70_Robert-Patterson_Beaver-Point.mp3

otter.ai

21.01.2023

no

Unknown Speaker 0:01
Today is July 24, and I'm talking to Mr. Bob Patterson at his home in Fulford on Morningside road. My name is Ruth Sandwell.

Unknown Speaker 0:19
Mr. Patterson, how did your family first come to the island

Unknown Speaker 0:22
mother in Dead came on my honeymoon two records records her Miss America was dead sister. And they came when they honeymoon and the store was empty that time would be required had been built and left. So they decided they might like to try scorekeeping for a few years,

Unknown Speaker 0:44
which was this raffle? This is Henry. Do you know who built the store originally,

Unknown Speaker 0:50
Captain good. And I built it about a few years before mother and dad came when he couldn't make a goal. So he left

Unknown Speaker 1:00
they took it over. Did the records own all of that land down there? Oh, yes.

Unknown Speaker 1:04
All all of that.

Unknown Speaker 1:07
So did did your parents lease the story then?

Unknown Speaker 1:10
No more or less? They did the records to have a place early just let them have a play. So there's no no no agreement at all. I just

Unknown Speaker 1:21
took the store over by yourself.

Unknown Speaker 1:24
1915

Unknown Speaker 1:29
So you must have you were born then on the island

Unknown Speaker 1:32
of Boerne. Victoria when I was raised on the hill,

Unknown Speaker 1:35
as your parents moved over here, yes. They were here. But you just went back

Unknown Speaker 1:39
for them. My mother went to Victoria to have and then when she came back here a few weeks after so I've been I've been here all my life. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 1:51
So it must have been quite a an interesting life for a boy growing up in that new Sonia the store so near the water.

Unknown Speaker 2:00
It was very interesting. When I look back at it, I'm pretty lucky. Good. Luck lot going on all the time. boats coming in, going out of the war.

Unknown Speaker 2:14
What kind of boats would you see mainly?

Unknown Speaker 2:17
Well, most of them are a little steamship. So steam freighters and fish boats. And then in summertime, they would like a pleasure boats used to stay in an anchor in a bureau plane.

Unknown Speaker 2:29
They'd be sailing boats, pleasure boats.

Unknown Speaker 2:32
gasp boats. People from Victoria would come up. And sure the island this quite often the same ones that come every summer and then stay up there

Unknown Speaker 2:48
there's a bit of stuff.

Unknown Speaker 2:54
I'll just ask you some more about the about the store there. When the store was built. Was that the only store down at the south end? But

Unknown Speaker 3:02
no, there was a store at Fulford. Mr. Moore store? No, that was a store what they call Edward store. It's about halfway down. Corporate Valley.

Unknown Speaker 3:12
Oh, really? Whereabouts would that be now?

Unknown Speaker 3:17
I don't know if you know where Harris is?

Unknown Speaker 3:20
No, I don't know.

Unknown Speaker 3:21
Do you know when you're going up past a Cummins. And then there's a round kind of a big, big curve there in the road. All right. They're right on the right across from James's. There's a new roadway going in there now. Right across somewhere. Right.

Unknown Speaker 3:38
Is that was that very close to the Travelers Rest that used to be there that

Unknown Speaker 3:43
that's a little farther on that was so there was a little community

Unknown Speaker 3:47
there too. And then right down beaver point? What's there anything in Folkert then back in those early days?

Unknown Speaker 3:52
No, no. Well, we had this store we have not had when I moved over here had been built around 19. Seven, I think around seven but it only lasted a year or two and they fold it up. And then there was the forefront in there was a store there.

Unknown Speaker 4:13
Right where?

Unknown Speaker 4:15
The harbor. Oh, right. It burned down.

Unknown Speaker 4:19
That place burned down quite a few times.

Unknown Speaker 4:23
Twice or three times.

Unknown Speaker 4:24
Do you know who first built that? No. There was no ferry service to Fulford at all.

Unknown Speaker 4:34
No. Just a just a boat service passenger service. Oh, yeah. So yeah, there was just like, passenger boats, went to Sydney, eight o'clock in the morning and they came back at five at night into property. And then he got the bus into Victoria.

Unknown Speaker 4:55
Yeah. What about beaver beaver point that had a we had the

Unknown Speaker 4:59
steam Ship steamers used to go in there with freight in the mail three times a week.

