own a resort, you know. So, yeah,
Unknown Speaker 1:00:46
environmental concerns, of course, are having a terrific influence on everything now. And that is good. I'm sure. That creates a miniature controversy.
Unknown Speaker 1:01:04
Anything else you can think of that people quarrel about? Are there a lot of fun? Would you say? Like,
Unknown Speaker 1:01:11
just personal kind of feuds, I'm saying this after I asked this to all the islanders now. But would you say that, that there's a lot of that or is it just, you know, what happens in communities or?
Unknown Speaker 1:01:26
Yeah, I don't know. I think every small community has creeks and
Unknown Speaker 1:01:31
yeah, they all have their issues.
Unknown Speaker 1:01:35
Dave once, when something was going on, we were a little bit involved with and Dave happened to talk to this old net grimmer, who's a real old timer. And Dave said to him, Well, that's Pender Island nap and he said, No, Dave, that's human nature.