Unknown Speaker 5:06
So there was no post office in those early days Infoprint

Unknown Speaker 5:11
yes the post office isn't was in what we call Edward store and the one I say halfway up the valley was there and then it was moved down to Fulford in and then from for Brianna moved to Cudmore store where the coffee bar is now.

Unknown Speaker 5:29
And then there was also mail delivered at reco.

Unknown Speaker 5:32
TV because had the post office before my mother and dad took it over they they didn't want it so mother and dad took it over and they had it there to about 1952 or something like that.

Unknown Speaker 5:50
And anyway I don't want to get ahead of ourselves here to what happened when you moved up to Fulford but when you live so you would you lived in the in the house above the store did you when you had

Unknown Speaker 6:03
those doors in the front of the living room and the kitchen was behind the store? And the bedrooms are upstairs there was an upstairs

Unknown Speaker 6:12
so did you have people like you sold what kinds of things did you sell?

Unknown Speaker 6:17
We sold everything at one time we sold cider was allowed to do it in early 20s I guess the 1909 teens teens they sold everything their feed gas

Unknown Speaker 6:41
canned goods, a lot

Unknown Speaker 6:42
of canned goods but they were they came both their crackers are in 25 pound boxes and peanut butter and pails lard came in PE and 50 pound tub with butter came in in tubs. Rice was all in sacks you didn't there was no packaged stuff in those days. It was all just weighed out what you wanted.

Unknown Speaker 7:07
What you'd get the stuff in from Victoria. Yes.

Unknown Speaker 7:10
around the fretboard.

Unknown Speaker 7:14
Do you remember what the freight with it was there more than one particular one,

Unknown Speaker 7:18
no CPR and steam around. And there was times when there was small outfits try to get some business with CPR which would force them out of business any because they whenever a little freight boat would start around and CPR would lower the rates and then put them out of business.

Unknown Speaker 7:43
So did you have brothers and sisters? So

Unknown Speaker 7:45
I was the only child.

Unknown Speaker 7:50
So did you use to? I've heard stories on the islands about how much travel there was between the islands that people would think nothing of, you know, rolling over to one of the islands. Was that in your day that?

Unknown Speaker 8:03
Yes, we used to. I've gone to two parties over on Pender when I was a kid and used to go to dances over there on Pender, mostly between Pender and be reappointed didn't go to any other places. We went to provoke because it was nice to have parties over there to do burgers

Unknown Speaker 8:30
Did you have a lot of people coming over to your store from from the other islands? Yes,

Unknown Speaker 8:35
we have quite a few well, they're transient you know but I mean they were from the other islands main island Galliano mostly going to Sydney to go to Victoria. They'd quite often called in into Bureau points sometimes it'd be Starbound leave even stayed overnight at my mother put them up in the state keeping them overnight and give them their meals, waiting for the starless and go down. But it's quite a bit of travel. The Indians travel quite a bit that way too. They used to come in quite often on their way to coach on our back to Galliano how would

Unknown Speaker 9:09
they be traveling

Unknown Speaker 9:14
used to come in to the beach quite often camp overnight, there would be maybe 10 or so. And I mean, three or four big canoes and they laid their fires and have their meals on the beach and stay overnight.

Unknown Speaker 9:31
And how did you did you? Was there any kind of problem with Oh no. Pretty good relations?

Unknown Speaker 9:37
Oh, yes. Yeah. No problem. Never worried about them.

Unknown Speaker 9:42
What about fishing boats?

Unknown Speaker 9:46
Well, the hearing of fishing was the predominant thing off, be repoint it'd be actually the fish at nighttime. For the herring. And at nighttime they the street oh there must be Like city with lights and lights all over everywhere search lights going on whistle blowing because they signal their whistles and they had different colored lights on their masks for the different companies so they know who's bought student to go to where their boats were in where they learned

Unknown Speaker 10:22
big fishing industry they're in the 20s Bureau quite a bit in the during the day when they when they weren't fishing be repoint would be just full of boats.

Unknown Speaker 10:38
So were they mainly people from the island? No,

Unknown Speaker 10:42
no, they were from me from Steve Sivan and Vancouver.

Unknown Speaker 10:49
You mentioned that there were early there were some Japanese families that would be fishing.

Unknown Speaker 10:55
I didn't know no one yet. I'm not there was deputies again. Geez. And they used to call in into the bureau point one time, you know, on their way to one there were fishing off your point or going to Vic city.

Unknown Speaker 11:09
So the Japanese fishermen would would be they wouldn't necessarily be

Unknown Speaker 11:13
local fish. They were all from Vancouver, mostly.

Unknown Speaker 11:20
You were mentioning about the the number of Japanese on on the boat. So there's some kind of quota?

Unknown Speaker 11:28
Well, look, I could only have half a crude Japanese and the rest had to be weighed, which we which were mostly Indians

Unknown Speaker 11:37
who made that rule because it's something that suppose it was

Unknown Speaker 11:40
the government made the rule that that was the way it went. There was a time I believe when the Japanese weren't allowed salmon fishing license either for quite a while and then they troll I don't know about the guillotine to troll and okay, they were allowed license,

Unknown Speaker 12:00
whether it was the same kind of quota system that there is now the fisheries or

Unknown Speaker 12:06
not nowadays. No, they took out hundreds and hundreds of 1000s of tons of hearing out of straight off your point. You'd see the scars going by all day just loaded with hearing that they fill them up during the night and then in the early morning you'd see them all going to shelter

Unknown Speaker 12:28
where was that?

Unknown Speaker 12:30
It's all true. There was one that Kellyanne oh well there was one on the Pender and I think they took them over to season two

Unknown Speaker 12:43
so you so that was part of it. Was that kind of the business of your store too must have been those so special. Well

Unknown Speaker 12:49
oh hell well. It wasn't the you know in the local capitals going my dad used to deliver all that Fulford right from the required us to deliver or Fulford and then he got featured Fulford and he used to it was a big business in the feed for the farms

Unknown Speaker 13:13
for sheep or cows Well there's a

Unknown Speaker 13:15
lot of columns nose is a big dairy industry records used to have 20 or so cars. Everybody that we were point had cars and sent their mail to the cremate Kennedys for butter. That was their big check a year. A month was a creamery check.

Unknown Speaker 13:33
And that butter was quickly

Unknown Speaker 13:35
very good. It was supposed to be first class whether it in call locks were the best butter in full

Unknown Speaker 13:43
so at the time when your parents first came here I'm trying to get an idea of the different areas that there were there were speaker point and that's where there was a post office and the store then there was something after Fulford Ganges yeah and then there would be Genji and Jews what other you know dwarfs or or

Unknown Speaker 14:07
drop kala Fernwood maybe once or so week, soon is Tuesday call in there sometimes it made it in circuit around down they'd call into Fulford go up and they'd call it Musgraves and Burgoyne, Vesuvius and Fernwood, and come back around down the Ganges and be reappointed.

Unknown Speaker 14:28
Would they carry passengers? Oh, yes, yes, they

Unknown Speaker 14:30
carry passengers that was about the only way you could get off Island other than the passenger boats out of here. And in the summertime, they they used to used to travel out of Victoria and they made one trip to Vancouver a week. Stay overnight and come back the next day from Vancouver the student center gave you but then they bigger boats but there was a bigger boat used to call in at Ganges once it once or twice a week. But that was the only one well there was different ones or the Mary nor

Unknown Speaker 15:19
so back to that call to know

Unknown Speaker 15:22
these little bigger the size of x APEGS and they'll start to 1930 Sinopec was a steamer to begin with. She was she was one of the boats that used to call in to be reappointed, but she was a steamship that was the best accommodation and galley and everything. But then they cut her down made into a made into a car fairing diesel engines.

Unknown Speaker 15:48
So you, What school did you go to when you left

Unknown Speaker 15:51
the required school? It's quite a long walk up there to two and a half miles.

Unknown Speaker 16:00
How long would that take you? How long would that take you?

Unknown Speaker 16:03
Every mole is take me an hour, we have to leave about eight o'clock in the morning. They get there at night.

Unknown Speaker 16:10
How many kids were there in the school where

Unknown Speaker 16:13
you vary quite a bit when there was a big mill at Cushing called loose to come up from there and then there'd be about 30 kids or so. But when that closed down it got down to around seven or eight kids.

Unknown Speaker 16:28
Do you remember when the Christian Cove mill was in operation? Do you remember when it started at all?

Unknown Speaker 16:34
Well, it was started before my time I think it burned down and then they there was American syndicate came up. Build a very modern mill quite a big middle there was supposed to be one of the most modern on the coals. And it was it worked day and night. And a big business they have the ability to build a commendation for 150 of the Broncos 450 People adult dining rooms and everything else. And it had a big war if that The tramps tramp steamers used to come in and load lumber for different parts of the world, or they used to call it but they I don't know that it was just a fastener bucket scheme for making money or not. But anyway, they built the wharf was just ordinary piles. After a few years a treatise ate the piles up and they had how many million feet of lumber on pile on the wharf and of course, the piles got weaker and weaker with the trees is getting in on that class one day that all everything went down. And that the company folded up after.

Unknown Speaker 17:50
So there were there were children and families with the with the people who worked with

Unknown Speaker 17:57
houses down there. What were some of the family, some of the the managers and the foremen that have had homes.

Unknown Speaker 18:08
Most of the workers would be single men.

Unknown Speaker 18:12
Most of them are just single and came and go went and they boarded right in the boarding house. But there was quite a few people around its offspring who went down there. My uncle was engineer and was a was an engineer over there.

Unknown Speaker 18:28
What was his name so he worked for the for the

Unknown Speaker 18:35
he worked for the mill used to leave leave to code all hours on it has to stay at our place and it was just single and have to go up in the middle of the night. The midnight shift or that graveyard shift.

Unknown Speaker 18:52
Was there were there any other males on the island then in those

Unknown Speaker 19:00
in the 20s or not there was a lot of what they call time mills. They were just little portable Mills it was all there all over the place up and up and the cranberry what they call the cranberry up glenmont maxel. And there was Mills on a baby Mr. Bruce. There's quite a lot of Mills over

Unknown Speaker 19:18
the local with local people set them up or

Unknown Speaker 19:21
some of them were local, but most of them was fella by the name of singer came in he had quite a few mills and he was quite a big producer. And they stood from Vancouver. I guess he'd probably be from Vancouver. But the nearly all made ties tie for the railroad that used to ship them a relationship over Fulford here on Scotland Scotland's ties, but candies they had worthy oil. Tanks are now they had a loading warfare where they could just run the trucks in there and dump them off so the ball went down onto the skeleton All these ties

Unknown Speaker 20:02
did all the lumber come from Saltspring now

Unknown Speaker 20:06
what do you mean?

Unknown Speaker 20:07
Did they cut the trees to make the ties

Unknown Speaker 20:11
these tiny Mills right up in a stand of trees and just cut all around it and then when they used up all those trees had moved the mill to another spot that there was that's how they cut all the timber pretty well up in up in the cranberry

Unknown Speaker 20:27
the wood that Christian mill I guess they must have got the it wasn't all sorts

Unknown Speaker 20:33
they used to bring booms in. They do use the they didn't use local laws but we could I mean a good was a really big protection they had big log boom boom was there a big booming drought or are they tied up booms in Christian cloth? I guess it must have been pretty busy. It was pretty isolated. Cushing cove with a very bad road down to what you could hardly get in and out remember the whole cars that they had in those days they just couldn't make it make it yeah they had a pretty good car to get in and out of there. So nearly all boat traffic and either went to Ganges and it came to be replanted used to crews used to come down on their date and their time off and come down to the store buy chocolate bars and things like that just put in time because they were they were just nothing to do there was nothing for them to do

Unknown Speaker 21:31
the when you first had the store read repoint I guess there wasn't a road then a very good road up to Ganges was there's just more or less a track so well separate.

Unknown Speaker 21:45
Not one I don't remember anyway it's not it wasn't that bad. That was rusty and it was rolls when it wasn't too bad. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 21:56
So when your dad used to do deliveries he would go talk to the different farms up in the in the

Unknown Speaker 22:02
valley and he bought a truck the second truck when we were playing truck and car and we required records got the first one

Unknown Speaker 22:09
what kind of car or Ford's

Unknown Speaker 22:13
Model T is any of that he is to deliver from VIERA point all the way up to town to Lee's Hill. Isabella plant twice a week he just take groceries and he used to buy eggs and bring the eggs back in and ship Victoria

Unknown Speaker 22:35
from the farms and the farms. Did you do any very much also shipping things out? You know you hear so much about the fruit and

Unknown Speaker 22:44
we didn't ship anything but the farmers ship loads of apples in the fall

Unknown Speaker 22:50
through Baker point

Unknown Speaker 22:51
so they were quite on the Stanfield they bring them down on the wagon loads and that is to be a lot of coals shipped out there some of them are alive some of them kill most of them are alive they put them on the ships alive and take the Vancouver and she used to be some pigs used to be sent out chickens so it's busy that was the people used to bring their wagon there was no cars wagons mostly that bring their produce down and then they'd pick up stuff that was coming from Freek for them for them to make use of

Unknown Speaker 23:31
Do you remember if there were there were many any other projects besides a fruit and the animal Switzerland shipping of vegetables and

Unknown Speaker 23:40
all there was yeah there was some private sisters produce to send a lot of celery oh they grew wonderful celery and genetics they had asparagus for a few years but it was about all I can think of others on the apples

Unknown Speaker 24:01
so with most of the people down in that part of the island then I guess they're they would make a living by things like out of the cattle and

Unknown Speaker 24:11
mostly some of them did a little the lobbying and some of them were fishermen and they made you know had on other jobs but like the records they made full living out of very good living out of farming. So Clemens no pilot there were the big farm

Unknown Speaker 24:34
What about sheep you know now there's so many sheep on the island was it

Unknown Speaker 24:41
Brooke has always had sheep they always had a few doesn't make farming a few sheep few cows, a few pigs and a little bit of equity. I think that the in the end the record I will make now the records have nothing but shoot there.

Unknown Speaker 24:59
Can I ask you them More about the school when you went to be required school do you remember any of your teachers there?

Unknown Speaker 25:07
Oh yes some of them are still around Miss Dolman and this is to Stewart at all drew sent you down here Peggy Tilson know Mary David's mother

Unknown Speaker 25:33
was the first teacher we had she didn't last a whole year she got married before the end of the year we had another substitute teacher.

Unknown Speaker 25:41
I understand that was one of the problems that they had such a lot of trouble keeping the schools

Unknown Speaker 25:49
from crashing COVID actually where they live was worked out.

Unknown Speaker 25:56
Do you remember Irene Palmer?

Unknown Speaker 25:57
Yes

Unknown Speaker 26:01
Did she I understand Mary was telling me that a lot of the teachers would usually board

Unknown Speaker 26:08
nice some of them some of them did this is her areas whether your borders or our place Mr. Palmer were on board in replace

Unknown Speaker 26:18
so what they just be like when you had the borders would they just be like one of the family or do they stay quiet

Unknown Speaker 26:24
just it was quite an experience for the girls to do most of the girls are full time and experience and weren't stuck and you know they weren't used to that at all but they adopted

Unknown Speaker 26:43
and that's been a bit strange living with your teachers

Unknown Speaker 26:49
and well was never bothered me enough yes yeah never never worried me the teachers I don't think they don't give them any special treatment any worse than usual. Never no difference there.

Unknown Speaker 27:07
Did you have did you have work that you had to do you know in your family did you have special chores that you had to do to do with the store or was that an easy life?

Unknown Speaker 27:19
I guess I was a golfer so I used to do a lot of running around to get this and do that and get you know do errands and that just take things out for people and getting gas for people

Unknown Speaker 27:36
did you have to help you know unload all this stuff from the

Unknown Speaker 27:42
share this big excitement on the ferry on the boats came in with a freeze all the freight being unloaded everybody be down there we're getting there Mahler getting things off the ferry off the steamship

Unknown Speaker 27:59
when did the steamship stop coming to 1931

Unknown Speaker 28:01
then the the curfew we started to hear the side pack

Unknown Speaker 28:08
and the side pack never came to the point did it

Unknown Speaker 28:12
well on Wednesdays they used to make an excursion around that I was just taking passengers there was a deal that used to go around and he used to call it a beaver point then just with just with passengers and they used to stop there and my mother would oil the ladies around the community for to raise money they used to give a go give T or sell T shirts personally make a few dollars and they used to set up like the tables net on Aranda. Have their tea on there

Unknown Speaker 28:49
okay. Did you did you Was your family very involved? I can community different community events or with any of the organizations on the

Unknown Speaker 29:01
well when just to community ones I Fulford Fulford Hall to begin with my mother was to help raise money for it they had plays in that and she used to be in the plays

Unknown Speaker 29:14
that could go

Unknown Speaker 29:19
oh, I guess about 1924 So I suppose there are 22 and then later on we were point Hall and they used to we used to have card parties and they'd raise money on different socials one thing or another and you remember to raise money different people have occurred party in their house to raise you know so much money to towards the hall.

Unknown Speaker 29:53
What would go on in the halls work after it was completed to be required to assay what would they be used for?

Unknown Speaker 29:59
Whoa, vixen. You know we used to play basketball there and they used to have a for card games and dances and badminton quite busy it used to have a lot of dances in those days a community dances

Unknown Speaker 30:15
would mainly be self and people who would go before you what kind of would there always be like special dances each year? Or would they just

Unknown Speaker 30:24
know they just don't usually have a dance a couple of two or three year old usually a big one in the summertime maybe in the fall spring or something like that.

Unknown Speaker 30:35
When when you were born, do you remember what else people would do for for recreation and about what people there was you know sports I guess and

Unknown Speaker 30:44
sports so there was a point there was a lot of young people played tennis the parks have two tennis courts and they've played tennis a lot there was the big thing they played baseball now just more or less just to pass the time away. This was no organization to it just just had games its own well, there wasn't that much in athletics here for free it was more of an isolated there was football and baseball. They wanted more organized teams with basketball.

Unknown Speaker 31:24
When did Fulford start becoming you know, the more central part of where the community was

Unknown Speaker 31:36
well, I guess it was spread out more than 30 Bart and then when the White House the store there in the front it had the hotel he I don't know he gave up he could make a living out of it. So he so then eat instead of over and they had to store her there and they couldn't make it so and then all the time while this was going on dead delivering from Beaver point. And then he he bought the gold store it was it right at the wharf which he was lived in. It was just a way like place a beautiful place to live behind the store. And he bought that started in 1930. And

Unknown Speaker 32:25
did you start because of the fairies? I mean, because that

Unknown Speaker 32:29
was partly Yes. But there was more business and Bureau forefront, there was a pivot point. And then there was his lonely store for a while and then kind of more came and built across the road.

Unknown Speaker 32:44
Is that where the Patterson store is now?

Unknown Speaker 32:47
No, that's where the coffee bar is now

Unknown Speaker 32:49
okay

Unknown Speaker 32:55
good eventually bought that place didn't like.

Unknown Speaker 32:59
So did your whole family moved down there then? Like 230 or

Unknown Speaker 33:03
No, I didn't. wasn't dead. We lived over here. We came and we have a property and Fulford we built a house and came here and I was married in 1946. And then from 46 We stayed here and one of them dad lived we repoint and then a night in 1950 tumors. They moved over here after the post of a closed period why he moved over and lived over here.

Unknown Speaker 33:36
Why does the post office closed? Was it just a government decision?

Unknown Speaker 33:39
Yes, just the wanted they brought everything to the forefront to resolve them for for what there was getting everything more or less going through for for because of the ferry. And they taken the Warfield, Beaver. I don't know why they did that.

Unknown Speaker 33:58
You were saying first of all, it was a private war when the building to begin with. And then that was torn down with it.

Unknown Speaker 34:06
Well, the government took it over when they steamship started coming in there and they bought it and kept it up after that.

Unknown Speaker 34:16
And so then your family, your parents moved over here in 52. Yes, right. Where were you working? Were you in from 46 to 52. Were you

Unknown Speaker 34:27
I was in the store. I worked over here in the store. I stayed over here. My dad community there every day from when my mother looked after the story we were playing. Oh, I see she she looked after that and dad came over here. So you had the two stores that two stores two stores for quite a few years actually. And in the 30s right up to 52. My mother always looked after the story to be required and he looked after the store here but he committed over every day. She looked after the post office. And we were playing.

Unknown Speaker 35:05
And you didn't have the post office here at Fulford. No.

Unknown Speaker 35:09
No, we never had the post office was offered to us. But that's it, nothing's going to happen. That's right. So

Unknown Speaker 35:21
when then you're you sold or what happened to the place on the repoint the store when you

Unknown Speaker 35:29
just dismantled the store, took the wharf down, and then the records store was vacant after he moved over here, and kids are going out there and having parties and everything else, so they just just took it down. The rack was just dismantled.

Unknown Speaker 35:47
Do you know when they did that? Do you know when the store can go?

Unknown Speaker 35:53
Oh, I guess it must have been 1955 or so? Not too long after not too long after.

Unknown Speaker 36:03
So your your parents came over? Where did they live? When they came

Unknown Speaker 36:10
over here, they live behind the store, right across where the story is now. What was the story there. And they lived in that building.

Unknown Speaker 36:20
And the store was in the front

Unknown Speaker 36:22
store. It was in the front very, very small with great credit. And then we bought the story across the road, which was the greatest to begin with, we model it into the store. And that sort of the store has now

Unknown Speaker 36:37
do you were there a lot of big changes between the kind of store that you had when you just had the store at Beaver point. And then the store and Poprad you know after 1952

Unknown Speaker 36:48
All not that much. No things were back is different. That's all on a different. That's about all it was difference.

Unknown Speaker 36:59
I guess you didn't have quite so much to do with. You know, like with the fishermen and those

Unknown Speaker 37:05
not here. No, no, no, no. Not at all. All for after 30 is a pretty well fished it out. It didn't come in so much

Unknown Speaker 37:19
was was your business very much badly affected by the depression in the 30s how to do an awful lot of storekeepers had a very hard time during those years.

Unknown Speaker 37:30
It was a little touchy sometimes. All right, my dad was a bit of a problem because he had so many. So many people couldn't pay their bills. And of course they were buying and stuff like that. We never really felt it too much.

Unknown Speaker 37:50
How were the communities? How did the families fare on the on the island generally with the depression with their series? Oh, I

Unknown Speaker 37:56
don't think we'll all mean we never knew really, really what other people were putting up with. Because there was so much we could get for nothing here and dear people who've done dear and and after beach grew their own gardens. And so they weren't really that bad off when he was very tight, but it wasn't. It wasn't starvation. It wasn't just on the other money when people help one another.

Unknown Speaker 38:29
To eat. Was there any? Were there any laws about the number of deer that you could?

Unknown Speaker 38:42
Was there anybody who used to come over from Victoria and bother the people about it or? No, not

Unknown Speaker 38:48
really? I don't think so.

Unknown Speaker 38:53
So people just pretty well,

Unknown Speaker 38:55
couldn't very well do anything above and beyond. You're going to have to live here. You can't put them in jail and then keep No, there was a lot of poaching later on. Nobody's here but it was just

Unknown Speaker 39:11
I guess it was the same with fishing too. Sure.

Unknown Speaker 39:13
Fishing how many good fish all year round anyway.

Unknown Speaker 39:21
Was there? Was there any, like area of life where you felt like the bureaucratic influence of Victoria at all when you had a business were you bothered by people complain so much these days, when they have businesses about how much terrible bureaucracy they

Unknown Speaker 39:41
might have been a little bit but I don't think it bothered us too much. In those days. You can't move without running into some problem. There's a pretty free and easy life and actually good build where you want to do Buy and Sell very easily that wasn't the tax is it done properly to deal with sales taxes then there wasn't even income tax much those days very little tags

Unknown Speaker 40:15
so did you after your your parents moved over here and you sort of consolidated into the one store Did you run that store or did your mom or

Unknown Speaker 40:28
my mother and sister family we all ran a family and then my wife took over and we rebuilt the college coffee bar and she ran out the coffee bar and we had the store

Unknown Speaker 40:48
when did you move across the street

Unknown Speaker 40:52
1966

Unknown Speaker 40:56
and then your wife kept the

Unknown Speaker 40:58
coffee where is your she got first got the concessions on the various used to what was the Gulf Island ferry at the concessions on the ferry for refer refreshments so she had that begin with Nancy at the coffee bar and had both of them for a while and then when they when the BC Ferries took over these ferries they had their own people look after it so she didn't have a job on Thursday

Unknown Speaker 41:33
so what what chips would she do on

Unknown Speaker 41:35
the motor Princess and the side effect she had

Unknown Speaker 41:40
so she must have been busy with baking and

Unknown Speaker 41:43
not so yeah so he's to bake a lot of pies right not for mostly that was all kept her busy she used to have to the site back is to run out again Jesus used to have to go up there sometimes at five o'clock in the morning was provisions for them that she kept everything down on the coffee bar here and that she provided them from there

Unknown Speaker 42:05
what would she do the whole the whole the you know the concessionaire which you have to provide like cooked baked

Unknown Speaker 42:14
baked pies now for

Unknown Speaker 42:17
meals to like

Unknown Speaker 42:19
well it was done no no had she had girls working on the on the different ones for and they made the made the mostly sandwiches and soup and things like that. Just like snacks

Unknown Speaker 42:34
well that was doing quite a change for her when that ended. And then she kept she kept the after

Unknown Speaker 42:42
that you kept the cash Well we still have to register

Unknown Speaker 42:49
so is that who who's running that now? Rodrigo

Unknown Speaker 42:59
so after when you had when you when she had the the coffee shop there was anybody living?

Unknown Speaker 43:08
No, no, we'd bought the place. And that was empty first several years and we decided to make it into a coffee but we had the thought of making a store because the store we had was too small. But then laid into a coffee bar and bought the was the garage across the street and made it into the store. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 43:34
the I guess Colcord had changed quite a bit over those years between 1930 and 1950.

Unknown Speaker 43:41
Not too much. So the the pool for dinner burned down a couple of rebuild. That's the only thing.

Unknown Speaker 43:55
So when did the BC Ferries start

Unknown Speaker 43:57
started? Well, the BC Ferries it started the took over about oh, I guess it must have been 1962 for somewhere around 62 Maybe.

Unknown Speaker 44:12
So did they did they have a much more regular service and the other than the you know Sinopec and

Unknown Speaker 44:19
well, there was so much business going on. They had Yeah, so you're gonna put a there was more trips at a certain period. They made more more trips a day, which was the head put on because the traffic was going through here

Unknown Speaker 44:41
too. So who owned those ferries before? Before BC Ferries were they went by BC rail

Unknown Speaker 44:47
no no started off with Matson and Victoria older he was he on the call us newspaper. He was the one that started it. He owned it to begin with and then they sold it up to Captain laden To gather more desert craft. My wife used to have Furies and I do but

Unknown Speaker 45:07
So how long did they run that the various

Unknown Speaker 45:10
until, I guess it was 1960 62 or something like

Unknown Speaker 45:16
that. So how many years all together with the thing I've been reading?

Unknown Speaker 45:20
The 51 was when Watson Krav Maga

Unknown Speaker 45:27
and Captain mod was was I think I remember hearing that there was some that you had one of the engineers from the sai pack living.

Unknown Speaker 45:41
He used to live with two different engineers or friends. And Alexander's. They both lived in behind the store where they differ. My mother and dad moved over, oh, before they lived there, and we had to store in the front and they lived in the bank. So that will be in the 30s 30s and 40s.

Unknown Speaker 45:59
Were they just single men? They didn't have their families or did they

Unknown Speaker 46:03
know they had their families there? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 46:11
One thing I wanted to ask you about was about religion. I wanted to know if your family belong to any particular denomination,

Unknown Speaker 46:23
or other religious family. We used to go to my mother and my aunt was quite religious. and Mrs. Rocco. She used to go to church quite often. And every time we were appointed, sometimes they go to school for dark energies. But they used to bring the Church used to have a service in the school. So many Sundays, LM you know, maybe once a month or something like that. And we used to, I used to go with, with her and her children.

Unknown Speaker 46:59
There was never a church at Beaver point was there? No, no, no, no. So be the schoolhouse one. Two for that. No, did you have anything else that you'd like to tell me about those about those early days or anything that really stands out in your mind is

Unknown Speaker 47:22
no not really. always something going on you want to ask about the school? Well, it was

Unknown Speaker 47:31
a while ago is just an ordinary rural school. But I mean, it gets hard to do the work we used to like to have to do already in the wind labor fire. It was set out one one. Lawyers have to go early 111 week and then some other boy to take another week. And that was all they were all proportioned out the jobs. One afternoon late to fire one and a half to bring in wood one and a half to pack the water up to the school. And then there was the after school. So usually the girls that have to clean the boards or the and the brushes, and free school and school out to all these shores are all offworld given the different ones each week was an incarcerated sports were pretty primitive, too. We just use makeshift things or for ball we had the old tennis balls and never had. We never had any sports equipment at all. Maybe somebody's been given a basketball or football for Christmas and they take it to school and wear it out there. But remade our own games up on one thing and that was it. So it was you know, we didn't get all this equipment that they get these days, right. I think we'd had a pretty good day.

Unknown Speaker 48:57
Do you remember the names of any of the people that you went to school with down their

Unknown Speaker 49:01
names? Well, of course there's miracles and then there was a king's Berg's and when annex or Fraser's not many of them were Oh no. Donald Fraser lives in Victoria and of course notice. Gordon Rocco's wife.

Unknown Speaker 49:23
She used to go on when she just got she left before I started. There's not many more Stuart MacDonald that lives fewer fly now went to school with him

Unknown Speaker 49:48
okay, well, thank you very much. That was

Unknown Speaker 49:55
lightning